How Much Does It Cost to Make an App in the UK? A 2024 Price Guide

The cost to build an app in the UK can start from £10,000 for a simple tool and soar past £150,000 for a complex, feature-rich platform. Your final investment really boils down to the features you need, the tech stack we use, and the development team you trust to bring your vision to life.

Your App Idea's Price Tag: A Quick UK Cost Guide

So, what’s the magic number? Asking "how much does an app cost?" is a bit like asking "how much does a house cost?". The answer is always, "it depends." Is it a cosy studio flat or a sprawling country mansion? App development works the same way. There's no one-size-fits-all price. A simple, single-function app is your studio flat, quick and straightforward. A complex platform with multiple user types and real-time data is your custom-built mansion. The journey from idea to launch involves design, coding, testing, and project management, and every single phase adds to the final budget. Figuring out where your idea sits on this spectrum is the first step to building a realistic financial plan.

Ballpark Figures for App Development

Looking at the market, you can see clear pricing tiers based on complexity.

• •Simple Apps: Think of a basic calculator or a local café's digital menu. These projects typically land in the £10,000 to £25,000 range and take about 2, 3 months to build.
• •Mid-Range Apps: Here we’re talking about something like a fitness tracker with user accounts, data syncing, and payment systems. The budget scales up to £25,000, £70,000.
• •Complex Apps: Ambitious, enterprise-level applications, like a fintech app similar to Monzo, often start at £70,000 and can easily cross the £150,000 mark.

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of how location plays a part, you can explore the typical costs of mobile application development in London to see how things shift in the capital. To give you a clearer picture, let's break down what you can expect at different investment levels.

App Cost and Timeline Estimates by Complexity

This table gives a quick snapshot of typical costs and timelines based on project complexity. It's a great starting point to see where your idea might fit before we dive into the finer details.

Just remember, these figures are starting points. The final cost will always depend on the specific nuances of your project, from how intricate the design is to the number of platforms you need to support. Solid, detailed planning is the real key to getting an accurate budget.

Breaking Down the Core Cost Drivers

Okay, so we've looked at the ballpark figures. But what actually makes an app cost £15,000 instead of £75,000? It’s not just a number plucked from thin air. The final price tag is a direct reflection of the time and expertise needed to bring your vision to life. Think of it like building a custom car. The basic chassis and engine will get you on the road, but if you want satellite navigation, a premium sound system, or hand-stitched leather seats, the price starts to climb. Every single feature in your app, from a simple login screen to a complex payment system, adds hours to the project. Let's unpack the specific choices that will have the biggest impact on your budget.

Feature Complexity and Development Time

This is the big one. The more intricate and interactive a feature is, the longer it takes a developer to design, code, test, and perfect it. A simple page with static text is one thing; a dynamic function that pulls in live data and responds to user input is a whole different ball game. Here are a few common examples that really show how complexity affects the cost:

• •User Authentication: A standard email and password login? Relatively straightforward. But what if you want to add social media logins (like Google or Facebook) or two-factor authentication for extra security? Each of those additions layers on more development time and, consequently, more cost.
• •In-App Purchases & Payments: This is a major cost driver. Integrating a payment gateway like Stripe or PayPal isn't just about adding a "buy now" button. It involves handling sensitive financial data, rigorous security testing, and complying with strict standards. It has to be bulletproof, and that takes time.
• •Third-Party Integrations: Does your app need to talk to other services? Connecting to an external API, whether it’s for Google Maps, a social media feed, or your company’s internal sales software, means more hours spent on research, implementation, and making sure everything plays nicely together.
• •Hardware Access: If you need your app to tap into the phone’s own hardware, that's another layer of complexity. Using the GPS for location tracking, the camera for uploading photos, or the accelerometer for motion-based features all requires specialised coding.

This infographic gives a great visual breakdown of how these features push an app into different cost brackets.

As you can see, the more sophisticated the feature set, the further you move along the scale, from simple apps starting at £10k+ right up to complex platforms costing £70k+.

Native vs Cross-Platform Development

Another huge decision that will shape your budget is how the app is built. You’ve basically got two main paths to choose from, and they have very different financial implications.

Native Development: This approach means building two completely separate apps from scratch, one designed specifically for Apple's iOS and another for Google's Android. It delivers the absolute best performance and a seamless user experience, but it's also the most expensive route. Why? Because you're effectively paying for two development projects running in parallel.

The trade-off is that you might occasionally hit a limitation or a slight performance dip compared to a truly native app. For many businesses, though, it strikes the perfect balance between budget, speed, and functionality.

The People Behind the Price Tag: Developer Rates Explained

An app's final cost isn't just about features; it's fundamentally shaped by the people building it. The expertise, location, and structure of your development team are massive factors in your budget. If you want to really understand any quote you receive, you need to know who does what and how much they charge. Let’s be clear: a great app is rarely a one-person job. It takes a coordinated team of specialists to bring an idea from a rough sketch to a polished product on the app store. This team-based approach is what ensures quality, efficiency, and a final product that people will actually want to use.

Core Roles In an App Development Team

To appreciate what goes into a project, it helps to know who the key players are. A well-rounded team usually includes several essential roles, each bringing a unique set of skills to the table.

