How Much Does a React Native App Cost and What Affects the Price

It can take a lot of time and money to create a high-quality app for each of the major mobile platforms (Android and iOS), so cross-platform development is a smart way to increase your reach while also saving you time and money. In this article, we’ll break down how much does a React Native app cost, and highlight what affects the price.

What is React Native?

This is a JavaScript framework developed by Facebook for building apps for mobile platforms. The React Native framework uses React’s component-based approach. When pitting React Native vs React JS, the former has a similar design with the latter to create reusable UI components. Thus, it is much less demanding to build great-looking and responsive mobile apps using familiar React patterns and concepts.

By building on top of the prior existing React framework, it allows developers to reuse large parts of the program they have already written for web app development. It was originally developed by Facebook engineers to enable fast prototyping of new products as well as features upgrade, and it is now a popular framework for mobile application development.

The total cost of React Native app development in-house can be a lot, especially when it comes to the resources the team needs to deliver. However, it is a cross-platform framework. So, it allows developers to build a single app for both iOS and Android using JavaScript code that is shared by both platforms.

Why to Choose React Native for Your App Development

Pinterest, Skype, Discord, Walmart, and Bloomberg: these are a few of the non-Facebook apps that were developed via this framework. Surely, the organizations behind all these apps must know something that we don’t. So, what could that be? While not diving fully into React Native pros and cons. This section analyses various reasons for picking out React Native for app development.

Performance

The apps are renowned for their high-class execution. The ability to replicate the native experience is one of its best features since this preserves the seamless performance of the app. In fact, in several instances, apps in this framework even beat natively-developed apps in performance. In addition, they leverage GPUs (graphics processing units) to supercharge performance.

Community-Driven

Here, we have an open-source, community-driven framework. Therefore, developers can access relevant documentation easily and on-demand. This collaborative experience makes it easy to find help on a project when stuck. Besides the official channels, there are various conferences and events held round the clock. For your company, the large community means that it is easier to find developers and top-rated ones.

Of course, you can either do that or go the easier way by reaching out to an outstaffing agency.

Flexibility

The framework allows for increased flexibility between team members. The code is reusable; therefore, any developer can take off from where someone else stopped. Not only can one do that, but a team member can also use someone else’s code to build an app for a different platform. This code reusability and flexibility allows for smooth progression between professionals working on a project.

More so, there is no need to begin over if you decide to move your program to another framework. Exporting the app code to Android Studio, for instance, does the trick. This enables the possibility to upgrade and add features without fully rewriting your app or web solution, as well as helps save time and money on adding new features and connect with different services via API to exchange data quickly.

Streamlined User Experience

One example of a streamlined user-friendly experience is when you have to publish app updates after deployment. If the code differs for each mobile platform, publishing updates might take longer because of the programming process. Moreover, it would result in different experiences for the users of each platform.

However, updating apps built on a single codebase ensures a more unified user experience. Ultimately, a seamless user experience means that users derive value from your product; this results in business growth as it widens the user base.

How Much Does a React Native App Cost: What Affects the Price?

App Complexity and features

Essentially, the higher the number of features your app has, the more complex it is, and that complexity increases the React Native app development cost, while low complexity does vice versa. This is perhaps the highest deciding factor in app development, therefore, it cannot be underrated!

In building your app, you should consider basic features that don’t cost much or are the same with different frameworks, API integration, geolocation and some other additional features that can change the budget of app development. How greatly it can vary, please check our table.

Features	Average Cost
API Integrations	About $5,000 per integration
Geolocation	About $20,000
IoT integration	About $30,000 per integration
E-commerce	About $10,000
Login	About $2,000
Messaging	About $7,000
Admin panel	About $4,000
Streaming	About $5,000

App Design

To calculate the React Native cost of app development, one must acknowledge the design costs too. Prototyping and design are two important stages that, on the one hand, increase costs, and on the other hand, give a developer clear direction. That’s why saving money on these stages can bring extra costs to the development stages.

Developer skills and experience

Of course, in estimating the cost, developer charges are never fixed. They are always based on the skills and level of experience of the developer, as you can tell through React Native interview questions. If your project is so complex that it depends on the input of multiple senior developers and engineers, such as fintech apps, ecommerce apps, or apps that have a lot of APIs integrations, then you should be ready for very steep costs.

However, most projects would only require a senior engineer, while others on the team could be mid-level developers. Junior developers can be useful on the team, too, to help with routine tasks. Thankfully, with this framework, you only require one team to build the app for various platforms.

ProCoders can help you determine if your product requires junior, middle, or senior developers. Other native development technologies would require separate teams, driving the price higher.

Development location

Anyone with some familiarity with the tech ecosystem would have realized that React Native developers cost varies by location. Per hour, it is cheaper to hire a Ukrainian developer than an American Developer. Similarly, it is cheaper to hire React Native developers from India than from Germany (you can read more about the cost to hire an app developer in our blog). Is this a reflection of the quality of the developers? Not at all.

In fact, Ukraine, for instance, has one of the most thriving tech ecosystems in Europe. Instead, what you will find is that in places where the cost of living is low, developers charge less too. Therefore, you can save costs by hiring developers from those low cost locations.

Maintenance

Development does not just come to an abrupt end once the project is shipped and distributed. Instead, most apps still require ongoing support. To really know how much does React Native cost, you might understand factors in the amount of money required for this continued maintenance in the project budget. App maintenance expenses cover future design changes, regular app updates, bug fixes, and so on.

