How to decrease costs of software development

Saving costs and why you need that

Extending the probability for gaining a presence in the market, meeting the demands of the target audience, and finding an effective strategy to stand out from the competitors. So, this or that way, no matter either enterprise corporation or a promising startup will see the necessity to develop a meaningful growth application. s One of the first issues is how much such software will cost to develop. However, there is no single solution. It varies depending on the web app complexity, implemented features, mobile platform choice, backend development, UI/UX design, and so on. The difficulties do not end when you have calculated an approximate price and determined your budget.

Another challenging problem is how to cut product development costs while maintaining quality.

It goes without saying that funding is mandatory for software development and production. What does it take to produce a profitable and effective digital product? A competent staff, as well as investments in design, frontend and backend development, testing, and promotion. That is only the top of the iceberg. Each extra function adds to the task’s complexity, lengthening the timetable and increasing the budget.

As a result, most app developers hunt for choices where a low price does not imply a reduction in quality. Is it even conceivable? Let us investigate.

In this piece, we will provide you with five important methods for lowering software development expenses without sacrificing quality. This study will rely on our team’s solid knowledge of the subject and experience gained.

Let’s get started!

Factors and components that can drive and increase costs

According to this research and data gathered, large IT projects often run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over schedule. So, why is software development so dangerous and expensive? There are various causes for this, including both objective elements and unpredictable pitfalls.

Only those who know where these dangers lurk can avoid them. Every mistake in the creation of your digital product might result in additional charges and an increase in the budget. To know means to be prepared, and the sooner you learn about potential hazards, the less likely they will catch you off guard. So our first recommendation is to plan work, consider the benefits and drawbacks of each feature, and act carefully.

Before looking for a way and determine best option to save software product budget and keep it cost effective, let’s determine which factors are the impacting ones on the price tag most.

• No design iteration at the development beginning

For the software engineering teams it’s crucial to spend first iteration to understand the domain, decompose requirements, choose best frameworks both on the backend and frontend side, draw some solution diagrams, like entity relationships or maybe sequence diagram and pick right database (sql, no-sql, vector database). Without this, there might be incorrect decisions made at the very beginning which would be hard to migrate from in future

• Significant product complexity

The type of application (web or mobile) you create has a significant impact on the cost of development.

Apps differ in terms of the services they offer and the functionalities they include. A trivial basic app takes far less time to develop and so has a lesser pricing. A more advanced one with a full set of complex features, on the other hand, will be substantially more expensive because to the extended schedule.

Creating an MVP first is usually the best solution. It allows you to test your project idea and save valuable resources, like money at the beginning of development. More advanced functions can be added later.

Before a professional development team can begin work, you must make certain considerations. MVP will provide useful information regarding user reactions as well as your custom software’s strengths and weaknesses. But it still can be too late (or too expensive) to change the vector dramatically.

Select the approximate number of required functions during the planning stage. Each feature you decide to add later will increase costs.

Cost-effective software development team contacts

• Platform, software built on top of

The platform you choose for your app has a significant impact on its price. There are two basic ways that you should think about: native and cross-platform.

Native apps for Android written in Java or Kotlin and for the iOS in Objective-C or Swift and accessing Platform’s api directly

Your app will be able to run on a single platform if you make it native. Many developers like this method because it allows them to concentrate on the environment and tailor the app to meet all of its needs. A native app contains more advanced features and makes full use of the device’s capabilities. Also, with native approach the application would look perfectly according to the design guidelines of platform

Another popular method is the cross-platform strategy, for e.x software development with Flutter, which is less expensive and takes less time to develop. However, a cross-platform application may not perform to its full potential. Developing two separate versions of your program for iOS and Android is the most expensive choice. However, such a solution may be too difficult to handle at first, needing a significant amount of work and a doubled budget. As a result, it’s highly recommended that you start with one platform and then add the other if necessary, or take the cross-platform for the project development

There are two main platforms for your app: native (just for iOS or Android) and cross-platform (for both iOS and Android) (adopted to both) software development

• UI/UX Design

Another thing to think about is the design of your product. Even while creating an MVP, the software product functionality and user-friendliness are critical, otherwise it can break the trust of the users. Throughout the development lifecycle, you should test User Experience resistance. However, you should not place too much emphasis on movement, graphics, and other UI aspects at first. Interface design is critical for setting your product apart from the competition and establishing your brand identity. Even so, it becomes a priority as the project progresses.

