V2 - UPDATED JULY 2025!
Consumer App Development Costs
A short guide to help you understand the real cost of developing a consumer app. Unlike many sources, this allows for learning and iteration to find market fit.
Get the app development cost you actually NEED.
New! Version 2 updated July 2025, adding more examples and insights.
If you’re trying to figure out the cost of developing an app, you might ask an developer to provide you a quote. Or, you might have Googled it and read an article or two. But these approaches rarely give you the cost you actually need.
Without that, it’s incredibly easy to run over budget, which causes stress for you, your developer, and your CFO!
This 18-page guide gives you the true cost to take your app to market and is packed with real-world examples of what good looks like.
Know what cost you’re asking for
When you're trying to figure out how much your app idea might cost, it is easy to focus on features and forget about the full lifecycle.
An app development budget that covers the full lifecycle is less likely to go over budget, preventing headaches for you and your CFO.
In short, it needs to include the costs to get you to launch, which almost always involves several key stages that need to be considered.
The importance of a proof of concept
Most companies want confidence that their app will succeed before they invest heavily in app development.
A proof of concept helps:
- Prove an idea to investors or board members
- Prove a potential client will buy
- Test that consumers will get value from your offering
The idea is to spend a little upfront to reduce costs downstream.
How much should you invest in your mobile app?
App development costs don’t vary that widely. It’s not always “how long is a piece of string”, as us developers make it out to be.
This guide uses actionable models, accurate data, and real world examples to help you get a feel for how much your app idea might cost to take to market.
“Contrary to what most online sources & agencies say, our experience is that apps take a few iterations to get right. So, this sheet shows costs based on building an app that actually gets results, allowing for learning, research, iteration and tweaking.”Tobin Harris, Managing Director
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About Us
We are UK app developers based in Leeds.
Founded in 2012, Pocketworks has grown to 19 people across five European countries. Our clients hire us as a long-term partner, assisting them with their mobile strategy, market research, user research, design, mobile development, cloud development, quality assurance and mobile growth hacking.
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