If you’re looking to create something meaningful and fun, developing a mobile app is definitely a solid option. But plenty of coders lack the budget to go all-out and hire a team that will get the job done quickly and efficiently.

When that’s the case, we have to scale back and look to get the most out of our budget. And that’s why we’re here. In this article, we will look at how to develop a mobile app on a tight budget. So with all that said, let’s start.

Set Goals

First things first, it doesn’t matter if you have a million dollars to work with or no money at all. What’s important is to have a clearly defined goal.

You’ll need to determine what the goal of this project is and what you hope to achieve with it. By doing this, you will be making it much easier to manage the whole process.

Goals help us in ways w never imagined before. Not only are goals vital for the success of any project, but they provide us with a checklist of explanations.

For your mobile app, here are a few ways how to determine the goals of the app:

• Who plans on using your app?
• Who are your main competitors and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Why should your target audience download and use your app?
• What is the issue you’re solving? How will your customers benefit by using your app?
• What are the key strengths of your application?
• What are you hoping to achieve with it?

The last of these is very important. If you have no idea what your app hopes to achieve, then why are you even developing it?

Regardless if you’re on a tight budget or have millions to work with, setting out goals is of utmost importance.

Choosing the Right Model For Your Budget

When it comes to developing an app, you can do it yourself or you can get others to join the project. When exploring the latter, there are a few things to take into account.

Will other developers work for free, or do they expect to be paid on a bi-weekly or monthly basis? If they indeed agree to work for free, what will you give them in return for their services?

When on a tight budget, it can be difficult to choose which model to work with. While no one works for free, some devs might do it if the project seems promising.

There are a couple of models that mobile app developers are familiar with. You’ll need to explore them and decide what model you’ll incorporate. You’ll also need to determine which model is right for your tight budget.

Choosing the Platform

This one is very important as the right choice can make all the difference when working on a tight budget. When we talk about platforms, there are two realistic options. Those are Android and iOS. If you’re a developer, then you probably know the strengths and weaknesses of both. You also understand what needs to be taken into account when creating mobile apps on both platforms.

But it goes much deeper than that.

The mobile platform is one thing, but you can also use all kinds of 3rd party software to help get you going. This is absolutely vital when working on a tight budget. In many cases, we lack the time or expertise to create design layouts. So what we can do is use 3rd party design layouts and incorporate them into our project.

This isn’t anything negative or bad as no one has the time to focus on that. So one thing you can do is visit Gappsy to find out more about how you can build amazing mobile apps much faster.

Finding the Right People

Yet another important aspect to look at when developing mobile apps on a tight budget is finding the right people for the project. We did talk a bit about how you expect to pay other devs working on the project, but this one focuses on how to find the right people to assist you in the mobile app-developing process.

The people you work with can make or break your project. There is no other way of saying that. If you create synergy with others, you’ll work much easier and faster. If you disagree on everything with them, it’ll only make it more difficult for everyone.

When developing apps on a tight budget, forging relationships is absolutely vital for the success of the project. Since you lack the finances to hire experts, you’ll probably have to work with inexperienced developers.

Take Into Account the Costs For Developing Features

The thing with apps, and mobile especially apps, is that they’re meant to have plenty of features that the user can use. But developing features is no easy task. In most cases, more features get thrown out of the project. You’d be surprised when you see just how much time it takes to develop these.

But the problem in all this isn’t the developing time, it’s the budget. When on a tight budget, it can be difficult to add all the things we wanted. Like it or not, this costs money; money which you have very little off.

So you’ll need to prioritize certain features over others. How to do that? Well, you’ll need to take into account the development cost for features against the user needs.

If a user has no use of a feature that costs X amount to develop, then don’t develop it. Also, it can be quite difficult to come to this conclusion with no users to test things. Luckily for you, you can be sensible and figure out what sort of features the user would have more use of.

If a costly feature is to implement live streaming, but the whole point of the app is to offer users entertainment, will you ditch the feature? Absolutely not. No doubt when you come to such a similar predicament, you’ll have to prioritize things.