GUIDES
How much does a mobile app cost?
THE SHORT ANSWER
A simple app with no backend of its own costs €1,500–€4,000 excluding VAT. An app with user accounts, its own API and an admin area costs €5,000–€11,000. A platform with two sides of users, payments and real-time starts at €11,000. The prices cover one platform, iPhone or Android.
These are my own prices, excluding VAT, for one platform (iPhone or Android). Below you'll see what the price is made of, so you can work out where your own app lands before we talk.
Why nobody quotes you a price
Because "an app" isn't a product. It's like asking what a house costs: it depends on the floor area, the bathrooms, and whether you're digging a basement.
The difference is that an app's floor area can be measured, and you can measure it yourself. It is its screens, and what happens behind them.
What the price is made of
| Part | Cost |
|---|---|
| Analysis and specification | €250–€625 |
| Design with native components and AI | €250–€750 |
| Each screen of the app | €150–€300 |
| User accounts (sign-up, sign-in) | €250–€625 |
| Push notifications | €200–€375 |
| Payments or subscriptions | €375–€1,000 |
| Backend and API | €1,250–€5,500 |
| An admin area for your staff | €750–€2,250 |
| Publishing to the App Store and Google Play | €200–€375 |
"Per screen" is the most useful number in that table. Count the screens you have in mind — home, list, product page, cart, profile, settings — and you're already halfway there. A screen with a list sits at the bottom of the range; a screen with a map, the camera or a form with a lot of rules sits at the top.
The backend is the big variable
This is where most people get lost, and where half the budget is decided. There are three cases:
1. You don't need a backend. The app works on its own: a catalogue, a calculator, something that works without internet. You pay none of the €1,250 and up.
2. You already have a system. If your business runs an ERP, an online shop or a booking system that can talk to other software, the app connects to it. You pay for the connection, not the system — usually the lower half of the range.
3. You need a new backend. If the data doesn't exist anywhere, the server, the database and the API have to be built from scratch. It is the most expensive part and the least visible: your customer sees none of it, but without it there is no app.
And a fourth question that costs separately: will somebody be managing the content? If your staff need to add products, see orders or reply to users, that needs an admin area. It is effectively a second, smaller application.
Do I need a designer?
For most apps, no — and I say that even though I could charge you for it.
Apple and Google provide ready-made, well-tested design components: buttons, lists, forms, menus, typography. They are the same ones used by the apps already on your phone, and your user knows them without anyone explaining. Together with AI tooling for composing the screens, the result is clean and professional for €250–€750, instead of a separate designer's fee.
A designer is worth it when the app is your brand: when you're selling an experience rather than a function, when you want something that looks like nothing else. Then it's a sound investment and it is quoted separately.
The three common scenarios
| Scenario | What it includes | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Simple app | 5–10 screens, no backend of its own, or connecting to a system you already have | €1,500–€4,000 |
| App with a backend | 10–16 screens, accounts, its own API, admin area, notifications | €5,000–€11,000 |
| Platform | Two sides of users, payments, real-time, multiple roles | €11,000–€23,000 |
Examples: a catalogue app or a tool for your customers is the first. A booking or ordering app with accounts is the second. A marketplace where two sides transact is the third.
The prices are for one platform. If you need both iPhone and Android, we scope that when we talk.
Below €1,500 I don't take on an app. It isn't about the price — it's that below that line there isn't room to do it properly, and an app that wasn't done properly will cost you a second time.
What you pay after launch
Almost everyone forgets these when they budget:
- Apple Developer Program: 99 dollars a year. Without it the app comes off the App Store.
- Google Play: 25 dollars once, not every year.
- Hosting for the backend, if there is one.
- Yearly updates. Every September a new iOS and a new Android arrive. An app that isn't updated starts to look dated, and at some point stops working. This isn't optional, and it is quoted separately depending on what changed.
The first two are Apple's and Google's charges to you, not mine.
How to bring the cost down
Four things that genuinely work:
- One platform to begin with. The biggest cut, and the least painful.
- A first version with 3–5 features. Not everything you'd like — only what's needed to find out whether people use it. The rest follows, paid for with money you've earned.
- Use what you already have. If there's an online shop or an ERP that can connect, you skip the most expensive part.
- No bespoke design at first. With native components the first version looks right; your own design comes once you know it's worth it.
What is not worth cutting is the analysis at the start. It's the cheapest line in the table and the one that prevents the expensive mistakes.
Which platform to choose first and in which technology, I go through here: Native or Flutter/React Native?
How I quote
I count hours per part and multiply by a fixed hourly rate. There is no "price for this client": the same app costs the same for everyone.
After an initial conversation you get a written quote with the parts listed separately, so you can see what you're paying for and drop anything you don't need yet.