How Much Does a Mobile App Cost in 2026?

The short answer: on Clutch, where clients review the agencies they hired, most app development projects cost $10,000 to $49,999, and the average of about $90,800 is pulled up by a smaller number of very large projects. Netguru, a Polish agency, estimates $15,000–$25,000 for a simple app, $25,000–$60,000 for one with accounts and a backend, and $60,000 or more for a complex one. With us, an app for iOS and Android starts at €3,000 for a focused first version, as a final price agreed in writing.

An app can cost a few thousand euros or several hundred thousand, and both numbers are honest. The difference is what the app has to do. Market figures below are in US dollars, as their sources publish them.

Price ranges by type of app

Clutch's figures come from verified client reviews. Netguru's are one agency's estimates, and its guide notes that they assume Western European agency rates of $80–$150 an hour.

Simple app: a few screens, content or one small job, no user accounts and no backend of its own. Netguru puts three to five screens with read-only content at $15,000–$25,000.
App with accounts and a backend: what most businesses have in mind. People sign in, their data lives on a server, and your team manages it in an admin panel. Netguru puts sign-in, an API, push notifications, six to fifteen screens and a basic admin at $25,000–$60,000.
Complex app: payments, real-time features such as chat or live tracking, offline use, several user roles or compliance work. Netguru puts them at $60,000 and up, and the summary table in the same guide puts complex native apps for both platforms at $150,000–$300,000 or more, which shows how loosely these tiers are defined.

Clutch puts the average timeline at about 11 months and the typical agency rate at $25–$49 an hour, the same for iOS, Android and cross-platform work. Netguru says nearshore teams in Poland or Ukraine typically charge $45–$80 an hour; our developer rates guide compares countries.

Our prices start lower because Sarajevo costs less to work from and because we cut version one down to what proves the product, not because less is done. Still, a quote far below any range should make you ask what is missing: often the backend, the admin panel, store submission or testing on real devices.

What drives the price

Screens and user journeys: every screen is designed, built and tested on both platforms.
The backend: accounts, data, an admin panel and the server that keeps it all in sync. It is real engineering, and easy to leave out of a quote.
Integrations: payments, maps, bookings, an existing CRM, shop or newsroom, each with its own limits and edge cases.
Real-time features: Clutch names real-time updates and geolocation among the functions that make an app more expensive.
Offline use: data stored on the phone and synced later. Even keeping already opened stories readable for a day has to be planned.
Design: a custom interface with its own animations costs more than standard platform components.
Platforms and devices: phones only or tablets too, and how many older OS versions you support.

Native or cross-platform: the honest trade-offs

Clutch says plainly that a native iOS app plus a native Android app will double the overall price, even though agencies charge the same hourly rate for each. Netguru is more modest: native apps for both platforms cost roughly 30–40% more than one shared codebase for a moderately complex app.

We build with React Native, so most features are built once for both platforms. That is how we made the apps for Federalna.ba and Visoko.co.ba: one codebase each, in both stores, with news, video and push notifications, and live radio in the Federalna.ba app. The trade-offs, honestly:

One codebase means one team, one budget, and new features on iPhone and Android the same day.
Some work still happens twice: testing on both platforms, two store listings, two reviews.
Heavy 3D, demanding hardware access and experiences built around one platform are better served natively. Netguru notes that React Native's overhead shows mainly in animation-heavy or hardware-intensive apps.
Brand-new platform features sometimes need a little native code.

If what you have in mind is your website inside an app, Apple's guidelines say an app should offer more than a repackaged website. A fast mobile site or a web application may serve you better, with no store approval needed.

What Apple and Google charge and require

The fees are small next to the build. The rules matter more, because some of them change the scope.

Apple Developer Program: $99 a year, with prices that may vary by region. Nonprofits, accredited educational institutions and government entities can request a fee waiver.
Google Play: a one-time registration fee of $25.
Company accounts: both stores ask an organization for a D-U-N-S number. It is free, but Google warns it can take up to 30 days.
Testing: Google requires personal accounts created after 13 November 2023 to run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days before going public, one more reason to publish under your company.
Review: Apple typically reviews at least 50% of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48. Google says reviews for some accounts take up to seven days, or longer in exceptional cases.
Account deletion: if users can create an account, both stores require a way to delete it inside the app.
The EU: Apple removes apps from its EU storefronts until the developer's trader status is provided and verified.

