Frequently asked questions

Summit Digital excels in the healthcare, fitness & wellness, AI, marketplace and fintech industries, with a strong track record of successful projects.

Our expertise also extends to education, construction, productivity, social networking, SaaS, information technology, travel & hospitality, and consumer products. This versatility enables us to adapt to diverse business needs and deliver value-driven solutions across various industries.

Many factors affect software costs across countries. Usually, it depends on living standards in outsourcing countries, tech stack, the quality of education, experience and reputation, team remoteness, communication skills, and service level.

Companies often opt to outsource software development when they don’t have an in-house IT team or lack the expertise to complete a particular project. Software development outsourcing allows you to take advantage of a broader talent pool, save application development costs, and save time on micromanagement. A new team can also give a fresh perspective on your project and help to optimize the established processes.

CTO as a service is a way of hiring a CTO part-time for your startup’s needs, using a vendor as an intermediary. You get a CTO’s services while the vendor handles all recruiting, administrative, and operational matters. 

A fractional CTO is a freelance CTO who provides on-demand service. 

The choice of the pricing model depends on many factors, including project duration, budget, goals, complexity, and the level of control you’d like to have

The time and material pricing model assumes you pay only for the time and resources spent on your project.

A fixed price model is based on an estimate of the volume of work that needs to be done. 

A dedicated software development team model is often used when you need to have dedicated developers working as a team or side by side with your in-house team. The client and the vendor agree on a fixed monthly payment for the entire team, and the client can either manage the work process on their side or have a dedicated PM as a part of the team. No matter how many hours the team puts in, the monthly cost is always the same.

Based on your project type, we can offer fixed price, time and material or a dedicated development team pricing model.

Fixed price offers complete predictability since all the details are thoroughly discussed and documented. In short, fixed price means the fixed scope of work, clear delivery schedule, and strict deadlines.

The major benefit is that you manage and control the development team and can upscale or downscale it when needed. Besides, you don’t have to cover administrative costs, yearly bonuses, sick leaves, or vacations.

You pay only for the work done, and you can play with priorities, remove or add features to keep the total cost in check and ensure the product still fits the market demand.

Similar to mobile app development, the cost of a web project depends on the complexity of your plans. Various APIs, third-party integrations, databases, and more for sure will add a lot to the web development cost. However, to give an idea of the initial cost, we can state that developing a simple web app will cost nearly as much as developing a simple iOS application. Think of it as a project with the front-end development only. To get a more precise estimate, feel free to drop us a line, and we’ll calculate the cost.

The cost of the Uber-like app is formed mainly by its specific features, like two types of users—drivers and passengers— a need for administration, quite a long development span because of the solution’s complexity, and more. But, roughly speaking, the Uber-like app may cost you somewhere between $33K -$65K. If you want to get the precise estimate for your Uber-like app, do contact us via this form.

The app’s price must be a balance between cost to build an app, quality of code, and time efficiency of the app development project. Usually, you can’t have three of them at a time. The outsourcing location matters here a lot as well. Contact us, and we’ll provide you with a quote for the preferred app type.

The estimated cost of building an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) varies depending on the scope and complexity of your MVP, intended platforms (e.g., web, iOS, Android), features and functionality you want to include in your MVP (we recommend having only one or two core features), design requirements and user experience you aim for, development team location, technology stack, testing and quality assurance, planned timeline, third-party integration, and future scalability

The cost of AI development depends on project complexity, existing data, the type of solution, and required integrations. Adapting existing models and using off-the-shelf AI solutions aren’t as expensive as you might think, but running costs can be high. You’ll need to carefully calculate all AI expenses (subscription, development, maintenance, infrastructure, salaries) to be sure your investment pays off. 

It depends on how you integrate Artificial Intelligence. Because AI-based apps don’t need code for every business logic, development can be faster and cheaper than traditional software development. However, an AI app will usually need more infrastructure and resources to support it, which can be expensive. 

You can break your project down into several stages, and we can agree that the pricing model can change on each stage depending on your needs. For example, you might want to choose a fixed price for the MVP development. After the release, you can go with either time and material or a dedicated development team pricing model to develop additional functionalities.

The discovery phase offers several benefits in terms of MVP development. It ensures that the project’s goals, target audience, product-market fit, and potential roadblocks are clearly determined. It helps estimate development cost and time accurately and ensures that the product will be user-centric. The research and discovery process forms the basis for a well-informed and efficient development project, preventing costly mistakes and increasing the chances of market success.

The discovery phase gives you a clear understanding of your goals, target audience, product-market fit, project complexity, length, costs, and potential obstacles. This lays the foundation for the rest of your project and helps you avoid costly mistakes. Learn more.

