How much does it cost to develop an app?

As a struggling mobile Internet entrepreneur, the most frequently asked question by amateur friends is "How much does it cost to build a website?" Or "How much does it cost to make an APP?"

three years ago, I naively thought that an APP would cost at most 5, yuan, and a website could be done within 2, yuan. Above this price is to scare children. Later, I did spend 1 yuan to buy a template web page and 5 yuan to buy a template APP, and did these stupid things. The final result is just like the difference between the buyer's show and the seller's show on Taobao. The money hit Shui Piao.

based on the principle of trusting in the truth and not believing in evil, we began to set up our own technical team, which consisted of various programmers and product managers from UI, background, front end, Android and Apple, and formed a basic APP development team. Up to now, five apps have been made, three of which have been financed, and the other two are government-supported projects. I have paid the team for nearly a year, and it is really clear how much it will cost to develop an APP from scratch.

Today, let's work out how much it will cost from the perspective of entrepreneurs.

First of all, if you are also an entrepreneur and are full of enthusiasm, then the products must be developed by yourself. Because entrepreneurship is a very awesome thing, all links should be the best. It is inevitable that we will not be at ease to outsource product technology development, and that's what we thought at that time. I know the technology myself, but my background in related major is good. But as far as I know, ordinary entrepreneurs inevitably don't understand. Therefore, if you want to make an APP as a starting point, you need to know at least what staffing is needed.

Recruiting

involves some common work in the process of developing a new product, including an architect and background developer+Android developer +iOS developer+product manager+front-end developer+designer. Moreover, you can't guarantee that there will be qualified people for every position you recruit, or sudden changes will lead to development stagnation, and someone will have to rescue you. It is normal for employees in startup companies to be unstable. It is estimated that the average entrepreneur wants to get product development online as soon as possible, assuming that the product you want will be online for 3~6 months.

Step 1: Recruit people

The first-tier cities in the north, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are fine. As long as there are sufficient funds, talents are not worried, and resumes are rich. However, in a second-and third-tier city like Changzhou, it took a full seven months for a WEB front-end to submit a resume for an interview. What's even more frightening is that we pay at the same time on non-professional platforms such as "hook", "worry-free future", "Zhaopin recruitment" and even "fair", as well as friends circle, in all kinds of infinite search situations. It took us five months to recruit from the first person to the time when the team was barely able to start work.

here's a good experience. First, put all your efforts to find a like-minded technical director. A high salary is necessary. But when the salary is high, he can help you avoid detours in development.

So the cost of the first step is probably-recruitment platform website membership fee: average 1 yuan/home * 3 = 3, yuan. Then suppose you have all the jobs in three months.

In these three months, four people will be paid on average, and 8% of the salary will be calculated during the probation period, and there is no need for five insurances and one gold. Such talents in Changzhou generally need to be recruited with at least one year's development experience, otherwise the development quality is difficult to guarantee.

the average salary of such talents is about 8K. Therefore, you have to send it in these three months (8, yuan *8% probation period *4 people *3 months = 76,8). < P > Step 2: Venue < P > A team of 8 people can choose low-end office space, which is about 7 yuan/_ in Changzhou and needs about 1 square meters, which is not easy to find.

business incubator is a good choice. In the current background, many incubators are easy to find. The rent of the incubator will be cheaper or even free. Before accepting the entrepreneurial team, an agreement will generally be signed, and the venue needs to be used as a condition for equity replacement or priority investment. As for whether the incubator is cost-effective, it is up to the entrepreneurial team to weigh it. Counting water, electricity and property, about 1, yuan a month is relatively economical.

Step 3: Equipment

The price of an ordinary ergonomic chair is around 15 yuan. If you don't buy an engineering chair and replace it with an ordinary chair, and share the cost of the table equally, you need about 2 tables and chairs. These one-time payments, 6 yuan can be done, right? You have to pay for patting your head.

plus the designer and Cheng Xuyuan computer, one computer is configured at 4, and one * * * seven computers include an IOS machine. To develop a mobile APP, you need to provide a prototype, just second-hand, 4 Android systems, 2 yuan each, and 4 Apple systems, 35 yuan each.

ok, let's calculate 6 yuan +4 yuan *7+2 yuan *4+35*4=56 yuan

Step 4: Let's get all the tools together.

Before the official start of APP development, you know what kind of app software you want to make, but generally you don't know what you want to do and what your needs are. At this time, the product manager needs to go out and communicate with the boss, clarify the needs and find the product positioning.

it will take about two weeks at this stage, and after careful analysis, we will figure out the positioning of the product and the demand for the first phase. During this period, the architect can start to conceive the technical architecture of the product, and has not yet officially started. After product positioning and early demand are determined, it is necessary to conceive product name, demand research, competitive product research and analysis, register domain name, purchase server and peripheral basic capabilities (such as CDN storage, SMS service, message push, etc.), trademark (unregistered trademark, which many teams suffer), register domain name and design logo. At this stage, it will take at least one week without changing the plan and product demand and positioning. At this time, the prototype of the product and the prototype of the technical architecture are also presented, which can basically enter the real work.

in this step, it is assumed that the domain name does not need to be purchased at a large price, and the total cost is 15, yuan/year.

SMS 2 and server 1 for one month. There are 2, registered trademarks such as domain names, and the one-time investment of trademarks, soft works and LOGO is about 1,

Step 5: Product version planning and architecture design

After everything seems to be ready, the product begins to sort out the requirements and plan the version according to the demand priority. According to the development direction of the product, the architect began to enter the development environment, production environment deployment and basic code research and development stage.

it is necessary to mention that the two common ways to realize the functions of APP are native and webview. The advantages and disadvantages of these two ways are beyond the scope of this article. Generally, in order to ensure the experience, the native way is the main way, supplemented by webview. To develop in a native way, version is particularly important.

firstly, after the APP is developed, it needs to be put on the APPstore (assuming that we only go to iOS and Android). The APPStore of iOS has a lengthy application review cycle, so you must plan the functions of the next few small and medium-sized versions in advance so as not to get confused in this link;

Secondly, when your APP is installed on the user's mobile phone, you must want him to run the latest version most of the time. If your version is updated too frequently, users will be annoyed.

It seems that the process is very smooth. After the product manager has sorted out the product ideas, he began to prepare the product V1. plan.

There are common jobs for new products from scratch:

(1) Product official website and product official website are the faces of products, companies and teams, so that users can know your positioning and product characteristics as quickly as possible after entering, that is, what kind of people are doing to solve what problems.

(2) user agreement. Yes, if users want to register and use your products, you have to draft your user agreement and keep communicating with lawyers or lawyers to make adjustments.

(3) seed users. You should think about where your first seed users come from, how to organize and how to manage them. They are the first people to test your products, which is very important for verifying your product positioning, finding product problems and improving product experience.

(4) basic data reporting planning. You need to know what data you need to collect to optimize and adjust your product design and think about your product direction once the product is released without knowing anything about user behavior.

(5)UI design and interaction standard formulation. There is no guarantee that the UI and interaction of the product will make users feel amazing as soon as they go online, but there must be no problem in the consistency of UI/ interaction.

(6) background management system. Whether it's data viewing or content management, the background management system is an effective assistant to your work, and it can't be less.

（7）APP。 This is the top priority of your product, so keep an eye on it.

if all goes well, the first version of your APP should have its first prototype in 3-6 months.

internal testing and polishing stage

at this stage, do you want to guarantee with the design, research and development and seed users?