How Much Does It Cost To Build a Mobile App for Events?

So you are here, which means that you want to create an event app or at least think about it. If you are a frequent attendee of different events, most likely you cannot imagine such events without an event mobile app. In the digital age that we are living where almost all of us have smartphones at their disposal, serverless single page app development lets having all the necessary useful information in a single app is more useful than to carry a stack of paper leaflets with you all the time.

In this post, we will focus on the event mobile app development highlighting the stages and cost of projects like this. Still don’t think we will be talking hypothetically. We will take the real case of an event app request we received to provide an example of what it would average cost of app development.

Building Apps for Event Management

So you are the one planning to run an event and would like to join the club of those who offer their attendees useful mobile apps instead of common printed materials such as flyers. We will help you build a mobile app that will both be a good assistant to your event attendees and become your advertising agent.

There are plenty of apps for event management out there on the market and all of them look similar having differences in the set of functionality they offer to the event attendees and the design. However, you will need to learn about their major differences in order to get everything done the way you want it to. First of all, you will have to learn about how much does it cost to produce an app. Now, it is a rather tricky thing to learn as it depends on many factors. One of those is how many features you want your future app to have. Depending on that you will decide what kind of team you will have working on your project, how skilled your developers should be, and how many of them will be there after all. The minimum necessary features include having the list of speakers, event agenda, and branding capabilities. This is not all an app can offer to you, but this is the required minimum that you can’t live without. Otherwise, an app that you create will be useless to attendees and will not bring anything to you.

This way, having learned and decided all that, you will get an approximate cost to produce a mobile app for your business. As any business owner out there you are probably now wondering how to reduce your development expenses. Surely there is an easy way to do that and it is called outsourcing. By delegating the developing process to an outer contractor you get the chance to cut the cost and even more – find a team of developers that will be the best fit for your project. Take a look at Eastern European countries, they are well known for their excellent specialists.

Event Calendar mobile app development project by Mobilunity

Based on our experience of making Event Calendar mobile app, customers usually see some products they like and want to replicate it. The idea to make your own event mobile app comes after taking part in an event that offers a really good looking and functional app making it easier for you to manage that avalanche of information.

Our client planned to run a business forum for startup companies. Each company should present their business idea for other event attendees to discuss it and evaluate. Thus, our client considered the following set of functionality will be needed in his event mobile app:

• Information about the event
• The list of speakers
• Event schedule
• Newsfeed
• Report briefs
• Event location maps
• Venue interactive maps
• Event sponsors
• Favorites
• Ratings
• Social media integration

Example of UX for event mobile app

Depending on the needs and budget, event mobile apps may also include messaging capabilities allowing participants to communicate to each other and speakers, polls providing speakers and event organizers with the ability to ask attendees questions and get their immediate feedback, etc.

Estimation of Event Mobile App Development

Depending on the technological decision, if you choose native event mobile development for, let’s say, Android platform, development efforts to make mobile app will take approximately 122-170 hours. In the end that might be quite pricey for you, especially if your project is aiming to be a rather complex one. After finding out how much does it cost to develop an app in their home country, most business owners are starting to look for other options such as outsourcing. This is a great chance to significantly reduce expenses and find the perfect team for one’s project. A great idea would be to start the pre-development process with an in-house team and later pass everything on to an outsourced team. The efforts to build native iOS mobile app would have comparatively the same estimates. If you choose the ReactNative technology, the cost for both Android and iOS apps would be in the range of 145-203 hours. This technology allows us to make a mobile app having a single source and then compile Android and iOS versions from that source.

However, this kind of app should necessarily have the backend that supports app functionality. This was not included in the mobile app estimates provided earlier. Backend will most likely be developed using PHP programming language and MySQL database server used for storing data. The estimate for this kind of work is bouncing between 66 and 96 hours.

Looks like we are done, but hold on – you forgot about testing your future event mobile app. You would hardly like if the app would fail on your attendees’ devices after you paid for its development. Quality Assurance should mandatorily be one of the stages of your app development cycle.

There are two ways to provide testing estimates for your piece of software:

• Estimate testing each feature
• Estimate QA efforts as percentage of time compared to development efforts

Since we have not started the development for our client yet and are awaiting the detailed requirements, we cannot provide estimations on the feature basis. Taking into account we only have a set of features that the client wants to see in the app, we can provide ballpark estimates only. We assume that at this stage QA will take 30-40% of the development time.

Thus, the resulting estimations for an event mobile app development would be:

• Backend development: 66-96 hours
• Mobile app development (native, for one platform): 122-170 hours (should be doubled to cover the second platform)
• Mobile app development (ReactNative, for two platforms): 145-203 hours
• QA Backend: 20-40 hours
• QA Mobile app (native, one platform): 37-68 hours (should be doubled to cover the second platform)
• QA Mobile app (ReactNative, two platforms): 73-102 hours

Custom Event Management App Development

Every major gathering with a high number of attendees has a mobile app created specifically for this event or event series if it is a recurring event happening with some periodicity.

This is very convenient and that is why the development of such applications is in high demand these days. What everyone is interested in though is how much does it cost to develop a mobile app like that? Answering to that question would depend on many things, for example, the complexity of the design or how many people will be in the development team. However, do not get scared away too quickly as you can always outsource a task like that and save yourself some money.

We will not name any as those cannot be reused for other events like the one you plan to run. However, as we noted previously, all of them may look similar in structure as the clearly defined list of functionality exists for the mobile apps of a kind.

What we would like to note before you make your decision is that to create a good app for event management, you need to have a clear vision of what you will need in the app, how you would like it to be designed, and look like. If you are ready, we are here ready to help you make the event mobile app just for you.

Mobilunity possessing expertise in both native and hybrid mobile app development offers its qualified team of specialists to create app for event management as well as Android app security or cloud application development and other services. The great part about this company is its low and transparent prices. So when you ask about how much money does it cost to develop an app – you will receive a clear and honest answer. More than that, Mobilunity will be glad to present you with the best possible specialists with amazing skills. You will be able to choose from several candidates and pick the one who will be a perfect fit for your project. Finally, you can always count on 24/7 customer support and all your questions being answered at any time of the day or night.

We also do outstaffing, so if you need a remote dedicated mobile app developer for your project, we are ready to provide you with the team members that you need. To accurately estimate the cost of building a mobile app for events, consider the expertise of mobile app developers for hire, as their proficiency in modern app development technologies will significantly influence the project’s scope and budget. To get a precise estimate for building a mobile app for events, it’s essential to hire Kotlin developers, whose expertise in developing high-performance, modern Android apps can directly impact the overall cost and quality of your project.

Get Your Dedicated App Development Team With Mobilunity

When it comes to hiring an IT workforce in a foreign country, it’s important to find a local IT services provider with a proven track record of successful collaborations and extensive experience working on the global market. Luckily, Mobilunity has got it all. We have many successful cases with app development:

With 10+ years of operating with companies of different sizes all over the world, we at Mobilunity mastered the sourcing, hiring, and management methodology that allows us to meet the needs of every business and provide the high-quality solutions you deserve. Our clients note our dedicated approach to work and attention to detail, and we are happy to work with 40+ companies around the globe, including a Danish trading platform Byg-E and a Canada-based social media management agency ICUC.

Should you need a single developer skilled in a specific field or a dedicated team of versatile IT experts, you can rely on Mobilunity in finding the right IT professionals for your business and providing you with the top-level services needed. Get in touch with our representatives, and let us help you build a high-end IT solution for your project.

Contact our sales team today to have our team build a mobile app for you!

Written by:

Anastasia Stefanuk

Market Researcher

Disclaimer: All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.