• •Project Manager (PM): Think of the PM as the conductor of the orchestra. They create the project plan, manage timelines, coordinate the team, and act as your main point of contact. Ultimately, their job is to make sure everything stays on track and within budget.
• •UI/UX Designer: This is actually two crucial roles in one. The UX (User Experience) designer maps out the app's entire flow to make it logical and intuitive. Then, the UI (User Interface) designer steps in to craft the visuals, colours, fonts, and icons, that make it look fantastic.
• •Developers: These are the architects and builders of your app. You’ll have backend developers who build the server-side logic and databases (the engine), and frontend or mobile developers who code the part you actually see and interact with (the car's interior and controls).

A larger, more complex app naturally demands a bigger team with more specialised skills. This is why a simple utility app can be built by a small team, while a large-scale platform requires a full roster of senior experts to handle its intricate architecture.

UK Agency vs Global Outsourcing

One of the biggest variables in your final cost is simply where your team is located. Senior UK-based developers or reputable agencies typically charge between £80, £120 per hour. For a simple app needing 200, 400 hours of work, that’s £16,000, £48,000. A medium-complexity project could easily demand 600, 1,000 hours, pushing the cost to £48,000, £120,000. On the other hand, outsourcing to Eastern Europe or India can slash those hourly rates in half, with some offshore teams charging around $40, $60 (about £30, £50) per hour. While the cost savings are tempting, you have to weigh the trade-offs. Working with a local UK agency means seamless communication, shared time zones, and much easier quality control. Finding the right partner is crucial, which is why exploring different platforms for finding the best app development agencies in the UK can be a valuable first step. To get a better sense of how individual roles contribute to the cost, it’s also helpful to look into the salary expectations for remote SQL developers, as database experts are often a key part of any app development team.

Budgeting for Life After Launch: The Hidden Costs

Launching your app is a huge milestone, but it’s the starting line, not the finish. So many first-time app owners get a shock when they realise the initial development cost is only part of the story. The real secret to long-term success is budgeting for what comes after, the ongoing expenses that keep your app alive, secure, and relevant. Think of your app like a new car. You wouldn’t buy it and then just expect it to run forever without paying for petrol, insurance, or an annual MOT. Your app needs that same continuous care to perform well. These aren't optional extras; they are essential investments that protect your initial build cost and ensure your app remains a valuable asset.

Unpacking Post-Launch Expenses

Once your app goes live, a whole new set of running costs kicks in. These are predictable, so it’s crucial to factor them into your financial planning from day one. Here’s a breakdown of the most common ongoing costs you can expect:

• •Server and Hosting Fees: All your app’s data needs a place to live. This will likely be a cloud service like AWS or Google Cloud, and the cost scales directly with your user base and the amount of data you’re storing.
• •Third-Party Service Subscriptions: Most modern apps lean on external services for things like push notifications, payment processing (think Stripe), or mapping (Google Maps API). These almost always come with monthly or usage-based fees.
• •App Store Fees: Both Apple and Google charge to keep your app listed. It’s £79 per year for the Apple App Store and a one-time £20 fee for the Google Play Store.

The Critical Cost of Maintenance

Without a doubt, the single most important ongoing expense is app maintenance. As a solid rule of thumb, you should budget 15-25% of your initial development cost annually just for this. If your app cost £50,000 to build, you’re looking at an extra £7,500 to £12,500 per year.

This maintenance budget is completely non-negotiable. It covers critical updates for new iOS and Android versions (which can easily break your app if ignored), fixing bugs that users discover, and rolling out vital security patches to protect your data.

On top of that, you need to think about evolving demands like GDPR compliance and the scaling costs of your cloud infrastructure. For data-sensitive apps, these requirements can add tens of thousands to a project. Planning for these ongoing costs is also a key step before you decide how your app will make money; our guide explores several proven mobile app monetisation models to help you build a sustainable revenue strategy.

Smart Ways to Control Your App Development Budget

Feeling the squeeze of a tight budget doesn't mean you have to shelve your app idea. With a bit of smart, strategic thinking, you can dramatically lower your initial investment without ever compromising on quality. It's all about focusing on what truly matters first, proving your concept, and building momentum one step at a time. This isn't about cutting corners; it's about making clever decisions that squeeze maximum value from every pound spent. By prioritising the right features and planning your development in logical stages, you can get your app to market faster and start gathering real user feedback before you even think about committing to a bigger budget.

Start with a Minimum Viable Product

One of the most powerful cost-control strategies out there is launching with a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP. An MVP isn't a buggy, half-finished app. Think of it as a laser-focused version that contains only the absolute essential features needed to solve one core problem for your ideal customer. Imagine you want to open a new restaurant. Instead of building the entire place from day one, you start with a food truck that serves your one signature dish perfectly. This approach lets you:

• •Test Your Core Idea: Find out if people actually want what you're cooking. An MVP gives you a real-world answer without the massive cost of a full-scale launch.
• •Attract Your First Fans: You can start building a community of early adopters and get priceless feedback on what they want to see on the menu next.
• •Secure More Funding: A successful MVP with a growing user base is the best possible proof you can show to potential investors.

