How Much Does It Cost to Build an App for Your Business?

What changes the cost of a business app, how iOS and Android are priced together, and what you keep paying after launch.

How much does it cost to build an app for my business depends on what the app has to do, and on whether people use it in a browser, on a phone, or in both. A form with a simple dashboard is a different product from an iOS and Android app with payments, offline mode, and an admin site. Devdabs publishes the stages on the pricing page. The figures below are those published ranges. A range is a starting point. The written estimate is the number for your app.

If you already know the product you want priced, Get a scoped app estimate.

What changes the price

The mobile section of the pricing page lists the drivers: one platform or both; cross-platform versus native; the number of screens and user roles; offline and real-time features; device features such as the camera, location, or Bluetooth; backend and admin needs; and app store review requirements. Each one changes the amount of work, even when two apps share a name.

Screens and roles

One role that can do everything is a small permissions model. A customer, a staff member, and an admin who must not see each other's records is a different model. Every extra role needs its own screens and a check on every action that changes data. The cost shows up in the screens you design and the rules you test. A hundred people on one role can be cheaper to build than ten people on four roles.

What the phone has to do

A screen that shows text you already have is smaller than a screen that takes a photo, works without a connection, or updates while someone else is typing. Offline mode means the app has to store a copy, notice the conflict, and decide which copy wins. Real-time means a second person can change the same record while the first person is looking at it. Payments add states for a failed card and a completed charge. The pricing page says a simple app with payments and offline mode costs more than one without them. That is why the stages are ranges.

The backend and the admin

The phone screen is the part people photograph. The records, the logins, and the screen your team uses to fix a mistake are the rest of the product. An app that only saves notes on the device is smaller than one that has accounts, a database, and an admin area. If that admin area is itself a product with several user types, it is additional work, not a free extra on the mobile quote.

A browser app is often the smaller product

If your customers or your staff can do the job in a browser, you may not need a phone app at all. Web app development is published as three stages. Web App Starter is $500–$3,000, starting at $500: a focused feature, integration, or fix on an existing app, or a small single-purpose tool such as a calculator or an intake form with a simple dashboard. Business Web App is $3,000–$15,000, starting at $3,000: internal tools that replace spreadsheet work, customer portals, and dashboards with logins and roles. Advanced Web Platform is $15,000–$50,000+, starting at $15,000: multiple user types, payments, complex workflows, many integrations, or heavy traffic and performance requirements.

A web app still has hosting, a domain, and third-party licenses, which the pricing page excludes from the build range. You pay those providers directly. Choosing the browser does not make those bills disappear. It removes the store submission, the two phone platforms, and the device features you do not need.

If customers sign up and pay you for the software itself, the closer read is how much it costs to build a SaaS platform. A business app for your own team, or a portal for clients you already have, is not the same purchase as a multi-tenant product with subscription billing.

Phone apps, by published stage

Our work starts at $500. For an app people install, mobile app development is published as three stages. Two projects with the same stage name can need different amounts of work. The range is not a bid.

Mobile Starter: $500–$3,000

This stage starts at $500. The published range is $500–$3,000. It covers a review of an existing app, a clickable prototype, help with App Store and Google Play submission, or small updates. You can leave this stage with a prototype and a clearer scope, or with a small change on an app that already exists. It is not a new product with accounts, a backend, and both stores.

Mobile MVP: $10,000–$35,000

This stage starts at $10,000. The published range is $10,000–$35,000. It covers a cross-platform app, React Native or Flutter, for iOS and Android, with core features, a backend, push notifications, and store submission support. One set of core features is the boundary. Offline mode, payments, and a second product surface are reasons the quote moves inside the range or into the next stage. Store submission support is help preparing the submission. The pricing page says app store approval is decided by Apple and Google, not by us.

Full Mobile Product: $35,000–$90,000+

This stage starts at $35,000. The published range is $35,000–$90,000+. It covers native or advanced cross-platform apps with offline mode, real-time features, payments, a complex backend, and an admin web app. The plus sign is on the pricing page because those requirements do not have a ceiling a blog post can set. A quote at this stage names which of those items are in the version you are buying.

iOS and Android together

The pricing page treats "one platform or both" as a driver, not as a flat doubling. The Mobile MVP is already described as one cross-platform app for iOS and Android. You are not buying two full products at that stage. You are buying one shared set of screens and a backend, then the work of submitting to both stores and checking the screens on both.

Both stores still matter. Each store has its own listing, its own review, and its own rules for what the binary may do. A feature that uses the camera or location has to be allowed on each platform, and the permission prompt has to make sense on each. Push notifications are part of the published MVP, and they are set up per platform even when the screen that sends them is shared.

