How much does it cost to build an app?

$60,000? $250,000? Or maybe just $1,500 using AI tools? 

If that sounds vague – it’s because it is. The cost to create a mobile app ranges from “surprisingly affordable” to “a second mortgage”, and everything in between. App development today goes far beyond just hiring a developer. There are plenty of decisions to be made regarding design systems, cloud infrastructure, code frameworks, privacy compliance, and many more.

Let’s take a precise look at the factors that determine app development costs. You’ll learn where your money goes, what impacts the price the most, and when AI or cross-platform code actually make sense. Measure twice, cut once!

Average cost for mobile app development in 2025: global benchmarks

How much does it actually cost to build an app in 2025? The answer depends on what you’re building, where, and who’s building it. We can break it down by complexity, region, and team type, so you can at least ballpark your budget before getting on a discovery call.

By app complexity

The biggest driver of app development cost is still complexity, which in real terms means how many user flows, how many screens, and how much logic or data processing sits under the hood.

What counts as…

• simple app? A to-do app, event reminder, or single-purpose calculator. It usually includes a login system, a few screens, and some form of data input/output.
• mid-complexity? Includes payment integration, push notifications, real-time updates, or user-generated content. It can be language learning tools or small eCommerce platforms.
• high-complexity? Custom dashboards, external APIs, AI features, admin panels, offline sync, or multi-role systems. This is where apps start becoming products and often require DevOps, analytics, and scale considerations.

According to Business of Apps’ recent survey, app development price benchmarks in the USA in 2025 are as follows (see the chart below).

By developers’ location

However, it would be rather unwise to limit yourself to the US market only, while Eastern Europe, India, and Latin America offer highly skilled developers at lower rates. Many Western startups now rely on these regions to scale affordably, especially for MVPs and mid-sized builds.

The same app can cost 2–3x more depending on where the development team is located. While code quality varies by individual team, hourly rates are shaped by local labor markets and business models. 

For example, in the US, the average hourly rate for an app developer starts at $100, according to Clutch. That means even a relatively simple app can quickly become a major investment. Conversely, Eastern European rates are much lower, while developers’ skill levels are known to be high.

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Having said that, let’s illustrate what might be the average cost for mobile app development depending on both app complexity and location.

Location	Simple app cost	Medium app cost	Complex app cost
United States	$25,000 – $60,000	$60,000 – $120,000	$150,000 – $300,000
Western Europe	$20,000 – $60,000	$50,000 – $150,000	$100,000 – $250,000
Eastern Europe	$10,000 – $30,000	$30,000 – $80,000	$50,000 – $150,000
Middle East	$20,000 – $60,000	$40,000 – $120,000	$80,000 – $200,000
Africa	$10,000 – $30,000	$20,000 – $80,000	$50,000 – $150,000
India	$5,000 – $10,000	$10,000 – $30,000	$30,000 – $100,000
Australia	$20,000 – $60,000	$40,000 – $120,000	$80,000 – $250,000

By contractor type

Beyond geography, who you hire makes a huge difference in both cost and outcome. Here’s how the delivery model impacts your budget and risk.

To make this comparison meaningful, we’re using the example of a simple app. This helps illustrate the typical app development cost range each contractor type would charge, knowing that freelancers are rarely suited for large-scale or highly integrated projects.

Team type	Simple app cost	Best for	Risks/tradeoffs
Freelancers	$5,000 – $15,000	MVPs, quick iterations, very limited budgets	Limited coverage (QA, DevOps, PM); less scalable
Agencies	$15,000 – $40,000	Mid-size products with known scope	Process-heavy, variable design quality
Product studios	$50,000 – $100,000+	End-to-end product development, strategy, design, growth	Highest quality but at premium pricing

Notice that a solo dev can build your MVP, but one person can’t be a designer, backend developer, QA tester, and DevOps engineer all at once. If you’re solving a single user need and speed is key, this can work.

Have a look at our article on hiring mobile app developers.

Native iOS and Android development cost: which is higher?

You should consider that the cost of app development is not only about hourly rates or how much you pay upfront. Platform-specific complexity, testing, publishing, and long-term maintenance usually also matter.

In short, Android apps generally require more development and QA time than their iOS counterparts. The reason for that is device fragmentation. There are Android devices in all shapes, sizes, and capabilities. The cost varies from $100 budget phones to $2,000+ foldables.

That means developers must optimize for a much wider range of screen sizes, OS versions, and performance tiers. As a result, there is more testing, more edge cases, and more late-stage bugs.

