The Manifest, a Washington DC-based business news website, conducts a survey among 1,003 small business owners and managers and finds that about a third of small businesses (32%) invested less than $10,000 building their mobile app.

Over half of small businesses (52%) said that they spent less than $30,000 and were satisfied with the results their app produced, implying that small businesses can create a quality app without spending enterprise prices.

52% of small businesses impressed with their mobile apps spent less than $30,000 building it.
52% of small businesses impressed with their mobile apps spent less than $30,000 building it.
32% of small businesses spent less than $10,000 on their mobile app.
32% of small businesses spent less than $10,000 on their mobile app.
In annual this report, The Manifest examines how much small businesses invest in app development and which mobile app features are popular in-demand among companies.

2022 Mobile App Trends and New Data

Our team found the following statistics and trends on app development costs:

About a third of small businesses (32%) spend less than $10,000 creating their mobile app.
Over half of small businesses (52%) that are satisfied with the performance of their app spent less than $30,000 on development.
One in three apps (34%) with reported quality issues were made for less than $5,000.
The most popular features in small business mobile apps are mobile payments (49%), multi-tasking (38%), voice search capabilities (35%), personalization features (35%), social and community components (32%), mCommerce (32%), and location-based services (31%).
The features that were most satisfying to small businesses were wearable device compatibility (92%), voice search (90%), and machine learning (89%).
Gergo Vari is the CEO and founder of recruiting and talent acquisition platform Lensa. Vari sees the value in businesses working to achieve a balance between cost-effectiveness and high-quality functionality when creating an app.

"If a small business wants to compete with larger businesses in terms of features and quality, then it will need to expand its budget," Vari said. "However, if a small business is looking to create a basic app that meets the needs of its customers, it may be able to get by with a smaller budget."