This method stops you from pouring thousands into features that, as it turns out, nobody was ever going to use.

Move into Phased Development

Once your MVP is live and you're collecting data, you can shift into a phased development model. This simply means you roll out new features and improvements in planned, bite-sized stages, often called "sprints." Rather than tackling one huge, expensive project, you break it down into a series of smaller, more affordable updates. This keeps your costs predictable and allows you to react to how people are actually using your app, ensuring every penny is invested in features that will make a real difference.

More Practical Tips for Saving Money

Beyond the MVP model, several other practical choices can help you get a handle on how much it costs to make an app:

• •Choose Cross-Platform Development: Building one app that works beautifully on both iOS and Android using frameworks like React Native can almost halve your costs compared to developing two separate native apps.
• •Don't Reinvent the Wheel: Lean on pre-built solutions. Using third-party APIs and SDKs for common functions like payment gateways or social media logins can save you hundreds of hours of development time.
• •Write a Detailed Project Brief: A crystal-clear, comprehensive brief is your best weapon against "scope creep", those little changes and "just one more thing" additions that cause costs to balloon. Get your requirements locked down before a single line of code is written.

Looking at global talent can also make a huge difference to your app development budget. You can find some brilliant strategies to reduce business costs by hiring abroad that will help you strike the perfect balance between skill and affordability for your project.

Budget Optimisation Strategies Comparison

Deciding which cost-saving strategy to use depends on your project's specific needs, what's right for a simple prototype might not work for a complex platform aiming for rapid growth. This table breaks down the most common approaches, helping you see the trade-offs at a glance.

Ultimately, a combination of these strategies often yields the best results. An MVP built using cross-platform technology and integrated with third-party APIs is a classic recipe for a cost-effective and successful launch.

Common App Cost Questions Answered

Alright, let's wrap this up by tackling some of the most frequent questions we get about app development costs. These are the queries that pop up time and again from entrepreneurs and business leaders alike. Getting straight answers here will help cement your understanding and let you move forward with real confidence.

How Long Does It Take to Develop a Mobile App?

This is a classic "how long is a piece of string?" question, but the answer always comes back to one thing: complexity. While there's no single timeline, we can look at typical project durations based on what you're building. A simple app with a very focused set of features, think a basic calculator or a straightforward event guide, can often be designed, built, and launched in 2 to 3 months. For a mid-range app, the kind with user accounts, integrations with other services (APIs), and payment systems, you should realistically plan for a 4 to 6 month development cycle. More moving parts simply demand more time to build, test, and get right. Then you have the heavy hitters. A complex platform with a custom-built backend, real-time data syncing, and advanced security measures can easily take 9 months or longer to complete from start to finish.

Can I Get a Fixed Price Quote for My App?

Yes, you absolutely can. Many development agencies, including us, offer fixed-price quotes, which are fantastic for budget certainty. But there's a catch: this is only possible if you have an incredibly detailed and finalised project scope before a single line of code is written. Every feature, every screen, and every user journey needs to be documented and signed off. The biggest hurdle here is something we call "scope creep." It’s what happens when new ideas or changes are introduced mid-project, and it will almost always lead to additional costs.

The alternative is a "Time & Materials" model, where you pay for the actual hours the team works. This gives you much more flexibility to adapt and evolve the app as you go, but it comes with less budget predictability. For a reliable fixed price, a well-defined MVP is your best friend.

Why Is App Maintenance an Ongoing Cost?

Think of your app like a car. You don't just buy it and drive it forever without changing the oil or getting an MOT. App maintenance is that essential, non-negotiable part of your app's life, and it typically costs 15-25% of the initial development budget per year. This isn't an upsell; it’s the cost of keeping your digital asset working, secure, and available to your users. This budget covers several crucial activities:

• •Operating System Updates: Both Apple and Google release major OS updates every year. These updates can break parts of your app if it isn't updated to stay compatible.
• •Bug Fixes: No app launches perfectly. Your maintenance budget covers the time needed to squash issues that your users discover in the wild.
• •Security Patches: New security vulnerabilities are found all the time. Regular maintenance ensures your app and its user data stay protected from threats.
• •Hosting and Third-Party Fees: This includes the running costs for servers, databases, and any external services or APIs your app depends on to function.

Is Building a Web App Cheaper Than a Mobile App?

Sometimes, but it’s not a simple yes or no. A basic web app or a Progressive Web App (PWA) can often be cheaper to build than two separate, native mobile apps for iOS and Android. That’s because you’re creating a single product that works across all devices right from a web browser. However, the choice really boils down to your goals. If your app needs to tap into the phone's hardware in a deep way, like using the camera for advanced functions, accessing background GPS for location tracking, or sending reliable native push notifications, then a dedicated mobile app will deliver a far superior and more dependable user experience. The best approach is always dictated by what you need your users to be able to do.

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At Studio Liddell, we've been turning complex ideas into powerful digital experiences since 1996. If you're ready to explore your app idea with a team that blends creative vision with technical expertise, let's talk. Book a production scoping call with us today.