How Much Does It Cost to Build an App in 2026?

Ask five studios what your app will cost and you will get five numbers that do not overlap. We have seen the same two-page brief quoted at $18,000 and at $210,000. That spread is not because one team is eleven times better. It is because almost nobody tells you what is actually inside the number.

This is our attempt to open the box.

The four things that actually move the price

Nearly every quote you will receive comes down to four variables. Everything else is packaging.

1. How many platforms

A web app is one build. A web app plus native iOS and Android is, depending on how it is built, either one build with three deployment targets or three separate builds. That single decision can double a quote. If someone quotes you three platforms at the same price as one and cannot explain how, ask them to explain how.

2. Whether it needs accounts

An app where anyone can see everything is dramatically simpler than an app where each person sees only their own data. The moment you need sign-up, login, password resets, session handling and permissions, you have added a whole subsystem — and every screen after that has to respect it.

3. Whether money moves through it

Taking payments is not a feature you bolt on at the end. It brings webhooks, failure states, refunds, receipts, tax handling and a whole category of bugs that only appear with real cards. On the app stores it brings in-app purchase rules on top of that.

4. Whether anything is custom on the backend

A form that emails you is cheap. A system that ingests data, transforms it, runs rules against it and shows different people different slices of it is not. This is usually the largest hidden variable, and it is the one clients are least likely to describe in the brief.

What you are usually paying for that is not code

In a typical agency quote, a meaningful share of the number is not development at all:

• Discovery. Weeks of workshops before anyone writes anything. Sometimes valuable, often a way to bill while scoping.
• Project management. A layer between you and the people building. On a small team this is overhead you are funding.
• Account management. A second layer between you and the first layer.
• Risk padding. Because the scope is vague, the quote is inflated to survive the vagueness.

None of this is fraud. It is what happens when a quote has to cover an unknown. But it does mean two studios can quote wildly different numbers for identical work, and the difference is structural rather than technical.

Real ranges in 2026

Broad market ranges, for a first version that real people can use:

• Marketing site: $500 to $10,000.
• Online store on Shopify: $1,000 to $25,000.
• Web app with accounts and payments: $15,000 to $120,000.
• Web plus native iOS and Android: $30,000 to $250,000.

The bottom of each range is usually a template or an offshore team. The top is usually a large agency with the layers described above. Most honest work sits in the lower third.

What we charge, and why we publish it

We publish our prices because the alternative — making you book a call to find out whether you can afford us — wastes your time and ours.

• Website: $750. Built in 7 working days.
• Online store: $1,450. Shopify, built in 7 working days, 50 products loaded.
• Web app, CRM or portal: $4,500. 14 working days, Stripe included.
• Web, iOS and Android: $8,500. 14 working days, payments and both store submissions included.

These are fixed. If the scope is what we agreed in writing, the price is what we agreed in writing.

The number nobody quotes: what it costs to run

A build price is a one-off. Software has a monthly cost forever, and it is the part that surprises people six months in. Hosting, database, file storage, email delivery, error monitoring, and the Apple and Google developer accounts all carry a bill.

For a full app with native mobile, expect roughly $99 to $136 a month once you are past the free tiers. We have written the whole thing up — every service, every free tier, and the point each one runs out — on what it runs on.

Two things matter here. First, you should pay those vendors directly, with the accounts in your name. Second, anyone who insists on putting your infrastructure on their account and billing you for it has given themselves a permanent hold over your business.

Questions worth asking before you sign anything

• What exactly is in this price, listed as features, in writing?
• What happens to the price if I change my mind in week two?
• Who owns the code when the final invoice is paid?
• Whose name are the hosting and store accounts in?
• What will this cost me per month to run, and who do I pay?
• What happens if it breaks a month after launch?

A studio that answers all six quickly and in writing is a studio that has done this before. Hesitation on any of them is the most useful signal you will get.

The short version

App pricing looks arbitrary because the industry has an incentive to keep it vague. It is not actually complicated: platforms, accounts, payments and custom backend work drive the cost, and everything else is how the studio is structured.

Get the scope in writing, get the price attached to it, get the ownership clause read, and find out the monthly running cost before you start rather than after.

Our full price list, payment terms and care plans are on the pricing page. If you want a straight answer about your specific project, email us — questions are free.