How Much Can I Make From A Mobile App?

3 min read
Feb 20, 2019

Some mobile apps earn millions of dollars for their owners, but many others earn very little or even nothing at all. Working out how much you can make from an app can, therefore, be tricky. Here are a few tips for answering the question “how much money can you make from an app?” and predicting the return on investment of your app.

How Much Can an App Make Based on the Platform You Are Working With?

Are you planning to launch your app on Android, iOS or another mobile platform? This decision can have a huge impact on how much money an app can make. Although the Android platform has many more users, the top Apple developers actually earn greater mobile app revenue from their apps. More than 25 percent of iPhone developers earn at least £5,000 per month from their apps, compared to just 16 percent of Android developers.

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Launching your app on the Blackberry or Windows mobile platforms is rarely a good idea if you’re hoping to make big bucks. Both these platforms have much smaller user bases, which limits the market for your app. Although you may want to expand into these markets, later on, most app developers choose to launch first in the Android or Apple App Store.

 

How Much Can You Make From an App Depends on the Kind of App You Are Developing

Certain types of apps generate more revenue than others. How much money can an app make? Well, many of the highest-grossing apps are games, with Pokemon Go, Mobile Strike and Candy Crush Saga topping the Android charts in 2016. These games attract huge numbers of users, who pay to access features within the game, such as extra levels, equipment or lives.

If you’re not a game developer, however, there are opportunities to earn a lot of mobile app revenue through other types of apps. How can an app like this make money? For example, if you have an existing e-commerce business, a mobile app may allow your mobile customers to shop more conveniently, which could increase their overall spending in your online store.

Some mobile apps earn millions of dollars for their owners. 

 
Some mobile apps earn millions of dollars for their owners.Click To Tweet

Another option that’s an alternative to making money off free apps is to develop an app that people find so useful that they are prepared to pay a few dollars to download it. Many developers of these kinds of apps produce a basic free version of the app so users can see what it is like and then ask them to upgrade to the paid version to access certain features. Alternatively, you can still maximize how much money you can make from an app even if it’s free by showing ads, but be careful with this approach — many users find ads irritating if they are too intrusive. Don’t get too sucked into the allure of Android or iOS app advertising revenue. Though this is a good option for making money off free apps, it must be done carefully, while always keeping the user experience in mind.

Pricing Your Product to Maximize Mobile App Revenue

Setting the price point for your apps and in-game purchases can be tricky. For many apps, experimentation is the key to success for maximizing how much money an app can make. If you launch your premium app with a price of £4.99 and get very few downloads, try reducing it by a dollar to see whether that helps. You’ll need to carefully track numbers of downloads and mobile app revenue to see where the sweet spot is. Alternatively, you could offer your app at a discount for a limited period to build up a large user base and plenty of five-star reviews before increasing the price to a level that allows you to make money.

Quality Counts When Considering How Much Money Does it Take to Make an App

If you want to earn money from your app, you must focus on creating a professional-quality product. Users often forgive bugs in free apps, but releasing a premium app that doesn’t work properly is likely to lead to complaints, negative reviews and users demanding their money back. Weighing the costs of how much to have an app made means considering the effects of a poorly-developed product. It can not only impact your reputation but also affect how much you can make from an app. For help creating a high-quality app that wows your users, Talk To Us today with our team of professional app developers.

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