• Team Costs

The cost of software development is largely determined by the team’s location and nature. Outsourced shops in the Europe are frequently several times less expensive than same teams in the US. Your main goal is to identify if a dedicated team that can provide quality services at a reasonable price but keep good communication

Native app vs cross-platform app consultation, contact form

How to reduce software engineering team costs

Another crucial requirement is to identify a team that can provide a comprehensive set of services, including full-cycle development and maintenance to cover all software development lifecycle. It should include analysis, system design, UI/UX, development, testing, post-release maintenance. Don’t rely on temporary solutions if you want your partnership to persist and engineers to understand your product’s requirements, otherwise it could be reflected in product’s quality and additional resources would be spent to onboard a new team

• Not clear Scope of Work

You can run into issues at any level of production if you don’t have a well-managed scope of work. Poor communication and planning are frequently to blame. Another factor is extreme push due to unreasonable timelines, and as a result longer bugfix iterations due to amount of them. At the end, you face the risk of missing deadlines, which inevitably leads to an overspent budget. An insufficient number of professionals or their restricted profile might also pose problems during the workflow. A good team always has the correct balance, which is more difficult to accomplish while working on a project with independent contractors.

As a result, the contract you sign should spell out all of the obligations and make them clear to both parties. A pricing model like Time-and-Materials can help you stay on budget by giving you with information about each specialist’s working hours.

• Overcommunication or miscommunication during active phase

One of the keys to success is maintaining a regular and continuous dialogue with the development team. Miscommunication may appear small, yet it has a direct influence on project expenses. The problem may spiral out of control if you aren’t directly involved in the workflow. If you don’t have openness in your relationships with the developers’ team, you’re bound to miss deadlines and suffer additional fees. The bigger project size, the worse circumstances it might have. For e.x if there is a miscommunication during an enterprise product development which is revealed at the end of long and complex iteration that would mean wrong features and additional budgets to rework them

• Post-release maintenance Expenses

Remember that the app’s release is merely the first finish line when estimating your budget for web development, mobile engineering, or backend changes don’t forget that the software release is only the first finish line. Even after the launch, you’ll continue to work with the dedicated developers you’ve chosen. Maintenance and adding new features to your app after it is released may appear to be a long-term investment, but they should still be factored into your calculations.

Although the additional costs may not be significant, consistent expenditures in your product’s technical support are essential if you want it to continue to evolve and improve.

If you want your product to keep evolving and improving, consider to investing in technical assistance on a regular basis.

Best Software Development practices avoiding Overpayments

Now that you know what factors influence development costs, let’s look at ways to keep your budget within reasonable limits. Some of the expenditures appear to be unavoidable, and they are. However, if carefully planned and managed, each stage of production can be more meaningful, less risky, and more cost-effective.

Our suggestions for reducing the cost of software development are aimed at avoiding unnecessary expenditures rather than saving money. We are still focused on the quality of your software in any of the domain, whether it’s a native mobile app, hybrid app, backend, web, AI or other kind of custom software

• Use a Backend-as-a-Service Solutions

For those who prefer a quick, time-consuming, and efficient approach to software development, BaaS (Backend-as-a-Service) is the ideal solution as software development services. Because UI/UX design and frontend development will take up the majority of your budget, the possibility of backend integrations is extremely beneficial. F

Instead of developing your own server-side for your app or web product, consider using an existing platform that provides a ready-made system of APIs and administrative panels. All necessary backend and cloud-based services, such as file storage, database, and the entire cloud infrastructure, will be provided by BaaS providers to your app. It will also automate many processes such as push notifications, authentication, integrations with social networks, emails, and so on. A good examples might be cloud services provided by Firebase or Twillio. Also, it’s worth considering AWS lambda’s or their analogues

One of the most significant benefits of using a BaaS solution instead of building your backend from scratch is that you will save a significant amount of time, which will help reduce software development costs. A good backend system takes a significant amount of time and effort to create, especially if your app is large and requires a large database. Allow your team to concentrate on tasks that are directly related to what end users will see and consume. According to our experience, Backend-as-a-Service can save you up to 75% on development costs.

• Outsource expertise of Development Company

According to data, in-house development solutions are significantly more expensive than outsourcing. In some circumstances, the entire cost of a service in the United States or Canada may be twice or even three times greater than in South America, Europe, or Asia. To be sure, check out the chart below that shows the typical hourly wages of frontend devs in various areas. So, it appears that outsourcing software development services in the Eastern Europe is a compromising between quality and expenses in most of the cases. Consider mobile app development or web development outsourcing

Source: https://www.glassdoor.com

Ukrainian engineers well known for their expertise. Contact Ukraine Software Team

What are the Benefits of Outsourcing?

