In this digitized period, social media applications like Instagram, Facebook, etc. have become indispensable and observed a marvelous success in their respective domains. People have started to consider them as the strongest and preeminent platforms to communicate with peers and family as well as a medium for online business promotion by engaging customers and dealers at a global level. So, if the idea to build a social networking app like Instagram is crawling into your mind, you must follow this article to estimate the cost to develop an app like Instagram.

Factors to keep in mind to estimate the cost of building an app like Instagram

To estimate the cost involved in developing a mobile application like Instagram, the following factors must be considered and calculated systematically.

  • Opting for a budget-friendly app development company
  • Getting a unique idea for an app
  • Considering the technology platform to be used — Android or iOS or both
  • Deciding on the user interface or app screen design
  • Deciding on if the app will a hybrid or native in nature
  • Discussing the exceptional features & functionalities
  • Implementing Geolocation options
  • Charges for Mobile backend as a service or MBaaS

MVP (Minimum Viable Product) development cost for an app like Instagram

Now let’s calculate MVP development cost charged by a social media app development company in the USA. Keep in mind that this estimation is only based on basic features that must be included in any photo-sharing app.

To add all the basic features that are indispensable for a photo-sharing app like Instagram, you will need around 1,180 hours of development for each platform. Now to convert human efforts into dollars, you need to multiply the hours with a standard hourly rate of a reputable software development company. Typically, in the Android platform, the development time is 5-10% higher compared to iOS due to disintegration purposes.

If we talk about America, you should multiply 1180 by $150-200 and the final cost of one application will range between $177,000-236,000+.

Note: This price does not include the design services and admin panel development.

The additional estimated cost to make an app like Instagram

Depending on the software development company the timeline to develop an Instagram-like app can vary from 500-700 hours. Also, the hourly price may differ based on the location of the company and the skills provided. Typically, the hourly price tag in the USA is up to $100/hour. Therefore, the estimated cost to make an app like Instagram would range within $50,000-$70,000 depending on the team you are hiring to develop your app.

However, it is equally important to be aware of the additional expenses you may face throughout the development process. Let us remind you that the previously mentioned estimates were calculated for one platform and they don’t include preparatory developmental steps like database architecture and project setup which may take an additional 150 hours. Cloud computing expenses should also be calculated separately. Also, there will be a UI/UX app design and admin panel development expenses that needed to be addressed.

Finally, some of the reputed social media app development companies in the USA, charge for testing services additionally. Therefore, it needs to be clarified beforehand with your software development team or QA engineer as some companies also include QA services in the project cost itself.

Conclusion:

The market for social media apps is almost saturated with a range of photo-sharing apps similar to Instagram. For example Tumblr, Flickr, Snapchat, etc. have been very popular with the users for a very long time. However, users still tend to seek diversified social media platforms to meet their specific social interaction needs.

Many startup projects fail to succeed as they lack global market analysis. So, it becomes meaningless for them to clone an app like Instagram; instead, they should seek some unique concepts and come up with diversified options for social media interaction. To build a social media app like Instagram you need to go through a long path of trial and error and have to face challenges steadily.