San Diego In-House Development for Custom Software, Design, and Mobile

For a lot of tech companies in southern California, San Diego in-house development seems like a great idea. Apps built by even tiny agencies with only two to three people can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000. Why wouldn’t companies try to avoid this cost by developing their apps in-house? App development is expensive no matter what you do, though, and companies that try to create apps on their own learn that the hard way. There are a lot of hidden app development costs that eat away at what companies would have saved by working on the app in-house. Read on for the top five.

1. Building An App On Multiple Platforms
If you’ve never designed an app before, there’s one big mistake that you’re likely to make — designing an app for one platform at a time. Because different platforms have different programming languages and coding needs, what works for one will create gibberish on the other. Imagine spending ages creating the perfect iPhone app, only to realize you have to start all over again to offer your app for Android. Suddenly, the development cost just doubled.

2. Burden Rate
If you design your app in-house, your labor costs will be much cheaper, right? Well…no. This is because of what we call the burden rate, AKA the costs associated with employees other than their monthly paychecks. This can include things like their paid time off, travel expenses, and healthcare costs. If you calculate savings based on the payroll costs alone, you’re ignoring the true costs of employing each person on your team.

3. Equipment And Operating Costs
Another thing that’s easy for people to forget is the extra expense of buying the equipment. Once you have your in-house team in place, you still need to make sure that they have the tools they need to create a really great product. That could include new computers, new software, registration fees, and more. These costs quickly add up.

4. Marketing Costs
Once you’ve designed your app, how are you going to get the word out? There’s no point in an app without users, so you’ll have to work on marketing the app, too. This project will need its own budget, so your usual marketing costs will escalate. Depending on how big you want this app to be, you could find yourself spending an additional $10,000 on marketing your new product.

5. Troubleshooting

When it comes to troubleshooting, the true costs come from skipping this step altogether. The last thing you want is for your first users to find all of the bugs and issues you should have found by troubleshooting it ahead of time. If this happens, you risk losing people, getting negative reviews, and spending additional money to quickly fix the problems that have been uncovered.

Find A Great Alternative To San Diego In-House Development

The costs of San Diego in-house development can add up pretty quickly. Don’t worry, though — this isn’t your only option. Work with a software development company you can trust to tell you all of the costs up front and deliver a high-quality product. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help.