App built on the cheap?

When you're building a house you have a few ways to reduce the cost:

1) Build it yourself (literally, roll-the sleeves up and get the hands dirty).
2) Employ direct labour and project manage it yourself.
3) Buy a flat-pack/kit-house.

Of course there are major downsides to any of these approaches

1) Is hard work and requires much effort on your part and of course you need to know what you're doing.
2) Requires you spend much time managing the project and necessitates a good understanding of the architecture/build-process/building regulations etc etc etc.
3) Is quick and relatively easy as most of the house is pre-fabricated from a catalogue of existing designs. Compromises will be required in the house design as you're choosing from a relatively limited menu of options.

Notice that looking for an apprentice builder does not appear on the 'ways to significantly reduce costs' list, although it may contribute a saving if used in conjunction with options 1/2/3.

The App Build equivalent:

1) Build it yourself (literally, roll-the sleeves up get on the keyboard).
2) Employ direct labour and project manage it yourself (hire a programmer/graphic designer).
3) Use an app-building kit/web-site/service.

The downside to these approaches is:

1) Is hard work and requires much effort on your part and of course you need to know what you're doing.
2) Requires you spend much time managing the project and necessitates a good understanding of the architecture/build-process/app-store rules etc etc etc.
3) Is quick and relatively easy as most of the App is pre-fabricated from a catalogue of existing options. Compromises will be required in the App design as you're choosing from a relatively limited menu.

Notice that looking for a student does not appear on the 'ways to significantly reduce costs' list, although it may contribute a saving if used in conjunction with options 1/2/3.


It may help if you gave an overview of the App and the platforms you expect it to run on.

If someone tells you they can do it without at least asking the following questions, 00833827 is correct. It doesn't bode well. If you don't have the answers to these questions.........

QUESTIONS:
What platforms will the App run on?
Do you want a native App or will an html5 App suffice?
What sort of time-scales.
Do you have a graphic designer.
Do you have a design/wire-frames already or is this person expected to do the analysis and design too?
Does it need a back-end/infrastructure/database or is it a stand-alone app.