UK app development costs in a nutshell

The average cost of developing an app in the UK is about £300,000, give or take. For context, I'm assuming you're a UK funded startup or scaleup outsourcing to a mid-sized app development agency.

Companies often develop a minimal version of their app ideas for under £200K. The goal is to get a first version out there and learn if their idea will be well-received. Moving up from £200k to £500K will get you a validated app launched to customers withe extra features. Some complex apps can cost £500K, £800K or more.

The following diagram may help you understand this. Download the PDF here. 

This data is based on ten years of knowledge in the app development industry, working with our own UK clients and talking to other app development agencies.

Don't overlook ongoing development and investment. If you look at the market leading business apps, you'll notice that they receive weekly or monthly updates where new feature are developed and conversion rates are optimised to bring more revenue. They have annual budgets to constantly improve their apps and the business results they bring.

In my experience, UK organisations will often invest in running a mobile development team with an agile budget ranging from £20,000 a month to £200,000 a month, depending the amount of work that needs doing and how fast it needs doing. This budget pays for consultancy, app designers, developers, back-end systems, security and quality control. It may also cover costs for user research to validate new ideas or gather feedback on work already done. 

You may find cheaper or more expensive ways to take your app to market, and also make decisions that fit your own situation, not forgetting that development speed is a factor.