A mobile app costs roughly $20,000 for a focused MVP, $60,000 to $150,000 for a full product, and beyond that for anything with heavy real-time or hardware requirements. The largest single decision affecting that number is native versus cross-platform, and it saves less than most people expect.
Key Takeaways
- Cross-platform saves around 30-40% versus two native builds, not the 50% often claimed.
- The backend is frequently half the cost and is routinely left out of app quotes.
- App store review, device testing and post-launch fixes are real line items, not rounding errors.
What each band buys
An MVP at $20,000-$40,000 covers a focused feature set, standard authentication, and a simple backend — enough to put in front of real users and learn something.
A full product at $60,000-$150,000 adds payments, notifications, offline behaviour, analytics, admin tooling and the polish users expect from an app they pay for.
- MVP with core flows: $20,000-$40,000
- Full consumer or B2B product: $60,000-$150,000
- Real-time, streaming or hardware integration: $150,000+
Native or cross-platform
React Native and Flutter let one team ship both platforms from largely shared code. The saving is real but usually 30-40%, not half, because platform-specific work, testing and store submission do not disappear.
Native is worth the premium when you depend heavily on platform capabilities — sustained background processing, complex camera or sensor work, or the last few percent of interface fidelity.
The backend nobody quotes
An app is a client. Unless it is a calculator, it needs an API, a database, authentication, file storage and push infrastructure behind it, and that can be half the total cost.
When an app quote looks surprisingly low, this is almost always what is missing. Ask explicitly whether the backend is included.
- API and database design
- Authentication and account management
- Push notification infrastructure
- Admin tooling for your own team
Costs after launch
Apps decay faster than websites. iOS and Android ship annual releases that deprecate APIs, and stores enforce target SDK requirements, so an app left untouched for two years often will not build, let alone run.
Budget 20% of build cost per year just to stand still, before any new features.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build a mobile app?
A focused MVP costs roughly $20,000 to $40,000, a full consumer or B2B product $60,000 to $150,000, and apps with real-time, streaming or hardware requirements more than that. The backend is frequently half the total and is often excluded from quotes.
Is React Native cheaper than native development?
Yes, typically 30 to 40 percent cheaper than building separate iOS and Android apps — less than the 50 percent often claimed, because platform-specific work, device testing and store submission still happen twice. Native remains worth the premium for heavy sensor, background or graphics work.
How long does it take to build a mobile app?
An MVP typically takes 10 to 18 weeks including design, development, testing and store submission. A full product usually runs 5 to 9 months. App Store review adds days rather than weeks, but rejections can add a cycle.
What are the ongoing costs of a mobile app?
Budget around 20 percent of the build cost per year. This covers OS updates that deprecate APIs, store target-SDK requirements, dependency and security updates, backend hosting, and crash fixing — before any new feature work.