Building only one store is smaller when the other store is a real second effort: a separate native codebase, or device behavior you have not proved on the second phone. It is not smaller merely because you hide the second listing. If the people who need the app are split across both phones, leaving one store out of the first version pushes that work to a later quote. Say which store the first users actually have, and the estimate can match that.

Cross-platform or native

Cross-platform, in the words of the pricing page, means one app written so it can ship to iOS and Android, with React Native or Flutter named on the MVP. Native means a build aimed at one platform's own tools, which the Full Mobile Product lists alongside advanced cross-platform work. The choice is about the features, not about a slogan.

Cross-platform fits when the screens are mostly your own interface, the data lives in your backend, and both stores need the same core features. One change can land on both phones. You still test both, and you still submit both. Shared code does not remove the store review.

Native, or a more advanced cross-platform build, shows up when the app depends on behavior that is awkward to share: heavy offline use, real-time updates, payments, a complex backend, or an admin web app beside the phones. Those are the items in the Full Mobile Product description. Device features are a driver on their own. A camera upload is a different amount of work from Bluetooth hardware or precise location. Name the device feature in the scope. Do not leave it as "mobile."

Neither label is a discount by itself. A small cross-platform app with one role and no offline mode is less work than a native app with payments and a second role. A cross-platform app that still needs offline mode, real-time features, and an admin site is the larger stage even though the UI code is shared. Ask which behaviors the first version must have on a phone that has no signal, and which can wait until the device is online.

What you keep paying after launch

The build range does not include the bills you pay to other companies. The mobile section excludes Apple and Google developer account fees, hosting, and third-party services. You pay those to the companies that charge them. This post does not print those fees, because each provider sets its own and they change. App store approval stays with Apple and Google.

What you pay Devdabs to keep an app we built or inherited is the Care Plan. The pricing page lists Care Plan (monthly) at $500–$2,500/month, starting at $500/month. It covers bug fixes, security and dependency updates, monitoring, and small improvements for SaaS, web, and mobile apps we built or inherited. A new screen, a new device feature, or a new store is new build work. It is priced from the stage it belongs to, not folded into that monthly range.

Put the provider lines on the same page as the build. Hosting is the database and the app's server, on an account in your name. A store account is the fee the store charges so you can submit. A map, a payment processor, or a notification service is that company's meter. The first month the app is in a store is often when those lines show up beside the build invoice. Budget both, or the operating month will not match the quote you approved.

What to send for a scoped estimate

A useful estimate starts from the job, not from a budget ceiling alone. Send who uses it, the one task the first version must finish, whether that task needs a phone or a browser, and whether both stores are required on day one. Say if it must work offline, take a payment, or use the camera. If a spreadsheet or a paper form is what the app replaces, include it.

We will tell you which published stage the work sits in, whether a web app would cover the first version, and what you would still pay to hosting and the stores. If the budget is smaller than the stage, the honest move is a smaller first step. Our work starts at $500. A prototype or a review of an existing app is a real purchase. Stretching a full product across a starter budget is not. Get a scoped app estimate.

Questions people ask before they budget an app

What changes the cost of a business app?

The pricing page lists the drivers: one platform or both; cross-platform versus native; the number of screens and user roles; offline and real-time features; device features such as the camera, location, or Bluetooth; backend and admin needs; and app store review requirements. A browser app uses a different set of stages from a phone app.

How much does an iOS and Android app cost together?

The published Mobile MVP is $10,000–$35,000, starting at $10,000, and it is a cross-platform app for iOS and Android with core features, a backend, push notifications, and store submission support. One platform or both is a driver, not an automatic second full price. Native work, offline mode, payments, and an admin web app sit in the Full Mobile Product range of $35,000–$90,000+, starting at $35,000.

What does ongoing maintenance cost?

Apple and Google developer account fees, hosting, and third-party services are excluded from the build ranges. You pay those providers directly. If Devdabs keeps the app, the Care Plan is $500–$2,500/month, starting at $500/month, for bug fixes, security and dependency updates, monitoring, and small improvements. A new feature is new build work.

Is cross-platform cheaper than native?

Not by the label alone. The Mobile MVP is the cross-platform stage for iOS and Android, at $10,000–$35,000. The Full Mobile Product, at $35,000–$90,000+, covers native or advanced cross-platform apps when you add offline mode, real-time features, payments, a complex backend, and an admin web app. Shared screens remove a second UI codebase. They do not remove store review, a backend, or a device feature the first version must have.

Can a smaller budget still start?

Yes. Our work starts at $500. Mobile Starter is $500–$3,000 and covers a review, a clickable prototype, store submission help, or small updates. If the budget is below the stage the full app needs, we will suggest that smaller first step rather than stretching a bigger build too thin.