How Long Does It Take to Develop a Mobile App

You might be cooking up something fresh for yourself, or your client might have asked the most frequent question after asking about the cost — the development timeline. As a mobile app development company, you will come across the following question again and again: how long does it take to develop a mobile app?

This question is tricky. It can be difficult to guess the exact app development timeline, but you can give your client or stakeholders a near-precise idea of the app development schedule. In this article, we will explain how to find out the development timeline, discuss factors that significantly influence it, and share some important tips to reduce and automate the process to some extent.

How Long Does it Take to Build an App?

The development timeline could be anywhere from a few weeks to many months. A basic app can be built in 2-4 months. At the same time, a large-scale app development timeline can stretch beyond 12 months. A moderately complex app can take around 5-8 months.

The best way to estimate the timeline is by breaking it down feature by feature. For example, if you create an app with real-time tracking, push notifications, a payment gateway, and order tracking, you can get a rough estimate by figuring out how long each feature will take to build and adding them up to get the total timeline.

1. Basic app

Simple, template-based apps with limited features can be built in 1-3 months. They don't use APIs with minimal backend complexity. To-do list, calculator, note-taking, and flashlight apps are a few examples of basic (or simple) apps. Use this quick list to decide if an app idea counts as simple. Answer each question with yes or no.

• Does it include three or fewer core functions?
• Are there fewer than five distinct screens? Yes/No
• Can it work with local storage or minimal server logic? Yes/No
• Does it rely on at most one external service or SDK? Yes/No
• Is there only a single user type with no special permissions? Yes/No
• Will it launch on just one platform (iOS or Android, not both)? Yes/No
• Is offline support limited or not required? Yes/No

If you answered yes to most of the questions, then you are building a basic app.

2. Moderate app

A moderately complex app may involve backend development, such as a login system, a device synchronization feature, and a user data storage process. It is more advanced than basic apps but not as heavy as complex apps. A fitness tracker, a budgeting app, or a language app with basic lessons would fit this category.

3. Complex app

A complex app is made for people who work in a specific field and need to do more advanced tasks. These apps usually need special knowledge to use and are built to support big goals that don't follow a straight path. The work often involves analyzing a lot of information and making decisions.

For example, an app used by scientists to study climate change or by doctors to track patient data is a complex app. These tools are not meant for everyday use.

Why Timelines are Hard to Pin Down

• Cognitive biases in planning
• Stakeholder misalignment
• Altering features or priorities
• Emerging complexity like GDPR
• Demand rigorous compliance
• Mandatory audits
• Web3 integrations

These issues, while not exhaustive, highlight the multifaceted nature of project delays.

Mobile App Development Timeline by Stages

Mobile development goes through different stages during development. The first method is to estimate time by knowing how many features it can take to build. The second approach is stage-based. The entire development, we can divide into different phases, starting from ideation to deployment.

1. Planning and Requirements (2–3 Weeks)

The first stage is ideation and requirement analysis that starts before design or development and sets the stage for development. Teams specify what the app should do, what it shouldn't, and who it's for (or who we call the "target audience"). It involves deciding on must-have, nice-to-have, and shouldn't-have features. Here, the scope is assumed but shaped.

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