objective-c 开发一个 iPhone 应用程序需要多少钱？

How much does it cost to develop an iPhone application?

提问by user27815

How much can a developer charge for an iPhone app like Twitterrific?

开发人员可以为Twitterrific等 iPhone 应用程序收取多少费用？

I want to know this because I need such an application with the same functionality for a new community website. I can do Ruby but have no experience with Objective-C. So it would be interesting for me if I should start reading books about iPhone programming or outsource the work to a iPhone programmer.

我想知道这一点，因为我需要一个具有相同功能的新社区网站的应用程序。我可以使用 Ruby，但没有使用 Objective-C 的经验。因此，如果我应该开始阅读有关 iPhone 编程的书籍或将工作外包给 iPhone 程序员，这对我来说会很有趣。

回答by chockenberry

I'm one of the developers for Twitterrific and to be honest, I can't tell you how many hours have gone into the product. I can tell you everyone who upvoted the estimate of 160 hours for development and 40 hours for design is fricken' high. (I'd use another phrase, but this is my first post on Stack Overflow, so I'm being good.)

我是 Twitterrific 的开发人员之一，老实说，我无法告诉您产品投入了多少小时。我可以告诉你，所有赞成 160 小时开发和 40 小时设计的人都非常高。（我会用另一个短语，但这是我在 Stack Overflow 上的第一篇文章，所以我很好。）

Twitterrific has had 4 major releases beginning with the iOS 1.0 (Jailbreak.) That's a lot of code, much of which is in the bit bucket (we refactor a lot with each major release.)

从 iOS 1.0（越狱）开始，Twitterrific 有 4 个主要版本。这是很多代码，其中大部分都在位桶中（我们在每个主要版本中重构了很多。）

One thing that would be interesting to look at is the amount of time that we had to work on the iPad version. Apple set a product release date that gave us 60 days to do the development. (That was later extended by a week.)

一件有趣的事情是我们必须在 iPad 版本上工作的时间。Apple 设定了一个产品发布日期，给了我们 60 天的开发时间。（后来延长了一周。）

We started the iPad development from scratch, but a lot of our underlying code (mostly models) was re-used. The development was done by two experienced iOS developers. One of them has even written a book: http://appdevmanual.com:-)

我们从头开始 iPad 开发，但是我们的很多底层代码（主要是模型）都被重用了。开发由两名经验丰富的 iOS 开发人员完成。其中一个甚至写了一本书：http: //appdevmanual.com:-)

With such a short schedule, we worked some pretty long hours. Let's be conservative and say it's 10 hours per day for 6 days a week. That 60 hours for 9 weeks gives us 540 hours. With two developers, that's pretty close to 1,100 hours. Our rate for clients is $150 per hour giving $165,000 just for new code. Remember also that we were reusing a bunch existing code: I'm going to lowball the value of that code at $35,000 giving a total development cost of $200,000.

在如此短的日程安排下，我们工作了相当长的时间。让我们保守一点，假设每周 6 天，每天 10 小时。9 周的 60 小时给了我们 540 小时。有两个开发人员，这接近 1,100 个小时。我们为客户提供的费率为每小时 150 美元，仅为新代码提供 165,000 美元。还请记住，我们正在重用一堆现有代码：我打算将该代码的价值降低到 35,000 美元，从而得出 200,000 美元的总开发成本。

Anyone who's done serious iPhone development can tell you there's a lot of design work involved with any project. We had two designers working on that aspect of the product. They worked their asses off dealing with completely new interaction mechanics. Don't forget they didn't have any hardware to touch, either (LOTS of printouts!) Combined they spent at least 25 hours per week on the project. So 225 hours at $150/hr is about $34,000.

任何认真从事过 iPhone 开发的人都会告诉你，任何项目都涉及大量的设计工作。我们有两名设计师致力于产品的这一方面。他们竭尽全力处理全新的交互机制。不要忘记他们也没有任何硬件可以接触（大量打印输出！）他们每周至少在项目上花费 25 小时。因此，以 150 美元/小时计算 225 小时约为 34,000 美元。

There are also other costs that many developer neglect to take into account: project management, testing, equipment. Again, if we lowball that figure at $16,000 we're at $250,000. This number falls in line with Jonathan Wight's (@schwa) $50-150K estimate with the 22 day Obama app.

