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

The mobile app economy is burgeoning as well. We’ve already seen both the App Store and Google Play celebrate their 10th anniversary, and their growth rates show no signs of stopping. Both app stores grow by more than a thousand apps per day. And given that the worldwide mobile app market is going to hit an impressive $626.39 billion by 2030,   the future of app development looks even brighter.

The company goes on to report that the gaming solution segment will continue holding the largest revenue share. All this data screams: now is the time to invest in a mobile application. The thing is, how to get there without breaking the bank. It’s a good thing we love to consult on app implementation costs and provide ways to optimize development budget. So, let’s dive in and discuss all the nits and grits of this topic.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an App on Average?

Right at the beginning of our article, we dropped a quick side note about how much a mobile app can cost. Let’s emphasize it once more: there is no average price. The overall budget can vary dramatically, costing from $10,000 to $500,000.

Believe us, we feel your urge to facepalm right now, and no, we won’t be throwing another car-dealer analogy at you. We’ll spend some quality time reviewing why your mileage may vary in a minute. Meanwhile, please take a look at some real-life development cost estimates for various apps, from simple to mobile eCommerce:

These price points show what the average cost of app development is for a single solution working on one platform: iOS or Android. The cost estimate includes the integration of an app with a server, but not the development of a server component here.

Let’s take a closer look at why your mileage with budgeting app development may vary.

Continue reading to learn about the cost breakdown for app development and what the average price you can expect to pay to create an app is. We’ll also share some tips on how to control app development expenses.

App Development Cost by Regions

We’ve compared mobile app development costs in US-based agencies and offshore teams, but now let’s take a closer look at how budgets vary across different regions and platforms.

App Development Cost Per Type

Another decisive factor in calculating app development cost is the app’s type. Here are the three main options, along with approximate budgets to consider:

App Development Budget Per Phase

The app development process consists of several distinct phases, where each takes a piece of your app development budget. So, knowing the best practices for its allocation per app development stage will help you answer the question: “How much does it cost to design and build a mobile app?”

1. Cost of Business Analysis in App Development Budget

Usually, a good rule of thumb is to allocate at least 10% of the whole app development budget to the business analysis phase. Your brilliant app idea needs verification, market analysis, and requirements documentation. And an experienced mobile development team will ask you a myriad of questions to prepare an accurate app development quote.

Business analysts will participate in all phases of the app development project. Their job is to make sure that what you request:

• Is achievable and clear to coders
• Follows Apple’s and Google’s best practices
• Relies on the most effective technology stack

Business analysis budget share in mobile app development cost: $1,200 to $11,000.

Advice on how to trim the business analysis budget:

1. Find other apps with the exact features that you want to replicate in your app. Clarify how this functionality will differ in your app.
2. Provide UML diagrams for the development team.
3. Discover best practices for business analysis on mobile app projects.

2. Cost of Design and Clickable Prototype in App Development Budget

Once the requirements are ready, it is high time to start on the user interface development. Flawless UI and UX are a must in today’s apps. So, you should be ready to cash out for the design.

Learn about the Difference Between UI and UX Design

A lot will depend on whether you already have a brand book, but usually, design makes up 10-15% of the total app cost. Make sure you get a clickable prototype as a part of the deal.

A click-through prototype lets you check out the UX before the most expensive phase – app coding – starts. Some of the most popular tools for creating click-through prototypes are:

• InVision
• Adobe XD
• Figma
• Marvel
• Proto.io
• Sketch
• Axure RP
• Balsamiq

Design budget in app development cost: $2,500 to $10,000.

Advice on how to trim the app design budget:

1. Grab some screenshots from the apps you like and explain why you selected them.
2. Use stock UI elements provided by Apple and Google.
3. Search for ready UI kits on websites like ui8 and freebiesbug. Check out this collection of free UI kits for iOS and Android.

3. Cost of App Coding Per Se

The app coding costs more than all other app development phases. Imagine pensive developers writing strings of code on their shiny iMacs. This image is only a part of the big picture.

To make the image more real, add daily stand-ups with the development team members. App development is a collaborative process: even a small app will need at least two or three executors.

App architecture & functionality development cost: $2,000 to $60,000.

