Consumers around the world downloaded about 230 billion apps in 2021. If you're thinking about building an app to gain and nurture new customers for your business or as an income-producing product in its own right, you've likely found that there's a pretty big learning curve for all but the most tech-savvy.

One of the first questions you'll bump into once you start moving forward with your idea is the question of what type of app to make. You might find yourself lying awake at night thinking: "native vs. mobile vs. hybrid– 

Even if it isn't making you lose sleep, understanding the different app types is essential for creating the right product for your brand and customers.

Native Vs. Mobile Vs. Hybrid: What's the Difference?

When you're first deciding to develop an app, you might feel pretty overwhelmed about the different app types. Which is the best choice for your digital product? Let's take a look at the basics for each kind of app to help you determine what makes sense for you and your brand.

Mobile apps are the applications you can download from an app store like iOS App Store or Google Play.

There are two different types of mobile apps which we will discuss in the next sections: native and hybrid.

Native apps are designed specifically for one operating system (OS). When developers create a native app, this typically means that they are built for one of the two largest mobile operating systems, iOS 

Most mobile devices around the world run on one of these two systems. While Android dominates the market share globally, clocking in at 71% of smartphone usage in the first quarter of 2021, iOS dominates the profit share worldwide.

Depending on your intended audience, the choice between a native iOS app and a native Android app might be a no-brainer. However, it can be difficult for many brands to determine which operating system to choose when making such a large investment in developing a mobile app.

Native apps are written in the language that is accepted by the chosen platform. For instance, native Android apps are written using Java, iOS apps are written using Objective-C or Swift, and Windows Phone apps are primarily written using C#.

App developers can access development tools specific to iOS and Android through Xcode and Android Studio, respectively.

Hybrid apps are installed in the same way native apps are, but they are actually web apps dressed up in the guise of native mobile apps. Built with HTML, 

, and CSS, hybrid apps run on a simplified browser within the app.

Once a user downloads a hybrid app from their app store of choice and the app is locally installed, this dressed-up web app can connect to the capabilities provided by the mobile platform. This occurs through a browser that is embedded right in the application.

Usually, when people talk about developing apps, they are referring to mobile apps. However, there are also web apps that are worth mentioning. Depending on your purposes, you might find that web apps are actually the most suitable option for your brand or digital product.

Web apps are accessed using a web browser and provide additional interactivity and functionality beyond what is typical for a regular website.

An important distinction between mobile and web apps is that they don't have to be downloaded the same way a user has to download a mobile app. Instead, they load in a common browser like Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. This means that users don't have to dedicate any memory or storage to the application.

Thanks to the development of progressive web apps (PWAs), web apps can have many of the same features as mobile apps, such as working offline, sending push notifications, or loading on the home screen.

This can be a good choice for people that want to give their audience an improved user experience when they access your site from a mobile device. That being said, it's important to understand that PWAs and web apps alike really aren't substitutes for mobile apps.

As with most things, there isn't a right answer to this question. Depending on your needs regarding features, functionality, accessibility, budget, and more, you'll likely find that one of these app types is more appropriate than the others.

Most apps out there are native. This isn't an accident– there are a lot of benefits to building this type of app.

For one, native apps usually offer their users the most reliable, most responsive experience. On top of that, they also offer the fastest experience. It's also a lot easier to tap into the wider functionality of the user's device, including their microphone, camera, and swipe gestures.

Conventions have emerged for each operating system, and native apps are also much more capable of matching these conventions through their UI/UX. This means that the users can have a much more pleasant experience in many cases.

On the downside, native apps cost much more to build than the alternatives and take much longer to build. Developing a native app is an enormous investment in many cases, both in terms of time and money.

Worried that your next app development project is going to run into hurdles that slow down your ideal timeline? Check out this recent post about 

On top of that, choosing to build a native app means that you will have to develop separate apps for every platform you want to be present on. For many brands except the largest corporations, this is simply not feasible.

While native apps might have hybrid apps beat in a number of categories, that doesn't mean a native app is necessarily the right choice for you. Depending on your purposes and your budget, you might find that hybrid apps are highly suitable and much more reasonable.

When you develop a hybrid app, you'll save time and money. Not only do you only have to build one app for the different platforms, but you also only have one codebase to manage. This means that you will only need a fraction of the number of developers you would have needed if you went with a native app to develop it in the same amount of time.