许多开发人员还忽略了其他成本：项目管理、测试、设备。同样，如果我们将这个数字降低到 16,000 美元，我们就是 250,000 美元。这个数字与 Jonathan Wight (@schwa) 对 22 天奥巴马应用程序的估计为 50-150K 美元一致。

Take another hit, dude.

再来一击，伙计。

Now if you want to build backend services for your app, that number's going to go up even more. Everyone seems surprised that Instagram chewed through $500K in venture funding to build a new frontend and backend. I'm not.

现在，如果您想为您的应用程序构建后端服务，这个数字还会上升。每个人似乎都对 Instagram 花费 50 万美元的风险投资来建立新的前端和后端感到惊讶。我不是。

回答by schwa

The Barack Obama apptook 22 days to develop from first code to release. Three developers (although not all of them were full time). 10 people total. Figure 500-1000 man hours. Contracting rates are $100-150/hr. Figure $50000-$150000. Compare your app to Obama.app and scale accordingly.

在奥巴马的应用程序花了22天，从开发第一个代码版本。三个开发人员（尽管并非所有人都是全职的）。共10人。图 500-1000 工时。承包费率为 100-150 美元/小时。图 50000-150000 美元。将您的应用与 Obama.app 进行比较并相应地进行扩展。

回答by Jeff LaMarche

There are ways of paying less to get an application, developed than paying the going rate, but very often you get what you pay for - inexperienced developers who leave you with a mess of spaghetti code that's impossible to maintain, or experienced developers with whom you have to communicate across a cultural and language gap.

有一些方法可以花更少的钱获得应用程序，开发比支付现行费用，但很多时候你得到了你所付出的 - 没有经验的开发人员给你留下一堆无法维护的意大利面条式代码，或者有经验的开发人员与你一起必须跨越文化和语言鸿沟进行交流。

Developing an app like Twitterific is not easy. It's an extraordinarily polished app with a lot of attention to detail that most people - indeed many developers - would fail to notice or realize the effort behind. You may be able to get a Twitter iPhone client written for $3500 or $5000 by going offshore or by being willing to "work with inexperienced developers", but you're not going to get Twitterific for that, and it's doubtful you'd get even a halfway decent application for that amount.

开发像 Twitterific 这样的应用程序并不容易。这是一款非常精致的应用程序，非常注重细节，大多数人——实际上是许多开发人员——不会注意到或意识到背后的努力。通过离岸或愿意“与没有经验的开发人员合作”，您可能能够以 3500 美元或 5000 美元的价格获得一个 Twitter iPhone 客户端，但您不会因此获得 Twitterific，而且您是否会得到甚至该金额的一半体面的应用程序。

And you likely will end up spending a lot of time managing the process, going back and forth on requirements, and fighting to get what you really want instead of what they want to give you.

而且您可能最终会花费大量时间管理流程，反复讨论需求，并争取获得您真正想要的东西，而不是他们想要给您的东西。

There's also a risk with "cut-rate" development, whether it's offshore or just using inexperienced developers - you may very well end up with something you can't use, or something that gets 1 star ratings because it crashes or behaves erratically. You might find the occasional underpriced gem of a developer, but they won't stay underpriced for long given the sheer demand in this market right now.

“降价”开发也存在风险，无论是离岸开发还是仅使用没有经验的开发人员 - 您很可能最终会得到无法使用的东西，或者因为崩溃或行为不正常而获得 1 星评级的东西。您可能偶尔会发现开发商的定价过低的宝石，但鉴于目前这个市场的绝对需求，他们不会长期保持定价过低。

By virtue of my books and blog, people often reach out to me when they need help with their iPhone applications. I get, on average, 4 or 5 inquiries a month from people asking for help fixing applications they had developed either over-seas or by inexperienced developers here in the States. In most cases, I end up having to tell them they'd be better off throwing their code out and starting over with a developer who knows what they're doing rather than trying to fix the code they bought on the cheap. If they insist on trying to "fix" what they have, I decline the work.

