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App development cost calculator

Pick the features your app needs and see what it costs to build four different ways, in hours and dollars.

Your app

Platforms
Design
Template-based starts from a component library. Custom means a designer draws every screen.
Features

Every app gets setup, a backend, design and its own screens. Tick what yours needs on top.

Rates

Defaults: Netguru's agency rates, Upwork's freelancer rates, a Lovable or Bolt Pro plan, and Claude Pro or Cursor Pro.

Running costs

Apple counts only with iOS, Google only with Android, AI usage only with an AI feature.

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First-year cost, by route

336 to 576 h of build work for iOS and Android. NativeExpress already covers 158 to 282 h of those.

Agency

$34,024 to $58,024

336 to 576 h billed.

  • Build, 336 to 576 h at $100/h$33,600 to $57,600
  • Running costs$424

Freelancer

$13,864 to $23,464

336 to 576 h billed.

  • Build, 336 to 576 h at $40/h$13,440 to $23,040
  • Running costs$424

AI app builder

$724

No hourly bill. The builder writes the app from your prompts.

  • Builder plan, 12 × $25$300
  • Running costs$424

NativeExpress + your AI agent

$893

178 to 294 h left for you and your agent, 158 to 282 h already done.

  • NativeExpress, one payment$229
  • AI coding tool, 12 × $20$240
  • Running costs$424
  • Planning, project setup and navigation Expo and TypeScript project, file routes with signed-in and signed-out groups, tests and CI · saves 14 to 28 h
  • Backend and database setup Supabase schema migration, row-level security, edge functions and storage · saves 32 to 48 h
  • Design from a component library or template HeroUI Native components, light and dark themes from one seed colour · saves 18 to 29 h
  • Sign-in with email and social Google, Apple and email sign-in with password recovery · saves 32 to 62 h
  • User profiles Profile settings, avatar upload and account deletion · saves 16 to 32 h
  • Subscriptions or in-app purchases RevenueCat purchases and restore, a subscription screen, entitlement checked on the server · saves 37 to 65 h
  • App Store and Google Play submission EAS build profiles, store screenshots and release checklists; store accounts and review stay yours · saves 9 to 18 h
Where the hours come from
WorkHoursIn NativeExpress
Planning, project setup and navigation23 to 46 h14 to 28 h saved
Backend and database setup46 to 69 h32 to 48 h saved
Your app's own screens and logic115 to 184 hNo
Design from a component library or template35 to 57 h18 to 29 h saved
Sign-in with email and social35 to 69 h32 to 62 h saved
User profiles18 to 35 h16 to 32 h saved
Subscriptions or in-app purchases46 to 81 h37 to 65 h saved
App Store and Google Play submission18 to 35 h9 to 18 h saved
Total336 to 576 h158 to 282 h saved

Hours are estimates, shown as ranges. Running costs ($424) are added to every route. Your own time is not counted, and on the last two routes it is most of the cost.

File format

Your inputs, every route's breakdown and the assumptions, in one file to share or paste into your coding agent.

Most of that bill is work NativeExpress has already done.

Sign-in, payments, AI features and store builds come finished. Build the rest yourself with the template, get unstuck on a call, or have us build it with you.

DO IT YOURSELF, FASTER

The NativeExpress template

A running iOS and Android app with sign-in, payments, a database and AI built in. One payment, full source, lifetime updates.

GET UNSTUCK

Consulting call, $149

A working session on architecture, setup or your launch plan. You bring the problem, you leave with the decision made.

HAVE IT BUILT

Done for you

We build and launch the app with you, on your stores, under your brand. Start with a short call so we can scope it.

Book a 30-min intro call

What drives the cost of an app

Ask five agencies to quote the same app and you will get five numbers that are tens of thousands of dollars apart. That is less strange than it looks. Almost every quote is hours multiplied by an hourly rate, and both of those vary a lot. The calculator above makes both visible, so you can see which one is moving your number.

Hours: features, platforms and design

Hours come mostly from features. A basic MVP with sign-in, a few screens and a backend is about 300 to 500 hours of work, according to Thinkmobiles' breakdown across planning, design, backend and app development. Every feature you add on top has its own cost, and some cost far more than they sound. Chat between users needs real-time messaging, moderation and notifications. Offline mode means storing data on the device and resolving conflicts when it syncs. An admin dashboard is a second product, usually on the web.

