The article
What does an app cost? Ask the companies that Google shows for mobile app development services, and even their starting prices differ sixfold. In October 2026 I read four of their pages: one starts projects at $5,000, another starts at $30,000 and says outright that an app quoted at $5,000 must be a template, and two publish no price at all.
I have spent 18 years in software development, and since 2017 my company, 26 Lines of Code, has grown to 70+ specialists and delivered 150+ projects. Our own price for an app starts at $5,000, so you deserve a straight account of what that buys and what it does not. Below: what we build, when you do not need an app at all, how a project runs, what moves the price, apps we have shipped and a sheet for putting any three quotes side by side, ours included.
Mobile app development services: the short version
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Price | From $5,000 for a first version for iOS and Android; the estimate for your app is free, in writing, before any contract |
| Platforms | iOS and Android, from one Flutter or React Native codebase or as native apps in Swift and Kotlin |
| What you get | The app, the API, database and admin panel behind it, the integrations, the store releases and the updates after launch |
| Progress | A demo of working software at the end of every two-week sprint |
| Timeline | Written into the contract, together with the scope and the budget |
| Contract | With 26 Lines of Code LLC, our US company in Miami; the team works from our delivery center near Kyiv |
When you do not need an app
Many businesses do not, and it is cheaper to find that out before the build than after it. Custom mobile application development services earn their cost when at least one of these is true:
- People come back often. They order, book, pay or check something every week, and an icon on the home screen saves them a search.
- The app needs the phone itself: the camera, location, push notifications or work without a connection.
- The app is the product: a marketplace, a paid service, a tool your field team works in all day.
If none of these fits, something simpler does the job:
- A website that works on a phone, when people find you, read and call. Ours start at $499.
- A progressive web app, installed from a link, working offline and sending notifications, with no store review in between: progressive web apps.
- A web application for portals and dashboards that people use at a desk: web application development.
- A no-code app builder, for a quick internal tool or a test with a handful of users, if its limits and its subscription suit you.
None of the four pages I read says when a business is better off without an app. It is the first question worth settling, and it costs nothing to ask.
What our mobile application development services include
We build the whole product, not only the screens people tap. A project usually includes:
- Screen design for iPhones, following Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, and for the Android phones your customers actually use.
- The app, cross-platform in Flutter or React Native, or native in Swift for iOS and Kotlin with Jetpack Compose for Android.
- The backend: the API, the database and the admin panel your team runs the business from, usually on Django or FastAPI with PostgreSQL.
- Integrations with payments, text messages and sign-in through Stripe, Twilio and Auth0, or with the systems you already run.
- Testing by our QA on different phones, system versions and screen sizes.
- The release: the App Store and Google Play listings, the store review and every update after launch.
- A responsive web version, when the product needs one.
The app and its backend are one product, so we estimate and build them together. On RxPhoto, a photo platform for clinics, our whole part sat behind the phone's screens: we worked on the backend, the web front end and the API behind its mobile app, including custom patient reports. As a web and mobile app development company, we keep the admin panel, the server and any web version with the same team that builds the app.
Native or cross-platform
The first technical decision sets whether every feature is written once or twice.
| Your app | What fits | More |
|---|---|---|
| The same screens and rules on both phones: ordering, booking, marketplaces, content, internal tools | One codebase in Flutter or React Native, released to both stores | Hybrid apps |
| Built around the hardware: camera, Bluetooth, sensors, long background work, demanding graphics | Two native apps, Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android, on one shared backend | Native apps |
| Users mostly on one platform | A native app for that platform first; the other can follow on the same backend | iOS or Android |
Most business apps belong in the first row. Native earns its extra cost when the phone's hardware or the newest system features are the point of the app.
How a project runs
Every project starts with the same five steps:
- A call about who the app is for, what it must do and what it connects to. If you need an NDA, we sign it before you share the details.
- Questions and a rough estimate. We answer yours, ask ours and give you a ballpark of time and cost, free.
- The contract, with the scope, the budget and the timeline in writing.
- Discovery: the final requirements, the screen designs and the technical approach, settled before the build.
- Build and release in two-week sprints. Each ends with a demo of working software; the store release and the support follow.
Your part is to answer questions, approve the screens and install each new build on your own phone: on an iPhone through TestFlight, Apple's app for testers, and on Android through a Google Play testing track. You know by name the developers, designers and QA engineers on your app, and you talk to them directly. Our delivery team is usually seven hours ahead of Miami, so your morning is already our working day.
Inside a sprint the work runs in a fixed order. The requirements are written down first and split into small planned tasks; each task is built with AI tools and checked against its definition of done; an engineer reviews the code, and our tester checks the app before every release. The AI agents follow the practices my team has settled on over years of projects, and they are not trained on any client's code. That pairing of people and AI is what makes our prices possible.
What to bring to the first call
An estimate can only be as exact as what it rests on. Six answers make the first call count, and none of them needs a technical word:
- Who uses the app: your customers, your staff or both, and on which phones.