Want more details? Check out our article on Android app development costs.

In contrast, iOS apps typically require less adaptation. Apple’s closed ecosystem allows developers to target a limited, more consistent device lineup. But iOS development costs are shaped by its own difficulties: the review process in the Apple App Store is more rigorous and sometimes less predictable, especially when sending updates.

It’s easy to compare hourly rates, but that doesn’t account for the full lifecycle of the app. Publishing and maintaining an app on either platform comes with platform-specific work. There is a range of factors that might influence Android or Apple app development cost.

Factor	Android app development	iOS app development
Development time	Typically longer due to diverse devices and OS versions (2–4 months)	Faster development (1.5–3 months) as Apple devices are limited in number
Hourly rates	$30–$100 per hour (depending on region)	$40–$150 per hour (depending on region)
Design complexity	Higher cost for diverse screen sizes & resolutions	More uniform design across fewer devices
App testing	Higher cost due to multiple device configurations	Lower cost due to fewer models and OS versions
App maintenance cost	More frequent updates required due to OS fragmentation	Lower maintenance due to fewer devices and OS versions
Market distribution	Google Play (lower fees, higher competition)	Apple App Store (higher fees, higher user spending potential)
Integration with hardware	Can be more complex due to hardware variation	Easier integration with Apple’s tightly controlled hardware
Security features	Security needs more attention due to open-source nature of Android	Generally stronger in-built security features

So which platform should you build first? That depends on your target audience. For example, in the US, iOS users typically make up the majority and often have higher in-app spending. In India, Latin America, and parts of Africa, Android dominates.

Typical app development cost for iOS in 2025 ranges from $20,000 to $250,000, depending on functionality, design, and backend complexity. While iOS app developer cost often about 20% higher, Android development comes with hidden costs, like extensive testing across hundreds of devices.

Still, if you’re targeting both platforms, building separate native apps can easily double your costs, which is why many companies now consider cross-platform frameworks first.

Cross-platform apps: do they really save money?

As the slogan for cross-platform development goes, “Write once, run anywhere”. While it may sound promising, there are still some nuances worth attention.

Nowadays, tools like Flutter, React Native, and Kotlin Multiplatform promise shared codebases, faster time-to-market, and reduced engineering overhead. But do they actually save money in the long run?

If your goal is to quickly launch an app on both iOS and Android, cross-platform frameworks are a smart play. Instead of hiring two separate teams, you can often build with one frontend codebase, one set of business logic, one QA cycle, and a single sprint cadence.

For example, the cost to develop an app built natively for both platforms may be $80,000 – $120,000, while the same app built with Flutter or React Native would approximately cost $50,000 – $75,000. It’s one reason why startups love cross-platform.

It should be noted that you might still run into platform-specific limitations that can introduce unexpected budget creep. Here’s what often gets underestimated:

• Native modules. As soon as you need access to lower-level device features like Bluetooth, advanced camera APIs, or AR, you may need to write native bridges or plug in third-party modules. That breaks the “build once” model and adds complexity.
• Custom UI. If you want your app to follow platform-specific design guidelines (Material vs. Human Interface), you’ll need more conditional code and more testing.
• Third-party library gaps. Some SDKs are built only for iOS or Android natively, meaning you’ll either wait for a plugin or build the bridge yourself.
• Performance issues. While Flutter and React Native offer great performance for most use cases, high-demand animations, 3D graphics, or real-time processing may not run as smoothly without native optimization.

Some developers also point out that the real-world cost savings of cross-platform development are often overstated. As one Reddit user put it:

Planning a custom mobile app? Develop price estimates before locking in your MVP scope

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Want it much cheaper? AI and low-code options explained

If you’ve been researching how to cut the cost of app development, you’ve probably come across a few buzzwords: AI builders, no-code, low-code. They promise launch-ready apps even in days. It may sound tempting, but be cautious and consider what you’re building and how far you plan to take it.

AI builders 

Tools like Adalo AI, Glide AI, or GPT‑based assistants let you generate basic screens and logic almost instantly. Your team could prototype a simple directory app or form-based workflow for under $200/month, plus minimal setup. 

Low-code platforms

With platforms like FlutterFlow, OutSystems, Mendix, and AppGyver, you can build a decent app within $1,000–$10,000, depending on user volume and integrations.

