How Much Does It Cost to Build Apps Like Uber, Tinder, and Instagram?

What Would Affect the Cost of App Development?

The demand for mobile apps is increasingly. Therefore, mobile app development is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% from 2023 to 2033. To build an effective yet cost-effective app, it’s crucial to consider different factors that will affect its overall cost.

1. App Types

An app can be classified into different categories based on platforms, functions, and others. For example, when it comes to functions, we may have social media apps, gaming apps, database apps, etc. However, in this section, we’ll only focus on four types of apps based on their platforms and development approaches.

Native

This is the most complex type of app. Your native app will be able to perform a wide range of features at the same time. However, it may require various devices’ APIs and resources.

Because of its complexity, there will be more people involved in the process. That’s why its cost is the most expensive.

Since native apps have to follow certain guidelines for specific platforms, they typically enhance the user experience. It’s also easier for native apps to access certain hardware within the user’s device, such as the GPS, camera, or contacts list. Business, entertainment, and education are some common kinds of native apps.

Cloud-Native

This type sounds like native apps, right? Yet, in fact, they refer to different concepts. To be specific, cloud-native apps are developed to run in cloud environments. They use cloud services and resource, hence taking advantage of cloud-native principles like scalability or resilience. For this reason, they’re often used for applications that need to scale easily, are part of distributed systems, or require continuous integration and delivery (e.g., SaaS apps).

Normally, developers can deploy these apps on cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure, allowing to access them over the Internet. For example, at Designveloper, our team is currently using both AWS (main system) and Google Cloud (for handling BigQuery and Vertex AI to process AI from services hosted on AWS, etc.). By using AWS, we can deploy apps and deliver them to QC for testing within just a few minutes.

Their cost depends on some factors like the complexity level, the choice of cloud platforms, development team expertise, or ongoing maintenance. Generally, cloud-native apps have lower upfront costs compared to native apps. But their operational costs can vary.

Hybrid

Hybrid or cross-platform apps are much cheaper to develop when compared with native and cloud-native apps.

When it comes to this type of app, your team will only need to develop one app for all platforms. As a result, its development time is faster and this way, your product will be launched to the market earlier.

However, hybrid apps are less optimized so they are not able to offer a native user experience. Common hybrid apps are small and medium communication apps, lifestyle apps or game apps.

Web Apps

This is a software application that runs in a web browser. This means you don’t need to download and install it on your device. Instead, you simply access it through an internet connection.

The cost of web apps also vary significantly based on factors like complexity or design. But generally, they tend to be more cost-effective to develop and maintain compared to native mobile apps. This is due to the lower development costs associated with web tech and the ability to reach a wider audience without building separate apps for different platforms. Also for this reason, web apps have a faster development and deployment time.

FURTHER READING:

1. How Much Does It Cost to Make an App for Your Business?

2. 5 Steps to Reduce Cross-Platform App Development Costs

3. How to Save Big on eCommerce App Development Cost?

4. How To Outsource Software Development In 2023?

2. App Development Team

The second factor that affect an app’s cost is who you choose to develop the app. Normally, you often have the three following options for app development:

Freelancer

The low-cost criterion is the outstanding decisive factor of this option.

The majority of freelancers would inform their hourly or daily rate depending on the length and complexity of the project and customers’ specific requests.

They are also suitable for seasonal and short-term projects. Since seasonal and short-term projects would only show up a few times a year, such projects are perfect matches for freelancers who are not professionals yet actively earn a lot of experience in each particular field.

Internal Team

One thing you have to know for sure is that an internal team will be the most expensive one to develop an app. You will need to pay for the management, hiring, training, and onboarding of new staff, and of course, this will cost you a fortune. But in return, your business has full control over the project.

Outsourcing Company

Software development companies tend to aim at maintaining a positive and long-term relationship with a client, not a project. So, they invest remarkable resources in improving the quality of a project for the sake of customer satisfaction.

The cost of collaborating with an outsourcing team is also considered low when compared with an internal team. This happens because your management, hiring, or training cost are all zero at this point.

Recommended reading: Let’s Face It: Are Mobile App Development Dying?

What Would Affect the Cost of App Design?

Apart from app development, you should also consider which factors influence the cost of your app design. They include:

Designer Rate

It depends on how experienced your designer is in paying the bill. Obviously, senior designers will ask for a higher rate but they are likely to complete the task in a shorter time compared with freshers or junior staff.

Project Scale and Complexity

You can rank the complexity of one app with these 3 levels: simple (100 hours), middling complex (200 hours), and complex (400 hours). When we have to work with a more complex project, of course, the time spent on design is a lot longer than the rest of the 2 levels. As a result, businesses have to invest more in the app.