The question is why the price difference is so striking and whether it is directly related to the quality of the service. The thing is that a poor-quality service may happen in any corner of the world, as well as an excellent one. The price difference is due to other factors, such as the economic situation and the average wages.

Furthermore, outsourcing specialists are often even more qualified than in-house ones. That’s because they are used to working with various types of projects and dealing with many different industries, gaining experience in providing more diverse and complex development services. In contrast, in-house developers are more likely to work on similar projects. So if you want to build an innovative app with no analogs, outsourcing the development is often a preferable solution not only because it is more cost-efficient.

• Outsource to Reduce Development Costs

Additionally, software development outsourcing to develop apps for businesses saves money because you won’t have to recruit an entire team to deliver in-house services. When working with an onshore team, you’ll have to pay more for taxes, individual employee salaries, rent, and other expenses. Furthermore, you will squander time on pointless meetings on a regular basis. Software services outsourcing for product development increases your chances of lowering software development costs without sacrificing quality.

• Use Well-Known Technologies but not newest

Choosing the correct technological stack for your product’s backend and frontend development can be difficult because there are so many options, and each one has its own set of benefits. However, when weighing your options, determine what you need the technology for and whether it will continue to be useful in the future.

• Why Tech Stack Matters

Web frameworks, operating systems, databases, and programming languages make up a server-side development tech stack. Frameworks, UI libraries, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, React, Redux, Saga and other web development technologies are included in a frontend tech stack. The scalability, functionality, and server capability of your software will all be affected by the technology you select. Same would be fair for the backend. CloudFlex is using Python in combination with Flast and Django most of the time due to proven efficiency and compatibility with data science on the late stages of the product

In general, it plays an important part in the long-term operation of your product. It has a huge impact on the price of your web application or mobile application, not matter if it’s native or cross-platform. If you make a poor decision today, you will have to rebuild your software later and incur more fees for advanced features. Furthermore, developers work with a variety of technologies, therefore their fees vary. So, where do you make the best decision?

• Rely on the Goal

First and foremost, think about the goals and features you want your app to have. All stacks are identical in concept, but they are created differently, and not all of them will be appropriate for your applications. Different technologies, for example, are better suited to building a complex backend system so that they can be easily extended in future with various features, like business intelligence dashboards. Python is most suitable for web development and backend web development. It would also support all modern libraries to develop and maintain machine learning development services. This way clients can have machine learning development company as an addition to regular requests!

• Make a Future-proof Decision

Second, select a commonly utilized technology stack. Examine the technology that successful platforms and well-known companies employ. It’s not even about how well-known the technology is; it’s about how many developers are prepared to work with it. Some stacks appear to be efficient and appropriate for your organization, but if finding engineers to work with them is difficult, you should consider other possibilities. Furthermore, popular does not imply long-term viability. Some technology may simply become obsolete and cause future difficulties.

Python web development is not about this. It suits good both for supporting web development and pure backend development. Python development is something we can recommend. Kotlin for Android development native, Swift for the iOS development native, Flutter for cross-platform if there is a short timeline

• Test Everything!

Last, but not least – quality assurance, as in any manufacturing. It’s all about avoiding mistakes as much as possible when it comes to software cost reduction. Every problem, even if it doesn’t appear to be important, has the potential to escalate into a more serious situation, requiring a time-consuming rescue operation.

In many circumstances, time-consuming equates to a financial constraint. Mistakes are an unavoidable part of any workflow, so you and your team are bound to make some. However, you can recognize problems and eliminate them before they become a threat. How?

Everything should be tested as many times as feasible.

Here are some tips:

• As early as feasible, involve QA department to catch bugs before they go to production

• Validate the design specifications.

• Assist in the quality assurance of the code.

• Begin collaborating with QA and QC specialists as soon as possible and continue throughout the project. It will be beneficial. They can be useful to make requirements analysis and find requirement bugs before development starts

Even before the design and development stages, testing the findings should be included. Test the requirements first, as this is how you’ll find out which solutions aren’t working and how to fix them before starting the development process. Continue to verify throughout the rest of the app development process. Controlling the quality of the code is equally important and can be done manually or automatically.

Testing and QA/QC procedures have a high impact on the development costs of your product. If you don’t do it on a regular and timely basis, you risk becoming locked in a cycle of redesign and frequent changes, resulting in additional costs.

Summary

There is a number of ways how you can optimise budget on different stages of software development. That can be done event before beginning and right until the last sprint. That can save a huge amount of resources and mental health since common mistakes avoided and precious time saved. CloudFlex is happy to support your software development, reach us out to get more!