Nearly half of small businesses (46%) use in-house staff to develop and support their mobile app, finds a new survey from The Manifest, a B2B news and how-to site. The study of more than 350 small business owners and managers analyzes the resources small businesses use for mobile app development – an often expensive and time-intensive process.

Over forty percent (41%) of small businesses use a freelancer or consultant to develop their app, with an additional 39% using a design or development agency and 38% using a do-it-yourself app builder.

The resources small businesses use for mobile apps depends on their goals for the mobile app, their budget, and extent of available expertise within their company.

Businesses that cannot rely solely on in-house staff should seek external help, say industry experts.

"If it seems like it will take ages to create your mobile app because you have no expertise or because your capacity is limited, then [you should] hire an external agency or consultancy to help," said Peter Mezyk, chief operating officer of Nomtek, a mobile application development agency in Poland.

Small businesses can also consider DIY app builders – software that enables people to easily create apps with drag-and-drop functionalities and pre-set templates. The drawback is that DIY app builders are more limited in their capabilities.

App Development Costs Run High

Nearly half of small businesses (48%) spend less than $25,000 to design, launch, and build their mobile app, and 37% spend between $25,001 and $100,000.

The minimum viable cost of developing an app may surprise some small businesses owners, say experts.

"For anything less than $10,000, I would be shocked that you're getting a quality product," said Woody Zantzinger, vice president of business development at WillowTree, Inc., a mobile app development company in Charlottesville, Virginia. This especially applies to apps built with app development firms or freelancers/consultants.

The survey's full report offers advice to small businesses as they build their plan of action for a mobile app development project.

The Manifest's 2018 Small Business Survey included 351 small business owners. The businesses surveyed have between 1 and 500 employees, and 55% of the businesses have 10 or fewer employees. More than half (57%) reported annual revenue of less than $1 million.