In-app purchases follow one basic rule. Digital content and features, such as subscriptions or premium content, must go through the store's billing. Physical goods and services, such as food delivery, tickets or a booked appointment, must be paid another way, so the store takes no commission and you pay only your card processor.

On digital sales, a small developer usually gives up 15%. Apple charges 15% under its Small Business Program, for developers new to the App Store or with up to $1 million in proceeds the year before. Google charges 15% on the first $1 million a year to developers enrolled in that tier, split since 30 June 2026 in the EEA, UK and US into a 10% service fee and a 5% billing fee. Above that, rates are higher and differ by region; in the EU, Apple's standard commission has been 26% since 1 October 2026. These terms changed more than once this year, so check the stores' current pages before building a business model on them.

Running costs after launch

Developer accounts: $99 a year for Apple; Google's fee is paid once. The accounts should be registered to your business.
Backend: a Hetzner cloud server starts at €5.99 a month excluding VAT, and managed PostgreSQL on Supabase at $25 a month. Firebase Authentication is no-cost up to 50,000 monthly active users.
Push notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging is listed as no-cost. OneSignal has a free plan, and paid plans from $19 a month.
Builds and updates: Expo, which we use, has a free plan and paid plans from $19 a month plus usage.
Yearly platform updates: since 28 April 2026, Apple only accepts apps built with the iOS 26 SDK. Since 31 August 2026, Google requires new apps and updates to target Android 16, and apps targeting Android 14 or lower are no longer offered to new users on newer phones.
Maintenance: Netguru budgets 15–20% of the build cost a year, one agency's rule of thumb rather than a market average. New features come on top.

Services change underneath apps too. The alert system behind the Federalna.ba app relied on a Google service that had been retired, so we rebuilt it on the current one.

How to plan a first version

The most expensive mistake is building everything before learning what users actually use. A good first version does one job well, launches, and then grows from real data. Features that do not prove the product go on a roadmap, not into version one.

Write down the one job the app must do, and for whom, and list only the screens it needs.
Buy before you build: sign-in, notifications, payments and crash reporting already exist as services.
Check the store rules early: digital sales, user accounts, privacy declarations.
Register the company's store accounts at the start, because verification takes time.
Ship analytics and crash reporting in the first release, so version two rests on behaviour, not guesses.

Launch the smallest app that solves the problem, then let users tell you what comes next.

Our rhythm: one to two weeks to agree the scope, a prototype on your phone by week four, two-week sprints with a test build after each, and store submission around weeks 12–14. Scope sets the timeline for websites too, as how long it takes to build a website explains.

Red flags in an app quote

No written list of screens and features. If it isn't written down, it isn't included.
No word on the backend: where it runs, under whose account, at what yearly cost.
Store accounts registered to the developer instead of you.
Nothing about updates after launch, although both stores change their requirements every year.
Hourly billing without an estimate or a cap.
No apps in the portfolio that you can download and try.

How to compare offers properly

Put the quotes side by side on the same written scope and ask each provider:

What exactly is in version one: which screens, roles and integrations?
Native, cross-platform or a website in a wrapper, and which devices are supported?
Is the price fixed, and is VAT included in the figure?
Who handles store listings, privacy declarations and rejections?
What do updates and maintenance cost after launch, and who owns the code and accounts?

Then add up three years for each offer: the build, $297 for Apple and $25 for Google, backend hosting and maintenance. The cheapest build is rarely the cheapest app.

What we charge

A mobile app for iOS and Android starts at €3,000, and a web application at €4,500. After a short call you receive a written scope and a fixed price. That price is final and nothing is added on top. A first version usually takes 10–16 weeks from kickoff to store approval. We build with React Native, Expo, Node.js and PostgreSQL. The code is yours, and the store accounts are registered to your business with us added as developers. After launch, releases and maintenance can continue on a predictable monthly budget agreed in writing.

Go deeper

Have an idea? Describe it in two paragraphs and send it to us. You will get a written scope and a final price for the first version, and if a website or web application would serve you better, we will say so.

Written by

Adi Zeljković — Founder, Luminor Solutions

Part of the Luminor team — working across strategy, design, engineering and growth on the projects we write about.

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