Platforms matter less than they used to. With React Native and Expo, one codebase runs on iOS and Android, so a second platform does not double the work. It still adds testing on both, platform-specific fixes and a second store listing, which is why the calculator adds 15% when you pick both.

Design is the third lever. Starting from a component library keeps it to a few days of work. A custom design, drawn screen by screen and then built to match, can take two or three times as long.

Rates: who does the work

The same hours cost very different amounts depending on who bills them. Agency Netguru publishes blended rates of $100 to $150 an hour, with $25,000 to $60,000 for an MVP. Upwork reports a median of $27 an hour for app developers, with most charging $18 to $39. Clutch, which collects reviews from agency clients, finds the most common project budget is $10,000 to $49,999. The calculator defaults to $100 for an agency and $40 for a freelancer. Change both to the quotes you actually have.

How to read the estimate

Each route shows a first-year cost. For the agency and the freelancer, it is a range because the hours are a range: the low end assumes the work goes smoothly, the high end allows for the usual extra rounds of changes. The hour estimates are just that, estimates. Treat them as a way to compare routes and to sanity-check a quote, not as a fixed price.

The AI app builder and NativeExpress rows have a single number, because nobody bills you by the hour. That does not mean the work is free. On both, you do it yourself with an AI tool, and your time is the real cost. The NativeExpress row shows which of your features the template already ships and how many hours that takes off the total; what is left is work for you and your coding agent.

Running costs are added to every route, so the comparison is fair. Publishing costs $99 a year for Apple and $25 once for Google. A backend such as Supabase Pro is $25 a month once real users rely on it. AI features are paid per token: with Claude Haiku 4.5 at $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, a thousand chat messages a month cost a few dollars, which is why the default is $10 a month.

What the estimate leaves out: store commission, which comes out of revenue (the App Store Small Business Program takes 15% instead of 30% once you enroll), marketing, and maintenance after the first year.

How to cut the cost

Ship fewer features first

The cheapest feature is the one you build after launch, once users ask for it. Untick everything that is not needed to prove the idea and watch the hours drop. Offline mode, chat between users and an admin dashboard are the usual candidates to postpone.

Do not pay for the parts every app has

Sign-in, profiles, account deletion, subscriptions, push notifications, analytics and store builds are the same in almost every app, and they are a large share of an MVP's hours. Paying someone to build them from scratch is paying for work that already exists. A starter kit covers them, so the hours go into the screens that make your app different.

Own the code from day one

Whoever builds the app, keep the repository in your own GitHub account. It keeps you free to switch freelancers, bring work in-house or hand it to a coding agent later, without paying to rebuild.

Plan for upkeep

Both stores raise their requirements every year. Apple requires uploads built with Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK, and Google Play requires new apps and updates to target Android 16. With an agency, each upgrade is another invoice. On a maintained codebase, it is a few evenings a year.

For every number here with its source, and the hidden costs that show up after launch, read how much it costs to make an app in 2026.

FAQ

How much does it cost to make an app?

A simple app costs about $10,000 to $50,000 through an agency, roughly $5,000 to $12,000 through a freelancer, and a few hundred dollars a year on an AI app builder. Building it yourself with a coding agent costs under $1,000 a year in tools and fees, plus your time. Every route also pays Apple $99 a year and Google $25 once to publish.

How much does it cost to build an app yourself?

The tools are cheap: a coding agent such as Claude Code or Cursor is about $20 a month, a backend is free while you build and about $25 a month once it is live, and the stores charge $99 a year (Apple) and $25 once (Google). A starter kit is an optional one-time cost that removes the setup work. The real cost is your time, often weeks to a few months for a first app.

Why are agency quotes so different?

Because a quote is hours times a rate, and agencies differ on both. Rates run from under $50 to over $150 an hour depending on location and team size, and agencies read the same brief differently: one counts an admin panel and custom design, another does not. Ask each one for its hours per feature and compare those against the calculator.

What does it cost to keep an app running?

For a small app, roughly $400 to $600 a year: $99 for the Apple Developer Program, $25 once for Google Play, about $25 a month for a backend, and a few dollars a month in AI usage if the app has AI features. Maintenance comes on top, because both stores raise their SDK requirements every year and the app has to be updated to keep shipping.

Is an iOS and Android app twice the price of one platform?

Not with a cross-platform framework. React Native and Expo run one codebase on both, so the second platform mostly adds testing, platform-specific fixes and a second store listing. The calculator adds 15% for it. Two separate native apps, written in Swift and Kotlin, come much closer to double.

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