凭借我的书籍和博客，人们经常在需要 iPhone 应用程序方面的帮助时联系我。我平均每个月收到 4 或 5 次询问，他们请求帮助修复他们在海外开发的应用程序或由美国缺乏经验的开发人员开发的应用程序。在大多数情况下，我最终不得不告诉他们，他们最好把代码扔掉，找一个知道他们在做什么的开发人员重新开始，而不是试图修复他们廉价购买的代码。如果他们坚持试图“修复”他们拥有的东西，我会拒绝这项工作。

回答by Hiltmon

I am a very good iPhone app developer, and I charge over $150 per hour for my services. I have a ton of experience building iPhone apps and their server side components. I have also been called in on several occasions to fix offshore developed apps. Here's my take.

我是一名非常出色的 iPhone 应用程序开发人员，我的服务每小时收费超过 150 美元。我有大量构建 iPhone 应用程序及其服务器端组件的经验。我也多次被要求修复离岸开发的应用程序。这是我的看法。

• Design costs money, good design costs lots of money. Expect several designer weeks of work per app screen. Offshore teams do not do design.
• Server development and infrastructure is critical if the app is to succeed. A slow server response, or an overloaded server will hamper your app, and crimp sales and satisfaction. The server side of the equation will cost the most and take the most time to develop. Those who offshore their server development will find that quality and uptime are both terrible, in my experience.
• App development if done right takes time too. A professional developer will ensure all HIGrules are followed, the app is properly structured and contains no known errors, it performs well, and it passes the app store validations. Offshore teams just cut code.

• 设计要花钱，好的设计要花很多钱。预计每个应用程序屏幕需要几个设计师周的工作。离岸团队不做设计。
• 如果应用程序要成功，服务器开发和基础设施至关重要。服务器响应缓慢或服务器过载会妨碍您的应用程序，并影响销售和满意度。等式的服务器端将花费最多并且花费最多的时间来开发。根据我的经验，那些离岸服务器开发的人会发现质量和正常运行时间都很糟糕。
• 如果做得好，应用程序开发也需要时间。专业开发人员将确保遵循所有HIG规则，应用程序结构合理且不包含任何已知错误，性能良好，并通过应用程序商店验证。离岸团队只是削减了代码。

I'm just about to release a shopping app for a client. The design work was done by 2 client in-house designers over 2 weeks, quick because they had all the image assets already. Think 2 people x 10 days x 8 hours = ~$24,000. The server side had to be modified to provide data for the iPhone app. We used their in-house team and in-house platform and in-house API, 2 developers, 4 weeks, or about $50,000 and that's because they already have a web shop and API. Cost them about $400,000 to get there (excluding platform). And I wrote the app side in 3 weeks, given that a lot of my code is duplicated from previous projects, another ~$25,000, the cheapest app I ever did.

我即将为客户发布一个购物应用程序。设计工作由 2 位客户内部设计师在 2 周内完成，速度很快，因为他们已经拥有所有图像资产。想想 2 人 x 10 天 x 8 小时 = ~$24,000。必须修改服务器端才能为 iPhone 应用程序提供数据。我们使用了他们的内部团队、内部平台和内部 API，2 个开发人员，4 周，或大约 50,000 美元，那是因为他们已经有一个网上商店和 API。他们花了大约 400,000 美元才能到达那里（不包括平台）。我在 3 周内编写了应用程序端，因为我的很多代码都是从以前的项目中复制出来的，另外还有大约 25,000 美元，这是我做过的最便宜的应用程序。

Total spent: ~$100,000, and that's insanely cheap!

总花费：约 100,000 美元，而且非常便宜！

And they will give this away for free so clients will buy from their store from their iPhones.

他们会免费赠送这个东西，这样客户就可以从他们的商店购买他们的 iPhone。

For your app, Peter, if you have the servers and the APIs and the design, I'd guess at $30,000 to $60,000 depending on complexity. If you do not have the design, double it. If you do not have the APIs, double again...

