How much does it cost to build a travel app?

The average answer to this question is $20,000. Many factors affect the answer, such as the number of platforms the application will run on, how many functions it will perform, and which region it will be promoted in (the matter in question is about marketing). Below we examine how long it takes to develop an application, what functions it should perform, how much travel app development cost, and how to promote the application so that it is successful.

Travel app – what is it?

A travel app is a program that people can use on their phones or computers to plan trips. For example, you can choose the route of your future trip to the other side of the globe, sitting comfortably at home in an armchair, right on the screen of your smartphone. You can achieve this by booking transport tickets and hotel rooms. And you can also choose between sightseeing and other activities, while traveling by transport or relaxing in hotels.

Booking and managing bookings, comparing services and costs, talking to other users of the application, such as travelers who plan to travel the same route as you, and keeping statistics are some of the tasks that your application can perform. 

The travel application performs the same functions as those that require the user to enter initial information, such as navigators, information aggregators, and analyzers. The most popular travel apps are Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Lyft, and Culture Trip.

How long does it take to build an application?

The timeframe for developing a travel app depends on the platform the app will run on and how many features it has. According to the experience of developers from Perpet.io, the standard package of such an application contains the following functions:

• Registration.
• Profile personalization.
• Map search. 
• Navigator. 
• Information aggregator. 
• Comparison of search results. 
• Booking tickets, hotels, and tables in restaurants. 
• Service fee. 
• Chat with other users. 
• Support. 

Each of the listed functions is made up of different smaller functions and operations. It takes the least time to develop a web application – 70 hours. A mobile application can be built in 200 hours. And a cross-platform application that will work on both Windows software and Android, Apple, and iOS mobile platforms can take up to 400 hours. 

Issue price

The cost of a travel app can range from $5,000 to $30,000. The minimum viable product costs $2,500. However, at a later stage, in order for this product to fully perform its basic functions, you will need to invest another 20-30 thousand dollars. Such a pen test can be justified when product demand is being tested in the market. Once it has been determined that there is a target audience and there is an idea for an application that can stand out from other applications, the developers will begin developing the application. 

The average salary for a developer is $45 an hour. It depends on the developer’s country of residence. Which, in turn, makes the quality of the developer’s work depend on it. Multiply the hours by the pay per developer hour, and you get a very close project cost.

Another factor that affects the cost of developing a travel app is whether it’s built from scratch to work on one platform, or whether it’s built with a framework to work on multiple platforms. Design development is another cost component. Furthermore, there are testing, debugging, updates, and technical support for the application. The more complex the development is, the better the product. And vice versa. — the fewer platforms an application works on, the fewer functions it performs, and the interface is not user-friendly – this is a ready-made recipe for project failure.

What are the factors that contribute to the success of a travel app?

Even if the development of such an application is flawless, this is only half the work on the product. The second half consists of pre-work and after-work marketing. In the first half, startups should find a target audience – a region where their product is distributed and people who are willing to pay for services. When it comes to marketing, it is necessary to find such channels for attracting customers that will compensate for only a part of the attracted user’s total cost.

The method of monetization is another factor that can affect the success of the product. There are three methods of selling services through the application:

1. Through advertising: the user watches ads in exchange for free services. 
2. The user pays a service fee for the application. No ads. 
3. There are no advertisements or service charges. The transport company or tourist infrastructure pays for the app services that the client uses. 

These three methods of monetization, read – the criterion for the success of the application unless it is a charity project, can be partially mixed. To avoid getting lost in all the dependencies that impact how much demand there is for an application, you should focus on criteria that are more straightforwardly measurable. According to the expert opinion of our partners from Perpet.io, the most important thing is to correctly segment the target audience. If you focus your attention on people who travel regularly and who could potentially travel, you won’t go wrong. This is your growth area.

Conclusion 

The price of creating a travel app depends on many factors. But with the increasing accessibility of technology and the consequent increase in the quality of available developers, the cost of developing such an application has become affordable for even medium-sized businesses. 

The provision of services through applications is a growing trend. In the coming 3-5 years, search engines will rank resources presented in applications higher. You can build the application yourself, using the constructor, or you can have the developers do it. Conduct market research – the market will tell you how much money you need to enter into this market and remain competitive.