Mobile App Cost Breakdown
Cost to Build a Mobile App
What a mobile app costs, including the parts nobody quotes for.
Store submission, device testing, and the first year of OS updates are real costs. Here they are, alongside the build itself.
Quick Answer
Updated August 22, 2026
How much does it cost to build a mobile app?
A mobile app costs $20,000–$70,000 (₹17–58 lakh) through an Indian agency in 2026, covering both iOS and Android from a single React Native or Flutter codebase. A simple app with authentication, a handful of screens, and a REST backend sits near $20,000–$30,000; a marketplace or on-demand app with live tracking, payments, and two user types runs $45,000–$70,000. Building separate native iOS and Android apps roughly doubles it, and is only worth it for games or platform-heavy products.
Typical range
$20,000 – $70,000
Both platforms
One codebase, one budget
Typical timeline
10 – 22 weeks
Best for
- Products where users will genuinely return regularly
- Services needing push, location, camera, or offline behaviour
- Businesses where the app is the primary customer relationship
Not best for
- Content that works perfectly well as a responsive website
- One-off transactions users complete and never repeat
- Teams with no budget for post-launch maintenance
Price Bands
What a mobile app costs, by scope
Bands rather than a single figure, because a single figure without the assumptions behind it is a sales number rather than an estimate.
| Tier | Scope | INR | USD | Timeline | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple appContent, booking, or utility apps with one user type | Auth, 8–12 screens, REST backend, push notifications | ₹17,00,000 – ₹25,00,000 | $20,000 – $30,000 | 10 – 12 weeks | 2 engineers |
| Standard appCommerce and service apps with real transactions | Payments, profiles, chat or notifications, admin panel, analytics | ₹25,00,000 – ₹40,00,000 | $30,000 – $48,000 | 14 – 18 weeks | 2 – 3 engineers |
| Complex appOn-demand, logistics, and marketplace products | Two user apps, live tracking, real-time dispatch, payments, back office | ₹40,00,000 – ₹58,00,000 | $48,000 – $70,000 | 18 – 22 weeks | 3 – 4 engineers |
Figures are indicative ranges for delivery by an Indian agency at senior rates, current as of August 2026. INR and USD are shown at an approximate 83:1 rate and are not a quotation.
Cost Breakdown
Where the budget actually goes
| Phase | Share | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Design and UX | 15 – 20% | Screen design, interaction patterns, and platform conventions on both stores. |
| App engineering | 35 – 40% | Screens, navigation, state, offline behaviour, and device capabilities. |
| Backend and APIs | 25 – 30% | The API the app talks to, plus admin surfaces and integrations. |
| QA and device testing | 10 – 15% | Testing across real devices, including deliberately low-end Android hardware. |
| Release and store submission | 5% | Signing, provisioning, store listings, review responses, and phased rollout. |
Cost Drivers
What changes the price, and by how much
If two quotes for a mobile app differ wildly, the cause is almost always one of these being assumed in or out.
A second user app
A driver, vendor, or partner app is close to a second product. Shared backend helps; shared screens rarely do.
Live location tracking
Background location, battery behaviour, map costs, and the OS restrictions that make it genuinely hard.
In-app chat or video
Real-time infrastructure, presence, delivery guarantees, and moderation surface.
Offline-first behaviour
Local persistence plus a sync and conflict-resolution layer that actually works.
Native modules
Any capability the cross-platform framework does not wrap must be written twice.
Separate native apps
Two codebases and two teams. Justified for games and platform-heavy products only.
Scope Of A Quote
What is in our price, and what is not
Included
- Discovery, scope definition, and a written delivery plan
- UI design or implementation of your existing design system
- Engineering, code review, and automated tests
- Deployment, environment setup, and CI/CD
- Documentation and a handover your next engineer can actually use
- Post-launch stabilisation for the first two weeks
- App Store and Play Store submission, including rejections
Not included
- Third-party service subscriptions billed directly to you
- Cloud hosting and infrastructure costs after launch
- Paid marketing, content production, and app store fees
- Ongoing maintenance beyond the stabilisation window
- Hardware, devices, and physical logistics
- Apple Developer ($99/year) and Google Play ($25 one-off) fees
After Launch
What it costs to keep running
The line most quotes leave out, and the one that decides whether the product is still alive in two years.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Backend and hosting | $100 – $600 / month | Scales with active users rather than with elapsed time. |
| Store and service fees | $99 + $25 / year | Apple annually, Google once. Plus maps, push, and analytics usage. |
| Annual maintenance | 15 – 20% of build cost | OS releases, SDK deprecations, and store policy changes force work every year whether or not you plan for it. |
Regional Comparison
The same work, priced by region
| Region | Hourly rate | What you are paying for |
|---|---|---|
| India | $22 – $45 | Deepest supply of senior product engineers at this rate. Quality range is wide, so vetting matters more than the number. |
| Eastern Europe | $45 – $80 | Strong engineering culture and convenient European overlap. Roughly double India for comparable seniority. |
| Latin America | $50 – $90 | Popular with US companies for same-day timezone overlap rather than for cost. |
| United States / Western Europe | $110 – $200 | Same-timezone collaboration and local contracting law. Four to five times the Indian rate for the same seniority. |
How We Quote
From a brief to a number you can plan against
Step 1
You send a written scope
A feature list, an existing product, or a problem statement. Anything we can read and ask questions about.
Step 2
We ask the questions that move the number
Roles, integrations, compliance, and volume. These change a quote far more than the interface does.
Step 3
You get a banded estimate, not a single figure
A range with the assumptions written next to it, so you can see which assumption to challenge.
Step 4
We recommend the lightest shape that works
Fixed-scope, phased, or a dedicated pod. We say when a smaller engagement would serve you better.
Prefer to work it out yourself first? The project cost estimator gives you a band in a couple of minutes, and the MVP scope planner helps you work out what to cut before you ask anyone for a quote.
Quick Brief
Start the conversation here
Send the scope or the problem. We will come back with a banded estimate and the assumptions behind it.
Your Name
Work Email
What do you need help with?
Proof
Comparable products we have shipped
FAQ
Pricing questions we get asked most
How much does it cost to develop a mobile app in India?
$20,000–$70,000 (₹17–58 lakh) through an agency, covering iOS and Android from one cross-platform codebase. A simple app is $20,000–$30,000; a complex on-demand product with two apps and live tracking reaches $70,000.
Is it cheaper to build for iOS and Android separately?
No — separate native apps cost roughly 80–100% more, because you are building and maintaining two codebases. Cross-platform is the right default for product apps; native is right for games, heavy AR, and platform-exclusive capabilities.
How long does it take to build a mobile app?
Ten to twenty-two weeks from brief to store, depending on complexity. Add one to two weeks for App Store review on a first submission, which is slower than subsequent updates.
What does it cost to maintain a mobile app per year?
Budget 15–20% of the original build cost annually. iOS and Android both ship yearly releases that break things, SDKs get deprecated, and store policies change. An unmaintained app degrades within about eighteen months.
Why are app development quotes so different?
Usually because the scope being priced is different, and because some quotes exclude backend, design, QA, or store submission. Ask what is included, and ask specifically about maintenance — that is the line most often left out.
Can I build an app for $5,000?
A very narrow single-purpose app with no backend, sometimes. Anything with accounts, payments, or a server behind it will not fit, and a quote at that level usually means the real cost arrives later as change requests.
Related Cost Guides
Other budgets worth checking before you commit
Ready to staff it instead?
Next steps
Where buyers usually go from here
The service pages behind this work, plus the tools that turn a budget into a scope.