How much does an app cost to build in the UK in 2026

"How much does an app cost?" is the first question almost every founder asks us, and the honest answer is "it depends on what the app has to do". That is not very useful on its own, so this article gives you our actual price ranges, explains what moves a project from one end of a range to the other, and lists the running costs that tend to surprise people after launch.

The figures below are what we charge at Tyche Labs, a web and app agency in London, and they match our estimator and service pages. They are not market statistics. Other studios will price differently, but the things that drive cost are the same everywhere.

The short answer

For a typical business or startup app, most of our projects land between £15,000 and £50,000. Simpler, tightly scoped apps can come in lower; regulated or platform-scale products go well above.

Here are our typical ranges by type of project:

If you only need a website rather than an app, our small-business website offer starts at £2,500 and takes 10 days. For a quick range for your own project, try our cost estimator.

What actually drives the price

Two apps can look similar in a pitch deck and differ in cost by a factor of three. These are the things that make the difference.

One platform or two

An iPhone-only app built natively in Swift is usually the quickest route to a first release. Adding Android means either a second native app or a cross-platform framework such as Flutter or React Native. Cross-platform is often less than building two native apps, depending on how much platform-specific work there is. We cover that trade-off in our native vs Flutter vs React Native guide.

Accounts and data

An app that works entirely on the phone is much cheaper than one with user accounts, a server and a database. Accounts bring sign-up, password reset, sign in with Apple or Google, admin tools and security work. They also bring obligations: if your app lets people create an account, Apple requires that they can also delete it from within the app ^[6].

Payments

Selling digital features or subscriptions inside an iOS app generally has to go through Apple's in-app purchase system ^[6]. Physical goods and services usually go through a payment provider such as Stripe instead. Either way, payments add screens, testing and edge cases (refunds, failed renewals, restoring purchases).

Integrations

Every outside system the app talks to adds work: your CRM, booking system, accounting software, an NHS or banking API. Well-documented modern APIs are quick. Old systems with no API, or ones that need a security review before you get access, are slow and unpredictable, and that is usually where budgets slip.

Regulation

Healthcare and fintech cost more for a reason. Data protection, audit logs, access controls, encryption and the paperwork to prove all of it take real time. That is why our healthcare and fintech ranges start higher than a standard app.

Design

A clean app built from standard platform components costs less than a heavily branded one with custom animation on every screen. Both can look professional. Decide early which one your product needs.

Costs beyond the build

The build is the biggest single cost, but it is not the only one. These are the ones founders most often forget to budget for.

Store accounts

• Apple Developer Program: the annual fee is 99 USD, charged in local currency where available, and the exact local price is shown when you enrol ^[1]. You need this to publish on the App Store.
• Google Play: there is a one-time registration fee of US$25 ^[3].

Store commission

If you sell digital content or subscriptions in the app, the stores take a share.

• Apple's App Store Small Business Program charges a reduced commission of 15% on paid apps and in-app purchases for developers with up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the previous calendar year, and for new developers. Above that threshold, Apple's standard commission applies ^[2].
• Google Play changed its fees for sales to UK users on 30 June 2026. Auto-renewing subscriptions, and sales within a developer's first US$1M of earnings each year, now carry a 10% service fee plus a 5% billing fee when Google Play's billing system is used. Above US$1M, other sales carry 20% plus 5% for people who installed the app on or after 30 June 2026, and 25% plus 5% for earlier installs, with lower rates for developers in some Google programmes. The old rates (15% on the first US$1M, 30% above it and 15% on subscriptions) still apply in markets where the new fees haven't rolled out yet ^[4]. Check the current page before you model revenue.

Hosting and third-party services

If your app has a backend, you will pay for servers, a database, file storage, email delivery and possibly SMS. For an early-stage product these costs are usually modest, but they grow with usage, so ask your developer for an estimate at your expected user numbers, not just at launch.

Privacy and compliance work

Apple requires you to declare your app's privacy practices in App Store Connect, including those of any third-party code you include, before you can submit a new app or an update ^[5]. Under UK GDPR you will also need a privacy policy that matches what the app really does. This is not expensive, but it has to be right, and it has to be kept up to date as the app changes.

App Review and resubmissions

Apple says it typically reviews at least 50% of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours ^[7]. That is fast, but rejections are common: in 2025 Apple reviewed 9,100,620 app submissions and rejected 2,093,244 of them ^[8]. Budget a few days in your launch plan for a possible fix and resubmission rather than announcing a launch date that depends on first-time approval.

Maintenance

Apple and Google ship major operating system updates every year, and store requirements change with them. Libraries need updating, and new phone sizes appear. An app that nobody touches for two years will usually need work before it can be updated again. Plan for an ongoing maintenance arrangement, or at least a yearly update, from day one. Our App care plan covers this for £450 a month, and Website care does the same for a website at £95 a month.

A real example of a tight scope

We build and publish our own apps, which keeps our estimates honest. Our teleprompter camera app, Cuefold, is written in native Swift 6 and SwiftUI, uses on-device speech recognition and sells subscriptions through StoreKit 2. The first commit was on 5 October 2026, it was first submitted to App Review on 8 October, and it went live on the App Store on 16 October after one information request and one rejection (we wrote up what happened and how we fixed it).

That speed came from a very clear scope, one platform, no user accounts and no server holding user content. Add accounts, a backend and Android, and the same idea becomes a much longer project. The point is not that every app can ship in two weeks. It is that scope, more than anything else, sets the price.

How to get an accurate quote

You will get a far more useful number from any studio if you can answer these before the first call:

1. Who is it for, and what is the one job it must do well?
2. Which platforms at launch? iPhone only, iPhone and Android, or web as well.
3. Does it need accounts? If so, who signs up and what do they see?
4. How does it make money? Subscriptions, one-off purchases, payments for real-world services, or none.
5. What does it connect to? List every outside system.
6. Any regulated data? Health, financial or children's data changes the scope.
7. What is your deadline and why? A funding round or trade show is a real constraint; "as soon as possible" is not.

A good studio will push back on parts of your list. That is a good sign. The cheapest version of your app is the one that launches with the smallest set of features that proves people want it.

Ways to spend less without cutting corners

• Launch on one platform first if your audience allows it, then add the second once you know what users actually do.
• Cut features, not quality. A small app that works well gets better reviews than a large one that crashes.
• Use the platform's own components for most screens and save custom design for the moments that matter.
• Avoid building your own admin system at the start if a spreadsheet or an off-the-shelf tool will do.
• Ask for a fixed price on a fixed scope. It puts the estimating risk on the studio and forces both sides to agree what "done" means.