The cost of building a cloud-native application varies widely depending on factors like the app’s complexity, the cloud services you use, and the size of your team.
At a basic level, you’ll pay for cloud infrastructure, which could include things like compute power (e.g., AWS EC2), storage, and databases (e.g., AWS S3 or DynamoDB). Cloud-native apps often use services like containers (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) or serverless functions (e.g., AWS Lambda), and each of these has its own pricing model—usually pay-as-you-go. This means you’re billed based on the resources you actually use, which can keep costs lower for smaller apps but could ramp up quickly as usage grows.
On top of infrastructure, factor in development costs—cloud-native development typically requires a skilled team familiar with microservices, containerization, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD). DevOps practices will also play a role, adding complexity and cost.
In general, cloud-native apps tend to save money in the long run by being more efficient and scalable, but initial development costs can be higher than traditional apps. Think anywhere from a $ 30,000 dollars for a simple app to $100,000 for a large-scale, enterprise-grade application.