How much does an app cost to build?

"What does an app cost?" has the same answer as "what does a building cost", and for the same reason: the question describes the material, not the job.

What you can do is understand what drives the number, so that the quotes you receive stop being mysterious and start being comparable.

The four things that set the price

How many platforms. iPhone and Android are two pieces of software unless they are deliberately built as one. That choice is the single biggest fork in any app budget.

Whether it needs accounts. An app that shows the same thing to everyone is a fraction of the work of one where people log in, because accounts bring passwords, recovery, privacy rules and support.

Whether it needs a back end. If data has to be stored, synchronised or shared between users, there is a second system behind the app, and it needs building and running.

Whether it works offline. "It should still work on the train" is one sentence in a brief and a substantial amount of engineering.

What people forget to budget

The build is not the cost. Three things follow it, every year, and they surprise people who budgeted once:

• The stores. Apple and Google each charge to publish, and each review what you submit. Rejections happen and they cost time.
• Keeping up with the phones. Both platforms release a major version every year. An app nobody maintains stops working within about two.
• Support. Someone answers the person who cannot log in.

A useful rule when comparing quotes: ask what year two costs. A quote that ignores the question is not a cheaper quote, it is an incomplete one.

The question worth asking first

Before any of this: does it have to be an app?

A large share of the apps small businesses ask for are a website that someone imagined as an app. If what you need is opening hours, a booking, a menu, a price list or a form, a website does that — reachable from a search, with nothing to install, on every device, for a fraction of the cost.

An app earns its cost when you need something a browser genuinely cannot do: push notifications people act on, offline use, a device sensor, or a habit loop where being on the home screen is the point.

How to ask so the answer means something

Describe the job, not the solution. "Members book a court and get a reminder" tells a builder far more than "an app with a calendar", and it lets them tell you the cheaper way if one exists.

Then ask three things of every quote: what is in year two, what happens when you want a change, and who owns the accounts in the app stores. That last one matters more than people expect — it is the app equivalent of whose name the domain is in.

Related: the same "describe the job" discipline is what makes a website brief work — here is how to write one. And if a website would do, these are the four routes to getting one.

Frequently asked

Is one app for iPhone and Android cheaper than two?

Usually, if it is deliberately built that way from the start. Retrofitting a second platform onto software written for one is closer to a second build than to an extension, which is why the platform question belongs in the first conversation.

Who should own the App Store and Play accounts?

You should, registered to your business. It is the app equivalent of whose name the domain is in: if the accounts belong to whoever built it, moving to another developer means republishing rather than handing over.