What it costs to have a company develop your app in 2026

The bands

These assume a competent team, a real backend, QA, and a production launch — not a prototype.

• Focused single-platform v1 with a simple backend — $45,000 to $90,000
• Cross-platform consumer product with accounts, payments and notifications — $70,000 to $160,000
• Two native platforms with substantial custom UI — $110,000 to $300,000
• Regulated product (health, finance) or heavy enterprise integration — $150,000 to $500,000+
• AI feature added to an existing product, including evaluation infrastructure — $35,000 to $90,000

What actually moves the number

In order of impact: the number of external systems you must integrate with; the depth of the backend and its data model; how much of the interface is genuinely custom rather than platform-standard; and the compliance regime you operate under.

Screen count is a weak predictor and a common way to be misled. Twelve screens over a clean API is a small project. Six screens over three legacy systems with an audit requirement is a large one.

The line items that get left out

Almost every under-quoted project is missing the same handful of items. Ask explicitly whether each is included before comparing two proposals — otherwise you are comparing different products.

• QA across a real device matrix, not just the newest phone
• Backend infrastructure, environments and monitoring
• App Store and Play submission, review responses and rejections
• Analytics, crash reporting and the dashboards someone will read
• Accessibility work and, in some sectors, an audit
• Security review or penetration testing before go-live
• Design source files and written handover documentation
• Post-launch support, OS upgrades and store-policy changes

Ongoing cost after launch

Budget 15 to 25 percent of the build cost per year to keep an app healthy. That covers annual iOS and Android releases, dependency and security updates, store policy changes, backend hosting, and the small stream of fixes every live product generates.

Apps without a maintenance budget do not stay still — they decay. Two years of neglect typically costs more to repair than the original build.

Pricing models and when each is right

Fixed price works when scope is genuinely fixed and well specified; it prices risk into the number and punishes change. Time and materials works when you are discovering the product and trust the team; it needs real governance on your side. A capped sprint model — fixed team, fixed cadence, prioritised backlog, agreed ceiling — is the arrangement that fails least often in our experience.

How to reduce cost without wrecking the product

Cut scope, never quality. One platform first if your audience allows it. Fewer integrations at launch, with the second wave scheduled. Platform-standard components instead of custom controls everywhere. Manual internal process behind the scenes for the first months instead of an admin tool nobody has validated the need for.

What you should not cut: QA, analytics, security, accessibility and the maintenance budget. Every one of those is more expensive to add later than to include now.

Where WVE Labs sits

WVE Labs is a digital product company founded in 2015. Product strategy, design and engineering sit under one roof, and mobile has been at the heart of the studio for more than a decade — it remains one of our deepest areas of expertise. We have delivered for startups, growth companies and established organisations including Sony, Honda, Guardian, Marriott, USC, Maui Jim and California State University. Engagements start at $25,000.

We start engagements at $25,000 because below that number we cannot deliver something we would put our name on. Most v1 products we ship land between $60,000 and $250,000 depending on the four cost drivers above, and we will tell you which band you are in during the first conversation rather than after discovery.