对于你的应用程序，彼得，如果你有服务器、API 和设计，我猜根据复杂性在 30,000 美元到 60,000 美元之间。如果您没有设计，请将其加倍。如果您没有 API，请再次加倍...

回答by Wayne Carter

I am an account exec at a web and mobile development company and hear this question everyday. Unfortunately, iPhone apps are not cheap. You can expect around $100 per hour if you are staying on US soil. I have seen some offshore Indian developers out there for as low as $20 per hour. It all depends on the number and complexity of the functions you wish the app to perform. Simple one function apps are normally around 4-5k. They are so expensive because you are paying a team of people a healthy hourly wage and any type of raw prototyping, development, and coding takes time. Apps can exceed 60-100k pretty easily. Southwest Airlines making an app with a full ecommerce platform that allows you to buy tickets over your phone is an example. All of that porting into their IT is a big job.

我是一家网络和移动开发公司的客户经理，每天都会听到这个问题。不幸的是，iPhone 应用程序并不便宜。如果您住在美国本土，每小时可以预期大约 100 美元。我见过一些离岸印度开发商的价格低至每小时 20 美元。这完全取决于您希望应用程序执行的功能的数量和复杂性。简单的一个功能应用程序通常在 4-5k 左右。它们如此昂贵，因为您要支付给一群人健康的小时工资，而任何类型的原始原型设计、开发和编码都需要时间。应用程序可以很容易地超过 60-100k。西南航空公司开发了一款具有完整电子商务平台的应用程序，允许您通过手机购买机票就是一个例子。所有这些移植到他们的 IT 都是一项艰巨的任务。

And offshoring the project is definitely not always a better option. If you do so you better know who you are dealing with. Do not get me wrong there folks over there who do a bad ass job for a way better deal, but they are not that easy to find. Those guys could fwor around for 5 months on a simple project that would take 6 weeks here, or just not complete it at all and hand it over half finished. I have seen this scenario many times where we finish the work. The project management becomes a challenge. It can be difficult to communicate exactly what you want the app to do.

将项目离岸外包并不总是更好的选择。如果你这样做，你最好知道你在和谁打交道。不要误会我的意思，那里的人为了更好的交易而做得很糟糕，但他们并不容易找到。那些人可以在一个简单的项目上花 5 个月的时间，而这个项目可能需要 6 周时间，或者根本不完成它并把它交到一半。在我们完成工作时，我已经多次看到这种情况。项目管理成为一个挑战。可能很难准确传达您希望应用程序执行的操作。

回答by Dylan

River of News for the iPad took about 400 hours of development to get to version 1.0 and I don't know how many hours my designer spent (20-50?). At US labor rates that's at least $40,000. But that sort of tight development was only possible because it was a one man operation. There is an enormous amount of overhead added when you separate the person writing the code from the person deciding what the product is going to do.

iPad 版新闻之河花了大约 400 小时的开发时间才达到 1.0 版，我不知道我的设计师花了多少小时（20-50 小时？）。以美国的劳动力价格计算，至少为 40,000 美元。但这种紧凑的开发之所以成为可能，是因为它是一个人的操作。当您将编写代码的人和决定产品将要做什么的人分开时，会增加大量的开销。

If you are going to send it offshore you'd better know exactly what you want. With the language and time difference it's very hard to do iterative design where you are exploring what is possible.

如果你要把它送到海外，你最好清楚地知道你想要什么。由于语言和时间差异，在探索可能的情况下进行迭代设计非常困难。

回答by Paul M

Appsamuck iPhone tutorialsis aiming for 31 days of tutorials ending in 31 small apps developed for the iPhone all the source code for which is available to download. They also provide a commercial service to build apps!

Appsamuck iPhone 教程的目标是为期 31 天的教程，最后是为 iPhone 开发的 31 个小应用程序，所有源代码都可供下载。他们还提供构建应用程序的商业服务！

If you want to know if you can do the coding, well at least you can download the code and see if anything there is helpful for your needs. On the flip side you can also get a quote from them for developing the app for you, so you can try both sides of the coin, outsource and in-house. Of course it all depends on how much time you have too! It's certainly worth a look!

