Medical technology is constantly evolving, and one of the primary directions it is heading in is mobile applications. But how much does a medical app cost, and what should you expect to pay for a good one?
The cost of developing a medical app depends entirely on its intended function. If it is only meant to allow patients to book appointments and see reports, it can be as low as $12,000. HOWEVER, if AI and IoT are integrated into the systems, it can be as high as $150,000.
To understand the costs, we’re going to have to understand different factors behind the development of the apps – as there is no one set price for an app, but rather, many other elements behind the development costs – which we will go through below.
Cost Of Development Per Country
There is no getting around this one; the costs of developing the app will rely heavily on which country you intend to run it in and where in the world it is designed. Reportedly, the developers’ rates per hour vary wildly depending on where they’re from. From lowest to highest, the reported rates are:
- Asia: between $10 and $50 per hour.
- Southern America: between $15 and $175 per hour
- Eastern Europe: between $20 and $100 per hour.
- Australia: between $40 to $170 per hour
- Western Europe: between $50 to $200 per hour.
- Northern America: between $100 to $150 per hour
So, one of the most significant factors in developing an app before you even get to the coding is which country you choose to build in, but that isn’t the only country-related cost.
Cost Of Security Per Country
The cost of security for your app also varies per country. Medical information is susceptible by its nature, and each country has different laws to protect it.
That also means that the levels of security will need to be different in each country, and depending on which countries you plan to release your app in, you will need to be compliant with other laws. Some of these include:
- HIPPA in the United States
- PIPEDA in Canada
- DPA in the United Kingdom
- GDPR in the European Union
- PIPA in Japan
And many more. Adding to that, if you plan to make your app globally accessible, the app will need to be compliant with all the laws in every country you plan to release it in, which ups the cost of security. After all, security may be expensive, but it is far cheaper than the lawsuits you’ll be facing if a large number of users’ medical information gets leaked.
Cost Of Functionality
So, you’ve decided where your app will be developed and where it will be released. The following cost to consider is its functionality; what will the app do? As mentioned before, the intended function of the app will be the biggest decider on how much it is going to cost to launch.
We recommend a business analyst break down the costs of your individual needs to give you a clearer vision of what you need from your app. The price of an app’s functionality can’t be determined without considering all the variants that affect you.
How complex you want your app to be will affect the size of the development team and how long they spend working on the app, which will affect the cost.
For example, it is predicted that if you want an app that merely allows patients to track their medications and check their records, it’s expected that it may take three or four weeks, depending on the development team size.
If you want that social interaction between healthcare professionals and their patients, that is a much more complex task, and (again, depending on the size of the team working on the app), it may take between two and three months.
All these factors around functionality and its cost are why an article like this can only give a rough estimate of the costs, but these rough estimates go as follows:
- An app that allows users to book appointments, make payments and check their records (without social interaction) could cost you between $12,000 and $20,000
- An app which would be more interactive with the patient – analyzing records, sending reminders to take medicine or go to appointments, tracks lifestyle changes and suggesting how the patient could improve their lifestyle, etc. – could be between $25,000 and $50,000
- If you want to get even more complex than that, putting in AI and IoT, then the cost skyrockets to around $90,000 and $150,000
This is all based on average costs, average lengths of development time, and average team sizes – for you and your app, so be sure to have a business analyst go through it with you to determine how much it would be in your case.
Miscellaneous Costs
Developing an app has many extra costs that might not occur to someone when just thinking of the general expenses. For example, which devices do you intend your app to function on? If you plan to only function on Apple products (iPhone, Apple Watch, etc.), the cost will be different if you run it on both iPhone and Androids.
Does your app come with customizable profiles for users? This is considered a user-friendly feature that will attract more users to your app. Still, again, this costs more money in developing the features themselves and the security to make sure the average user isn’t able to tamper with anything they shouldn’t on the app.
Again, there are many costs involved with these apps, some more hidden than others. Before you determine the budget for your app development, you need to be sure you have calculated all the costs.
Conclusion
Developing a medical app is complex and can be expensive. How expensive? The short answer is that there is no set price on how much a medical app can cost. It depends on the country it is developed in and by how many developers, which countries it is intended to be released in, what devices it will be on, and most importantly, which features it is intended to have. Therefore, the conclusion is to make sure you contact a business analyst with your plans for the app before you begin and make sure you understand the cost before diving into development.
