IoT App Development: How Much Does it Cost to Develop in 2022?

IoT Apps have already become a part of everyday lives. From ATMs to smart homes to energy management and now many other hardware devices are being equipped with this trending technology to make lives easier day by day. According to Gartner’s report, by 2020 there will be 20.8 billion connected things worldwide.

Looking at some more stats, by 2020 around 13.5 million connected IoT units in the consumer sector. While an approx of 4.4 million in cross-industry business (like HVAC, light bulbs, building management systems, etc.) and in vertical-specific business (Hospitals, tracking devices in Logistic ships, etc.) there will be approx. 2.8 million IoT units across the globe.

The Internet of Things industry is growing rapidly and there is a lot of opportunities in the domain for various IT enterprises dealing either in mobile app development or smart device manufacturing sectors. Developing an IoT application is a complex process as the technology is new and you need to make your app to be highly flexible and scalable. In this article, we are going to discuss the cost associated with IoT application development and the parameters that affect its cost.

What Factors Affect IoT App Development Cost?

There are many influencing factors that impact the cost of developing an IoT application or IoT solution. These factors can either be associated with the functionalities or individual IoT developers. We will discuss all factors one by one for better analyzing the budget required for developing an IoT app.

1. Type of Application and the Complexity Associated with its Development

It is important to analyze the app type and the features that are required to be incorporated into it. Apps with a high level of complexity involved require higher development time and thus, the cost of development is high. It is highly recommended to analyze the app’s goal and features that are essential to incorporate into it.

2. Team Size

The number of developers depends on the size of the project. Depending on the complexity and the scale of the project the number of developers in a team is decided. For example, basic application development requires; two developers, one designer, one tester, and one project manager. However, this size increases if the project is of an advanced level.

As in the advanced level of IoT app development, few new job roles increases like back-end developers, panel designers, business analyst, etc.

3. The Time Required to Develop an IoT App

For any app development process there are three main areas:

• Designing: It included understanding the clients’ requirements and building a layout of the project. Once the idea gets the shape, the design is passed to the next stage. On average, this stage takes 80 to 300 hours.
• Development: In this stage, the team of developers works meticulously to execute the project correctly without any errors. This process takes the majority of the time as developers incorporate the latest technologies and try to create harmony between various features. This stage takes an average of 500 to 1000 hours for completing different layers of the development stage.
• Testing and Post-Development: the end result if need any improvement or have any possible bug then at this stage it is removed. Also, few mobile app development companies take responsibility for post-development services, for maintaining a long-term relationship with the client. If we take an average then this stage takes approx 100 hours.

For developing a basic project with standard UI and features, the standard or approx time it could take to develop is 400-600 hours. However, if clients demand custom-made UI and features that it requires 700-800 hours of development. Moreover, if you are required to incorporate 3rd party integration and advanced features along with real-time synchronization and a large database then you will be needing more than 1100 hours.

4. Hourly Rates

Well, hourly rates are solely depending on the application development market rates. Also, the rates differ by country or region. There is a huge difference in the rates between Southeast Asian countries and Western European countries.

If we look country-wise then,

However, these rates may vary depending on the company size. Small startups don’t charge much because they are in the initial phase of getting into the market and they need to build trust and relationships.

(Note: Cheap cost is not an indication of low quality in work or any kind of lacking in the project.)

Whereas, some big typhoons in the IoT app development domain may charge clients more as they are having vast knowledge and great experience in the domain. So these, hourly cost varies from company to company.

The Final Average Costing of Developing an IoT App

As far we have discussed many factors that are playing a major role in deciding the cost of developing an IoT application. There are many industrial areas where we are in a need of developing IoT solutions to improve the quality of work and lives. Industries like medical science, home automation, logistics, automobile, and energy management systems require IoT solutions to build a connected network.

The cost of development also depends on the type of industry like a healthcare app can cost around $30,000 to $40,000. Every industry has different app costing depending on the complexity and security it deals with.

After analyzing all the cost affecting parameters the cost for developing a basic IoT application is estimated to be around $17,000. If the client wants a customized mid-level IoT app then it will cost $19,000 to $25,000. However, a complex project with a high level of functionalities costs $32,000.

Conclusion: IoT Application Development Cost

It is a matter of fact that if you want a quality product with a high level of functionalities, then you need to shed some money from your pocket. Today, seeing the boost in the IoT app market, we can estimate the vast opportunity it is offering to the businesses to grow their business and also to IoT app developers to expand their skillset. If you are looking for developing your own IoT app then the most important point to remember is to be specific what you want to incorporate into your application as your app should serve the specific purpose of your user.