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Oct 27, 2026 · By

How much does it cost to build an app? A small business guide

What really drives the cost of an iOS and Android app, the fees Apple and Google charge, what it costs to keep an app running, and how to spend less. With sources.

"How much does it cost to build an app?" gets some of the worst answers online. Search it and you will find ranges like "$10,000 to $500,000". That is true in the same way "a vehicle costs $500 to $5 million" is true. It does not help you plan anything.

So instead of an average, here is what moves the price, the fees Apple and Google charge (from their own pages, as of October 2026), what it costs to keep an app alive, and how to spend less. I build apps for Phoenix businesses, so I will say where I fit at the end.

Why the numbers online are all over the place

An app is not one thing. A tip calculator and a booking app are both apps. Most of the cost is not the screens you can see. It is the parts behind them: where the data lives, who can sign in, how money moves, and how your staff manage it all. Two apps that look alike in a screenshot can be ten times apart in work.

It is also mostly people's time. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for software developers at $135,980 a year (May 2025). Any quote is really an estimate of hours, so the useful question is "what adds hours".

What drives app development cost

1. One platform or both

Unless you know every customer carries the same kind of phone, you want an iPhone app and an Android app. There are two ways to get there:

  • Two native apps. Each one is written in that phone's own tools: Swift for iPhone, Kotlin for Android. Each feels at home on its phone, with direct access to everything the phone offers.
  • One cross-platform app. A framework such as React Native or Flutter lets much of the code be written once and shipped to both stores. Less duplicated work, with some platform-specific pieces still needed.

Neither is always right. What matters is that you know which one you are being quoted for, and why.

2. Accounts and a backend

The moment an app needs to remember anything about a person, like a booking, a loyalty balance or an order history, it needs a server and a database behind it. It also needs sign-in, and a way back in when someone forgets how they signed in. That backend is often as much work as the app itself. If a quote does not mention it, ask where your customers' data will live.

Accounts also come with a rule. Apple's App Store Review Guidelines say, in section 5.1.1(v): "If your app supports account creation, you must also offer account deletion within the app." That is a real feature with real screens, not a footnote.

3. Payments

Taking money changes both the work and the rules, and the rules depend on what you sell.

If you sell something that happens in the real world, the app stores stay out of it. Apple's guideline 3.1.3(e) says that if your app lets people "purchase physical goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry." Google's Payments policy says its billing system must not be used "for the purchase of physical services (such as transportation services, cleaning services, airfare, gym memberships, food delivery, tickets for live events)" or for physical goods.

So a haircut booking, a plumber's invoice or a burrito order goes through your normal card processor, with no store commission. Digital things, like premium features or a video subscription, go through the stores' billing, and the stores take a share. More on that below.

4. An admin panel

Someone at your business has to change prices, see who booked, and answer messages. That is a separate piece of software, usually a website only your staff can log into. It is the part most often left out of a quote and the part you will use every day. The cheapest version is no new admin at all: connecting the app to a system you already run.

5. Integrations

Your calendar, your point of sale, your CRM, your shipping or your payment processor. Each connection is its own small project, and how big depends mostly on the other company's documentation. In my experience a well documented system is quick to connect, and a poorly documented one can turn into the biggest line on the quote.

6. The number of screens, and how custom they are

Every screen has to be designed, built and tested on real phones. The phone's standard controls cost less than drawing everything from scratch, and usually feel more natural anyway.

The fixed costs: Apple and Google's developer fees

These are the only truly fixed numbers in the whole question:

  • Apple: the Apple Developer Program "is 99 USD per membership year". Apple adds that eligible nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions and government entities can request a fee waiver.
  • Google: Google Play charges a "US$25 one-time registration fee".

Make sure both accounts are in your business's name, not your developer's. It is the same lesson as keeping your domain in your own name: whoever holds the account holds the app.

Store commissions, and when they apply

If you do sell digital things inside the app, here is what the stores keep.

