Blockchain is a widely adopted technology across industries, considering it upholds financial transparency and does away with additional operational costs. The decentralized network is touted to be the ‘modern internet’ and is impacting the financial infrastructure of businesses extensively.
As a result, companies are leaving no stone unturned to leverage the highly efficient and scalable Blockchain technology to produce transformative solutions for their businesses.
However, with Blockchain in its prime, its development is no easy feat.
In fact, the cost of developing a Blockchain application depends on multiple parameters, from the functionality of the application, the time it will take to create it, the extent of customization it will require, and the development team, project managers, and marketing professionals that will work on it.
In this article, we will dig deeper and evaluate the cost of Blockchain app development. So, let’s get down to it.
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7 Factors Affecting The Cost of Blockchain Development
Generally speaking, the cost of developing a Blockchain application ranges from $500,000 on a beginner level to $2M on an expert level.
Here’s discussing the key factors the cost of developing a Blockchain application depends on:
The Industry
One of the most important factors to consider is the type of industry in which the user intends to use the application. This is because many variables come into play, such as the level of sophistication, the number of people who will interact with the application at a given time, etc.
For example, a healthcare Blockchain application would cost anywhere between $55K-$100K while a social media application would cost between $45K-$100K.
App Complexity
Your intention for building the application is a primary factor to consider since it will set the tone for the project’s complexity. Ask yourself: what purpose would you like your application to serve? If you are an organization, the following pointers might be of help:
- What platform will you use?: There are over 25 platforms available such as Ethereum, Fabrio, etc., to build Blockchain applications, each with a different price tag on it.
- APIs: There are many API providers on the market like ICObench Data API and Coinbase, but if you are looking for something specific, you will need to develop one independently.
- Stacks: Every platform will have its own set of Blockchain programming languages and tools that you should be aware of. Furthermore, each stack has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, implying that you must focus on the correct collection of stacks for successful development.
- UI and UX: Once the backend is taken care of, the UI needs to be developed. What programming language you choose, the servers, among other things for developing your Blockchain application will be decided here.
The Type of Application You Need
Organizations that wish to see their business flourish need digital solutions in the current times. Keeping that in mind, the Blockchain application you develop either needs to generate revenue or solve operational problems.
Blockchain frameworks, especially for businesses, provide accountability and enhanced traceability while simultaneously keeping costs low.
Cost of Blockchain Developers
Since Blockchain is still new around the block, there is currently a shortage of Blockchain application developers. A Blockchain developer’s annual salary is roughly around $150,000.
This could result in your Blockchain application costing significantly more than your budget. Keep in mind the advertising costs as well, which will be incurred while finding resources for the project as Blockchain development is still in its infancy.
Holiday compensation, employee benefits, insurance, etc., are other costs involved when hiring a Blockchain application development team, all of which contribute to the project’s total budget.
However, you can choose to hire a company that specializes in Blockchain app development instead to render minimal costs.
In addition to that, there already are development tools available online to help you cut down costs. Some of these are:
- Amazon’s Web Services: They provide computing, delivery, and storage from $100 to $1000, depending on the number of users.
- Uptime Robot or Statuspage.io monitoring software: These software are monitoring services that send you notifications each time there is a downtime. The cost ranges anywhere between $10 to $50.
- Bugsee or Instabug: These are Bug tracking tools that cost $10 to $100 per month.
- Analytical tools: Flurry or Mixpanel are great analytical tools that give insights on data, funnels, etc. Depending on the service, it costs anywhere between $0 to $150.
Relevant Read: Cost of hiring an Ethereum developer
App Development Process
The blockchain implementation process includes a number of stages which are as follows:
- Design: The design consists of the blueprint, the UI, prototypes, and app flow.
- Development: Coding plus testing are a part of development.
- Deployment: Delivery and launch on online platforms such as Cloud.
- Migration from old to new: Migrating the existing application to the Blockchain application.
- Maintenance: Making sure that the OS runs smoothly without any glitches.
- Upgrades: New features.
- Tools from third parties: Hosting and storage, notification systems.
- Integration: Each developer should write and evaluate code in a shared code repository to ensure it works flawlessly with everyone else’s code. It is crucial to maintain a high-quality software pipeline. The easiest method to check this is using an automated procedure. A Blockchain app’s cost further increases when you use Bitbucket and Github for source code management.
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Project Management
Project managers employ an Agile methodology to manage ongoing sprints, tests, timeframes, defects, and deliverables by holding regular meetings, etc.
Software like Confluence, Trello, and Jira can help with the process. These software tools also incur expenses which are also factored into the total cost of Blockchain implementation.
Maintenance Cost
Blockchain technology is still relatively new, with new platforms appearing daily. As a result, you might end up leveraging different tools and platforms based on the scalability, flexibility, and secrecy of the same.
Apple, Google, and numerous other Blockchain platforms also release new operating systems yearly. The cost of maintaining a Blockchain app is typically 30-35 percent of the total project cost, although this might vary based on the program’s complexity.
If you need more help in blockchain application development, contact our experts.
Final words
Depending on the budget you are willing to assign to develop a Blockchain application, you will need to decide whether you should hire individuals or a full-fledged team.
In any case, Blockchain development might prove to be expensive since the technology is relatively new, and there is a notable lack of resources.
So, even though outsourcing Blockchain development can still be costly, you stand to benefit from qualitative development and maintenance that you are less likely to achieve by hiring a personal development team.
The only takeaway here is — invest wisely!
Rajamanickam Rajan is the director at Skein Technologies, a leading IT solution company in India. He has 10+ years of experience in developing application using IBM Worklight hybrid, native applications for IOS and Android systems.
