How to Define an App Design Cost in 2022

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December 6, 2021 Business

App Design Cost: What Goes Into It?

If you’re interested in building a mobile app for your business, the first thing you probably try to figure out will be the approximate app design cost. Professional UX & UI designer’s services are expensive.

However, if you think that with the significant increase in the number of digital interface designers, their price tag will drop down, you’re mistaken. Demand for good specialists, along with their fees, will only increase, so if you want to create a high-quality app design, you need to start now.

Check out this article to learn how much it costs to design an app, what factors may influence a mobile app design price, and why you need app design services.

Why Do You Need App Design Services?

Mobile app design comprises the complete interface the users interact with. To create a successful application, you need to make an intuitive and accessible user interface. This is where professional app design services may come in handy.

Check out the list of benefits a qualified mobile app designer provides to ensure that you need to hire one for your project:

Makes your app look and feel professional.
Helps to improve user experience.
Increases the user base activity, thus raising the app’s value.
Defines how quickly and effectively you can monetize your application.
Helps to ensure intuitive app functionality.

App Design Process

Before estimating an app design cost, you should get acquainted with the main steps of an app design process:

Competitive Analysis and User Research

This stage takes much time, but you won’t understand each aspect of app development without this step. Once you analyze the market, you can define the strengths and weaknesses of competing applications, which can be really helpful in your design application process.

On this stage, your app development cost may range depending on the following factors:

app complexity
time required to research and analyze business requirements
number of features you need to deploy
number of platforms you want to cover
time necessary for team meetings

User Experience Design

UX design is one of the essential app design stages, which includes:

Sketches
Plain UX Wireframes
UX Wireframes with Native UI Elements

If you aim to launch a complex app, you can start by sketching its overall concept using app design tools (Figma, Sketch, UXPin, etc.). Then you can proceed with designing the app structure, focusing on its usability. During the UX design stage, you can improve your design with custom fonts, buttons, and control styles using Figma or any other advanced design tool. With this approach, you can substantially reduce the total app design cost of your project.

User Interface Design

UI design is the continuation of the UX design, which implies conveying your product idea to its users by means of diverse visual solutions. At this stage you can create a unique application design that will help your business stand out on the market.

UI design services involve everything related to the appearance of an application, including branding, color schemes, etc. UI design also covers the issue of displaying different types of content if you plan to launch your app on several devices. At this stage, app design cost may vary, as you might need several UI mockups in order to choose the most appropriate option.

Factors That Influence a Mobile App Design Price

Now when you know how the app design process looks, it’s time to move towards defining the cost to design an app. Here are the factors that may influence app design cost:

Discovery

The discovery stage is one of the elements that form the app design cost. If you need to explore the market and establish your target audience, this step is a must.

Here are the essential parts of the discovery phase:

If the testing results meet the goals and priorities of your business, you may proceed with evaluating the financial resources necessary for your project implementation.

Technical Complexity

If you need to build a complex mobile application, you might need to work on its technical complexity by including additional features, such as:

Push notifications
Social media integration
Payments via credit card or PayPal
Tracking orders in real-time

This is especially relevant to those developing an online delivery app for different parties (buyer, store, admin). Consider that technical complexity requires more time on development; therefore, the app design cost will be increased.

Devices And OS

Whether you want to build a mobile application for iOS or Android, it won’t influence the UI/UX design cost. However, if you need both, the app development price may significantly increase.

Another thing that affects your app design price is the number of devices you want to create your application for. Making a digital interface design for smartphones, tablets, and laptops presupposes using various approaches, which in turn implies hiring different specialists or scaling the existing team. So, you might face extra mobile app design costs.

Custom Design

If the clients come up with an app idea that already exists on the market, they are more likely to try standing out using a stunning interface design that includes:

Illustrations
Animation
Branding

However, note that the more complex design you need, the higher the app design cost will be.

The Design Team’s Location and Hourly Rates

The location of your designers will also influence both IOS and Android app design costs, as this affects their hourly rates. Thus, American and Canadian designers charge $150-200 per hour. Western European specialists charge a bit less – $60-100 per hour. If you’re looking for a lower rate, pay attention to Eastern European developers, Ukrainian in particular, who provide a high-quality job for $25-50 per hour.

How Much Does It Cost to Design an App

To define your exact app design cost, you need to consider the time necessary for its development, the number of platforms, the app’s complexity, and the designers’ location. A basic app design requires 2-3 hours for each unique device on average. The interface sample can take 16 to 30 hours.

In addition to these details, you also need to know how much the UX/UI designers make to estimate your project’s budget.

If you choose to hire a specialist from Eastern Europe ($40 per hour), here’s how your approximate costs on different designer activities will look:

Sketches: 16 – 24+ hours — $650 – $1,000+
Basic app design: 40 – 60+ hours — $1,600 – $2,400+
Custom app design: 60 – 80+ hours — $2,400 – $3,200+
Illustrations: 16 – 32+ hours — $650 – $1,280+
Branding: 24 – 40+ hours — $1,000 – $1,600+

Conclusion

Application design is a compound process that requires much time, money, and effort. Still, with the right app design services, you can significantly cut the project’s budget, without affecting its quality and functionality.

Keep the factors that influence the interface design cost in mind, and choose the best app designers for hire to effectively digitize your business and make it stand out among your competitors!

FAQs

What Is the Process of Designing an App?

An app design process includes UX & UI interface design, which consists of such stages as planning, research, specification, creating a wireframe, building a prototype, and passing the project on to developers.

What Is the Hourly Rate of Designers?

App designers’ rates may range from $25 to $200 per hour, depending on their expertise and location. On average, professional freelance UX designer services cost $70-100 per hour, but if you hire an outsource specialist from Eastern Europe, the hourly rate may drop to $40 an hour.

How Much Does It Cost to Design an App?

An average app design cost may vary from $4k to $20k and more, depending on the design complexity.

About the author:

Vitaly Makhov, CEO at DOIT Software, custom software development and IT Staff Augmentation company. The DOIT Software team is passionate about building bold systems and solving business challenges for startups, product companies, and digital agencies.