Advice to trim the app coding budget:

1. Cross-platform development frameworks like Xamarin or Flutter can save up to thirty percent of the budget. The app must be simple for you to take advantage of these app development frameworks.
2. Hire an app developer with care. For example, if you switch to an agency after working with a freelancer, remember that this will be a fresh start.
3. Choose a development team that offers an agile app development approach with weekly deliveries.
4. Use off-the-shelf mobile SDKs for some standard functionality, for instance:
   • Chat SDK for integrating a chat module
   • Twilio for voice & video chatting or SMS verification
   • Pushwoosh for push notifications
5. Use all-in-one platforms for building scalable apps, like Back4App or Backendless.
6. Analyze what tech stacks your competitors employ with App Explorer, SensorTower, or MightySignal.
7. Never buy off-the-shelf app code templates if their developer doesn’t offer customization.
8. Build an MVP version of the app with an online app-building tool. There are plenty of those to test the idea.
9. Don’t support older mobile OS versions, unless you are 100% sure you need to cover them.
10. Make sure the requirements fully describe your app’s functionality. After coding begins, any new feature requests can make a dent in your app development budget.
11. Consider thorough QA and testing to save precious time and resources to fix bugs after the product launch.

4. Cost of Project Management in App Development Budget

Project management is an essential part of app development. Usually, a project manager controls the development process from start to finish. These efforts take up to 10-15% of the total app budget.

Learn about the 10 Traits of Effective IT Project Managers

Project management budget in app development cost: $1,200 to $12,000.

Advice to trim the project management budget:

1. Don’t skip the project management part, hoping to save budget. A project manager can make or break your app endeavor, but there must be a PM on your project to maintain control over the development process.
2. Get rid of a project manager who does not respond within 10-24 hours. In most cases, this PM is not worth the money.

5. App Cost Through the Lens of Development Phases

Let’s calculate the software development cost of an abstract app based on the development phases that we’ve just described.

$12,250 will be the minimum cost of our abstract mobile app.

Here are the expenses included in this budget:

• Business analysis: $1200
• Design: $2500
• Development and QA: $7350
• Project management: $1200

Yet, your mileage will vary depending on the features that your iPhone or Android app will have. The cost to produce an app can go as high as $93,000 on the high end.

Now, you are one step closer to answering the question: “How much does it cost to start and maintain a solution?” Continue reading to learn how various features influence the mobile app budget.

Cost of Making an App Based on a Feature Set

Mobile apps have come quite a way from being accessories or marketing stunts in their early days. Remember the I’m Rich app at $999,99 from the App Store when it opened? Now we have such feature-rich apps as Slack, Gmail, Uber, YouTube… you name it.

These apps come with lots of features. The more functionality you plan for an app, the steeper the price of building the app becomes. Let’s go through a list of features that will affect your app development budget to help you clear up, “How much does it cost to develop an app?”

In most cases, you want a tablet-optimized version of your app when:

• Your app is so popular that users want it everywhere
• You can introduce extra meaningful features through a tablet version
• You need to gain a foothold with your brand on every single platform

Usually, only big brands have entirely customized versions of their apps that offer separate UX for phones and tablets without automatic responsiveness gaps. As of iOS 14, there is a stand-alone OS for iPads. So the 1.5x app development budget increase to support iPad still counts for the pre-iOS 14 iPads.

However, developing a stand-alone iPad app based on the iOS app should fit within a 1.5 – 1.7 budget increase, too. The source code remains the same, plus the new iPad apps will work on Mac practically with minimal effort from the app development team.

As for Android, Velvetech recommends supporting:

• Android OS 10 and higher
• Specify particular Android phone models whenever possible

The app development budget may grow 2x if a mobile app must work on an outdated OS or on an old device. The good news is that the market share of these old devices is tiny. You don’t need to support them unless you are working on an enterprise app. Businesses update their device pools at a slower rate.

With that in mind, in 2026 older devices will matter less. Instead, focus on current OS versions like iOS 17/18 and Android 12/13/14. Plus, you may also need to support additional device types, such as foldable smartphones and tablets. Doing so typically requires dedicated UI layouts and separate testing. Which, as you have already guessed, will definitely increase overall app development costs.

• Will your app have only cloud-based notifications?
• Will your app also rely on local, on-device notifications?
• How many triggers will there be for firing off notifications?
• What will be the logic behind notifications: location, time-based, or some user actions?
• Will you be tracking what happens with notifications?
• Will you support 3D Touch and include custom elements in your notifications?

