Combien coûte le développement d’une application mobile en 2024 ?

Article mis à jour le 4 septembre 2024

Le coût de développement d’une application mobile se situe entre 25 000€ et 40 000€. Cependant, chaque projet nécessite une analyse détaillée et la rédaction d’un cahier des charges spécifique.

When a company plans to create a application mobile site and contacts our agency NetDevices, la question du coût est souvent parmi les premières soulevées.

Nous constatons que Le coût de développement d’une application mobile reste ambigu pour ceux qui ne sont pas familiers avec ce secteur.

Malheureusement, déterminer un coût précis sans une compréhension détaillée du projet est impossible, signifiant que le coût d’une application mobile peut grandement varier selon les fonctionnalités et les données intégrées.

To refine, our experience tells us that :

To obtain a more precise estimate of the cost of developing your application, please fill in the form below. our online quotation form.

This article explains the origin of these figures, their practical significance and the factors that can influence the budget of a application.

Quel est le coût moyen de développement
d’une application mobile ?

How to estimate the cost of a application mobile?

There are two types of project management: the fixed-price method and the agile method.

In my experience, the agile method offers much greater flexibility, and is more suited to 90% of today's projects. A modern agency is more likely to use the agile method these days.

Pour développer une application mobile selon la méthode agile, le chef de projet réalise une analyse détaillée des étapes de développement pour diviser le projet en « sprints ».

Les sprints sont des phases de développement avec des objectifs spécifiques, permettant d’organiser le travail et de respecter les délais. Le chef de projet définit la durée des sprints, le nombre de développeurs nécessaires et le nombre de jours de développement par sprint (par exemple, un sprint de 3 semaines avec 10 jours de développement).

The project manager then breaks down the development into several stages, enabling him to calculate the cost of a application mobile and provide an estimated delivery date.

Organizing mobile development costs for an agency :

• The developer / Project Manager works between 7 and 8 hours a day (in practice it's often more).
• The developer and project manager have a daily rate.
• The time devoted to project management is determined in relation to development time, often between 10-15%.
• The first sprint of a project is always devoted to design.
• The designer's fee is not a daily rate, but is fixed according to the service provided.
• In many cases, rates are reduced according to the duration of the project.
• A flat fee is often charged for testing/debuggingapplication.

The complexity and characteristics of mobile applications

As discussed earlier, a prior assessment by your development team of the time required to complete your project is crucial before starting a collaboration. This assessment is an essential step in the organization of your project.

Determining factors affecting development costs include the specific characteristics ofapplication, its ability to adapt to different operating systems (Android, iOS, etc.), aesthetics and customized visual effects, as well as the complexity of the backend structure and the development of application programming interfaces (APIs), a topic we'll cover later.

The implementation of features within theapplication project is the main factor influencing overall cost. It reflects the amount of business logic to be implemented inapplication, as well as the volume of screens, buttons and services required.

Features with a significant impact on development costs include :

• Role management and user interactionDefining user roles and structuring and managing content according to access rights can be complex.
• Account management Incorporate features such as secure storage and encryption of passwords, password reset, authentication via social networks (login via Google, Facebook), as well as management and modification of data associated with user accounts (e.g. weight tracking for a health application ).
• Social interaction Add the ability to share content withinapplication or to external platforms, develop a news feed, set up a push and in-app notification system, and manage comments.
• External data integration Include data from other sources by integrating third-party libraries or databases.

Integrated transactions

Location services

Deploying a location-based technological innovation, or even more complex, a position-tracking system such as GPS, can extend development times. This functionality, among the most complex, requires :

• Request user authorization to access location data.
• Manage data recovery from the device.
• Ensure reliable, precise tracking of the device's position, even with limited connectivity.

Calling up the device's functions

A application may require access to components of the smartphone, such as the camera, NFC system, payment options, speakers and so on. Developers must then use specific APIs to implement these functionalities.

How to reduce application development costs?

Fortunately, entrepreneurs can reduce mobile app development costs, by thinking intelligently about the project's global scope. 

1. Create an MVP (minimum viable product)

It's often advisable to define an MVP as part of the design process. The minimum product viable allows us to offer an unfinished but functional product. The advantages are numerous:

• Publishapplication earlier and get concrete feedback that can influence further development
• Start selling your service before development is complete
• Maintain a dynamic image by publishing regular updates
• Product testing
• Generate the first revenues

On the other hand, the customer will decide on the "gauge" of his MVP, or more concretely, the functionalities to be included in the MVP. The minimum viable product is often composed of the simplest elements to develop, i.e. :

• A simple design without all the effects provided for in the model
• The minimum functionalities required for the service to be operational
• Easy-to-implement secondary functions

The MVP also allows you to prioritize your project and gain a clearer view of app development.

2. Involve quality control (or quality assurance: QA) from the outset

When developingapplication, there are always bugs to correct. And it's best to take things one step at a time, correcting bugs as the project progresses. This is one of the advantages of sprint management!

Errors or incompatibilities can accumulate during the design phase, and need to be dealt with as quickly as possible to limit the risk of them spreading further. With this methodology, development will certainly proceed at a slightly slower pace, but you'll identify serious problems before the development phase begins. As a result, you'll save on redesign costs that might otherwise accumulate.

3. Use an agency

Passer par une agence spécialisée peut s’avérer coûteux mais c’est une bonne stratégie sur le long terme. Embaucher un développeur sera toujours plus coûteux sur le long terme.

Biensûr, selon l’ampleur du projet et le développement commercial de l’application, il faudra à terme embaucher un ou plusieurs développeurs. Mais dans un premier temps, l’accompagnement d’une agence sera une réelle plus-value tant sur le plan des compétences que sur le plan financier.

For example, our NetDevices is approved for Innovation Tax Credit (CII)Our customers benefit from a 30% tax credit on expenses incurred for their innovation projects. If the estimate for your project was €65,000 excl. tax, the actual budget after CII recovery will be €45,500 excl. tax.

Conclusion

The cost of developing a application mobile application can vary widely, depending on its complexity, the technologies used, and the development team chosen.

En général, le développement sur mesure d’une application mobile se situe entre 20 000€ et plus de 90 000€, avec des exceptions pouvant atteindre plusieurs centaines de milliers d’euros pour des applications très complexes incluant par exemple l’intelligence artificielle.

Plusieurs facteurs influencent ces coûts, notamment la complexité des fonctionnalités, la nécessité d’adapter l’application aux différentes plateformes et la maintenance.

To keep the budget under control, it's advisable to start by defining an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), to involve quality control right from the start of the project, and to consider the option of using a specialized agency like NetDevices !

N’hésitez pas à Contact us to get a complete quote for your next project.