On top of that, the fact that you are only building one app can seriously simplify things. Since you only have to manage one codebase, you only have to change the app once if you are tweaking your digital product.

Hybrid apps are also much easier to launch on a different platform as your brand grows. If you want to do this with a native app, you'll have to start over from scratch.

It's also worth noting that you can still access the device features with a hybrid app. While it might not be as seamless, there are a number of ways you can bridge the gap between the native SDK and webview to let your hybrid app function like a native app in this particular way.

On the downside, hybrid apps' performance doesn't quite match those of native apps. It can also be a lot of work to develop apps on multiple platforms, as it can be tricky to get your apps to run perfectly on each of your chosen operating systems. Depending on how close you need to get to replicating the user experience of a native app, you might find that the cost savings start disappearing over time.

Another complaint about hybrid apps is that the user base of each platform tends to be pretty used to how things work in their native apps. This means that even the most benign or subtlest of differences can cause frustration in loyal iOS or Android users, leaving you in a spot where you're scrambling to tweak your apps to fulfill the needs of both camps of users.

Depending on your purpose in building an app, you might find that a 

 actually delivers what you need without the headache and high cost of developing a mobile app. That said, it's worth reiterating that web apps shouldn't be viewed as substitutes for mobile apps. If you want your users to be able to download your app onto their mobile devices, you'll want to choose either a native or hybrid model.

On the other hand, if you simply want some of the interactivity and functionality of apps to be available on your site, this is a more cost-effective way to create that outcome.

In addition to being more affordable, web apps offer much more accessibility because they are accessed through a browser regardless of the operating system. This means that you could potentially gain a larger user base and a wider audience.

While some brands might prefer their users to download a mobile app, others might like that users can access their app without downloading it from one of the app stores. Even though a lot of apps out there are free, there is some investment by the user by simply downloading it onto their device.

Now let's look at the less rosy aspects of web apps. For one, they don't have the same integration with device functions as mobile apps. In plain English, this means that some of the specific features of your user's device might not be able to be accessed by your web app, such as their camera or microphone.

Web apps can also sometimes run at slower speeds than mobile apps depending on what is going on with the web browser. Basically, if the browser is experiencing problems, the web app will be impacted.

Finally, web apps also can't be accessed offline in the same way mobile apps can, and users won't be able to find your app in the most common app marketplaces of Google Play and the App Store. This means that some of your users might be looking for a digital product just like yours but not be able to find it.

Essentially a hybrid between regular old web pages and mobile apps, PWAs are able to offer an experience that is very similar to that of a native app. It's no wonder that companies like Uber, Instagram, The Washington Post, The Weather Channel, and Forbes have overhauled the mobile experience of their sites by switching to PWAs.

To be clear, a progressive web app isn't a mobile app. However, they can perform many of the same functions as native programs while being accessed through a web browser.

PWAs have been adopted by some of the biggest corporations for several reasons, including the fact that they work for every user regardless of browser, they're responsive to all of the various screen sizes, and they behave much like a native app when it comes to navigation and interaction.

In addition to those benefits, PWAs are identified as apps and indexed by search engines. Reactivation of the app is a breeze thanks to things like notifications, and users can even save the apps to their home screen on their mobile device without ever having to open the app store.

Finally, PWAs are a big step up from web apps because they are available for offline use.

Of course, there are definitely downsides to this option as well. PWAs can run on Apple devices since iOS 11.3, but they aren't compatible with older devices. Additionally, a number of features on Apple devices can't be accessed by PWAs, including Face ID, Touch ID, Beacons, Bluetooth, battery information, serial, and more.

Since PWAs are still fairly new, it's not particularly a surprise that they aren't supported by outdated web browsers well. That being said, it could lead to user complaints depending on whether they have up-to-date browsers and devices.

Lastly, it's important to recognize that PWAs simply can't do everything mobile apps can. They aren't as battery efficient as native apps, and their performance isn't as good either. However, depending on the features and functionalities you need, you might find a PWA is a suitable alternative to the other options.

Are You Looking For the Right Team to Partner With For Your Next Digital Product?

Building an app of any kind is a big investment of time, money, and energy. One of the most predictable ways to get the results you want within your desired timeframe is to work with an experienced team of experts. At Planetary, we specialize in helping our clients turn their ideas into a reality, whether they're a Fortune 500 company or a small startup.

Are you searching for the right team to work with to build your next app development project? If so, 

 and let us know a little bit about what you're working on.

