SMBs Aren't Investing in Mobile Apps

A third of small businesses (32 percent) invested less than $10,000 building their mobile apps, according to research by The Manifest.

Additionally, more than half of small businesses (52 percent) spent less than $30,000 and were satisfied with the results their apps produced, implying that small businesses can create quality apps without spending a lot of money.

Among some of the other findings were the following:

• One in three apps (34 percent) with reported quality issues were made for less than $5,000.
• The most popular features in small business mobile apps are mobile payments (49 percent), multi-tasking (38 percent), voice search capabilities (35 percent), personalization features (35 percent), social and community components (32 percent), mCommerce (32 percent), and location-based services (31 percent).
• The features that were most satisfying to small businesses were wearable device compatibility (92 percent), voice search (90 percent), and machine learning (89 percent).

Gergo Vari, CEO and founder of recruiting and talent acquisition platform provider Lensa, sees the value in businesses balancing cost-effectiveness and high-quality functionality when creating mobile apps.

"If a small business wants to compete with larger businesses in terms of features and quality, then it will need to expand its budget," Vari said. "However, if a small business is looking to create a basic app that meets the needs of its customers, it may be able to get by with a smaller budget."