How Much to Charge for Private Apps?

[PaulTR]

Good afternoon!

I recently built an app for a local zoo and donated it to them as my senior project. It should be live within the next week or two once they've added some information to it.

My next step is I plan to approach a couple other zoos in the coming week and ask for their business, as I would like to keep up with Android development and I will be graduating soon. My question is how much should I charge for these apps, and should I simply provide the app and source, or charge for support - and if so, how much should I charge for the support and updating?

The app is mostly view based - a single activity per animal, event, activity, etc. There's some pages that have animations for images fading in and out, an RSS feed parser for Facebook and Twitter, and support for Google Cloud Messaging.

 

[Davdi]

I'd put the App in the play store if you want to retain control over it. Supporting software for a 3rd party can be a nightmare, avoid it if possible. I see your options as being:
App in play store - charge $2.99 or so. (you have support obligation AFAIK
If you sell the app (source code, rights etc) then you give up all rights to it.
If you lease the software, then you definitely have some support obligation.
Open source it under GPL or CC license. You get nothing for the app, and it HAS to be free (as in beer AND speech) but you may still have support obligations.

I think you need professional business AND legal advice for this.

 

[davidmanvell]

You may consider the app for other uses too. Museums as well as zoos for instance?

 

[SiempreTuna]

I'm not sure that comparisons with Play apps for regular punters are meaningful here - I would have thought a better comparison would be with software companies making business software.

In that case, pricing is normally based on what the market can stand. You could try asking the zoo that is currently using your app how much they feel it's worth to them - or better: how much they would be able to pay for it. I'm guessing zoo budgets are kinda constrained and pricing your app so no-one can afford it isn't really going to work too well for you, even if the app's 'worth' more.