The Three Different App Types: Native vs Mobile vs Hybrid

At first glance, you might assume that quality assurance and quality control are two similar terms that refer to the same process. While they are both integral parts of quality management, quality assurance is focused on planning to ensure quality requirements are fulfilled. In contrast, quality control activities ensure those requirements are fulfilled in practice.

Understanding the difference between QA and QC in web app development is essential if you want to keep costs down, stick to your project timeline, and provide the best possible user experience.

Let's dive into the crucial distinctions between quality assurance and quality control and the benefits of each process in web app development.

Quality assurance focuses on ensuring that all quality requirements are met as a part of quality management. All activities that monitor and verify the process of delivering the highest quality product or service and those that focus on preventing problems fall under the umbrella of QA.

When you're developing a web app, one of the first steps should include quality assurance planning. At the start of your project, you will want to outline the standards and regulations that your product needs to meet. When you engage in a complete system that gives assurance that compliance will be met, you are practicing quality assurance.

There are many examples of activities that fall within the scope of quality assurance, including:

The goal of QA is to ensure that the customer's needs are met as much as possible and that the final product is free from potential defects. An entire organization ideally participates in the quality assurance process, including leadership, the product team, and the customers they serve. Some companies might choose to incorporate third parties into the quality assurance process.

There are many compelling reasons why quality assurance should be a part of your web app development process. Let's look at the major benefits of making QA a priority.

With web app development, prevention is the best cure for any problem. It can feel frustrating to spend so much time planning when you want to begin development on your app, but the truth is that you will save a lot of time preempting issues rather than dealing with them when they arise.

Are you wondering how long you should expect development to take from start to finish? This guide goes over 

It's a lot more expensive to fix problems than to put in the time to avoid them from the get-go. This doesn't just mean that it costs more in terms of hours of labor, but it can also impact the way customers relate to your web app and whether they choose to use your app long-term.

Essentially quality assurance can help keep your upfront costs down while saving you money on fixing bugs later on, while also ensuring that you don't lose customers down the road when preventable problems arise.

When you're investing so much time, money, and energy into a web app, you want to feel pretty confident that the end product will fit your initial vision. The quality assurance process oversees the entire project and ensures that the final app meets the standards and requirements you outlined at the start.

Quality assurance can help make sure errors don't appear pre- or post-launch. When teamed up with quality control and other quality management activities, you can feel confident that you did everything in your power to avoid hiccups at all stages of the process.

These days, increasing security and preventing data leaks are essential steps in any web app development project. Your quality assurance plan can outline your requirements for safety and security, and your implementation of QA activities can ensure that your app and customers aren't compromised by hackers.

The last thing you want is to release your app only to receive largely negative feedback from your customer base. Quality assurance helps you create a product that boosts your reputation rather than harm it.

Finally, quality assurance practices can ensure that your customers have a satisfying experience using your app. The better the user experience when engaging with your app, the more likely they will come back again and again.

Another essential part of quality management is 

. During this process, defects in the product or bugs are identified and fixed to ensure that the desired quality standards are met. When an issue or problem is pinpointed, a resolution must be found and implemented before customers receive the product.

This is the final gateway a digital product must pass through before it is delivered to the end user.

Some examples of activities that fall within the scope of quality control include:

Are you on the fence about whether you should take the time and resources to stress test your web app? Before you decide to forgo this opportunity, read this post about 

Both QA and QC are essential parts of the web development process you won't want to skip. Here are some of the most compelling pros of incorporating quality control activities into your app development process.

Just like quality assurance, quality control helps to keep your costs down. Rather than losing customers when there are bugs at launch or having to make expensive fixes down the road, QC lets you release an error-free finished product.

During the quality control process, you'll find that common errors are revealed. This isn't just useful because it helps make sure your launch is a success, but it also allows you to be better prepared for your next web app project.

Develops and Promotes Quality Awareness Among Employees

You likely have a lot of different minds coming together to create your new web app. Taking quality control seriously helps every team member understand how important quality is in the finished product and app management down the road.

Curious to know how many developers you'll need to build your new digital product? Learn how many developers you need to build your web app 

You've gone to the trouble and expense of creating a new app and marketing the heck out of it. When your users are finally able to interact with your digital product, you want to make a lasting, positive first impression. Quality control is absolutely essential if you want your customers to be satisfied from the start.

We all know just how important first impressions are, and a clunky launch can be devastating to your organization. On the other hand, your entire brand's reputation can receive a substantial boost when your error-free, user-optimized app hits the market.