An estimate is the total number of hours it will take to develop an app. A timeline is a defined period that marks the start and the end of a specific project. It’s divided into tasks and subtasks that have to be completed within the set deadlines. Some of these tasks depend on each other, others can be done simultaneously. For example, the front-end team gets down to work after proper designs are available, while the back-end engineers can develop iOS and Android apps in parallel. The front-end developer makes final adjustments after the back-end is completed.

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the simplest version of a product, featuring only its core functionalities. Its primary purpose is to quickly launch in the market for user feedback quickly and to validate its viability or attract potential investors, especially for startups. MVPs are foundational in product development and essential to understanding user preferences, refining features, and cutting development time and costs. All of this ultimately results in a more robust and user-friendly final product.

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the simplest functional version of a product with core features, developed to test its viability in the market, gather user feedback, and validate its concept. It’s usually fully operational and addresses a real problem. Meanwhile, a prototype is a non-functional model used in the early design phase to visualize and refine a product’s appearance and UX. It lacks actual functionality and is used for internal testing and design validation. In short, an MVP is a working product for market testing, while a prototype is a design mockup for concept testing and refinement.

The discovery phase thoroughly investigates a project’s goals, the industry landscape, and user needs. It also includes the identification of project stakeholders, creating user roles and personas, a mockup design, a feature breakdown, and estimating project costs and timelines. Learn more.

Steps in the mobile app development process differ depending on the complexity of the application, but your mobile development project should include the following stages:

• Strategic planning of your idea implementation
• Discovery and research
• UX design
• UI design
• Actual development of your app, relying on continuous delivery methodology
• Quality assurance
• Deployment and support of the released app

Discovery phase deliverables typically include the Lean Canvas, user roles, a feature breakdown list, a technology proposal, and estimation artifacts. These documents summarize all the information related to your project and help to estimate accurate development cost and time, identify potential roadblocks, and develop a more user-centric product. Learn more.

Tips for moving from an MVP to a full-scale product:

• Focus on your MVP’s core functionality as a foundation for feasibility, market validation, and investor appeal.
• Balance speed and quality.
• Choose scalable technologies from the start.
• Prioritize one core feature and expand.
• Ensure a scalable MVP architecture.
• Emphasize user experience initially, then polish UI.
• Consider partnering with experts in building and scaling MVPs for startups.

To start working on a project, we have to gather a team of professionals with the relevant expertise that best matches the task at hand. Some of the key experts might be involved in other projects, so there might be a short wait time. But usually, the allocation process doesn’t take longer than one month.

The typical timeframe for developing an MVP for a startup ranges from 1 to 3 months. If it takes longer than two months, inadequate research or poor choice of toolkit may be to blame. However, in rare cases, MVP might require more time for iterations and user validation (up to six months).

We will invite you to our team’s daily stand-ups and weekly meetings for updates. To foster transparency, we’ll give you access to the team’s Trello and Jira boards. And, of course, every team includes project managers who make sure the communication between you and the team is effective.

The approach to building V.1 depends on how the MVP was initially constructed. If it was built with scalability in mind, it’s more efficient to build upon the existing foundation by adding new features. That’s our preferred approach. However, when a client presents us with an MVP, we thoroughly evaluate it first and make recommendations based on its architecture and goals. In some cases, it may be more efficient to rebuild certain aspects. Either way, our decision is guided by the most effective and cost-efficient strategy to meet the client’s objectives.

If your product comes with many features and regular updates, it’s highly recommended that you automate some types of quality assurance testing. This will shorten the testing time, save the tester’s labor cost, and ensure that your product is fully functional after each modification.

The quality assurance process should start early in the software development life cycle, ideally as soon as a project team receives the requirements, and be integrated into every stage of software development. At Summit Digital, in terms of our QA services, we follow these stages: test planning and estimation, test analysis, test design, test implementation and execution, test completion, as well as test monitoring and control, which can be applied to any software component, at any testing stage, and in parallel with any other testing activity.

The automation process starts with choosing test tools and building a framework. Then, one has to determine the scope of work, or testing areas. The third step includes planning the process, designing the format, and developing scripts. Next, you run the script to get the test report. The final step is ensuring further testing support to adjust the tests to new functions and features.

The difference is the degree of human intervention. In manual testing, a tester goes through each step of the process manually, whereas automated testing is run by special scripts and tools.

We always ask our clients to rely on our experience in software testing services and let us prove how thoroughly we analyze, implement, and control test activities and tasks. At the same time, we ask our clients to take an active part in providing and discussing documents of project requirements, as they’re critical to ensuring the expected outcome of the entire software development project

Our team has helped numerous companies to release products with high-quality code, well-tested usability, and a memorable user experience. We build our software testing services on best industry standards (like ISTQB certification), rely on automated testing as a practical approach within CI/CD paradigm, and work with a broad array of real devices and professional testing tools. On top of that, we thoroughly plan and carefully implement the above-mentioned test activities and tasks in a timely manner. 

