In short
A simple app built by a studio commonly costs $20,000–$60,000; a product with accounts, payments, real-time features or offline behaviour runs $60,000–$150,000; and anything with native iOS and Android builds, complex integrations or regulated data goes beyond $150,000. The single biggest lever is the platform decision: one responsive web app is usually a third the price of two native apps doing the same thing. Budget 15–25% of the build cost per year to keep it running.
Planning ranges, not quotes
| What is being built | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Prototype or clickable demo for validation | $5,000–$20,000 |
| Simple app: one core workflow, accounts, no payments | $20,000–$60,000 |
| Standard product: payments, notifications, admin, integrations | $60,000–$150,000 |
| Complex product: native iOS + Android, real-time, offline, regulated data | $150,000–$300,000+ |
These are studio rates for a build that ships to real users. Freelancers and offshore teams price below them; large agencies price above. A number outside these ranges is not wrong, but it deserves a question about what is and is not included.
The word "app" is doing a lot of work in the question. To most people it means something on a phone. To a studio it means a product with a front end, a back end, data, and accounts, whether it is installed from an app store or opened in a browser. The price follows the second definition, and the store icon is one line item inside it.
The five decisions that set the number
1. How many platforms. This is the largest lever and the one most people decide by default rather than on purpose. A responsive web app runs on every phone and every laptop from one codebase. Native iOS and Android are two codebases, two review processes, two sets of bugs. Cross-platform frameworks such as React Native and Flutter narrow the gap but do not close it. As a rule of thumb: web only is the baseline, cross-platform mobile adds roughly 40–60%, and separate native apps roughly double the front-end cost.
The honest question is whether the app needs something only a native app can do: push notifications on iOS, camera and sensor access, working without a connection, or a presence in the store because customers will look there. If none of those apply, the store is an expense, not a feature.
2. What sits behind the screens. The screens are the cheap part. Accounts, roles, data that belongs to different customers, payments, subscriptions, notifications, search, exports, and an admin panel for your own team are where the hours go. We have written about this at length for MVP costs, and the same holds for any app: the data model and permissions usually cost more than the interface.
3. Integrations. Each external system, whether that is Stripe, a CRM, a maps provider, an AI model, or a client's existing back office, brings authentication, rate limits, failure cases and a test environment. Budget two to five days per integration for anything beyond a trivial one, and more if the other side's documentation is poor.
4. Real-time and offline. Chat, live location, collaborative editing, and anything that must work in a tunnel and sync later all sit in a different cost tier. Offline-first in particular is routinely underestimated: it means every action has to be queued, retried, and reconciled when conflicts arise.
5. The quality boundary. An app used by the public needs error states, accessibility, security review, backups, monitoring, and a privacy position. An internal tool for six colleagues can skip some of that. The right level depends on who gets hurt when it fails, and it should be decided, not defaulted.
What a quote usually leaves out
Design is often quoted separately, and a product that has not been designed cannot be estimated accurately. Expect product design to be 15–25% of the total for anything customer-facing.
App store accounts and compliance are small but real: $99 a year for Apple, a one-off $25 for Google, plus the time to produce screenshots, privacy labels, and to survive review. Apple in particular rejects first submissions often enough that a round of fixes should be assumed.
Then the part nobody prices at the start: running it. Hosting, database, file storage, email and SMS delivery, error tracking, and any per-use AI or maps fees scale with users. Operating systems update every year and apps that are not maintained stop working on new devices. A sensible planning figure is 15–25% of the build cost per year for maintenance and infrastructure, more if the app depends on third-party APIs that change.
How to spend less without getting less
Start on the web. Ship the product as a responsive web app, learn what people actually do, and build native later for the things that genuinely need it. Most of the code carries over to the back end regardless.
Cut one workflow at a time until the estimate hurts less. The right first version does one thing completely rather than five things partially. Our piece on what an MVP should include is the practical method for that.
Use mature services for ordinary problems. Authentication, payments, email, and file storage are solved. Building your own is a cost with no upside.
Pay for a short discovery before a long build. Two weeks of design and technical planning turns a $40,000–$120,000 estimate into a $70,000–$85,000 one. The range narrows because the unknowns do. That is what estimating software honestly looks like.
What we would ask before quoting
Who uses it, on what device, in what situation. Whether it must work without a connection. Which systems it must talk to. Who administers it. What happens if it is wrong. And whether anyone would look for it in an app store, or whether a link would do.
Answer those six and the range above collapses to something you can plan around. If you would like to walk through them for a specific product, book a call and we will give you a real range rather than a table.
Common questions
How much does it cost to make a simple app?
A simple app with one core workflow and user accounts, but no payments or real-time features, commonly costs $20,000–$60,000 from a studio in 2026. A clickable prototype for validation costs $5,000–$20,000. Freelance and offshore rates sit below these ranges; large agencies sit above.
Why do iOS and Android apps cost more than a web app?
Because they are two separate codebases with two review processes, two sets of device bugs, and annual operating-system changes to keep up with. Cross-platform frameworks reduce the duplication but do not remove it. A responsive web app runs everywhere from one codebase, which is why it is usually the cheapest first version.
How much does it cost to maintain an app per year?
Plan for 15–25% of the original build cost per year. That covers hosting and infrastructure, security updates, keeping up with iOS and Android releases, third-party API changes, and small fixes. Apps that are not maintained gradually stop working on new devices.
Can I build an app for under $10,000?
Yes, but not a production app with accounts and payments. Under $10,000 buys a no-code build, a prototype, or a very narrow tool. Those are legitimate ways to test an idea; they are not the same product as a maintained app serving the public, and the cost to convert one into the other is usually a rebuild.
How long does it take to build an app?
A simple app takes roughly two to three months; a standard product with payments and integrations, four to six; a complex native product, six months to a year. The build itself is often shorter than the discovery, design, and store review that bracket it.
