How Much a Mobile App Costs

Ranges, by shape of app

These are for both platforms with a backend. A single platform saves perhaps 20–25%, not half, because the backend and design are shared regardless.

The four things that move the number most

1. Offline capability. Adds 20–40%. Conflict resolution — two people editing the same record on different devices — is genuinely hard.
2. Real-time. Live tracking, chat, presence. Persistent connections, reconnection handling, battery management.
3. Payments. Compliance, refunds, reconciliation, failure paths, and store commission rules if you sell digital goods.
4. Number of user roles. Each role is a set of screens, permissions and test cases.

Two apps described identically in a brief can differ by a factor of three, and the difference is almost always offline behaviour and roles rather than screen count.

What people forget to budget

• Developer accounts: about £80 a year for Apple, a one-off for Google
• Store assets — screenshots for several device sizes, an icon, a listing
• A privacy policy that accurately describes data collection, which both stores check
• Backend hosting, which continues forever
• Push notification infrastructure
• Crash reporting and analytics tooling

The running cost is not optional

Budget 15–25% of the build per year. Unlike a website, some of this is forced: annual OS releases, periodic minimum-SDK requirements, deprecated APIs and library updates.

1. Two OS updates a year to test against, minimum
2. Store policy changes, which arrive with deadlines
3. Dependency and security updates
4. Crash fixes for devices you never owned
5. Backend maintenance and hosting

An app left untouched for two years typically needs a substantial rework to be publishable again. That is the cost of skipping maintenance, and it is usually larger than the maintenance would have been.

How to build the same idea for less

• One platform first — whichever your users actually hold
• Online-only in version one; add offline when you know which screens need it
• One role, not three
• Use the platform's own components rather than bespoke design everywhere
• Defer anything real-time; polling is fine at low volume and far simpler

The most effective single cut is offline. It is frequently requested for comfort rather than need, and it is the most expensive feature on most briefs.

Why quotes vary so widely

The same brief will get quotes from £15,000 to £150,000. The cheap ones are usually a template with no backend, or a team that has not scoped offline, payments or review.

Compare the exclusions, not the totals. Ask specifically: does this include a backend, an admin interface, store submission, and testing on real devices? The gap between two quotes is nearly always in those four answers.

Frequently asked questions