Mobile App Development Cost in 2026
Mobile app development in the US typically costs $20,000 to $60,000 for a simple app, $60,000 to $150,000 for an app with accounts, payments and a backend, and $150,000 or more for complex products such as marketplaces and social apps. One cross-platform app for iOS and Android usually costs 60 to 70 percent of building two separate native apps.
Quoting by platform is the wrong way to think about it. Features drive most of the cost, so this guide breaks the price down by complexity, type of app, feature and project stage, and covers the ongoing costs that nobody quotes up front.
Average cost of mobile app development in 2026
| Complexity | Examples | Typical cost | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | Information app, calculator or single-purpose tool with little or no backend | $20,000 to $60,000 | 2 to 4 months |
| Medium | Booking, loyalty or ecommerce app with accounts and payments | $60,000 to $150,000 | 4 to 7 months |
| Complex | Marketplace, social or community app with real-time features | $150,000 to $300,000 and up | 7 months and up |
Cost by type of app
Typical US agency ranges. Your feature list decides where in each range you land.
| Type of app | What drives the cost | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Booking and appointments | Calendar logic, reminders and payments | $50,000 to $120,000 |
| Ecommerce | Catalogue, cart, checkout and order tracking | $60,000 to $150,000 |
| Loyalty and rewards | Accounts, points rules and push notifications | $40,000 to $100,000 |
| Internal business app | Connections to existing systems and offline use | $40,000 to $150,000 |
| Social or community | Profiles, feeds, messaging and moderation | $120,000 to $300,000 |
| On-demand or marketplace | Two or more apps, matching, live location and payouts | $150,000 to $350,000 |
Cost by feature
Rough US build costs, on top of a base app:
- User accounts and login: $4,000 to $10,000. More with social login or single sign-on.
- Payments: $5,000 to $15,000. Subscriptions cost more than one-off purchases, and both stores take a cut of digital sales.
- Push notifications: $2,000 to $5,000, more if they are personalised or scheduled from the server.
- Offline mode: $5,000 to $15,000. Often assumed to be free. It is not, because resolving sync conflicts is genuinely hard.
- Maps and location: $3,000 to $10,000, plus ongoing map service fees.
- Chat or messaging: $8,000 to $25,000.
- Admin dashboard: $8,000 to $20,000. Almost always needed, and almost always forgotten when quoting.
Cross-platform vs native app development cost
Cross-platform development with React Native or Flutter means one codebase, one team and both app stores. It is the right default for most business apps.
Native development, with separate Swift apps for iPhone and Kotlin apps for Android, earns its extra cost when you need heavy graphics, deep camera or augmented reality features, or new platform features on the day they launch.
| Cross-platform | Native, iOS and Android separately | |
|---|---|---|
| Codebases | One | Two |
| Relative cost | About 60 to 70 percent | 100 percent |
| Example: a medium app | About $70,000 to $85,000 | About $110,000 to $130,000 |
| Best for | Most business apps | Graphics-heavy, camera or AR apps, and day-one platform features |
If you are deciding between the two main cross-platform frameworks, see React Native vs Flutter.
Where the budget goes, stage by stage
| Stage | Share of budget | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and planning | About 10 percent | Scope, user journeys and technical plan |
| UI and UX design | 10 to 15 percent | Wireframes, prototypes and visual design |
| Development | 50 to 60 percent | The app, backend, admin dashboard and integrations |
| Testing | 10 to 15 percent | Real devices, OS versions and edge cases |
| Launch | About 5 percent | Store listings, submission and release |
What you pay depends on who builds it
Rates vary widely, but these are typical ranges:
| Team | Typical hourly rate | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| US agency | $100 to $200 | A full team and process, at the highest price |
| US freelancer | $60 to $150 | Lower cost, but you manage the project and coordinate specialists |
| Offshore team | $25 to $60 | The lowest rate, with more management, time zone gaps and variable quality |
The costs after launch
An app is not a one-off purchase. Each year, expect:
- Apple Developer Program: $99 a year
- Google Play: a $25 one-off registration fee
- Backend hosting: $50 to $500 a month, depending on users
- Maintenance: 15 to 20 percent of the build cost each year, because iOS and Android both ship major versions annually and things break
- Store compliance: privacy labels and policy changes need work whether or not you shipped a feature
For a $100,000 app, that means budgeting roughly $15,000 to $20,000 a year to keep it working and in the stores. An app nobody can afford to maintain is usually gone from the stores within two years, so plan for this before committing to the build.
How to reduce the cost honestly
- Ship fewer features first. A focused first version is the most effective lever by a wide margin.
- Launch on one platform. Check your analytics: if most of your web visitors use iPhones, start there.
- Consider a web app. If you do not need the camera, offline use or push notifications, a mobile-friendly website can do the job for a fraction of the price.
- Supply the design. An existing design system removes real hours.
- Avoid rejections. Every failed store review costs time. Our list of common app store rejection reasons covers the avoidable ones.
Common questions
How much does mobile app development cost on average?
Most business apps built by a US agency cost $60,000 to $150,000. Simple apps start around $20,000, and complex marketplace or social apps often exceed $150,000.
How much does a simple app cost?
A simple app with a few screens and little or no backend typically costs $20,000 to $60,000.
How much does cross-platform app development cost?
Usually 60 to 70 percent of building separate native iOS and Android apps. A medium app built cross-platform often costs $70,000 to $85,000, compared with $110,000 to $130,000 built natively for both.
Why is app development so expensive?
Because the cost of app development covers several products at once: the app itself, a backend, an admin dashboard, and testing across many devices and OS versions, then annual updates to keep it working.
How long does an app take?
Two to four months for a simple app, four to seven for a medium one. Anyone promising six weeks is either building something very small or planning to cut testing.
Who owns the code?
You should, along with the store listings and developer accounts. Register the Apple and Google accounts in your company’s name, not the agency’s.
How we price it
Our app development quotes are built feature by feature, so you can see what each one costs and remove it. Where cross-platform is right we use React Native or Flutter, and we write native code only where cross-platform is genuinely the wrong answer.
