For years, mobile app developers had no choice but to native development with platform-specific technologies or hybrid development with a “write once & run everywhere” approach. Thanks to one framework, developers found a middle path between these two alternatives, and it is none other than React Native. React Native brought the cross-platform development approach, allowing developers to reuse maximum code across iOS and Android while maintaining platform-specific UI layers. It is undoubtedly one of the most popular frameworks for mobile app projects.
According to Statista, nearly one-third of app developers prefer cross-platform frameworks. React Native is still among the two most preferred cross-platform development frameworks, along with Flutter. If you are convinced to use React Native technology for your app development project. Now next step is to Hire expert React Native app developers to build feature-rich and business-empowered cross-platform applications.
Key factors to Consider to know how much does React Native app development cost.
App Size & Complexity
In most cases, the app development time for a mobile app can range from a week to six months. This vast variation is the result of the variable app size and complexity. Generally, React Native builds apps faster because of the reusability of the code and component-based architecture. Despite this, the size and complexity of the project impact the app development time.
The complexity and size of the app depend upon the following factors.
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Architecture:
You can either opt for Custom development or Backend as a Service (BaaS) for building the app Backend. With the ready to use BaaS architecture, there is less complexity, but with Custom Backend architecture, there are many options and choices.
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Admin Panel Features:
Any business for tracking the business outcomes from the app, such as lead generation, business conversion, etc., needs to track user session data, activity user statistics, etc. More the admin panel gets feature-rich, more development time and cost it will take.
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Third-Party Tools:
Every mobile app must integrate third-party plugins or extensions to interact with other app features. There are too many of them, from social media integration to login terrace to GPS map integration. With the number of integration the development cost increases.
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App Monetization:
Another crucial aspect that tremendously impacts development time and the cost is app monetization. Simple gated features or premium apps or subscriptions may not involve much complexity, but it involves more work and development costs when integrating in-app purchases.
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Access to Features of the Device & Platform:
Today’s flagship smartphones are coming loaded with very advanced features and capabilities that app makers need to use for a more sophisticated user experience. The more advanced device features the app needs to use, the bigger the development cost will be.
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Integrating Legacy Software & Tools:
The business software often needs to keep in sync with the legacy software used by the industry. As the number of such integration increases, the development cost also gets higher. Much integration-ready software and app need modification and changes, third-party APIs, extensions, etc. The development time and cost will be increased with the number of such integrations.
Expertise & Experience in the Development Team
Indeed, the cost of hiring React Native developers varies tremendously from one project to another. This mainly varies because of the developers’ different skills, expertise, and project experience. The skills and expertise you need in certain complex app projects can be considerably higher than in simple apps. For example, mobile commerce apps, video streaming or OTT apps, and fintech apps need the collaborative output of several skilled developers and, consequently, involve higher costs.
In most such complex and feature-rich app projects, one requires senior React Native developers and medium-level and junior developers. Comprising these different skills and experience layers, the project will cost huge. This is where React Native can help you to do away with such a huge development team. You only need one React Native team of programmers to take care of all development tasks. Instead of hiring separate teams of app developers, you only need an expert React Native team for the entire project.
Location of the React Native Developers
In the Mobile app development world, app projects increasingly rely on outsourcing and remote hiring to meet developer talents’ shortfall. Now, the developer rate often varies across different countries. Some countries like India, China, Philippines, Ukraine and several others where React Native developers charge a highly competitive rate while in locations like the US or any of Western Europe, the charges seem to be pretty high.
As one of the world’s leading outsourcing destinations, India offers a truly competitive market of React Native developers for hire. Ukraine and several East European countries also come very close regarding hiring rates. These location-specific cost advantages give one reason to hire React Native developers remotely for your app project.
The Development Company vs Freelancers
The development cost of a React Native app also depends on where the project is hiring. If you are hiring a development team from a reputed IT service provider, the cost of hiring can be higher compared to hiring a freelance developer.
You can also opt to hire app developers from a small or mid-tier company and make good cost savings. But freelancers, despite offering significant cost advantages, are always considered a tricky choice. You can be lucky to get some great freelance developers or be doomed by hiring some inefficient or below-average freelancers.
A balanced choice with a mid-category development firm is the ideal middle path to get onboard quality experts while not paying a fortune for the skills. These mobile app development companies bring the innovative approaches of startups and the established, time-tested processes of large firms. They bring the most balanced choice by any parameter.
App Updates & Maintenance
One must remember that the cost of building a React Native app doesn’t just settle down with the release of the app. The continuous app maintenance and rolling out of timely updates make a considerable cost for the app project. On the other hand, updates and maintenance are crucial for performance improvement and addressing security glitches in the app. When hiring a React Native development company, one should insist on a long-term partnership.
With a regular development partner on your side, you can push the team to release updates regularly and every once in a while. They can troubleshoot ab6 issues at a given time and help the app business run smoothly over time. The development team takes care of rolling out app updates, making timely design changes and fixing bugs. It would help to calculate the app maintenance cost as at least one-fifth of the entire development cost.
Concluding Words
It is difficult to give a specific figure for the development cost of a React Native app since the framework can be used in such a wide range of apps with diverse app sizes, feature sets, and user experience attributes. But at least we can figure out the key factors impacting the React Native app development cost. These factors give us a glimpse into how we can make a budget and control the app development cost. These factors remained tested and tried across a multitude of successful app projects.