如果您想知道您是否可以进行编码，那么至少您可以下载代码并查看是否有任何内容可以满足您的需求。另一方面，您还可以从他们那里获得报价，为您开发应用程序，因此您可以尝试外包和内部两种方式。当然，这也取决于你有多少时间！这当然值得一看！

(OK, after my last disastrous attempt to try and post a useful piece of help, I went off hunting around!)

（好吧，在我最后一次尝试发布有用的帮助的灾难性尝试之后，我开始四处寻找！）

回答by davidstites

I am the developer for Coupious mobile coupons iPhone app and with the amount of time that I spent on that application (v1.0 - v1.5), it was probably a $15,000 - $20,000 investment. However, to be fair, I do admit that I was the only developer working on it and when I started the project, I had never seen or used Objective-C before. Despite that, three months later, it was released so the numbers are probably a little skewed because there was a fair amount of learning going on as well as coding.

我是 Coupious 移动优惠券 iPhone 应用程序的开发人员，根据我在该应用程序 (v1.0 - v1.5) 上花费的时间，这可能是 15,000 - 20,000 美元的投资。然而，公平地说，我承认我是唯一从事它的开发人员，当我开始这个项目时，我以前从未见过或使用过 Objective-C。尽管如此，三个月后，它发布了，所以数字可能有点偏差，因为有大量的学习和编码正在进行。

However, iPhone competent developers run in the range of $80-$150 depending on their skill and time with the platform. I would say that for a simple application, an app would probably run 2K-5K, a medium complexity app would run 5K-15K and a fairly complex app running 15K-30K. Game applications could be even more.

然而，根据他们的技能和使用该平台的时间，有能力的 iPhone 开发人员的费用在 80-150 美元之间。我会说，对于一个简单的应用程序，一个应用程序可能会运行 2K-5K，一个中等复杂性的应用程序将运行 5K-15K，而一个相当复杂的应用程序会运行 15K-30K。游戏应用程序可能更多。

The reason it is so high is that the skill is fairly specialized and not everyone is able to do it

之所以这么高，是因为技能相当专业，不是每个人都能做到

回答by avance

I hate to admit how little I've done an iPhone app for, but I can tell you I won't be doing that again. The guy who said that "simple, one function apps can be done .. [by solo developers]... for $5K" is correct; however, that is still lowball, and presumes almost no project design, graphic design or network backend work.

我不想承认我为 iPhone 应用程序做了多少工作，但我可以告诉你，我不会再这样做了。那个说“简单的，一个功能的应用程序可以完成.. [由独立开发人员]......花费 5000 美元”的人是正确的；然而，这仍然是低级的，并且假设几乎没有项目设计、平面设计或网络后端工作。

回答by Matt Campbell

The rates that were quoted above are what you would expect to pay US developers; however, I do know some people who have been able to get their apps built for as little as $4,000 by using offshore developers.

上面引用的费率是您期望支付给美国开发商的费率；但是，我确实知道有些人能够通过使用离岸开发人员以低至 4,000 美元的价格构建他们的应用程序。

Here is a blog post from a group that did this: http://www.lolerapps.com/why-outsourcing-iphone-apps-was-a-no-brainer-for-us

这是来自执行此操作的小组的博客文章：http: //www.lolerapps.com/why-outsourcing-iphone-apps-was-a-no-brainer-for-us

Also, Carla White wrote a fantastic eBook about the process she used to outsource her app called "Inside Secrets to an iPhone App". She talks about how she got a great deal because she was willing to work with a team that was still learning iPhone app development.

此外，Carla White 还写了一本精彩的电子书，介绍了她将应用程序外包的过程，名为“Inside Secrets to an iPhone App”。她谈到她是如何获得巨大收益的，因为她愿意与仍在学习 iPhone 应用程序开发的团队合作。

So, there are alternatives to the higher price developers discussed above.

因此，除了上面讨论的价格较高的开发商之外，还有其他选择。