How to Price Flutter App Development?
You have a brilliant app idea that will disrupt the market. Or maybe you want to build an app to better serve your customers. Either way, if you’re looking to build a mobile app, Flutter is one of the best platforms available today.
But before you dive into development, one of the most important decisions you need to make is how much your Flutter app will cost to build and maintain. Pricing app development is part craft, part science. Get it right, and you set your project up for success. Get it wrong, and you could face budget issues down the road.
This comprehensive guide breaks down everything you need to know to price a Flutter app accurately. Let’s dive in!
Why Choose Flutter for Your App?
Before we get into pricing, it’s worth quickly reviewing why Flutter is a top choice for app development today:
- Cross-platform – Flutter compiles to native code, allowing you to build iOS and Android apps from a single codebase. This saves substantial development and maintenance costs compared to native alternatives.
- Expressive and flexible UI – Flutter’s widget-oriented framework makes building beautiful, responsive UIs easy. Animations, effects, and custom paintings are simple to construct.
- Fast development – Features like hot reload and a rich widget library help accelerate the development process. Changes are reflected instantaneously without restarting your app.
- Access to native features – Flutter’s layered architecture gives you easy access to platform-specific SDKs for capabilities like camera, geolocation, and more.
- Future-proof – Flutter is backed by Google and used internally on Google Ads and Google Pay. It has a bright future as a cross-platform solution.
Now let’s explore how to estimate, calculate, and minimize the cost of a Flutter app.
6 Steps to Price Your Flutter App Development
Pricing app development takes research, planning, and expertise. Follow these 6 key steps:
1. Define Your App’s Scope and Features
The starting point is always defining the scope. Document the following:
- What platforms will it support? iOS, Android, web, desktop?
- What features and screens will it have?
- Will it integrate with external APIs or data sources?
- Will users log in and store data in the app?
- Are there special functionalities like chat, analytics, or complex animations?
- How many total hours of development effort do you estimate are needed?
Be detailed at this stage. Every screen, feature, and platform adds hours to the project timeline, which adds cost. Prioritize any “must-have” vs “nice-to-have” items in case you need to trim scope later.
2. Choose Your Technical Stack
Flutter is incredibly flexible, with multiple technical approaches for building apps. Nailing down your technology stack early is crucial for an accurate estimate.
- Will you use Firebase, AWS, or another provider for your backend and databases?
- Do you need to build custom APIs or infrastructure beyond what FlutterFire provides?
- Which design tools and frameworks will you use? Figma, Material Design, etc.
- Does your app require machine learning, audio/video processing, or other advanced capabilities?
Solidifying your technical architecture early eliminates surprises down the road.
3. Decide on Required Expertise
App development requires an array of skills:
- Flutter coding
- UI/UX design
- Backend/API development
- DevOps and testing
- Database architecture and management
Determine what expertise you already have in-house vs. what you need to source externally. Complex apps generally require more specialized roles across this spectrum.
4. Choose In-House vs Outsourced Development
Now that you understand the app’s scope and technical needs, decide whether you want to build in-house or hire an app development agency.
In-house pros:
- Your team owns the app end-to-end
- Institutional knowledge stays within your company
In-house cons:
- Longer to hire and ramp up developers
- Need to coordinator resources across specialties
- Higher ongoing salary costs
Outsourced pros:
- Faster startup and staffing flexibility
- Access to wider breadth of expertise
- Only pay for what you need
Outsourced cons:
- External team needs ramp up time to understand your domain
- Quality varies dramatically by firm
Carefully weigh these tradeoffs for your situation. Many companies use a hybrid approach, keeping product management in-house but outsourcing engineering.
5. Research Cost Ranges
Now you’re ready to identify realistic cost ranges, which vary by:
- Location – Avg hourly rates range from $20-50/hr in Eastern Europe to $100-150+/hr in the US or Western Europe.
- Expertise – More specialized skills like AI or advanced app architecture command higher rates.
- Company size – Boutique firms usually price higher than larger studios.
- Project complexity – Apps with many integrations or non-standard UIs have higher costs.
Spend time researching typical hourly rates and price points other companies paid for similar apps to yours. This gives you a ballpark to work from.
6. Build and Refine Your Estimate
Pulling it all together, you can now build a bottoms-up estimate for your project:
- Hours: Multiply hourly rates by the hours needed per role based on the scope and features defined earlier.
- Phases: Account for discovery, design, development, QA, deployment, maintenance, and overhead.
- Fixed vs Time & Materials: Weigh pros and cons of fixed bid vs hourly pricing.
- Refine: Work iteratively with a developer to refine technical unknowns as needed.
Building in buffers and tracking against real progress is key, especially for large projects. Like any complex effort, expect changes in scope and direction.
4 Strategies for Reducing Flutter App Costs
Now that you have an initial estimate, here are some proven ways to lower costs:
1. Clarify and Simplify Scope
Challenge assumptions and eliminate any nice-to-have features or screens that aren’t core to your app’s purpose. Avoid scope creep by locking down requirements early.
2. Standardize Tech When Possible
Leverage built-in platforms like Firebase plus standard UI libraries to speed development. Custom solutions add complexity and costs.
3. Hire Specialists Strategically
Bring on targeted specialists like UI designers, backend architects, and QA engineers for just the phases where you need their expertise.
4. Phase Development and Testing
Break the project into MVP, v2.0, and beyond. Test often and release an initial version fast to validate product-market fit before investing in more advanced features.
Flutter App Cost Estimator
As a ballpark, here are typical costs to develop apps of different scopes with Flutter:
- Simple 4-5 screen CRUD app: $1,500 – $3,000+
- Medium complexity consumer app: $5,000 – $10,000+
- High complexity app with custom backend: $10,000 – $50,000+
However, you ultimately pay for the time required based on your app’s specific requirements and features.
How Long Does It Take to Build a Flutter App?
Alongside cost, businesses need an estimate of the total development timeline. Some broad time ranges:
- Simple app: 1-3 months
- Medium complexity app: 3-6 months
- Complex enterprise app: 6-12+ months
However, you can release an early version much faster by adopting an agile approach focused on your riskiest assumptions first.
Choose Your Flutter App Development Partner Wisely
While Flutter’s accessibility and flexibility makes its ecosystem diverse, quality can vary dramatically. When evaluating partners:
- Review apps they’ve built similar to yours. Is their craftsmanship excellent?
- Talk to their clients. Ask for references you can call to verify satisfaction.
- Look for obsessive ownership. Great teams act like part of your business and pour their energy into quality.
- Prioritize transparency. Ensure pricing and planning are clear upfront.
Finding the right partner helps ensure your vision translates flawlessly into a beautiful, scalable app.
Bring Your Mobile App Vision to Life with Flutter
Flutter unleashes the potential to affordably build stunning mobile experiences on both iOS and Android from a single codebase.
By accurately estimating effort and cost, phasing development, and working with specialized experts, you can make building with Flutter highly capital efficient.
If you have an app idea that will delight customers, grow your business, or disrupt an industry, the time is now to bring it to life with Flutter. With the right planning and partnership, you can confidently build, launch, and scale a successful mobile app experience.