Understanding the difference between QA and QC is essential for a successful web app development process. There are a number of major distinctions you'll want to understand before beginning your project.

One of the primary differences between quality assurance and quality control is when they happen during the course of a project. Quality assurance includes designing a QA management system that precedes the rest of the project to help avoid outcomes where defects occur. In short, QA intends to be preventative so that the process can move steadily toward completion with the fewest number of bumps in the road.

Quality control, on the other hand, deals with those bumps in the road when you do encounter them. After products are developed or well on their way to completion, quality control focuses on testing products to make sure that everything is in good working order.

The activities that fall within quality assurance exist to outline the quality standards that will need to be met during design, development, sales, and advertising. They essentially create a roadmap for teams to follow, defining the requirements and standards of the project.

Quality control activities confirm that the web app meets the standards outlined in the quality assurance stage of the process. This part of development is implemented before distribution to verify specific elements of the app.

QA Is About the Process While QC Is About the Product

If you've ever developed a web app before, you likely know that a vast array of issues can crop up along the way. Quality assurance is focused on the development process from start to finish, helping to predict and prevent problems before they happen to keep your project on track.

This can include process management, change control management, documentation, personnel training, audits, and more.

While quality assurance acts as a guiding light during the process, quality control focuses on the product itself. The main aim of QC is to make sure that the final web app is of the highest quality and complies with all of the standards that were defined at the start of the project.

A wide variety of activities are included in QC, such as product sampling, batch monitoring, inspection, validation, and testing. These processes help ensure that the web app is high-quality and provides the best possible experience for the end user.

Quality assurance is a part of the web app development process that looks at the entire system as a whole and establishes standards that make sure inputs are safe and effective. 

Quality control, on the other hand, sets its sights on the outputs of the web app. Once the product is complete or near completion, quality control measures each part of the product to make sure it is ready for launch.

The entire quality management team is involved when you implement a quality assurance strategy. Together, they help to design the quality measures that will be followed during development and build a standard operating procedure.

Usually, quality control is orchestrated by a smaller segment of the team. These individuals are tasked with making sure that the web app follows the standards and requirements while documenting what they find.

The Importance of Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Not engaging in effective quality management can create outcomes that range from minorly problematic to catastrophic. Though it's unlikely that your failure to perform QA or QC will make international headlines, you can glean just how essential quality management is from some of recent history's major mishaps like the 

The Three Mile Island incident occurred in the late 1970s and was the worst nuclear disaster in American history. Through a failure of quality management– a combination of technical errors and human mistakes– a nuclear reactor experienced a partial meltdown. This is, of course, an extreme example of what can go wrong when you don't practice effective quality management, but it helps to illustrate how minor problems can create disastrous outcomes.

While the problems associated with the iPhone 4 release qualify in the realm of "first world problems" compared to the Three Mile Island incident, it's perhaps a bit closer to home when discussing quality management for tech products.

Though Apple quickly recovered from the mishap, failures in quality management led to the release of a much-anticipated smartphone that frequently and suddenly dropped calls. While you'd think that the ability to make calls on a product that was primarily marketed as a phone is essential, the issue managed to slip through the cracks to the extent that Apple conducted a voluntary recall to help fix the issue after having sold millions of the devices.

Are You Looking For a Partner to Help Develop Your Web App?

When you incorporate quality assurance and quality control into your development procedure, you can avoid preventable problems and ensure that your release is as successful as possible. Working with an experienced team you can trust is an essential part of achieving your desired outcome when it comes to your web app development project.

Are you looking for the right team to help you build your new web app? Reach out and 

The Difference Between QA and QC in Web App Development

The average timeline for building an app from start to finish ranges from 2 months to 9 months, depending on the complexity of the product, the number of features, the experience of the team, and other factors.

When you create a schedule for your app development project, your goal is to stay on track and release your final product on the expected launch date. However, there are a lot of different problems that can pop up to stall your project and push your whole timeline back.

As with most things, prevention is the best cure for a drawn-out app development project. So let's look at eight ways to ensure your whole team can stick to your initial timeline.

The more you know about the most common setbacks in app development, the more prepared you can be to overcome these obstacles when they crop up. Even better than that, by anticipating potential problems, you can devise solutions that allow you to avoid project slowdowns altogether.

According to a poll conducted on Twitter by an Intuit developer, the main reason that projects never get off the ground in the first place is limited resources. As you might imagine, this is also one of the most common reasons project progress slows to a screeching halt.