But there’s a catch. As product ambitions grow (maybe you need real-time chat, offline sync, heavy animations, or complex integrations), those platforms often hit friction. You either pay for higher-tier plans (they scale up to $30,000/year) or start adding custom code and losing the drag-and-drop simplicity.

Maxim Leykin, CTO at Bamboo Agile

“We can use AI builders to reduce time for writing boilerplate code even in custom development projects. This is legitimate and has a positive effect on the project timeline and budget, but only if we properly accommodate it with the development process (introduce the “Human-in-the-Loop” policy, integrate AI code with the CI pipeline, check “Keep Rate” metrics, etc.).
As for low-code platforms, I’m still very sceptical about using them in commercial projects because of sufficient limitations, security and scalability concerns, and lack of customisation. It probably makes sense to use low-code platforms to quickly sketch some prototype/MVP, but in most cases this will be “throw-away code” in the long term.”

So, when is it worth it? Use AI and low-code when your scope is small: internal tools, proof-of-concept MVPs, simple data-driven apps. They let you launch fast, test ideas, or serve limited audiences with little technical overhead.

But if you’re already planning features like chat, offline workflows, native device features, or custom UI animations, you’ll likely hit pain points within weeks. Your budget might be eaten fast by workarounds, platform lock-ins, and performance hacks. The real cost then would include migration, refactoring, or even building a second version from scratch. If you’re in two minds about whether AI or low-code tools are the right fit, it’s a smart move to consult an experienced team before committing, therefore, you can save time, money, and rework later.

App complexity levels: how your feature list shapes your budget

There’s a reason no one can give you a single, universal price tag for “how much an app costs.” That is because every app wears its complexity differently and often hides it well. On the surface, a minimal interface might look simple while hiding lots of real-time data sync, background tasks, and third-party integrations under the hood. So, your budget really takes shape in your feature list. In short, complexity = cost. 

Simple apps

They’re often built without custom backend logic and include a rather limited set of features.

• User authentication (email, password, maybe OAuth for Google)
• Static or semi-dynamic screens – e.g., About Us, Contact, FAQ, Dashboard
• Form submissions – contact, surveys, simple inputs
• Minimal database interactions – like listing or searching static records

A small dental clinic app with contact info, appointment request form, and FAQs can be a good example.

Mid-level apps

Each of these features adds both frontend complexity and backend needs, which include server logic, database schema, validation, and security layers. In such apps, you’ll find:

• Real-time updates (Firebase, WebSockets)
• Push notifications tailored to users
• Role-based permissions (e.g., admin vs. regular user)
• In-app payments or subscriptions
• Maps and geolocation
• APIs for 3rd-party services (Stripe, Calendly, Google Calendar, Plaid, etc.)
• Basic file uploads and media handling

Let’s say a mid-sized wellness startup built a meditation app with daily content updates, user streak tracking, Apple Pay integration, and admin content tools. Its total price tag might be around $85,000.

Complex platforms

Here, features become ecosystems. They interact, evolve, and scale. Typical complex features include:

• Custom AI logic (e.g., recommendation engines, GPT integrations)
• Multi-role systems (admin, manager, user, reviewer, etc.)
• Complex workflows (e.g., onboarding flows that change per user type)
• Offline-first functionality with background sync
• Encrypted messaging or file sharing
• Multi-language support with dynamic content
• Animations and pixel-perfect UI with native interactions

In this case, we can take as an example a healthtech company building a teletherapy platform with video calls, payment systems, therapist matching logic, and clinical dashboards. Enterprise apps like CRMs, ERPs, BI tools are also in this category.

Here’s the trap: adding “just one more thing” repeatedly – known as scope creep. Each additional feature can cause a ripple effect: new database tables, new API endpoints, new UI elements, new QA tests. And if features aren’t planned in sequence, you may pay more to retrofit architecture later.

A simple toggle that lets a user choose their notification type? Could require backend settings storage, a UI update, and new push logic. Three days of work, minimum.

Moreover, adding AI may sound simple but reality often looks different and goes far beyond connecting OpenAI’s API. Let’s say your app summarizes documents or suggests content. You’ll need to design prompts, handle rate limits, cache results, manage unpredictable responses (“hallucinations”), and possibly fine-tune behavior for your user base. Plus, there’s the ethical layer: you may need guardrails to prevent biased or harmful outputs.

And don’t forget security. Handling passwords might be easy, but handling medical records is a way more complicated. Apps in sectors like healthcare, finance, or education fall under regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, or CCPA. Usually, other than secure storage, it requires things like audit trails, consent flows, encryption, and disaster recovery plans. Implementing these requirements can increase both development and legal costs by 20–40%.

