How long does it take to develop a mobile app

Every new client wants to know how long it takes to develop a mobile app for their business. And it’s understandable and natural. Who would start a project without any specifics regarding the duration of it? Estimating the whole team’s work may be challenging as it’s highly dependent on many different factors. We write about making estimates here. So, how long does it take to make an app? 

To make it a little easier, I’ll try to show you the stages of an app development process and their duration in the example. Please remember that the time is different for every project. In an example, it’s easier to imagine how it can look with your product. Let’s find out how long does it take to develop a product like Onoco. This is how creating an app looks like in FiveDotTwelve. 

Onoco is a parenting app serving parents and child care attendants to make it easier for them to track the baby’s activities and overall progress. The Founder of Onoco came to us with design ideas for an app to serve parents of babies under 6 years old. This required in-depth research so that the team could fully understand the needs of the app's users. Our task was to create a mobile app. You can find the case study here. 

The requirements analysis 

This step is about analyzing the client’s idea for the product, discussing the requirements, doing research concerning similar apps etc. To facilitate the process and do in depth research you can run workshops. It’s highly important for the development company to fully understand the client's business model and objectives to be able to advise. 

Analyses are essential in the process. Firstly, knowing the competition will simply help you avoid the risk of losing. Secondly, understanding the potential users is crucial to meet their expectations. So these are two things that should be done during analyses in the first place: checking the competition and getting to know your audience. This allows you to know the crucial thing — if the app you want to create is needed. Most of the ideas fail at the start because there’s no product-market fit. You can avoid this kind of situation by doing analyses. You should also do it with each feature you want to add during the development. If it wasn’t planned before, check if the idea is good and can be profitable.

The analysis process includes the subsequent arrangements concerning features and design of your mobile app. Remember that an experienced app development company will always be able to help you with this. We give suggestions and recommendations to make your project a great solution for all of the users. 

Workshops usually take 2-7 days. Analyses are often mixed with design creation which makes it harder to predict the time needed. In the case of Onoco, the analysis took us about 3 days. 

Creating designs and estimating 

App design is usually being created during the analyses, but the whole process can only be carried out after everything is discussed. This stage usually takes about 160 hours at FiveDotTwelve, but it can differ a lot depending on the complexity of the mobile app. It happens that it takes 40 hours and it happens that it takes 350 hours. All depends on the project specifics. 

It also happens that clients come to us with ready-made designs. This changes a lot, of course, but the team has to check and review them anyway. Without this, we face the risk of estimating the development time with incorrect, non-functional UI/UX designs. Development team builds the mobile app based on these graphics all the time. Every button, every screen and generally every feature is created on the basis of designs. So the team needs to see them and decide if everything is prepared well. 

However, at every stage of creating designs, the team will keep you updated and will be awaiting your approval. As a client, you choose the options of the overall look of the app that the team gives you. That’s also why it’s hard to predict how much time this stage will take. 

In the case of Onoco, our client came to us with some ready-made designs. The development team reviewed them and used them during the app development. The creation of designs for the new features for further development was and still is on our side. 

Every project is different

That’s why in this article I noted that estimates can be different and these calculations are just an overview. Anyway, this is the time when you receive more accurate estimates than the ones given in this article. Making estimates is really challenging. As a client, you have to understand it.

It’s actually like calculating average time for any other task apart from development. Just imagine doing it for every task you take. It is also not easy to assess one's own capabilities. Some people have too high self-esteem, others are too critical of themselves. But it is almost impossible for anyone to be able to evaluate their own abilities perfectly. They vary according to experience, so a senior developer won't help a junior much in this regard. And no matter if it's the developer's or anyone’s task, it involves a certain level of risk of unforeseen complications. Besides, some things can only be seen during development, only by making an attempt to implement a particular feature.

Estimating also takes some time — high-level estimates are done in about 8 hours and detailed ones even in 40 hours. 

An interesting fact is that in cooperation with Onoco, we were able to deliver the project 10% earlier than estimated. Yes, it is possible! You can see the case study and check out the review on Clutch from our client. 

App development 

At this point I won’t compare it to Onoco. It would be unfair as you might have a completely different vision of the complexity of your solution. Besides, we still continue this cooperation and new features are still being created.

You should know that the development stage is the hardest one to estimate. This work is almost entirely in the hands of developers (but you still need to keep in touch).

The development time depends on the largest number of factors like choices of technology at different stages and various unpredictable complications. One of the most important factors is whether you decide to go with one or both platforms (iOS, Android) or just one of them. On one hand, going with one platform is faster, but if you choose to implement in both, you can do it with Flutter. This cross-platform solution enables you to save a lot of time and reduce costs. And it can be used for any kind of project. The code is written for two platforms at the same time. 

Mobile apps can also have different amounts of features and specifications. It also depends if it’s an MVP or a complex solution. Moreover, clients often want to change some of the designs or features during the development because that's when they can see some first results. That’s why the range is so wide and that’s why it’s so difficult to foresee how long it takes to make an app. 

Testing 

Tests are actually being conducted at every stage of the project. It’s not about checking everything at the end of the development. All to make sure that the product is built properly at all steps and to avoid overlapping problems. This is related to running projects in an Agile methodology, where testing takes place in every sprint. 

Fixing errors is way easier and more efficient straight away, at the stage of development of each feature. Correcting the bugs on which the next feature was based can cause several issues and large extension of time needed to finish the project. Cost and effort increases as problems accumulate. So time for testing will always be added at each level of building a solution for you. That’s why it’s very difficult to determine how much time the testing takes.

There are different types of testing and as a client, you’re not very much involved in them. It doesn’t make them any less important. 

Testing is not only the work of a manual tester, it is also writing unit and automated tests. In Onoco the overall working time of quality assurance specialists was about 390 hours. 

At this stage there can also appear some difficulties and challenges. In our project these were for example:

• tests covering the functionality of interval-based applications to support all time zones 
• testing the features running in the background or resumed when the app was restarted.

Quality Assurance

It’s a procedure that ensures that a software product or service is produced with due care — it is simply good quality. This is partly achieved through software testing by QA Specialists. This is why quality assurance is often included in the colloquial term testing. 

Launching the app 

It’s the fastest part of mobile app development. Launching the app is possible not only after every feature is implemented and the app is fully tested and functional but we always recommend doing it when everything is ready and finished. If you try to push it too hard, the product can end up in mobile stores unfinished. 

If you’ve chosen to develop the app both for Android and iOS, it’s going to be launched on Google Play and App Store. 

Developers put the product on mobile stores but they aren’t downloadable straightaway. First, they have to check if after putting it there, it works properly. So it’s tested again.

Additionally, the App Store does the so-called Review before the app becomes available for users. And it’s impossible to predict how much time it will take. This can take one day as well as two weeks. The same goes for Google Play. They check if the app corresponds with all the rules and if the product is ready to be launched. 

This, of course, isn’t the end of cooperation. After the app is launched and running, you still get the support and maintenance. The team updates the app and they keep their ear to the ground so everything works as it should. 

Launching the app can also be just one of the stages after which the app is developed further.

Having an insight on the duration of a mobile app development process, now you can move to speeding it up. This goes along with reducing costs, about which you find information here.