Expect to spend somewhere between $1,500 and $2,500 on adding basic push notifications.

Here’s a video by MacRumors that explains rich notifications in iOS:

Make sure your development team is not reinventing the wheel. There are many off-the-shelf solutions for push notifications: Urban Airship, Pushwoosh, OneSignal, etc.

The cost of custom-built push notifications may soar to $4,000 – $5,000.

The cost of implementing custom notifications includes a server component and integration.

Social login allows users to log in via Twitter, Facebook, or other social network accounts.

The cost of integrating a social login feature is usually around $500 per social network.

Custom-built registration, authorization, and a full-featured login should fit within $1,800.

Source: Statista.com

The cost ranges from several teams, which shows if they developed any chats from the ground up before. Find out if your developers have integrated any third-party chat SDKs.

Recently, it has become a good practice to integrate off-the-shelf chat SDKs into apps. Some good examples of these SDKs are Layer and SendBird. They provide the following functionality:

• Group chats
• Public chat rooms
• One-to-one chats
• Profanity filtering & spam protection

While using a third-party chat SDK may cost about $2,400, pricing for the development of a custom chat module for your mobile app can go as high as $12,000.

Integration of a mobile ad SDK is a relatively simple task and usually adds $1,600 – $2,000 to the total app budget.

Our recommendation is to avoid complex logic when integrating mobile ads.

The general features that mobile analytics services provide include:

• Showing a number of users and their characteristics
• Measuring in-app payments and revenue
• Showing the sources that users came from
• Visualizing user navigation paths
• Measuring what actions users are taking

Depending on how many events you want to track, implementing effective analytics can add around $2,000 to your app cost.

The cost of adding such functionality starts at $2,600 per feature.

Remember to consult with your app development team, as there are many caveats. For instance, did you know you need to pay for using Google Maps in your app when reaching a large user base? Again, remember there may be ready solutions on GitHub and other resources.

Hidden App Development Costs

We’ve outlined the core features along with approximate budgets to help your app meet customers’ needs and stay competitive. However, there are other factors that usually go unnoticed by the user and at the same time contribute to an essential part of the answer to “How much does it cost to produce an app?” Here is what to consider in this regard:

1. Factor Backend Development into Your Mobile App Budget

If your app loads content from a server or syncs with a database, you need to plan for the server component. Sometimes it can be an existing server, e.g., a news website from where you want to fetch news. In this case, there is no need to develop a server, as the mobile app will connect to the site through an existing API solution.

In most cases though, a server will be required to:

• Store data online
• Sync with cloud data
• Allow communication with other app users
• Offload images, videos, etc. from a mobile device

There are many off-the-shelf server solutions on the market that can help you set up a backend in a snap. However, it’s enough if you know just two: Firebase and AWS. Firebase is Google’s renowned product, which is a universal backend platform. And Amazon Web Services is Amazon: everything they touch turns into gold.

The average cost of the server component that will work with your mobile app via an API varies widely: $6,400 to $28,000.

Opt for Firebase, AWS, or similar backend services to keep the cost of server-side development in a safer zone.

2. App Patenting Cost

3. App Marketing Budget

Once you have developed your app, it’s time to submit it to the App Store or Google Play.

Strictly speaking, your marketing expenses go as an extra to the development budget.

The minimal app marketing initiatives include:

• Getting app reviews with top publications
• App Store Optimization (ASO): description, user reviews, etc.
• Social networking
• App trailer

Even though the app marketing budget is a separate thing, you should plan for it within the total app budget. The days of amazing applications that sell themselves are gone. The app stores are overwhelmed, so marketing is vital to your app’s success.

According to the Business of Apps, you need to put aside at least $10,000 to plan a go-to-market strategy for your app.

— BusinessofApps

You may find a wealth of information on app marketing, including DIY workarounds on devoted app marketing blogs and forums.

How Much Does It Cost to Maintain and Update an App?

For some reason, the top articles on app costs claim you need to allocate 20% of the app development budget to app updates and maintenance yearly. What does it even mean: mobile app update or maintenance?

Maintaining an app means updating it to support the latest versions of iOS and Android. Get ready for a big a-ha moment: each new version of iOS and Android supports all features that are already available in apps.