It's important to understand that many variables go into building a complete app, and you can't simply go off of the upfront price you're quoted by developers.

Sure, the bulk of your budget will go toward the cost of labor. Some people might try to save money by hiring offshore developers or piecing together a team of freelancers, but these options are less predictable than hiring an experienced domestic team.

Regardless of how you choose to build your team, building an app is a big investment of both money and time. Estimates of how much it costs to build an app range enormously, typically stretching from as little as $5k to more than $500k.

Making sure you have the resources you need for development, marketing, market research, launch-related costs, and more, will ensure that one of the main reasons for project setbacks doesn't occur.

Another major cause of stalling app development is unrealistic expectations. If you expect an entire app to be built overnight, you're going to find that your project is "experiencing setbacks." However, any developer will tell you that the project isn't actually stalled but that the timeline was unreasonable from the start.

Working to understand how long each stage of the project will take can help you build a timeline that straddles the fine line between ambitious and realistic. Of course, you want your project to be launched as fast as possible, but you also don't want to stress your team and yourself unnecessarily by creating a timeline that can never be met.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the nature of your project changing during development. However, the more the app strays from the original concept, the more obstacles you might face on the path that turns your idea into a reality.

As we'll talk about a little later on, clear communication is absolutely key in app development. Miscommunication can be costly, frustrating, and a reason that projects stall. If your developers spend a significant amount of time on a phase without clear instructions to help them suit your specific requirements, it could mean that they have to start over from scratch when it comes to light that they have been heading down the wrong path for quite some time.

If you try to save money hiring inexperienced developers for a complicated project, you might find that you are faced with setback after setback as they struggle to complete each phase of the project. Similarly, being inexperienced as a person tasked with managing developers can mean that there is miscommunication, wasted resources, and an undesirable finished product.

8 Ways to Stop Your App Development Project From Stalling

Luckily, there are many things you can do before you even start your project to help reduce the probability that your project will stall during development. Here are eight key methods you can use to ensure that your team is able to stick to your timeline and create a superior product at the end of the development process.

When you're beginning an app development project, one of your first tasks will be building a team to build your digital product. It can be tempting to hire the cheapest freelancers you can find to keep costs down, but this only increases the likelihood that you will experience setbacks along the way.

The hourly rates or flat project fees of more experienced freelancers might seem steep, but you have to realize that they will be much more capable of estimating how long a project will take and executing it efficiently. Similarly, hiring an experienced app development team that has a proven track record in leading projects from concept and implementation to support will ensure that your project stays on track.

Choosing the right team from the beginning is essential to avoid slowdowns in your project. 

 can be difficult, costly, and setback your product launch significantly.

Perhaps the most important factor in whether your project will be completed on time has to do with setting realistic goals. It can be tempting to create an extremely ambitious timeline; after all, you want your app to get onto the market as soon as possible.

In reality, it's important to set goals based on a realistic sense of how long each step will take and incorporate some buffer room for setbacks and obstacles. When you work with an experienced app development team, they'll be able to help you project how long each phase of the project will take so that you can build a timeline that fits the actual scope and extent of the project.

When you have concerns or questions about resources and expectations, communicating them clearly as soon as you can will help avoid project setbacks.

This might sound like obvious advice, but clear and effective communication isn't as easy as it sounds. You don't just want to pass on information to your development team but work to help them understand the intent behind your requests and why you are prioritizing certain aspects of the project over others.

At the same time, having a communicative development team is key. Even the most experienced teams will run into hiccups along the road, but the best teams will keep you in the loop about what is going on so you can understand how it could impact the timeline of your project.

The more you and your team can communicate as app development progresses, the less likely you will be to run into issues that stall your project in a problematic way. The more you know, the better able you are to come up with workable solutions in a timely fashion.

4. Create a Comprehensive Project Schedule

To help reduce the occurrence of issues that stall your project, you'll want to create a 

This document will outline a detailed project timeline in addition to all of the organizational resources that will be used to complete each phase and task.

One of the most important elements of a successful project is collecting and analyzing data along the way. Setting good goals is a great start, but they aren't nearly as useful as they can be when you don't track and measure the progress of your project along the way. The more information you're able to collect, the more transparency there will be in your project, and the less likely you will be to get surprised by a major setback.

