Calculating the server cost for a mobile application is one of the major questions that confuse the clients. While deciding to build a mobile app, be it iOS or Android, you will need a server to host the contents for the users to access the application. So knowing an approximate server cost will help people trying to develop a new mobile app and those who are trying to save their server cost.
The amount will highly depend on your requirements and choices. For example, the cost of hosting a wildly popular app will be unbelievably more than the budding apps trying to become popular. However, this article will help you get some idea of the standard app hosting prices to help you plan your budget.
You will need a server if you want to serve your application content to the users. It doesn’t matter if your app is on IOS, Android, or Amazon Echo, you will need some sort of server space. Most of the apps developed today are Cloud Applications that need one or more external servers for the app functionality. A server can also serve as a central repository for the app files with the help of tools Docker or Gitlab to have precise version control of your software.
The price of an app hosting server can range from $70 per month up to $320 per month. Factors such as the content being served to users, the number of active users, storage needs, and projected growth will determine the price.
Let us discuss these factors in detail.
The type and quantity of data you serve
To determine the kind of server and the app hosting costs, you must know how much data you're serving to users. You must also know if there is any audio, video, or other large data that the users send or receive or if the data is text-based or static. If the data is larger, you need more server CPU, memory, and disk space. This will raise the cost of the server. It is hard to find out the exact amount of server resources your app will use. The best way is to set up a server and send users towards it. For game engines and other interactive products, your server has to be spacious and fast.
The amount of data you store
It is a well-known fact that popular apps like Facebook and Instagram use a lot of storage space quickly as they have massive amounts of images and videos for users. The server requirements also rise when you have to save account information, avatars, photos, preferences, and other social media information.
When you are launching a beta version of your app with an estimated idea of the amount of data the users will be using, you can find for yourself the speed at which your server space is filling up and the limits you could reach. A better idea can be putting caps on how much storage you will allow for your users.
The number of active users and the projected growth
The number of active users and the amount of server CPU, RAM, and disk space each user will use on average can determine the server resources required for a mobile app. Setting up a server and measuring what the actual numbers are for the current users can decide the server resource.
One thing to remember is that when yours is a growing mobile application, it is likely that your server needs changes frequently. If your app is serving a large number of users, you will need maximum server resources.
Having an understanding of the major mobile app server hosting providers and their costs will let you choose the best one that fits your budget.
AWS
Amazon Web Series or AWS is a very popular mobile app server hosting provider and offers one of the best hosting services in the world. The easy setup and configuration are some of the main attractions of AWS. It is used by world-famous companies like Netflix, Adobe, Comcast, Airbnb, and more. AWS is very reliable and provides unmatchable security options. The biggest advantage of AWS is that you only have to pay for what you use. Thus it can reduce your infrastructure costs.
AWS services are free of charge until specified limits for every service. It has three different types of offers for the users to choose from - a 12-month free tire, Always free offer, and short-term trails. The 12-month free tire allows users to use the product for free up to a specific limit within 1 year from the date the account was created. An always free offer allows customers to use the product for free until given limits as long as they are AWS customers. Short-term trial offers free to use for a defined period of up to a one-time limit according to the service selected. When your application use crosses the free tier limits you will have to pay standard, pay-as-you-go service rates.
Heroku
Heroku enables developers to carry out hassle-free application deployment, scaling, and management. It provides a wide range of programming languages such as Java, Ruby, PHP, Node.js, Python, Scala, and Clojure.
The price for Heroku is based on the number of virtual machines used in the applications. It is an expensive option considering other platforms. For business-focused apps, the pricing may come around $25 and up per month while for advanced apps, it may even cost up to $250 and up per month.
Digital Ocean
Digital Ocean is a service provider which is purely a US-based cloud infrastructure provider and offers mobile application server hosting services too. It allows you to deploy faster and scale easier. All the plans of Digital Ocean include proper features.
A basic server setup will cost you $5 per month or $0.007 per hour. For an eCommerce website with a decent amount of traffic, you will have to pay between $20 per month to $40 per month. For advanced applications, the cost starts from $160 per month.
Cost is an important factor when you consider your app development procedure because that is what determines the features your app will possess. The above-mentioned mobile app service providers are the most trustworthy and reliable ones in the market. You can compare each one and decide for yourself which one will serve your needs within your budget.