Choosing the right team can influence the maintenance process; for instance, at ProCoders, we provide ongoing support for projects we execute. That ensures that the apps are constantly being updated for quality and security. It all leads to making it more responsive to user needs and requirements, even after the core development process has been concluded.

Aspects Reducing the App Development Cost

Outstaffing

In the previous section, we explained how the development location can affect the React Native Developer salary. Many companies can drastically reduce the cost to build a React Native app if they consider React Native outsourcing or outstaffing to offshore locations. Countries such as Ukraine, India, and Mexico are top destinations for cheap React Native development cost, or any other framework, in fact.

Moreover, the developers in this country are highly skilled; the development costs are only lower because the cost of living is not so high too. The same applies to not just countries but also different regions. For example, it is more affordable to hire from Asia and Western Europe than North America.

Countries	Average Annual Salary
United States	$88,252
Germany	$79,267
Mexico	$22,693
India	$8,316
Ukraine	$70,560

Cross-platform development

One of the selling points is that it enables you to develop an app across different operating systems from a single codebase. The main idea behind the technology is to allow companies to save money on labor costs when developing an app. It can cut labor costs roughly in half since it allows the same team to simultaneously develop an app on iOS and Android.

Platforms	Annual Average Salary
Xcode	$98,793
Swift	$102,850
Ionic	$108,857
Xamarin	$117,783
React Native	$88,252

Reusable Code

The framework does not only allow you to build apps for Google Play and iOS app store from a single codebase. After all, it is built on the React framework, meaning that if a company already has a web app built in React, it only takes a few lines of code to transform the same into a fully functional mobile-centric app. Therefore, developers are able to develop the core application code once, and it can be reused, web or mobile or even IoT apps.

Aspects Increasing the App Development Cost

Authentication and security features

Security is a serious business, especially in this internet-saturated age. If you are building an app that will collect sensitive user data, you will definitely spend extra to ensure that the highest standards of security are implemented. The higher the level of user authorization required, the higher the cost. APIs from platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple ID, and so on can help you integrate authentication features into your app.

In-app purchases

Most companies make money from apps by enabling in-app purchase. However, that also means you would spend more to build the app. Integrating payment systems into an app requires some complexity, which will increase the React Native pricing. Examples of popular APIs for managing in-app purchases include PayPal, Square, Stripe, Skrill, Venmo, etc.

Integrations

Every third-party integration easily means you will spend extra costs on building the app. The complexity increases when the range of integrations or add-ons require legacy systems. Examples of app integrations include Google Maps navigation tracking, Facebook API for user sign-up, Skyscanner API for flight information, etc.

Is React Native Cost-Effective?

It is hard to deny that it is a powerful framework that can help you develop great mobile apps quickly, with high performance and lower expenses compared with the others. However, it needs to be carefully evaluated to determine whether it’s right for your project.

There are several points why developers consider the framework for their mobile app development needs. An important reason is its cost-effectiveness, as explained already. So, the answer to the question above is yes, React native is cost-effective. That is also true when you compare Flutter vs. React Native or other platforms.

Save Costs and Build Your App with ProCoders

We have a skilled team of developers who have built a number of applications and have helped other companies too. With ProCoders’ React Native App Development Services, you are guaranteed high-quality code and fast execution. With our developer license, we have worked with such companies as Roth River, SDCN, Dryft, Frontegg, and so on.

Are you looking for an expert React Native development team to build your app? ProCoders is the preferred choice of top companies – SMBs, startups, entrepreneurs, innovators, etc. We deliver high-quality products to our customers that help them achieve their goals.

We develop end-to-end solutions including mobile applications, websites, and enterprise software whether frontend or backend development. Our React Native App Development team is capable of building highly customized native mobile apps using cutting-edge tools and technologies.

Our projects also demonstrate versatility. For instance, we were able to develop a business intelligence IoT app for Roth River, a bourbon company, with Reach Native as part of the core tech stack. The mobile app is cross-platform (iOS and Android) and layered on the web application. In essence, the app enabled us to connect sensors on barrels to app information on whiskey maturation.

It also allowed customers to customize their order and monitor it in real-time. Due to the skill and expertise of ProCoders developers, we helped Roth River to stand out as an innovator in distilling, accelerating beta-to-trial times by 40% and cutting down the React Native app price by 50%.

Conclusion

At ProCoders, we’ve worked on many projects, so we wanted to share our experience of React Native development costs and what affects the price. In our experience, building apps using cross-platform mobile frameworks such as React Native offers a far more efficient production process than native development.

Besides, the choice of React Native for Roth River’s mobile application was an easy one considering that the Barrel Management System’s (BMS) website was built with the ReactJS library on the frontend. Both technologies are owned by Facebook; so, the code is reusable. The result was saving Roth River 30% in onboarding efforts, accelerating development time by 25% and reducing development costs by half.

In our assessment too, mobile applications built with React Native performed very well when it comes to the visual aspects: animations, graphs, statistics, etc. In building the Roth River app, the other option was Ionic, but its visual design was not nearly as flawless as React Native’s.

These are the kinds of advantages you get when you hire an outstaffing company to handle your app development progress. Because we have direct experience building functional apps for clients with affordable React Native pricing, we can walk you through the development process, helping you make the right decisions to save time, money, and efforts. Contact ProCoders today to have top-rated developers execute your project.