How can developing an app could even cost millions of dollars?

Question

I’ve come across some government agencies and other businesses claiming they’d spent millions of dollars developing an app. How can developing an app could cost so much money?

In: 496

Answer 1

Developing software is much, much more expensive than most people expect it to be.

It’s also generally a moving target and prone to bugs. The way it’s made, it’s usually hard for new people to come in and fix those problems, unless the first people were exceptionally skilled (read: expensive).

There’s also a huge cost difference between making an app that kinda works on your phone and running a service that can serve thousands or millions of users 24/7 without interruption. Usually the government wants the second kind. 🙂