How Much Does it Cost to Design a Mobile App?

Design is not just about making an impression; it is also about how it works. Good design is what separates successful mobile apps from unsuccessful ones.

A great UX design can affect how long users spend on an app to accomplish a task when it comes to mobile app development.

Have you ever wondered how much it costs to design a mobile app? What factors affect the mobile app design cost? How does the process of designing an application happen? And how much time is required?

This article will help you get the ultimate answer to your questions.

How much does it cost to design a mobile app? Influence Factors Affecting:

The cost to design a mobile application majorly depends on many factors: country-wise app design cost, the complexity of an application, the platform where it will go live, and the quality of the application.

Let us discrete every factor affecting the cost of mobile app design. And discuss “how much does it cost to design a mobile app?”

Country-wise App Design Cost / Cost By Location/ Geography

The app design costs are estimated differently in each geographical area. The same-quality performance in two different countries could be very different.

Most IT companies follow this evaluation sample:

Hourly Rate * Number of Hours Spent = Mobile App Design Cost.

The average design rate of Android and iOS in different countries are as under

• North America - (Android $150+/hr) & (iOS $150+/hr)
• Australia - (Android $100+/hr) & (iOS $100+/hr)
• UK - (Android $75+/hr) & (iOS $75+/hr)
• South America - (Android $35+/hr) & (iOS $40+/hr)
• Eastern Europe - (Android $35+/hr) & (iOS $35+/hr)
• India - (Android $30+/hr) & (iOS $30+/hr)
• Indonesia - (Android $20+/hr) & (iOS $20+/hr)

Moreover, the types of app designing tools used and the working process is different for each of them.

The Complexity of an App

The complexity of an app is considered while determining the cost of mobile app development or design. It is mostly determined by:

• Standard of customization / Defining the level of customization
• A platform where the app will employ
• Specialties and requirements of users
• Performance of the app
• Whether it's a minimum value product
• The complexity level of app functionality

The complexity levels of mobile apps are considered to estimate the cost of mobile app design or development.

Apps with three screens or less that use after-zero animation with interactive design components. This simple app design costs between $4000 and $5000 and takes 100 hours or less to complete.

The apps make use of a multi-screen interface with a lot of interactive elements. Moderate applications are designed individually for Android and iOS platforms, using Google Material Design guidelines and principles. These apps can cost around $10000 to create and take up to 200 hours to complete.

• Higher Complex apps

These apps are extremely dependent on design to serve their regular users and use a lot of animation and transformation used to help users move from one screen to another screen. Higher complex apps are usually worth more than $15000 in design cost and more than 400 hours are needed.

Number of Platforms

There is a difference in how each app looks and operates on some platforms like iOS and Android. Although the cost of mobile app design might not vary between Android and iOS apps.

Android devices are constantly changing and also changing in the rules of designing in Google Material Design. While, in the case of iOS, the cost of everything is to be finalized. This is the reason the Android app is more expensive compared to the iOS app in design cost.

Quality of App Design

The cost of a mobile app design is also affected by the quality and reputation of the app design company. A high-quality app design service requires optimal solutions, various procedures, many years of experience, designers with a wide range of visions and ideas, and a strong portfolio.

Now, let's see the importance of mobile application design and its advantages.

Why Does Mobile Application Design be Important?

The design of a mobile app determines the app’s efficiency in the market.

Whether you are developing your own app or one that is from scratch, there is no difference. Every process of designing an app has a common goal which is solving a problem in the simplest manner possible.

The interactive and responsible UI design of a mobile app has numerous advantages:

• Attracts the user to become a consumer.
• Helps to strengthen the brand value
• Build a loyal customers
• Assist users in achieving their goals

Now let’s see different types of mobile applications to design.

Type of Mobile App to Design

Firstly you need to choose a mobile app type for the development process and the app design cost.

Native Apps

Native applications are designed for all devices, platforms, and operating systems- Android and iOS. To have a better user interface in terms of both design and performance, it takes a lot of time and cost to design a native mobile app for the different operating systems.

Cross-Platform

Cross-platforms are designed to work on both native apps and web apps. It is easy to maintain and takes less time and cost to design a mobile application.

Web Apps

If you want an app with a lower cost and qualitative result like a native application, then web apps are the best choice. But web apps function in mobile browsers without installing on the mobile. It can be combined with several platforms and can easily update.

Continue your reading to find the answer to your question “how does the process of designing a mobile application happen?” “How does it impact designing cost?” and “how much time is required?”

