Factors that Govern the Cost of Mobile App Development for Education

Evolution of Education Industry Over the Past Couple of Years

The education industry has been completely disrupted in the last couple of years due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. Schools and educational institutions have switched from traditional blackboard learning to online learning with e-learning platforms. But if you look at the various types of use cases of educational mobile apps, you would find that gone are the days when education apps were used as platforms to connect students, teachers, and parents. 

Every aspect of the education industry has been digitized, such as apps for examinations, attendance, progress and course sharing, live-streaming apps, admissions and qualifications, staff management apps, and many others. With the rising demand, educational institutes have also diversified in terms of the purpose and nature of the educational applications. Many such institutes have created a digital ecosystem of integrated applications and made their entire operations digital. 

How to Determine the Cost of an Education Mobile App?

So, if we were to determine the cost of mobile app development for education, there are many factors that must be taken into consideration. Even if the purpose of the application is the same, one cannot compare the cost of two applications as each educational institute has a different set of hierarchies, defined roles, organizational culture, work processes, and other such things. Thus, there cannot be one standard cost even for the education mobile app that is of the same purpose and nature as the other. You must get a personalized quote based on your organization’s goals and your app requirements. 

While your quote must be personalized, there are certain factors you must know before you ask for an individual quotation from mobile app development companies. These factors affect the cost of education app development. If you know about them beforehand, you will be able to make an informed decision regarding the functionalities of your app and the app’s development budget.

10 Integral Factors That Govern the Cost of Mobile App Development for Education

1. Development Technology

Certain technology platforms have a higher preliminary cost but they are futuristic platforms and will ensure that your application doesn’t become obsolete in the future. For instance, as Adobe Flash shuts down, the web-based e-learning applications that were running on it had to migrate to HTML 5 to save their platform from becoming obsolete. So, if you choose the right development platform, you could save your application from being obsolete and save the cost of new development in the future.  

2. Launch Platforms

Whether you wish to make a Progressive Web App that runs on both web and mobile devices but cannot be deployed on App Store and Play Store or you wish to deploy your app on App Store and Play Store with native development, the cost of the application will be affected significantly. If you are to make a decision, ensure that you understand your audience well, if your app is targeted for internal use and a defined target audience, you can choose PWA or Cross-app development. But, if your app is for an open market, then you must opt for native development.  

3. Live Presentation, Animation, and Streaming Capabilities

Animation and presentation take a lot of effort and time to design. Apart from that, if you want to live stream your class with students from your application; that also adds to the cost of the application. Animation and live presentations are a great addition to ensure that you provide an immersive learning experience to your students, but the more the data, the higher the cost. So, to ensure that your cost of development is checked, plan your data and syllabus and prioritize material that needs animation and material that doesn’t. 

4. Custom App Functionality Requirements

While there are a lot of functionalities that are standard in an education app, every organization has some special requirements, and each of these custom requirements can affect your cost of development. If you have an ideal mobile app development partner, they can help you understand your technical requirements clearly and will also provide you a detailed bifurcation as to what will each customization cost so that you can make an informed decision. 

Pro-tip: Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with all the essential functionalities and integrate additional functionalities later in the software and version updates. 

5. Third-Party Integrations

As discussed earlier, many institutions want to make their mobile applications a part of their digital ecosystem. Similarly, individual mobile apps also use third-party integrations for different purposes such as calendar, payment, animation, and each of these third-party integrations can add to the cost of development. While these integrations make the app an all-inclusive platform, make sure that you do not make the mobile app cluttered with functionalities. This will confuse the users and make the app's usability complex. 

6. Cloud Integration

For effective file sharing and streaming over the internet, you must integrate your mobile app with a cloud platform. When we talk about cloud platforms, there are many renowned platforms such as DropBox, Google Cloud, Microsoft Office Online that have been used by various education apps and each of these platforms has different pricing and packages base on functionalities. Thus, your choice of cloud platform and its functionalities will affect your cost of development.   

7. Location of Development Partner

Education App Development service providers are available globally. But, the cost of development will vary based on the location of the development. So, when you choose your mobile app development service provider, make sure that they fit your budget, and they also have relevant domain experience for quality purposes.

8. Analytics and Reporting Requirements

While most of the e-learning mobile apps will have certain standard reports integrated into them, most of the education institutes have dynamic report requirements. This is a project on its own, and it costs additional to the cost of the application development. Also, when you opt for dynamic reporting, it all boils down to the number of factors that are to be recorded and not the number of reports.

9. Gamification Requirements

Gamification has become a recent trend in mobile apps for education. There are many institutes and open market applications that use the gamification methods such as leader boards, tests, and quizzes, and other such methods to increase the engagement of users of the application and to make the learning process fun and competitive. These are again considered as custom requirements, and they add to the cost of development.

10. Course Material and Syllabus Data

Data digitalization and data migration are separate services provided by IT service providers, and many such organizations are solely surviving on these services! So, if you are making a transition from blackboard learning to e-learning, you will have to consider the cost of course material and syllabus data digitalization and integration.

It Is All About Making Your Education App Sustainable and Futuristic

There are many ways to save the cost of development such as breaking the application development into phases, planning and prioritizing things based on their importance, and others. But, cutting corners and choosing outdated technology platforms are not advisable. They are the same as cutting corners currently and paying later. 

Understand that cost of problems found at Unit Testing is significantly lower than that of errors found after the app is launched. So, consider this cost as an investment and make sure you choose the right education mobile app development partner to make informed decisions.