It's important to have systems set up to track your budget, task completion, and quality. You will want to make it a regular part of your process to check in on the project's progress so you can foresee any potential problems or adjust your schedule as necessary.

When you're creating an app, you might be tempted to reduce the number of steps between the formulation of the idea and the launch of the product. For this reason, the idea of taking the extra step to build an MVP might not be appealing to you. In reality, though, creating an MVP can save you time and money in app development.

) is a version of your app that only contains the essential features. By making this barebones draft of your app, you and your team have the chance to test out the most important aspects of your project. Before you put the time and resources toward creating a finished product, you can gain valuable feedback about and insight into whether you need to tweak your development project for the best possible 

App development can get pretty pricey, but underestimating how much the total project will cost will stall your project when you realize that the whole process will cost a lot more than you expected. While the cost of development is a big part of your budget, there are other costs you will need to incorporate when determining how to allocate your resources.

For example, it's not uncommon for people to underestimate the cost of market research or even ignore it altogether. This is an essential step that can't be skipped– after all, you need to know that there is a market for your product before you go through the trouble and expense of building it.

On top of that, it's easy to overlook the additional costs that crop up after launch. For example, advertising, bug-fixing, and ongoing maintenance will need to be considered when creating your initial budget structure.

8. Leverage Existing Frameworks When Possible

A common phenomenon among younger engineers is the temptation to try and build software from scratch rather than leveraging existing frameworks. Also referred to as "reinventing the wheel," you are much more likely to run into unanticipated setbacks when your developers are trying to build their own framework from the ground up.

Using existing frameworks whenever possible can save you time, money, and headaches. It is particularly important in specific areas of development, including:

To help avoid the outcome of a stalled project, try to use some trusted open-source components if they're available. If you find that your developer wants to "roll their own" framework, ask them to explain why this is the more appropriate option than leveraging an existing framework.

It's also worth noting that it can be difficult to support a component that a developer wrote from scratch after they leave the project. When you are planning out your project, it's a good idea to build a plan ahead of time regarding how you will deal with developers no longer working to support your app down the road.

Lastly, it's important that the focus of your app development is aimed in the right direction. Most likely, the primary goal is to build an application that meets a business objective or solves a problem for your customer. When developers are instead fixated on a goal of building new architectural components or frameworks, it means that the energy and resources behind your project are being misallocated to some extent.

Finding the Right App Development Team Will Ensure Your Project Stays on Track

Unforeseen events can always occur when you're developing an app, but following these steps should help you prevent predictable problems from rearing their ugly heads during the process. There are a lot of different moving parts when building a digital product, and issues can arise at any point, but meticulous planning while maintaining a flexible mindset can go a long way.

One of the biggest factors that impact the predictability of your development timeline is the team you choose to work with. The more experienced the developers you're working with, the more confident you can be that everything will go according to the original plan.

Are you looking for the right team to help you develop your app? Drop us a line and 

Planning is absolutely essential when you're building a piece of software. Whether you're expecting to do the brunt of the labor yourself or you will be outsourcing these efforts, it's crucial to have a clear sense of your timeline, costs, and more.

When you have a new idea, it can be tempting to hop right into the development phase. However, you're more likely than not to run into expensive and time-consuming problems if you don't create an overarching plan of attack for your project.

Are you wondering what steps you'll need to take to plan for and develop your next software project? Let's take a look.

It might seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people skip the all-important step of creating a cohesive and solid concept for their new product. Maybe you are constantly coming up with new ideas for awesome apps and have to choose between them, or maybe you know you want to create an app but aren't sure for what purpose.

It's important to realize that there are more than four million apps on the App Store and Google Play. This means that you don't want to simply revamp something that already exists in multiple iterations. That being said, your app could be the next big thing if you come up with an idea that combines existing ideas and adds new features that users can't get anywhere else.

Some of the most popular apps have emerged because the creators made apps that solved problems they had personally. All successful businesses solve a consumer's problem, and software products are no exception. If you're struggling to come up with the perfect idea, consider problems you see around you that need a solution and whether or not you could provide that fix with your app.

Once you've come up with an idea (or a short list of ideas) that you're happy with, it's not time to press play yet. First, you need to validate the idea with 

There are several questions you'll want to answer as a part of this step in the process, including:

Who is my target demographic? Who do I expect will use this product?

What kind of data will go into the product, and what will the output be?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competition's products? What functionalities and features do they offer?

Are there regulations and laws surrounding this type of app?

