A mobile app costs anywhere from €6,000 to €150,000. A twenty-five-fold spread, for projects people all describe with the same sentence: “I’d like an app”. The good news is that the spread is explainable, and it comes down to four variables you can settle before asking anyone for a quote.
Key takeaways. A mobile proof of concept starts around €6,000. An MVP actually published on the App Store and Google Play sits between €30,000 and €60,000. The French market median is around €30,000. And annual maintenance runs 15% to 25% of the initial cost, every year.
Ranges by type of project
What decides the bracket is not the number of screens. It is what the app has to guarantee once real users hold it.
| Type of project | Budget | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of concept, one feature | €6,000 to €15,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
| MVP published on both stores | €30,000 to €60,000 | 3 to 4 months |
| Business or field app | €50,000 to €90,000 | 4 to 6 months |
| Complex app | €100,000 to €150,000 and up | 6 months and up |
| Annual maintenance | 15% to 25% of initial cost | ongoing |
Geography matters too. A project run by a Paris-region company has a median around €40,000, against €23,000 in the rest of France, at comparable scope.
The four variables behind the spread
- The level of guarantee expected. A demo running on the founder’s phone and an app used daily by two hundred field technicians are not the same job. Network error handling, crash recovery, monitoring and testing on real devices are invisible in a mockup and very visible in the quote.
- The backend. Many mobile apps are really a backend with a touch interface. Between authentication, the API, the database, push notifications and an admin panel, half the budget often goes server-side.
- Anything touching hardware or the network. Continuous geolocation, Bluetooth, camera with image processing, offline mode, real time: each adds weeks and edge cases.
- The platform strategy. A single React Native codebase for iOS and Android costs about half of two separate apps in Swift and Kotlin, and that saving repeats every year in maintenance.
Offline mode deserves its own note. The app has to work without a network then synchronise, arbitrating conflicts between local and server data. It is the most expensive item in mobile, with an observed median budget around €77,500 on projects that carry it. Essential for a field app, unnecessary for most consumer apps.
Checking a quote yourself: days times day rate
A mobile budget is almost always a number of days multiplied by a daily rate. It is the most useful calculation for judging a proposal without being technical.
| Profile | Day rate | Scope covered |
|---|---|---|
| Junior freelancer | €320 to €400 | Development only, against specs already written |
| Mid-level freelancer | €450 to €650 | Development and technical choices, limited scoping |
| Senior or lead freelancer | €600 to €850 | Architecture, technical choices, mentoring |
| Specialist agency | €500 to €900 | Full team: product, design, development, testing, release |
A mobile MVP typically takes 60 to 90 person-days across all profiles. At a €550 average day rate, that is €33,000 to €50,000, which lines up exactly with the published-MVP bracket. A quote far below that logic usually hides a narrower scope than stated, or a junior team on the front line.
Run the maths backwards on the quote in front of you: divide the amount by a plausible day rate. If the answer is fifteen days for an app published on two stores with user accounts and a backend, something does not add up.
The costs that start after launch
Three lines come back every year, and the third often exceeds the initial build over three years.
- Developer accounts. The Apple programme costs $99 a year, a Google Play account $25 once. That is the easy part.
- Store commissions. On in-app purchases and subscriptions Apple takes 30%, reduced to 15% below one million dollars of annual revenue. Google applies 15% on the first million a year, then 30%. On a subscription model this line weighs more than the development.
- Maintenance, 15% to 25% of the initial cost per year. Every major iOS and Android release requires a compatibility pass. An app left unmaintained for eighteen months usually needs heavy technical work before it passes store review again.
How to cut the bill without breaking the product
The number one lever is the scope of the first release, far ahead of the technology choice. An app that does one thing very well ships in half the time of an app that does five things correctly, and the next features get funded by what the first users tell you.
Then: stay on a single codebase unless a very specific need says otherwise, postpone offline mode if this is not a field app, pick a widely adopted stack so the project stays takeable by someone else, and invest a few days in scoping. The real budget sinkhole is not a high day rate, it is three months spent building the wrong app.
Why I publish no starting price
On all my other plans the price is public. On mobile it is not, and that is deliberate: between a €6,000 proof of concept and a €90,000 field app, a “from” price informs nobody and misleads everybody. Someone who reads a floor builds a budget on it, and the real quote lands three times higher. The mobile app page therefore states a firm price in the quote, after scoping. What is stated is the monthly upkeep: €125 a month, covering hosting, database, backups, monitoring and security updates.
Scoping itself costs nothing: thirty minutes is enough to know whether your project is a proof of concept, an MVP, or does not need an app at all. That last case is more common than people expect, and I say so when it applies.
Frequently asked questions
Do I actually need a mobile app?
Often, no. If your need is to be found, to present an offer or to sell, a website costs five to ten times less and shows up on Google, which an app does not. An app earns its place when you need notifications, repeated daily use, or access to the phone’s hardware. The website pricing guide gives the ranges for that alternative.
Is React Native cheaper than native?
Yes. A single codebase covers iOS and Android, where native requires two separate apps in Swift and Kotlin. The native premium runs 60% to 100% at build time, and it repeats every year in maintenance since two codebases have to be fixed. Native still makes sense when raw performance is the product itself, real-time 3D for instance.
What budget works with tight funding?
Below €15,000, the realistic approach is to validate a single feature as a proof of concept rather than attempt a complete app. That format ships in two to four weeks, installs without going through the stores, and serves to convince users or investors. The rest gets funded by what the proof of concept proved.
How long before it goes live?
Two to four weeks for a proof of concept, three to four months for an MVP published on both stores, four to six months for a business app with integrations. Apple and Google review adds a few days, sometimes more on a first submission.
In short
€6,000 to €15,000 to validate an idea, €30,000 to €60,000 for a product published on both stores, past €100,000 as soon as the app has to work offline, take payments or handle real time. The rest is days multiplied by a day rate between €450 and €900. And the budget moves far more with the scope of the first release than with the number of screens.
Sources for the ranges quoted, retrieved on 1 September 2026: Lonestone, the price of a custom mobile app and La Fabrique du Net, mobile agency rates.
