Ultimate Guide to Mobile App Development Pricing in Malaysia

Mobile app development in Malaysia involves a lot of effort. It requires talents with the right skillsets, the right management and other external factors in a development project. 

Sketching an idea on a paper, brainstorming over the idea, requirements, and specifications writing, and finding a mobile app development vendor.

More companies prefer to create custom mobile apps compared to off-the-shelf templates or scripts. 

These templates often need businesses to adapt their processes to conform to the applications. On the other hand, the customized app is instead tailored to the business’s unique needs.

Note: This isn’t a guide to building a development team or the resources needed to develop an app.

By reading this article, you will have a better idea of the costs involved in building an app.

Mobile App Development in Malaysia Cost in 2024

How is App Development Cost Estimated?

The features of the app are the main factor that determines the cost of a mobile app development project. 

This is because features like image posting can be done quicker than ordering via a food delivery app or e-commerce.

Let’s take Uber as an example. Whenever a user makes a booking, the User app takes the chosen pick-up location to find a nearby driver. The driver then receives a notification on his Driver app notifying him of the incoming job. The driver has to accept the job and only then can the user can track the location of the driver.

Can you see the complexity of the booking of an e-hailing service? It contains 2 apps to run the whole process and it only works with the help of Google Maps API integration. This type of feature requires an experienced team of developers to develop.

Food delivery app development is more complex when there are 3 apps involved.  The 3-way interaction occurs between the User (customer), the Merchant (food seller), and the Rider (deliveryman).

The formula used to calculate app development cost is as follows:

(Time x Team) + Other Costs = Rough Development Cost

Mobile App Development in Malaysia: The Basics

Project Complexity

Planning the requirements of the project is a very crucial stage in every custom software project development. 

US Organizations and Companies waste USD30B annually on unused software features. Sometimes, features may seem like nice-to-haves. In reality, some features may not even fit with your existing process or users’ needs.

Approaching the development process with a clear understanding of your business priorities will reduce the development time.

The law of mobile app development in Malaysia dictates that more complex features require more skilled developers. This, in turn, drives up the costs.  

UI designs that are more complex or beautiful will also take longer for the app developer to work on.

Team (Hiring)

Building a team to develop the project is the hardest and most expensive part of mobile app development in Malaysia. 

Before we go into the development team, let’s talk about the problems in hiring developers.

Choosing the right tech stack is extremely important not only for the app’s scalability but also for building the team. We at SegWitz regularly run studies on the development job market to understand the supply and demand. 

React Native and Flutter are very high in demand for hybrid development. However, the supply of good developers is lower than the demand. The same goes for NodeJS developers where the supply is lower than demand. 

Companies are willing to fork out crazy salaries to attract good talents. This is due to the increased number of startups being funded by Venture Capitalists (VCs). This leaves us no chance but to increase and adapt to the market. 

This is a very huge driving cost in any app development project. You might have to anticipate the issue of staff turnover and have backup developers willing to work with you. 

Any good development team needs at least one vigilant HR Manager who sources and hires good developers. A big reason why in-house development often fails is because of insufficient developers or not having the right developers. All that or developers leaving the team during crucial times. 

Once you have planned the requirements of your projects, you need to identify the type of developers required to work on your project. There are 2 ways of mobile app development in Malaysia: native app development and hybrid app development. 

Hybrid App Development:

You can build the app using a hybrid framework wherein the app is built once and then published to AppStore and PlayStore. 

Some Hybrid frameworks are: React Native, Flutter, IONIC & Cordova

Native App Development:

You will need to build the IOS version of the app using Swift and the Android version using Java Kotlin separately.

Source Code and Quality

Maintaining a good and clean code base is very important for the long term of any software. 

Oftentimes, we receive inquiries from companies with existing web applications or mobile apps built internally or by outsourced software development vendors. 

We’d always audit the source codes of projects before taking over. 80% of the time, we stumble upon poorly written codes which prevents us from taking over the project. 

The unfortunate reality of mobile app development in Malaysia is the clients who have paid exorbitant amounts for development outsourcing. This is a problem since the clients only see what’s happening in front and not how it is made behind the scenes. 

At SegWitz, we adhere to internal code-writing guidelines which all our developers are trained on. Therefore, we ensure well-written codes for any piece of software we develop. Our leader structure is essential in supervising the entire process to enforce code-writing quality.

Costs:

App Developer 

React Native Developer Salary

1-3 Years Experience RM 2,800 – RM 6,000

3-6 years Experience RM 6,000 – RM 12,000

You can find companies out there who are paying more for these similar positions but it depends on the applicants themselves. 

If you have a React Native applicant who has 2 years of React Native experience but 6 total years of experience in software development in other languages/frameworks, then you might need to pay more than RM7,000 in this case.

If you have an applicant who has 2 years of React Native experience since he started on React Native right after college, then this person’s salary might be lower than the applicant above. 

A lot of app projects nowadays consist of 2 or 3 apps. For example, if you are going to build a food delivery app, you will need to build 3 apps essentially. First, a useful app for users to order food. Second, a merchant app for the seller to list their food and sell,. Third, a rider app for riders to get jobs and deliver food. These projects that are increasingly common in mobile app development in Malaysia will require a minimum of at least 2 app developers. 

Web Back-End Developer

You will also need a web backend developer to write the Backend and the APIs. 