Once you have confidence that your app has a target audience and that your idea is viable, you can move on to the next stages. If you realize that your idea doesn't actually hold water, don't worry. Simply return to step one and continue generating and analyzing ideas until you find the right project concept.

It's worth taking your time to get this part of the process right. After all, it doesn't matter how sleek your design is or how great the 

 is if there isn't a market out there that wants to use your product.

It's been said that one hour of planning can save ten hours of doing. When it comes to software development, thorough planning can also save a lot of money.

You'll want to be meticulous in the planning stage and create a complete timeline of how your project will unfold. It can feel frustrating to spend so long on planning when you're eager to get your awesome idea to launch, but you can avoid a lot of hangups and obstacles down the road if you spend some time making a map for the project.

As a part of planning, you'll want to outline all of the necessary steps that need to be taken and break them down into tasks, subtasks, and steps. You'll want to determine exactly what roles you'll need to fill when it comes to building a team and who will be responsible for what tasks. The more clearly you can define the work that needs to be done and the resources that you will need, the better you can estimate an accurate timeline and budget.

To get a little more specific, here are some of the things you'll want to get a handle on during the planning phase of your project:

Building a general timeline and delineating the primary stages of development

Conceptualizing the team you will need to build and how you plan on building your team

Breaking down what needs to be done into tasks and subtasks and assigning who will be responsible for what

How you plan on communicating with your team and investors

Estimates for how long it will take and how much it will cost

Your anticipated release dates and the different types of releases

Remember, building a timeline isn't a set it and forget it type of thing. This is something you want to revisit frequently. It's best to treat your timeline as a living document rather than something that is carved in stone– an important part of the process is a willingness to be adaptable and flexible when necessary.

Once you have a thorough plan for your project, you'll need to pull together your dream team. It's worth noting that it can be pretty time-consuming to recruit the right people for the project, but it's also so important that you really don't want to rush this part of the project.

You have a number of options when it comes to building a team.

The first option is to build an in-house team

. This means you're hiring employees, paying payroll taxes, potentially offering benefits, etc. As you might imagine, this isn't a practical or accessible option to many small app developers, but bigger companies might choose to build their own team on staff.

The second option is hiring a collection of freelancers to create your app

. This can be a relatively affordable way to produce your software project if all goes well. If you run into issues with one or more of the people you hire, though, it can end up being an enormous headache at best and a catastrophe at worst.

Thirdly, you can hire a full-service software development company to build your product

. There are a lot of benefits to choosing this option– for one, you're hiring a team of experts that have a history of working together and producing great products. If you string together a team of freelancers, on the other hand, you are essentially gambling on their ability to work well together as a team. Hiring a software development company also offers more predictability when it comes to quality, precise quotes for projects, and ongoing maintenance and support services than freelancers.

Conceptual designing is the next step in your project plan. It's not time yet to start playing around with color schemes, typography, and other aesthetic considerations. Instead, you'll want to focus first on the architecture and functionality of the project. By making UX decisions that make your software easier to navigate and intuitive for your user, you're setting yourself up for success.

Once you have your project's architecture done, you can start thinking about the user interface and how you can make your app visually appealing to your users.

UI and UX are key to your project's success or failure. 

 that have a bad user experience on a site are less likely to return to it, which means that you really want to get it right the first time.

As a part of your design process, there are a lot of different 

tools to help you build wireframes and prototypes

. There are options available for all budgets, ranging from simple and free to powerful and pretty pricey.

Now it's time to take your design and documentation and transform it into an actual piece of software. It might feel like it took a long time to get to this stage, but you'll be glad you did all of the front-loaded work to make this step in the process as seamless as possible.

Developing your product will be one of the longest parts of the project. You might find it useful to break this part down into two different stages: 

 (MVP) is an increasingly popular step in the software development process. Rather than setting out to create your finished product from the get-go, creating an MVP can end up saving you time and money in the long run. When you release your polished finished product and skip the MVP stage, you might find that you have to work backward to make costly and time-consuming changes.

When you make an MVP, you're creating an early version of your product that only has the most essential features necessary to test the product with users. This is a stripped-down, bare-bones version of the final product you expect to offer down the road that you can use to collect data and feedback about your product 

 you launch it with all the bells and whistles.

Not all app creators choose to build an MVP, but it can be very useful as a part of the final development process. Through the data and feedback collected, developers can help fix any app problems or make changes. This is also when you can add any additional features that weren't considered essential enough to be included in the MVP.

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