- The one job it must do on the first day, in a single sentence.
- The roles: a buyer and a seller, a client and an expert, an admin.
- What it connects to: payments, your CRM, your online store, a booking system.
- Two or three apps you like, and what exactly you like in each.
- The date that matters, and why: a season, an event, an investor meeting.
With these on the table, the rough estimate rests on facts rather than guesses, and the one job tells you what to keep if the number is too high.
What a first version from $5,000 means
A starting price is what the smallest version costs: an app for iOS and Android that does its main job, built with AI tools, reviewed by an engineer and tested by our QA. Anything bigger is estimated from your scope, free, before any contract.
Can a real app cost $5,000? A first version can, because a person working with AI gets through the routine code fast and spends the saved hours on decisions. What a first version cannot be is everything at once. These lines move an estimate:
| What moves the estimate | Why |
|---|---|
| One codebase or two native apps | Native means each feature is built twice |
| User roles | Each role has its own screens: Tarot Fans gives clients and experts different homes in one app |
| Integrations | Payments, calls, messages and sign-in each add work on the phone and on the server |
| Real-time features | Live video, calls and chat need a backend that answers at once |
| The admin panel | A second set of screens, for your team |
| Languages | Every text in each language, and layouts that fit them |
| Data rules | Audit logs and data handling your field requires, agreed with your compliance advisor |
Two costs sit outside our price, because the accounts are yours: Apple charges $99 a year for its developer program, and Google Play a one-time $25 registration fee. You can hire us as a mobile app development outsourcing company that runs the whole project, or add our developers to the team you have, from $35 an hour through staff augmentation. Every starting price we publish is on our pricing page.
Apps we have shipped
Three projects show the range:
- Mutualz, Germany. A city app for restaurants and cafes, live on the App Store and Google Play in German and English. Diners order and pay at the table, collect points and share their visits; restaurants run menus, orders and offers from an admin panel. It is one Flutter codebase with a Node.js backend on AWS. The hard part was serving both sides of the table at once, without losing a single order or loyalty point between the app, the restaurant and the server.
- Tarot Fans, France. A marketplace app where clients watch experts live, call them by the minute and buy readings, while experts run their schedule, prices and earnings from the same app. Flutter on the phone, Django on the server, Agora for live video and calls, and Stripe under a wallet where money moves both ways.
- SaneBox, USA. The Android app of an AI email assistant, native in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose and live on Google Play. Its API client is generated from the service's own OpenAPI description, so the app keeps step as the service changes.
Put three quotes side by side
Quotes for the same app differ because they price different work. Before comparing totals, check that each quote answers the same lines; the table is made to be forwarded to whoever helps you choose.
| Line | Why it matters | Ask |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | One shared codebase and two native apps are different amounts of work | Which platforms, and in what? |
| Backend and admin panel | Without them, an app with accounts or orders is half a project | Are the API, the database and the admin in this price? |
| Integrations | Payments, messages and sign-in are named work, not details | Which services are included, by name? |
| Testing | The app has to work on your customers' phones, not only the developer's | Which phones and system versions, and who tests? |
| Store release | Listings, privacy forms and the review follow each store's own rules | Who prepares the listing and answers the reviewers? |
| Developer accounts | Whoever holds the account controls every update | Will the app go out from accounts in my company's name? |
| Progress | A build on your phone shows progress; a status report only describes it | How often will I install a new build? |
| After launch | Apple and Google keep changing their systems and store rules | How are updates and fixes priced after release? |
| The code | Without it and its history, you cannot change developers | When does the code become mine, and how is it handed over? |
Whichever mobile app development company you choose, get these answers in writing before you compare the totals. A quote that cannot answer them is not cheaper; it is unfinished.
What you own
- The code. It belongs to whoever paid for it, and that is you: the source code and the repository with its history.
- The developer accounts. Register them in your company's name before the first release. Apple shows an organization's name as the seller on the App Store, and both stores ask an organization for a D-U-N-S number; Google notes that getting one is free and can take up to 30 days, so start early.
- The services behind the app. The domain and accounts such as Stripe or Twilio should be registered to your company as well.
The same list is where we start when we take over an app another team built. That work is mobile app maintenance, and its first step is access to the code, the store accounts and the backend.
After launch
An app needs upkeep even when nobody adds a feature. New iOS and Android versions arrive, store rules change, and the SDKs behind payments, maps and sign-in retire their old versions. Our maintenance plan covers updates, crash fixes, SDK updates and releases through store review, along with the backend and the admin panel. Its monthly price is set after we review the app, and when something breaks, we react the same day, weekends included.
Start with who will use the app and the one job it must do. On weekdays from 9 am to 6 pm Miami time we answer a new request within 30 minutes, and the rough estimate is free. Clients rate us 5.0 on Clutch from 26 verified reviews as of September 2026, without a single negative one.