We insist that any project scope must always include QA services. Unless a client has an in-house QA team, we attract our QA specialists to participate at any stage of SDLC. First, they compile test cases to cover the requirements. Second, they’re busy with the ongoing testing so that the programmers can immediately address found issues, saving project time this way. Next, before the release, it’s the regression testing time to ensure there are no bugs left before deploying to production.

A quality assurance engineer is a professional who is aware of all potential roadblocks on the project and can identify them at an early stage. They speed up the process of development, as developers do not have to waste time re-testing the app in progress.

CTO as a service is a way of hiring a CTO part-time for your startup’s needs, using a vendor as an intermediary. You get a CTO’s services while the vendor handles all recruiting, administrative, and operational matters. 

A fractional CTO is a freelance CTO who provides on-demand service. 

Usually, there are four people in a team. A front-end developer who builds user interfaces for iOS, Android, or web projects. A back-end developer who’s responsible for the server-side that powers the front-end. A QA engineer checking the level of quality throughout the process. And, finally, a project manager who makes plans, tracks the development process, assesses risks, and manages the entire team.

Business analysts analyze and document the functional requirements of a software product. This includes identifying the product’s features, capabilities, and quality metrics. Analysts also create use cases and user stories to provide context and help the development team understand how a software product will be used in practice. Essentially, business analysts act as a liaison between business stakeholders and the development team, ensuring a product meets business needs in the best way possible.

We firmly believe that one software engineer cannot develop a product for several platforms at the same time. The platforms differ in many ways, and it’s hardly possible to stay on top of all the latest trends. That’s why we follow the one platform, one developer principle.

Typically, from 2 to 4 weeks. This depends on the level of expertise you’re looking for, e.g., senior positions take longer to fill. The time can also depend on the technology you use, as some are more common, and some might be very rare.

Absolutely! The candidates will go through our standard recruitment process and interviews with the Summit Digital technical leads, and then, if you’d like, you can go ahead and set up interviews with them yourself.

An Artificial Intelligence agent is ideal if your product needs to perform tasks independently, learn from interactions, and adapt to new situations. Algorithms, on the other hand, are best if your product will carry out specific, well-defined tasks with clear rules and patterns. Algorithmic development gives you precise, efficient solutions to problems where the data and results are more predictable. 

We don’t suggest adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) if you don’t have enough data or the proper infrastructure to support it. If your processes are straightforward, traditional algorithms will often get you there faster and more cheaply. And if your team isn’t ready for AI-driven changes, it might be better to build up some skills first. 

The front-end is all about the visual side of the project, the one that users interact with. The back-end is what goes behind the scenes: it collects and processes data and then transfers it back to the client side. Roughly, the data do not go directly from user A to user B—they always pass through the back-end first.

When choosing between Android and iOS app development, consider the two platforms’ pros and cons based on your business needs. Start by pinpointing your budget, time to market, and the audience you want to reach. After defining your target users and app functionality, you will know how to assess each platform’s benefits and drawbacks.

We suggest starting with data-driven tasks like predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and automated customer service. Artificial Intelligence excels at handling big data, finding patterns, and making quick decisions. It’s also great for personalized marketing, demand forecasting, and detecting anomalies. So, if you’re looking for software that can understand incoming emails and give human-like responses or a system that keeps learning based on new data, AI is your best bet.

UX design centers on all the decisions that form the user experience — it’s about making a logical, well-functioning, and intuitive product that meets a user’s need in the best way possible. In comparison, UI design focuses on the aesthetic aspects of the product. When defining UI and UX differences, these two design approaches combine to create a complete product design that’s both practical and appealing.

Traditional software development involves providing computers with specific instructions (code) to perform particular tasks. AI development, on the other hand, feeds models with a large amount of data and trains them to identify patterns. 

The only reliable way to ensure the security of your iOS apps is to address security concerns thoroughly during app development. Assume the app WILL be hacked, and don’t leave anything to chance. Obfuscate the code, never store sensitive details in a string, use Keychain correctly, scan your app with ProxyMan to highlight all possible loopholes, but most importantly, write the code responsibly from the start to minimize any potential exposure

We can say that cross-platform development is not nearly the same quality as native development. There’s a lack of support from Apple or Google, and graphics look like a website rather than a mobile app. It’s often said that cross-platform development takes half as much time as native apps, but in fact, it’s only 20-30 percent faster. The project estimate might become shorter, but the project timeline gets longer. Unlike native development, when two developers work in parallel and independently, there’s only one developer working on a cross-platform app and even if there are two or three of them, they won’t be able to work independently anyway.