How Much Does a Mobile App Cost in 2026? Price Ranges

A mobile app costs anywhere from $1,000 for a branded template to several hundred thousand dollars for a complex native product. Published agency guides put a typical custom app at $50,000 to $150,000, while our own plans start at $1,000. The gap comes from scope, not from a typo, so the total matters less than the list of what sits inside it.

What published guides say

Netguru's cost guide (updated August 2026) gives three bands. A single-platform app with 3 to 5 screens and no backend runs $15,000 to $50,000. A cross-platform app with user accounts and an API integration runs $50,000 to $150,000. A native iOS and Android product with real-time features and compliance requirements goes from $150,000 to $300,000 and up. Netguru also reports a median of $76,000 for a cross-platform MVP, based on data from more than 200 of its projects.

Quash (updated September 2026) puts a basic app at $5,000 to $50,000 and a market-ready MVP at $50,000 to $150,000. It also says outright that most published figures come from agencies and aggregators, not audited studies.

Read these as agency price lists. They are useful for scale, and not much more.

Why one app gets quoted at ten different prices

The spread comes from four things. Scope is the first: three screens and a login is a different job from thirty screens with payments. Platforms come next, because one shared codebase costs less than two native apps. Then the backend: an app that only displays local data is cheap, while one with accounts, sync and an admin panel is not.

The last is team rate. Quash reports $100 to $250 per hour in the US and Canada and $20 to $50 offshore, without saying how those rates were collected.

Netguru puts UI and UX design at 15 to 25 percent of the project cost, and Quash says testing takes 15 to 25 percent of the build budget. If a quote has neither line, someone is skipping them or hiding them.

What moves the price

On our own price list, the step from one tier to the next is defined by features, not by a screen count.

A template app is a ready-made app customized to your brand. An MVP adds UI and UX from scratch, 3 to 5 core screens, a backend API, authentication, push notifications and analytics. The full tier adds a design system, a complex backend, in-app payments, offline mode and geolocation or Bluetooth device support.

Payments, offline mode and device integrations are where budgets grow. If you can launch without them, do.

Our price list

We publish prices because a range without a scope list tells you nothing. These are the app plans on our pricing page:

Plan	Price	Timeline	Free support
Template	$1,000	7-10 days	14 days
MVP	$2,000	21-30 days	30 days
Full	$3,500	45-60 days	60 days
Enterprise	$6,000	from 90 days	SLA

By format, cross-platform apps on React Native and Expo start at $2,000, and native iOS and Android apps at $3,500.

The price is fixed in the contract: 50% upfront and 50% on delivery. Anything outside the plan is quoted separately before work starts. We build in 2-week sprints and show a demo after each one.

These numbers sit far below the agency ranges above. Do not compare the totals. Compare the scope lines, and ask what is missing from each.

Costs outside the build

Apple charges $99 per year for the Developer Program. Google Play charges a one-time $25 registration fee. Both Netguru and Quash list these as fixed line items.

Maintenance is the larger item. Both Netguru and Quash cite 15 to 20 percent of the original build cost per year, which is $7,500 to $10,000 a year on a $50,000 app. Our plans include 14 to 60 days of free support after launch, and anything after that is a separate agreement.

Third-party services such as push delivery, maps, payments and analytics may carry their own fees, so ask for a list.

How to compare quotes

Put the quotes side by side and check five lines: number of screens, platforms covered, whether a backend is included, what happens after launch, and whether the price is fixed or hourly. An hourly quote with no cap is a budget you have not seen yet.

If your project is closer to a web product than a phone app, the same logic applies to web application development.

What founders ask before signing

How much does an MVP cost? Published guides put it between $15,000 and $150,000 depending on who is selling. Ours starts at $2,000 for 3 to 5 core screens with a backend API and authentication, delivered in 21 to 30 days.

Is a fixed price safe? It is safe when the scope is written down. The contract lists what the plan includes, and anything beyond it is quoted before work starts, so the number does not move mid-project.

How long does it take? From 7 days for a template to 45 to 60 days for a full custom app. Enterprise projects start at 90 days.

Can I start smaller and add features later? Yes. Start with the Template or MVP plan and add features in later sprints.

If you have a scope in mind, send it over and we will reply with an estimate within 24 hours. You can also look at past work first.

Prices on this page match our pricing page as of 8 October 2026. Sources: Netguru, Mobile App Development Cost; Quash, How Much Does It Cost to Build an App; Apple Developer Program; Google Play Console help.