So, what drives costs the most?

• Features that depend on user context or state (e.g., “show this if the user did X”)
• Anything that runs in real-time (chat, notifications, updates)
• Features that need to work offline and sync later
• Regulatory or data-sensitive functionality (finance, health, legal)
• AI-powered components (e.g., summarization, search, recommendations)

Mobile app complexity	Cost range	Development time
Simple app	$5,000 – $30,000	1-2 months
Mid-level app	$30,000 – $100,000	2-4 months
Complex apps	$100,000 – $250,000+	4 months+

What else drives up the price?

Even when your feature list is locked and your platforms are chosen, the cost to develop an app can still shift. The following factors often tip the scales.

Custom backend logic

Let’s say your app needs to match users, calculate dynamic prices, or trigger actions based on behavior. It all requires a backend that understands business rules, stores complex states, and securely handles data workflows.

App performance and scalability

An MVP that works with 100 users will most likely fail working with 100,000. If your app is expected to scale, you need smart decisions early, like CDN use, efficient APIs, database indexing, load balancing, and offline caching. These aren’t visible features, but they protect your app from crashing under real-world use. However, it often adds 15–25% to the backend budget.

Legacy system integrations

Modern APIs like Stripe, Firebase, or Google Maps are typically straightforward. But not every business runs on modern tools. When your app needs to integrate with an old ERP system, a banking API with poor documentation, or a government database, you should be ready for extensive dev time. These integrations may involve middleware, data mapping, and a lot of trial-and-error testing.

Admin dashboards

Even a simple one admin portal adds a second app layer. Admins often need advanced filtering, content moderation tools, analytics dashboards, and user impersonation features. 

As you can see, even if two apps look the same to the user, the price difference may lie entirely under the hood. Architecture, compliance, AI behavior are what separate a $30,000 build from a $120,000 platform.

Mobile app cost breakdown: where the money goes

Oftentimes, when you get a quote from an agency, the number may feel bigger than expected. Since each product has its lifecycle, each stage has a purpose, a price, and its impact. Let’s break down the cost structure for an app stage by stage.

Discovery & research

This is the foundation phase. While it’s the shortest one, it can significantly affect how fast and successfully you move through every other stage. 

During discovery, product teams:

• Identify the core use case and problem your app solves
• Analyze target audiences, their motivations, tech comfort level, and pain points
• Run competitor audits to avoid reinventing the wheel or repeating failed approaches
• Define success metrics and product KPIs
• Choose platforms, tech stacks, and third-party services based on constraints

Let’s say you’re building a fitness app. Without discovery, you might design your whole system around individual workouts. But after talking to users, you learn that accountability is the core motivation; therefore, social features and habit tracking become your MVP.

Discovery typically costs $3,000–$10,000, depending on how in-depth you go (market research, workshops, early prototyping, etc.).

UI/UX design

A good UI/UX process makes sure people know what your app does and how to use it.

Design teams work on:

• User flows to define how people move through your app to complete key actions
• Wireframes which show simplified versions of screens used to test structure and logic
• High-fidelity mockups to create branded visuals that show layout, hierarchy, and interface behavior
• Interactive prototypes for internal testing or early user validation
• Design systems – reusable components that ensure consistency and speed

All well-known apps like Airbnb or Uber look simple, but every screen is optimized for conversion: it shows trust signals, highlights reviews, and uses spatial layout to reduce friction. That kind of attention to UX takes time and often iteration after real-world testing.

Design for a mid-complexity app may cost $8,000-$25,000. Consumer-facing apps, where visuals directly affect brand perception and retention, often trend toward the higher end.

Frontend & backend development

Development is typically split between the frontend (what users see and interact with) and the backend (what makes everything work behind the scenes).

Frontend development includes:

• Implementing UI in native code or cross-platform frameworks 
• Animations, gestures, transitions, and screen responsiveness
• State management and navigation logic

Backend development includes:

• Building and securing APIs
• Integrating third-party services (payment gateways, CRMs, AI tools)
• Setting up databases, authentication systems, and cloud storage
• Managing role-based access, push notifications, media compression, and more

The complexity of your logic can drastically impact the cost. For example, a static content app like a travel guide might cost $30,000–$50,000, and a social marketplace with messaging and real-time updates could go from $80,000 to $150,000+.