Platform

It is easy to notice that there is a huge difference between designing an iOS app and an Android app. Usually, the cost to draft the look for an Android app development languages is higher since this platform changes day by day and it takes you some more time to adapt to these modifications.

Geography

Just like app development, app design would cost differently based on your vendor’s location. As you might already know, the expense you need to hire a Vietnamese software design agency like Designveloper is much cheaper than that in Europe or America.

Recommended reading: 4 Ways on How Do Free Apps Make Money?

How Much Does It Cost to Design & Develop Uber, Tinder, and Instagram?

You’ve understood the key factors that impact the costs of your app development & design. Now, let’s see how much it costs to build the following popular apps:

1. Uber

Should you be familiar with this kind of transportation then you might already know that Uber does not have just one but two separate apps for passengers and drivers. So let’s analyze them one by one.

Passenger app:

Category: ride-hailing
Achievements: 14 million Uber trips are completed/day, its market share in the U.S. is estimated at between 65 and 69%, and over 10 billion trips have been completed worldwide.
Significant features: geolocation and routing, payment integration, call or text the driver right from the app, ride cost estimation, splitting a fare with companions, etc.

Driver app:

Significant features: driver reports, advanced route optimization, active/inactive option, calling to a passenger from the app, driver destinations, free cancellation within a set period of time, etc.

For both:

Monetizing method: charging fees from users.
Complexity: complex.
Design time: 240 hours for both iOS (130 hours) and Android (110 hours).
Design cost: $4,800-7,200/app when outsourcing to a software development company like Designveloper.
Development time: 2100 hours for both iOS and Android.
Development cost: $42.000-63.000.

FURTHER READING:

1. 5 Benefits of a Custom App Development for Your Business

2. Why Should You Develop Mobile Applications in Vietnam?

3. How to Outsource App Development Successfully

4. Custom Mobile App Development Process: A Detailed Guide

2. Tinder

Category: Dating app
Achievements: 50 million users/month; 4.1 million paying users; roughly 26 million matches/day; over 1.6 billion swipes/day.
Significant features: push notification, user profile, social network login, discovery setting, private chat, matching, geography.
Monetizing method: paid subscription, ads, gifts, and third-party services.
Complexity: quite complex.
Design time: 100 hours for an iOS app, 100 hours for an Android app, and 180 hours for both.
Design cost: $3,600-5,400 when outsourcing to a software development company like Designveloper.
Development time: 2359 hours for both iOS and Android apps.
Development cost: $47.180-70.770.

Recommended reading: How to Create a Dating App in 4 Steps?

3. Whatsapp

Category: Communication.
Achievements: 1.5 billion monthly active users.
Significant features: VoIP phone calls, video chats, group calls, end-to-end chat encryption, cloud services sync, geolocation Integration, calendar synchronization, in-app purchases, etc.
Complexity: Middling complex.
Design time: 50-60 hours/platform.
Design cost: $1,000-1,200/platform when outsourcing to a software development company like Designveloper.
Development time: 757 hours for one platform.
Development cost: $15.140-22.710 for one platform.

4. Instagram

Category: Social network.
Achievements: 1 billion active users/month, Instagram is the second most engaged social network, etc.
Significant features: user accounts, social integration, taking photos/videos, photo/video editor, photo/video editor, geolocation, push notifications, etc.
Complexity: middling complex.
Design time: 130 hours/platform.
Design cost: $2,600-3,900/platform when outsourcing to a software development company like Designveloper.
Development time: roughly 1500 hours for both platforms.
Development cost: $30.000-45.000.

FURTHER READING:

1. Instagram Likes: Why Likes Are Important

2. 8 Steps on How to Create a Social Media Platform

5. Amazon

Category: e-commerce.
Achievements: 600 million active users/month,100,000 new sellers join Amazon every month, etc.
Significant features: multi-currency support, Google Map integration, predictive search, product tracking, feedback & seller support, order management, rating & reviews, live support, etc.
Complexity: highly complex.
Design time: 160 hours/platform.
Design cost: $3,200-4,800/platform when outsourcing to a software development company like Designveloper.
Development time: 1380 hours for one platform.
Development cost: $27.600-41.400.

Final thoughts

Nowadays, app design and development is not a rare service but it’s essential to have the knowledge of this business so that our effort does come to nothing at all. Furthermore, the cost of apps is also a key factor that you should consider to make the best of your revenue. Our top recommendations for you are India, Malaysia, and Vietnam when it comes to low-cost service.

But hey, if you are looking for a software outsourcing company that also offers both development and design services, Designveloper could be the one for you! As an experienced software company based in Ho Chi Minh City, Designveloper can solve all your design problems from web applications, and mobile applications to landing pages, etc. At the same time, our team is also familiar with new technologies such as GraphQL, GoLang, Meteor, etc., so guess what, your app may be the best of its kind one day!