You don’t need to spend a dime to make your app work on a new iOS when it’s out. The only issue with iOS was when Apple asked all developers to update their apps to a 64-bit architecture.

This anomaly happened once, and Apple gave developers more than a year to update their apps. Besides, Apple had supported 32-bit apps for two years before the switch to a new architecture.

Velvetech’s experience suggests 15-20% of your app development budget is enough to maintain an app on a yearly basis.

But if you think this percentage is high, here’s the bad news: in industries like fintech or healthcare, maintenance can be 20–25% or even more. That is because these sectors must comply with strict regulations and higher security standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA), which adds to ongoing costs.

New design styles from OS vendors can also lead to unplanned maintenance costs. For example, Apple recently introduced the “Liquid Glass” design in iOS 26. Frankly speaking, many apps find it difficult to align their UI components with this new design. Meaning, they necessitate updates and extra testing, which, of course, is not a cheap pleasure.

However, whether complicated or costly, we believe staying aligned with OS guidelines is a must. That’s exactly what we do at Velvetech, and what we strongly believe every trustworthy vendor should do.

It’s a different story if you need some new features that a new mobile OS version offers: Face ID, ARKit, Core NFC, etc. Implementing this functionality may cost significantly more than a dime and will vary depending on how robust the new features need to be. So here’s our answer to “How much does it cost to update an app in general?”:

This estimate includes things like adding a night mode or similar.

How Much Time Does It Take to Develop an App?

The time required to develop an app is clearly a key factor when planning the budget; therefore, “How long does it take to build an app?” is the second most common question we hear.

The answer, as you might expect, depends on the kind of app you are developing and on what resources are at your disposal. How much time does it take to build an app if your team consists of two developers? Two times faster than with a single app  coder? Well, on a rare app project, yes, when your app can be roughly split into two equal parts.

On average, though, you can project the following time efforts to start an app, depending on its complexity.

So, if someone asks you, “How long does it take to design an app?” you can confidently say it’s from one month to a year or even more. All depends on the functionality and complexity of the application. And, obviously, the longer it takes to develop, the higher the app cost will be. But what are the options to reduce the cost?

How to Cut Mobile App Development Cost?

There are numerous ways to optimize your app development costs. Keep in mind that you need to balance between an optimal budget and a feature-rich product with potential. Let’s summarize some of the variants to trim the price of building a mobile solution.

1. Cross-Platform Development

Use Flutter, Xamarin, or a similar framework to speed up your mobile app development. This way, you are simultaneously developing versions of the app for both platforms.

The cross-platform approach saves you 10-30% of cost compared to native app development.

Avoid the cross-platform approach if your app relies on lots of custom animations. We recommend Swift for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android when developing advanced apps.

You will find even more reasons to use the mobile cross-platform development approach to cut app development costs in one of our blog posts.

2. MVP First

Starting with an MVP may sound like giving up upfront. However, it’s a viable way to test your idea in the field with real users on a small budget.

The initial feedback will help you plan an optimal budget for a full-featured app version. You will focus your efforts on MVP features that your users crave.

Get the details on how to build a successful MVP app in our separate blog post on why most MVP apps fail and what you need to do to get a solid MVP version.

3. Design and Development by the Same Agency

Instead of being a middleman between a designer and developers, find an agency that can do both. This approach brings several key benefits, including:

• Smooth communication and better alignment: When designers and developers collaborate closely from the start, they stay on the same page regarding all project details, which ensures a more cohesive workflow.
• More accurate design implementation: Working directly with designers, developers can ensure that UI/UX elements are implemented exactly as intended. This significantly reduces the need for rework and saves time.
• Faster development process: Having both teams under one roof streamlines coordination and decision-making, ultimately accelerating the overall development timeline.

4. Use Off-the-Shelf Solutions

As we said, developing a custom piece instead of an off-the-shelf solution is not the best idea. The mobile market is so strong that you can create an entire app using various SDKs. However, you should be able to tell code templates (aka code snippets) and mobile SDKs apart.

Never buy code snippets. Your development team will ask you to throw these away or will ask for a pricey refactoring phase.

Code snippets from sites like codecanyon.com are not like mobile SDKs at all. SDKs come with official support. They are a safe bet, whereas code snippets are sold as is.

5. Avoid Supporting Legacy OSes and Device Models

Support only up-to-date versions of iOS and Android and recent device models to save up to 1.5x – 2x of the app budget.

