How much does a mobile app cost in 2026? Prices, timelines and fees to plan for

Prices at a glance, from a website to a multi-app platform

Each package has a starting price excluding tax, a typical timeline and published work it is based on. The final price is set in a written quote once the scope is clear, and it only changes if the scope does. Each package name links to its details on the pricing page.

What changes the price of an app

The final price of an app depends mostly on its number of screens, its user roles and its integrations. Here is what moves the quote, point by point.

The number of screens

A screen is one complete view of the app: the home screen, a list, a product page, a cart, a profile, a form. The Mobile app package includes up to twelve of them, designed and built: the design of every screen is part of the price. Beyond that, extra screens are priced in the written quote before any work starts.

User roles and the number of apps

One app can serve several roles, for example customers and an administrator; each role adds its own screens and access rules. When each audience needs an app of its own, it becomes a different kind of project. Nibblify is a case in point: Nibblify Food for customers, Nibblify Partner for restaurants and Nibblify Driver for drivers, connected to one Firebase backend and a web operations portal. That is the scope of the Multi-app platform package; the guide to building a food delivery app walks through this example. The package’s starting price says nothing about what Nibblify cost to build, which is not published.

The backend and real time

The backend is the server side of an app: accounts, data, access rules, notifications. In the Mobile app package, Firebase handles sign-in, data and push notifications. When several apps share real-time orders, maps or server-side logic, the Multi-app platform package adds Cloud Functions, code that runs on the server. Firebase or Supabase usage is billed to you directly by the provider and is not part of the quote.

Add-ons: booking, admin area, maps

Some features are not included in the starting price of an app. They come as add-ons, each with a published price:

• Web admin area to manage your content or requests +€1,200
• Online booking with availability rules +€1,400
• Maps and live location (Google Maps) +€900

Languages, including right-to-left Arabic

The Mobile app package includes one language. Each additional language is an add-on (+€390 per language), Arabic included. Arabic takes more than a translation: the whole interface flips to read from right to left, which is best planned when the screens are designed. This website, published in French, English and Arabic, is an example.

Taking over an existing app

If your app already exists, I start with a review of the code and a written assessment, then quote the improvements. If rebuilding would cost you less than repairing, I’ll say so. And if the app is finished but not yet live, publishing it on the App Store and Google Play is a separate service (€490).

Why one Flutter codebase costs less

Flutter is Google’s open-source toolkit for building app interfaces: from a single codebase, written in Dart, it produces both the iOS app and the Android app. Two native apps mean writing and maintaining the same product twice. With Flutter, you pay for one build instead of two, and both versions stay in step: a fix or a new feature is written once for both systems.

Nibblify shows how far that principle goes. According to “How We Built Nibblify — Vibe Engineering”, published on nibblifyfood.com on 5 August 2026, its four apps (Nibblify Food, Partner, Driver and the operations portal) share one language and one UI toolkit: iOS, Android and the web come out of a single codebase of about 173,000 lines of Dart in 650 files. On the server side, about 25,500 lines of JavaScript, in 238 Cloud Functions on Firebase, handle orders, payouts, driver assignment, AES-256 encryption of personal data, personal-data exports, push notifications and the admin API. All of it was built by one person working with frontier AI models, a method the article calls “vibe engineering”.

A single codebase does not remove what is specific to each platform: each store keeps its own account, rules and review, detailed below with the store fees.

The MVP case: what can you launch on the starting budget?

An MVP, or minimum viable product, is the first version of a product: complete enough for real users, small enough to ship quickly and learn from how it is used. With the Mobile app package, the starting budget covers:

• iOS and Android from one Flutter codebase
• Up to 12 screens, designed and built
• Firebase sign-in, data and push notifications
• App Store and Google Play publication
• A test build on your phone every week

The written quote lists the screens one by one: that is when you decide what goes into the first version and what can wait. A web admin area, booking, live maps or another language can come later, each with a published price; a second app is priced in a new quote. During development, a test build reaches your phone every week: you steer early, while changes are cheap.

A product made of several apps can also ship in stages. The Nibblify apps reached the App Store on different dates: Nibblify Partner, the restaurant app, on 16 January 2026; Nibblify Food, the customer app, on 9 March 2026; and Nibblify Driver, the driver app, on 8 September 2026.

Fees paid directly to the stores

Publishing an app takes a developer account with Apple and with Google. Those accounts are opened in your name, and their fees are paid directly to Apple and Google, outside my quote.

• Apple Developer Program: 99 USD per membership year. Apple notes that the price may vary by region and is shown in local currency when you enrol.
• Google Play Console: 25 USD, once, when you register.

The stores also take time. At Apple, every version goes through App Review: according to Apple, at least 50% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours and 90% in less than 48 hours.

At Google, a personal account created after 13 November 2023 must first put the app through a closed test: at least 12 testers, opted in continuously for at least 14 days. Then comes the application for production access, which Google usually reviews in seven days or less, according to its testing requirements for new personal accounts. With a recent personal account, allow at least two weeks of testing, plus that review, before the release on Google Play.

Hosting and Firebase or Supabase usage follow the same rule: their providers bill you directly, in your name.

After launch: how much does maintenance cost?

A published app has to keep up with new versions of iOS and Android, changing store rules and updates to the libraries it uses, and all of that changes every year. The three Nibblify apps, for instance, were updated again on 16 October 2026.

After launch, defects are fixed free of charge for 60 days on an app and 90 days on a multi-app platform. After that, three monthly plans are available, with no minimum term and thirty days’ notice:

Because the code and the accounts are in your name, you keep everything if we stop working together.

Timelines and payment terms

The typical timeline of each package is in the price table. Everything starts with a free thirty-minute scoping call, scheduled by WhatsApp message. Within 48 hours you receive a written quote: screens, features, deliverables, schedule and a fixed price. Nothing starts until you have signed it. Then, every week, there is something to try: a test build on your phone for an app, a preview link for a website.

Payment comes in three stages: 30% when the quote is signed, 40% at the mid-project demo and 30% on delivery. Anything added along the way is quoted separately, and you approve it before work starts, so the agreed price never changes without your consent. Maintenance plans are billed monthly.

What if a website is enough?

Not every project needs an installed app. If your customers mainly need to find you, contact you or book an appointment, a website may be enough: it opens in the browser, with no store and no store fees. A website of up to six pages starts at €1,490 excluding tax; a web platform with quote requests, appointment booking and an admin area starts at €3,490, and its reference project is the Camera4World website, built for a video-surveillance company in Morocco. The scoping call helps you decide: you get an honest opinion, even if it’s that you don’t need an app yet.

Frequently asked questions about app prices