Apple. On subscriptions, Apple says: "During a subscriber's first year of service, you receive 70% of the subscription price at each billing cycle, minus applicable taxes", rising to 85% after a year of paid service. Small businesses can do better. The App Store Small Business Program offers "a reduced commission rate of 15% on paid apps and Apple In-App Purchases" for developers who earned no more than 1 million USD in proceeds in the previous calendar year. You have to enroll; it is not automatic.

Google. For users in the United States, Google changed its service fees on June 30, 2026. On the first $1M of annual earnings, auto-renewing subscriptions carry 10% plus a 5% billing fee, and other purchases from new installs carry 20% plus a 5% billing fee, with lower rates for developers in some Google programs. Google also says that "97% of developers distribute their apps and take advantage of all Google Play has to offer at no charge."

For most local businesses this whole section is about nothing, because what you sell is physical. A free app that books real appointments pays no commission to either store.

What it costs to keep an app running

An app is not finished at launch. It sits on phones whose software changes every year, and the stores enforce that.

  • Android's yearly deadline. Google's target API level rules say that starting August 31, 2026, "New apps and app updates must target Android 16 (API level 36) or higher to be submitted to Google Play." Existing apps must target Android 15 or higher to stay available to new users on newer phones. In plain words: an Android app nobody updates slowly disappears for new customers. The line moves every year.
  • iPhone updates. Apple ships a new iOS every year too, and an app that looked right last year can look wrong on new screens.
  • The Apple fee comes back every year: 99 USD per membership year.
  • Hosting the backend. The server and database behind the app cost money every month, like hosting a website.
  • Fixes and small changes. New prices, a new service, a bug on one model of phone. Every update goes back through store review.

When you compare quotes, ask each developer what year two looks like. The cheapest build with nobody to update it can cost you the app.

Ways to spend less

  1. Start with a mobile website or a web app. A progressive web app, in MDN's words, "is an app that's built using web platform technologies, but that provides a user experience like that of a platform-specific app." It can be installed to the home screen and work offline. Since iOS 16.4, Apple says a web app that has been added to the Home Screen can request permission to receive push notifications. It will not be in the App Store, and customers have to add it themselves, but for many businesses it is enough.
  2. Build one feature first. Pick the one thing customers do again and again, usually booking or reordering, and launch with that. Add the rest when real customers ask.
  3. Plug into what you already run. If your bookings already live in a system, the app should read from it, not start a second calendar.
  4. Use standard controls. Custom animations and hand-drawn buttons are where hours disappear.
  5. Write down what is not in version one. Scope that grows mid-build is the most expensive kind.

Questions to ask before you hire anyone

  1. Is this two native apps or one cross-platform app, and why that choice for me?
  2. What backend does it talk to, who hosts it, and what does that cost each month?
  3. Will the Apple and Google developer accounts be in my business's name?
  4. Is there an admin panel, and what can I change myself?
  5. How will payments work, and will any store commission apply?
  6. Who handles store submission, and what happens if the app is rejected?
  7. What happens next August when Google raises the target API level again?
  8. Who owns the code when it is paid for? (The copyright point applies to apps too.)
  9. What is the fixed price, and what is not included?

How I work

Here is how I answer that list. Every app I build is custom: designed and built from scratch, front end and back end, with no templates. I quote it per project after a short conversation about what it has to do, as one fixed figure before anything starts. That covers one build for both stores, the App Store and Play Store submissions, push notifications and offline handling, and the backend the app talks to, built alongside it rather than bolted on at the end. The number of screens, payments, live sync and third-party integrations are what move the price, and I will tell you which of those you actually need. You test real builds on your own phone as they come together.

For a real example, Moon Valley Med Spa's patient app is native on iPhone and Android and books off the same schedule the front desk uses, so there is no second calendar to keep in sync.

I have been building for Phoenix businesses since 2009, and if a mobile website would do the job, I will say so before you spend anything. Here is what an app from me includes, or tell me what you want it to do and I will give you a straight number in a free quote, usually within one business day. No credit card required, and payment plans are available.

Sources

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