Today, AI-powered coding assistants, such as GitHub Copilot X, Codex, and Gemini, have become an inseparable part of mobile app development. And that is for a reason. Generally speaking, with these platforms in place it’s possible to cut average development costs by 10–25%.

This is precisely because coding assistants can:

• Reduce development time by 20–40% for small and medium projects, thus saving costs on engineering hours.
• Augment design, speeding up wireframing and UI iteration. Tools like Galileo AI and Figma AI can be extremely useful to this end.
• Improve maintenance efficiency, since AI-powered monitoring tools predict bugs and reduce downtime.

You see, AI-powered assistants can be pretty useful for cutting both development time (nearly 25 %) and budget. However, note that this option may not work well in enterprise applications with heavy backend or compliance requirements. In this case, you’ll need a full-scale engineering team to sort things out. Well, such a complex project will definitely cost you a pretty penny.

Tech Trends Affecting Mobile App Development Costs

Aiming to develop a cutting-edge mobile app, you, perhaps, can’t afford to let tech trends slip away unnoticed. And really, it’s hard to disagree that today’s innovations have significantly elevated overall app performance and security. However, technologies like AI, ML, and blockchain aren’t cheap. So, let’s zoom in on the top trends in mobile app development and see how they affect overall costs.

AR and VR

AR/VR has become a real treasure trove for businesses aiming to make their products more compelling for consumers. Just take IKEA as an example. It implemented augmented reality to let people place a piece of furniture in their apartments first, see how it fits, and then decide whether  it’s worth buying.

And that’s just one example. AR/VR technology solutions can be applied to almost any kind of mobile app to provide people with more interactive experiences.

Internet of Things

Today, IoT devices have found their way into many use cases. Whether it’s monitoring well-being, property, or equipment remotely, IoT makes it possible. Moreover, its capabilities go beyond merely collecting data and providing insights.

This technology can deliver recommendations based on collected data. For example, it can remind the customer to take medication, reduce screen time, etc. Also, IoT devices may even take automated actions, like turn the lights off when you leave or turn them on when you arrive.

So, keeping an eye on this tech trend in your mobile app development process will definitely help your product stand out in the market.

Discover how to Develop a Solid IoT Hardware

Blockchain

Another technology worth keeping an eye on in 2026 to develop a competitive application is blockchain. In general, this innovation is well-known for its ability to enhance the security and trustworthiness of an app.

With this in mind, blockchain can be especially useful for applications that collect users’ sensitive data, such as fintech apps, insurance solutions, healthcare software, and the like.

Weigh the possible Pros and Cons of Blockchain in Your Mobile App

Artificial Intelligence

Let’s be honest, can you name an app you’re satisfied with that doesn’t offer 24/7 assistance and personalized content? Those capabilities would be impossible without AI technologies like GenAI, NLP, and machine learning. Of course, employing GenAI models or other AI tools in your mobile app is by no means cheap. However, without them, your app risks falling behind.

You see, all the trends we’ve discussed, AR/VR, blockchain, IoT, AI, and ML, are crucial for building a robust mobile app.

In general, implementing technologies may raise your app’s development cost to ~ $20,000–$150,000+, depending on scope and complexity.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, defining the cost of building a mobile solution is not a trivial task: there are too many variables. The average cost to develop a product can vary greatly depending on its complexity and features, as well as the experience and location of the development team. So, it’s not like we are not willing to let the cat out of the bag. It’s just a different story with every application. However, we hope you found here the answer to the question: “How much does it cost to make a mobile app?”

Your partner should be flexible and work as a part of your team, genuinely interested in your app’s success. Such a vendor is hard to find.

According to Clutch, the average  cost to deliver a mobile solution may range between $10,000-$50,000. However, the typical cost for developing a meaningful application will likely be significantly more.

If you carefully followed our guide, you already know that you may require from $5,000 to $1,350,000 to develop an app. All, of course, depends both on your product’s specifics and the development company you choose to collaborate with.

In a nutshell, with Velvetech, you can get a mobile app developed for as low as $10,000 and all the way up to $200,000. The only piece of advice is to let the features drive the budget, not the other way around.

Oh, and trash the $10,000 quotes for an Uber-type app from certain mobile development companies. Your time is money, and you know better than that.