Process and Services that impact app designing cost

It is difficult to calculate mobile app design costs without understanding their process. The process of mobile app designing is sophisticated and incorporates a few services research, analysis, prototyping, and UI/UX.

So let’s explore every stage of mobile app design.

Idea Evaluation

Now the first stage of the mobile app designing process is idea evaluation. This part deals with understanding the entire project:

• What issue does the customer find frustrating or difficult to use?
• How would the app solve those issues for them?

Behind every great app have a great idea. The most successful apps are those that identify the issue and provide a solution. Thus, a development team needs to evaluate the idea and gather information about the clients' perspectives.

The cost involved in the initial stage of app design:

• The complexity of an app
• The number of features to consider
• Number of platforms covered

Market Research

By conducting complex user research to understand your app’s users, analyze your competitors in the market, and also research about unique features that must have or do users need this feature? And what are the latest design trends in the market? This information helps to understand users and creates a design that satisfies the users and covers your business needs. By analyzing the research and the latest UI design trends, designers can choose the best features and move forward in the decision-making process.

The estimated time required 30 to 40 hours. The cost involved during this process per project

• Hours required to collect and analyze the data of market research
• Planning compliance with the technical implementation
• Hours spent on team meetings with business analysts, developers, and designers

User Experience Design / Building a Wireframe

The next part of the process is prototyping or mobile UX design which is one of the main services of app design creation.

Sketch

Here is the sketch drawn from the mobile app design idea into a delightful experience for users. This sketch of design can be done by hand or by using mobile app tools like Figma, sketch, etc. Depending on the project complexity, it influences the cost estimation.

The estimated time required to draw the sketch is 15 to 25 hours.

UX Wireframe

In this stage, the designer makes a layout of the application with a focus on user experience. It can be considered a blueprint for a mobile application. A wireframe is the visual design of an application and all are connected to each other with a link. UX wireframe is a basic design of the application and stage of the process towards the final stage of app designing.

The average time required to create a UX wireframe is 2-3 hours for a unique app screen or less than 1 hour for sub-screens.

UX Wireframes with Native UI Elements

There are some tools that can help to apply more elements to design structure, and add stylist font, buttons, and other native UI components at the stage of app design. Such tools are Fima, InVision, Marvel, UXPin, Proto.io, etc

By applying advanced components, the average time required to create a wireframe takes 1-2 hours for the main app screen or for sub-screens takes more than 30 minutes.

But most designers do not take ready-to-use UI components, instead, they prefer to create them from scratch.

Visual Design

It is probably the most efficient method of expressing your ideas behind a product and solving problems through visual arrangements.UI mockups are made dependent on UX wireframes and embody the styled design of an application so it stands apart from other applications and makes a special application design.

Designers create a couple of UI mockups before creating the entire UI to demonstrate different styles, forms, shades, color schemes, and so on.

The average time required for final UI mockup creation is more than 2 hours per unique screen.

Branding

Branding is another essential part of mobile app interface design, as it includes the creation of logos, fonts, and illustrations of brands. This stage begins with creating mood boards before moving to creating logos.

Logo creation is a complex process that consists of three steps:

• Research and idea development
• Sample creation
• Finalize logo

How to Optimize the Cost of Mobile App Design?

There are several methods to reduce the cost of mobile app design without losing any quality features.

• Strategies for your app properly
• Hire a professional app designer or app development company
• Focus on basic features

What should be your goal in designing an app NOW?

Designing a great app isn’t easy. Now you know how much it costs to design a mobile app.

You must be thinking about whether or not to hire and spend time or money on app design.

There are many factors involved in the cost of a mobile application, as shown above.

Whether you are designing your own app, hiring a designer or you are a designer, it is important to create a list of all the needs and features that you want on your app and you can estimate the cost to design an app.

At Cretx, a mobile app development company in canada, we provide high-end UI/UX services. Our designer starts the work from the beginning of the application building. During the projects, we reply to all questions of clients like “how much does it cost to design a mobile app?”

Our experts can provide a cost estimate for mobile app design. Give us a call to get a consultation.

Are you interested in knowing the cost and timeline for designing your application?

FAQs on how much does it cost to design app:

What is the process of designing an app?

How much time does it take to design an app?

• The duration of time it takes to design an app is determined by a variety of factors, including the complexity of the app, its features, the number of screens it contains, the platforms it runs on, and the designers' experience.

How much does it cost to design a mobile app?

• The cost of UI and UX designers differs greatly depending on where they are located. A designer in a UI design firm in the United States might price $200 per hour, whereas a designer in an eastern country might charge $80 to $100 per hour on average.