How Much Does It Cost to Build an Agricultural App?

The Coronavirus pandemic and certain weather events brought trouble to the farming business worldwide. Farmers face increasing challenges, including climate change, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss, as well as having to manage consumers’ changing tastes in food and concerns about how it is produced.

Fortunately, many of these issues can be resolved by agricultural mobile solutions. But how much does it cost to build an agricultural app? In a nutshell, the price can vary from $25,000–$150,000. Quite a range, isn’t it? That’s because mobile app development costs depend on many factors, the most essential being the complexity of the app.

In this article, we will offer you a glimpse into the common features of agricultural apps, and consider the cost of developing these apps.

Shall we begin?

This statistic shows the forecast market value of smart farming worldwide in 2017 and 2022. The global market size of smart agriculture is expected to grow from approximately 9.58 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 to 23.14 billion U.S. dollars by 2022

Types of Mobile Apps for Farming

Here are the main types of agriculture apps that can help you improve your farming business.

• • Weather forecast apps. These apps provide farmers with key insights into the conditions of their crops, and upcoming risks to production or growing.
  • Mapping and GPS tracking apps. These are used to track planting and tilling, and to keep track of which areas have been sprayed or fertilized.

• • Soil monitoring apps. You will receive crucial information about the quality, moisture levels, and soil composition on your farm.

• Field scouting apps. You can observe, record, and access information on pests and diseases affecting your crops. Moreover, these apps provide in-field decision support when it comes to treatment.
• Time tracking apps. These apps are used to monitor employee hours, calculate payroll, and even assess worker productivity.
• Record keeping apps. Mobile record-keeping apps help farmers maintain and store accurate records of harvests and the use of sprays and pesticides. It also allows you to schedule planting and other production practices.
• Social networking apps for farmers. These apps allow for real-time information sharing in an online community, so growers can help each other, no matter the distance.
• Online marketplace apps. You can connect to other professionals to buy or sell equipment, such as tractors, backhoes, combines, etc.
• Tank mix calculators. Such apps allow you to calculate tank mixes based on the use of sprayer output rates, field sizes, and tank recipes.
• Cattle management apps. Livestock management apps can keep track of the cattle and provide up-to-date information on a flock or herd.

• Apps for field farmers. These apps enable farmers to better determine output, use field machinery more efficiently, and optimize work orders. For example, it can be a time tracking app.
• Farm inspection apps. Several obligatory inspections should be done on farms for safety reasons. Using the farm inspection apps, you can automate the inspection process and create digital checklists.
• Farm management apps. These all-inclusive apps will help you to keep accurate records, monitor teams, and keep tabs on the usage of chemicals. Also, you can schedule and manage production events, and make the right decisions for your farm at the right time. Farm management software can include aspects of any or all the app types above to create a more complete picture of farming operations.

The Most Popular Features of Agriculture Apps

The set of features depends on the main goal of your app, as well as your budget. It may be tricky to consider which ones to include in your agriculture apps for farmers. It’s a good idea to create an MVP with basic features, and then add advanced ones according to the demands of your target market.

• GPS and location-based services
• Chat
• Broadcasting and video calls
• Camera and machine vision
• Calendar
• Push notifications
• Weather forecast
• Listings of agricultural goods
• A payment gateway for the agriculture marketplace
• Table of livestock diseases and treatments
• Data analytics
• Integration with drones

How Much Does It Cost to Build an Agricultural App?

Like many other apps, agricultural applications can be divided into three categories according to their complexity: basic, moderate, and complex.

• A basic app for an agricultural startup will cost about $25,000 to $60,000. This usually involves minimum viable features and regular UI components.
• A moderate app will cost you from $40,000 to $85,000. This app may include custom UI and payment features, integration with APIs, and an improved back-end server.
• A complex app will take around $60,000 to $150,000. Such apps include advanced functionality, custom animations, integration with third-party services, complex back-end services with several types of database relationships, and more.

The total project timeline, depending on the scope of your requirements, can range from 4 to 26 weeks.

Please note that these are approximate cost to build an agricultural app, and the price cannot be accurately determined without the specifications.

What Influences the Cost of Agricultural App Development?

The cost of developing an agricultural app certainly depends on the software development time and the developer’s hourly rates. But you should also pay attention to many other factors that are necessary to successfully implement an idea. The most influential factors which determine the final cost to build an app are:

• Software development company type and location
• Team members and their experience
• Number and complexity of app features
• Back-end infrastructure and connected APIs
• Complexity of UX/UI design
• Custom designs and animations
• Development approach (native, mobile web, hybrid, etc.)
• Number of platforms to be developed (iOS, Android, web, etc.)
• Servers, APIs, and libraries
• App Store and Google Play fees

You should also take into account all the post-release expenses that go into growing a product:

• App updates
• Customer support
• Back-end server maintenance
• Cloud hosting
• Legal support
• Marketing and promotion

Note that many app development companies provide post-release support as an additional service.

Top Agriculture Apps to Consider before Developing Yours

Below are some popular farming apps that lead the industry, set standards for future software products for agriculture, and optimize the work process for farmers.

• Agronote. This app allows you to create expenses and revenue records, and track livestock and machinery procedures.
• AkerScout. This crop scouting application helps identify and prioritize crop damage to address problem areas needing immediate attention.
• Bushel. The app allows you to share important information and documents from an accounting system straight to their producers’ mobile devices.
• Crop Nutrient Advisor. The app allows you to identify crop nutrient deficiencies, get product recommendations, check spray tank compatibility, and more.
• Conservis. This farm management system allows you to streamline the work process, and uses analytics to gather, store, and analyze all the data in one place.
• Agworld. This cloud-based mobile farm manager app for collaboration provides quick scheduling and budgeting.

Summing up

Agricultural applications lead to reduced costs and increased efficiency for agricultural businesses.

If you need to develop software or create a mobile application for hassle-free management and tracking of your agribusiness – feel free to contact us. We’ll answer all your questions and provide you with a free estimate for your project.