QA & testing

Making sure your app works after building is a full-time job. QA teams check that your app works on every screen size, OS version, network condition, and use case. They are responsible for:

• Manual testing across devices, screen resolutions, and edge cases
• Writing and maintaining automated test suites
• Testing performance, responsiveness, battery impact, and offline behavior
• Validating business logic and backend consistency
• Logging and managing bugs, regressions, and critical crashes

Even apps built with great care can surprise you when someone uses a 5-year-old Android phone in dark mode on 3G. The broader your user base, the more exhaustive your QA needs to be. Expect this to cost $5,000–$20,000 depending on the app size and how much automation vs. manual testing is used.

Deployment & app store setup

The Apple App Store and Google Play each have unique submission requirements, review processes, and edge-case policies (especially around privacy and user data). 

Your deployment phase might include:

• Creating production builds with proper signing keys
• Generating and optimizing screenshots and video previews
• Writing store copy optimized for search (App Store Optimization, or ASO)
• Handling Apple’s review feedback – which can delay launch if guidelines aren’t followed
• Implementing crash monitoring and in-app analytics (e.g. Firebase, Sentry)

This phase usually costs between $2,000–$8,000.

Post-launch support & iteration

Once the app is live, your users probably will behave in ways you didn’t predict. Ongoing work may include:

• Hotfixes and critical patches
• Server maintenance and monitoring
• Implementing analytics-driven improvements
• A/B testing new flows or onboarding tweaks
• Planning for version 1.1 or 2.0

No two budgets will look exactly alike. But if you understand where the money goes, you can make smarter decisions.

Bonus: How to avoid surprise costs and overengineering

Sometimes, it’s not the features that break your budget but decisions behind them. We’ve seen it all: technical choices that seemed reasonable at first, but spiraled into multi-thousand-dollar detours.

One of our clients was initially set on sticking with their heavily customized Scandinavian e-commerce platform. Soon after we joined the project, we understood how outdated and overengineered  that platform was. Every integration and feature required expensive custom work, especially as they expanded internationally. We recommended Shopify as a modern, scalable alternative with built-in features and ready integrations. Over time, the client migrated most of their operations to Shopify – the benefits were clear for them.

Each case is unique, but let’s look at some of the most common situations leading to overengineering.

Choosing native development (iOS and Android separately) makes sense if you need deep platform features, camera control, ARKit, advanced Bluetooth, or heavy graphics. But if your app is largely CRUD-based – log in, view a dashboard, send notifications – a PWA or cross-platform solution could save both time and budget. Unless performance or device-level access is critical, simpler stacks will likely get you to market faster and leaner.

Another common case is the introduction of ‘trendy’ technologies, such as artificial intelligence. At the start, AI sounds great. Your assistant answers questions, prompts, and generates content. But in reality, this often leads to problems: AI can make mistakes, mislead the user, and correcting such errors takes time and money. Without a clear understanding of what AI is needed for in your application, you risk incurring significant costs due to mistakes and inefficiencies.

You should also be careful with the choice of cloud services and infrastructure. Excessive use of resources, lack of control over expenses, or incorrect settings can lead to sudden large bills. For example, accessing the database too often or storing data inefficiently will increase your costs without noticeable benefit.

That is why it is so important to build a product based on the actual needs and budget at the moment. In our recent podcast episode on overengineering, Maxim Leykin, CTO at Bamboo Agile, stated:

Maxim Leykin, CTO at Bamboo Agile

“There is no one-size-fits-all rule. Each project is different. However, in general, to avoid over-engineering, it’s useful to stay informed about the best modern trends and practices like service-oriented or event-driven architecture in software design. Always think about reusing something instead of writing it again, and discuss ideas and approaches with other team members before coding. I know that many teams practice test-driven development, which helps prevent redundant coding, though I’m not a big fan of test-driven development myself. Still, it might be the way forward.”

People on Reddit shared their vision on how to avoid overengineering, especially for startups, and here are the most promising tips: 

Conclusion

So, what is the average cost to develop an app in 2025?

Depending on what you’re building and how, typical cost to develop an app can vary from $25,000 for a simple MVP to over $500,000 for a full-scale product with advanced features, AI, and a robust backend. The wide range is not about padding estimates. It reflects real variables: team type, feature depth, tech choices, maintenance, and platform strategy.

The main takeaway: there’s no one typical app development cost. Start by narrowing your scope to what matters most for launch. Choose tools that match your current scale. And avoid reinventing what already works unless it gives you a clear competitive edge.

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