Here you need to really make a crucial decision since the backend will be the brain of your app. 

You can use many different frameworks/languages to make the web backend, such as PHP Laravel, NodeJS, Java, .Net, etc. Each backend framework/language has its own pros and cons. NodeJS is our choice of the backend framework because of the scalability and reliability it provides. 

NodeJS Developer Salary

1-3 Years Experience RM 4,000 – RM 8,000

3-6 Years Experience RM 6,000 – RM12,000

7 Years above RM 9,000 and above

You will need a really experienced backend developer for an app project because he must be able to quickly understand the requirements and put them in a logical flow. A good backend developer will think and develop in a way where when a large number of people trying to use your app, there won’t be any issues. 

You also need to ensure your backend developer also knows some DevOps to set up the server and do the deployment. You probably won’t need a DevOps Engineer on your team for the beginning stage. 

Web Frontend Developer

Every app has a web admin panel used for management purposes. Every time users or sellers sign up, their information will appear on the panel where you have the option to make changes. Information like past transactions appear on the transaction list alongside the orders, and who buys what. You can see whatever going through in the eCommerce in the admin panel with analytics and statistics. 

You will need a front-end developer to build an admin panel. There are many languages/frameworks you can use to build a web front-end. ReactJS, VueJS, Core HTML CSS JS and etc.

ReactJS/VueJS Developer Salary:

1-2 Years Experience RM 3,000 – RM 4,500

2-4 Years Experience RM 4,000 – RM 6,000

4 years++ RM 6,000 and above

Dev Team Lead

An experienced developer who is able to understand the business requirements and is also very well-versed in both app and backend development will really ensure the success of your development. Not having one is a big threat to your development.

At times, there will be some experienced app or backend developer who wants to take up the team lead role. Many times what happens is that this person’s time will be occupied in doing the development works and how is this person going to be able to review codes from other members and guide and execute the development based on the project? The focus will not be on managing the project. This is a cost-saving mechanism a lot of companies with in-house developers do, but it only works for very few.

The team lead also should be someone who can guide the developers in case of any issues with the codes.

Dev Team Lead Salary

6-11 Years Experience RM10,000 – RM 15,000

11 Years++ – RM15,000 and above

UI/UX Designer

You will need to make sure to design the full UI of the entire app before you even start the development. This will make sure the members involved in the development project know how the app will work and the app developer’s work will be easy if the UI is handed over to him in the early stage.

2-4 Years Experience – RM2,500 – RM5,000

4 Years++ – RM 5,000 and above

You probably won’t require a full-time UI designer, you can hire one on a contract basis or outsource which might cost you around RM100-RM200/screen. 

An average app has around 30-40 apps, which brings to the cost of RM3000-RM8000. 

Mobile App Development Team Costs:

4 Months Development	6 Months Development	9 Months Development
Minimum: RM80k	Minimum: RM120k	Minimum: RM180k

Did You Know?

Over 80% of mobile apps take 3+ months to develop; 40% of apps are developed in 6+ months

OutSystems Survey, 2018-19

Let’s Calculate How much the Development of an e-Commerce App Cost

e-Commerce App usually consists of:

1. User App: For users to browse items, add to cart, purchase and etc.

2. Seller App: For sellers to add their products, manage their orders and etc.

3. Admin Panel: For management purposes

Costs for Remote Team:

Talents Needed	RM/$
Team Lead (7 years of exp)	RM 10,000/month
React Native Developer (2 years of exp)	RM 4,000/month each – RM 8,000/month total
Backend Developer (5 years of exp)	Starts from RM1,000/year
UI/UX Designer (contract basis)	RM 3,000 – RM 5,000/one-time
TOTAL = Approx. RM23,000/month

Other Costs:

Costs	RM/$
Google Play Developer Account	USD25/one-time
Apple Developer Account	RM399/year
Server Hosting	Starts from RM1,000/year
SMS Gateway (if applicable)	Starts from RM0.09/SMS
Payment Gateway (if applicable)	Depends on Provider
Google Maps API(if applicable)

Development Timeline 4-5 months:

Team Members Cost 

RM92,000 – RM115,000

Contracted Talent Cost:

RM 3,000 – RM5,000

Other Costs:

RM 2,000 and above 

Total e-Commerce Development Costs start from RM97,000

These are the costs of a remote development team without taking into account any other costs that might be incurred at a later stage.

This is assuming that there is a very minimal change from the initial requirements planning during the development stage. Changing modules or features that have been already developed will incur more timeline than expected which will push the development costs more than the expected budget.

Threats To Your Development Project

1. Team member leaving, how fast can you hire a new one and get back to the momentum
2. Always changing specifications during development
3. How are you going to protect your source codes?

Influencing factors which determine the cost of building a mobile app

1. Number of app features
2. The complexity level of app features
3. Backend infrastructure and API complexity
4. The complexity level of UI Design
5. Experience of developers working on the project
6. Development Approach and Tech Stack (native app, hybrid app)
7. Number of apps and platforms to be developed

Ready to Transform Your Ideas into Reality?

At Segwitz, we’re passionate about turning your visions into powerful digital solutions. Whether you’re starting a new project or need to optimize an existing system, our team of expert developers is here to help.

Get in touch with us today and let’s build something amazing together!