Working with mobile application development services: your biggest questions answered

At Cheesecake Labs, we’re not just in the business of building delightful digital experiences. We’re also a partner to our clients and we make it our goal to help them achieve theirs.

To help achieve their goals, we might provide scale and velocity as a dedicated team or help bring a new mobile app to life via full project delivery.

In either case, a successful mobile application project starts with a series of questions:

• What are your business goals?
• What problem are you looking to solve?
• What have you achieved thus far in your process?
• What’s your budget?
• Who do you think your competitors are?
• Etc…

Clients typically ask questions of us, too, and that’s why we’ve put together this post.

Below are the most commonly asked questions about mobile application development services — and how we answer them.

Table of contents:

• What are mobile application development services?
• How much do your mobile application development services cost?
• How long will it take to get my mobile app to market?
• What can you expect from working with a mobile app development company like Cheesecake Labs?

What are mobile application development services?

When you want to build a new mobile app or optimize an existing one, then you’ll want to call in the help of a mobile application development partner. 

The services of a mobile application development company can be broken down into four key areas: product definition or discovery, product design, product development (i.e. engineering), and product optimization.

Some development services will specialize in mobile apps, while others may have the expertise required to build both mobile and web-based experiences. 

Mobile apps have soared in popularity in recent years. 88 billion apps were downloaded in 2021, but it’s not just ‘download’ figures that matter.

Once a user has downloaded your app, the very best way to keep them as an ‘active user’ is to deliver an exceptional and valuable mobile app experience.

Your mobile application development partner should help you create that experience — and help you decide which type of mobile app makes the most sense for your business.

The two main types of mobile applications you’ll want to be aware of are:

• Native apps: These are mobile apps developed specifically for a particular device, e.g. Apple iOS or Google Android.
  
  Native apps have the potential to be more customized and feature-rich but can be more expensive to build.
  
• Cross-platform or hybrid apps: If you want to launch the same mobile app for both iOS and Android, then you’ll need to utilize cross-platform development techniques.
  
  A hybrid app is often faster and more cost-effective to build than a native app, but it can be more limited in its functionality.

Find out more about the pros and cons of native vs hybrid mobile application development here.

How much do your mobile application development services cost?

When it comes to the cost of mobile application development, the only answer that’s right all of the time is: it depends. 

And it depends on a lot of factors. 

As mentioned above, there are two ways that the team here at Cheesecake Labs partners with its clients: for “full product delivery” or as a “dedicated team.” 

• Full product delivery is when we undergo the entire four-phase app development process with you. That means starting from scratch, defining your product, building and prototyping it, and ultimately, launching it to market. In some cases, you may have done phase 1 already and in that case, we can move right into phase 2, design.
  
• When you work with a dedicated team, however, we’ll partner with you on the specific development stages you need to make your app a reality.
  
  This way, as we are an extension of your team, you get insights and experience into how to solve problems and meet the needs of your users, while making use of the app designs, or other assets, you’ve already produced to date.

Here at Cheesecake Labs, you can expect to invest between $150,000 and $300,000 for a mobile app MVP if you go with our full product delivery option.

The range depends on the simplicity or complexity, depth of features and functionality, and ultimately team size.

If you instead opt to work with a dedicated team for engineering services, then the monthly price typically starts around $37,500 and goes from there depending on the size of the team you need. 

Even within these options, the total cost of our mobile app development services can differ depending on your requirements. 

The only way to know how much your mobile app could cost is to contact us and ask.

From there, we can discuss the types of technologies you want to implement, features that you want to experiment with, your must-haves and your wishes, and ultimately, what the final experience will be for your users.

We can weigh up the merits of custom mobile app development vs white-label solutions, honestly and openly.

It’s worth considering the soft costs, too

When looking into the cost of app development services, you’ll want to consider the soft costs, too.

These are costs that are not directly related to the initial development of the app but can still have a (huge) impact on your bottom line. 

This is where the conversation of custom apps vs white-label becomes all the more important — if you use an off-the-shelf, white-label template, then you’ll likely run into additional costs or complexity when it comes to updating your app, fixing bugs, adding new features, working on the app maintenance and so on. 

The total cost — both hard and soft — of your mobile app development also depends on the standard of mobile application development service you opt for.

If you choose to offshore your app to a less experienced team, for example, then there’s a good chance the process will end up taking longer and potentially come with more challenges and issues for you to solve.

So while the upfront cost might be lower, the soft costs may add up to more than you expected.  

Think about the time, frustration, and anxiety caused in the process. 

How long will it take to get my mobile app to market?

When discussing how long it will take to launch a mobile app, this answer also varies. It depends on the complexity of the app and the resources required to build it.

If you’re involved with a reliable and transparent application development service, like what we offer here at Cheesecake Labs, you can usually get an estimated timeline based on the team’s experience and capabilities, plus what you’re looking to develop. 

That timeline and roadmap can start to be defined as soon as conversations take place.

The only thing we can tell you upfront, though, is that we’ll never rush through any stage of the process.

Our team follows tried-and-tested techniques and workflows to streamline the process and avoid wasted time. But our expert app creators aren’t going to cut corners. 

Cheesecake Labs also provides you with a project manager who will work closely with you to keep you aware of how long each stage is expected to take, budget tracking, blockers, etc.

Our goal is always to bring you to market as quickly as we can, just not at the cost of building you a great mobile app. 

What can you expect from working with a mobile app development company like Cheesecake Labs?

We know we’re not the cheapest upfront option for mobile app development — and we don’t want to be either.

You can always build your own team of offshore designers and developers or even use a white-label app instead.

These may end up saving you money if the soft costs don’t catch up with you. 

But what you get when working with us is peace of mind and true partnership. Cheesecake Labs has close to 10 years of experience, has built 300+ products, and is a Clutch top 15 mobile app developer. 

We strive to be one of the best mobile app development services available to businesses just like yours. And our track record shows that we’ve reached that goal. 

If you’re looking for evidence of our successes, look no further than our case studies from past clients.

These are all clients whose needs we were able to achieve and they all had successful app launches. If you’d like to count yourself among them, reach out to our team of designers and developers today.

We’ll help you get a better understanding of the time and financial investment required to make your mobile app a hit.

FAQ about mobile application development services: