How much does an app cost in the UK?

Short answer: a simple business app usually costs in the low thousands to low tens of thousands of pounds. A mid-range app with logins, payments or bookings usually costs more. A complex, custom app with its own backend, integrations and two native builds can cost several times that again.

There is no single price for "an app", because an app is not one thing. A simple app that shows your services and lets customers contact you is a different job from an app with accounts, live bookings, payments, maps and notifications. The price follows the features, the platforms and the work behind the screen.

This guide explains the bands, what pushes an app from one band to the next, and what most quotes leave out.

The three bands, in plain terms

A simple app is the lowest band. Think a few screens: about your business, your services or menu, opening hours, a map, a contact form and a call button. No logins, no payments, no live data. It is essentially your business in your customer's pocket, and it is the right starting point if you just want to be easy to find and easy to contact.

A business app is the middle band, and it is where most UK small businesses land. It adds the things customers actually use: user accounts, bookings or orders, payments, push notifications, and a simple admin area so you can update content, prices or availability without calling a developer. A trades business taking bookings, a restaurant taking orders, a gym managing memberships — these are business apps.

A complex or custom app is the top band. It has its own backend and database, several user types — for example customers, staff and an admin — live tracking, chat, subscriptions, or connections to systems you already use, such as a booking platform, a CRM or accounting software. It also needs more testing, because more moving parts means more that can go wrong. If your app is the business itself, rather than a tool for the business, it usually sits here.

Those bands match the same rule as our website cost guide: time and cost move together. More screens, more features, more testing, more cost.

What actually drives the price

It is rarely the app icon or the home screen. It is these six things:

  1. iPhone, Android, or both. Building for one platform costs less than building for two. Building one app that works on both — cross-platform — usually costs less than building two separate native apps, and for most business apps it is the sensible choice. Native is worth it when you need the best possible performance, offline use, or deep access to phone features. Ask which route your quote uses, because it changes the price and the maintenance.
  2. Logins and user accounts. A simple app with no accounts is quick. Add sign-up, sign-in, passwords, profiles and different permissions, and you add design, development and testing — plus the security work that has to go with it.
  3. Payments, bookings and orders. Taking money or managing live availability is not a small extra. Payments need a payment provider, secure handling and testing with real transactions. Bookings need calendars, time slots, cancellations and reminders. Each one adds time, and each one needs to work perfectly on launch day.
  4. A backend and an admin area. Most business apps need somewhere for the data to live, and somewhere for you to manage it. That backend — the database, the server, the admin panel where you change prices, add products or see orders — is often half the work, even though customers never see it. A quote that only talks about the screens is missing the biggest part of the job.
  5. Design. A good app is not a website squeezed onto a phone. It needs screens designed for thumbs, small text that is still readable, and a flow a first-time user can follow without instructions. Design approval works the same way as on our websites: you approve the look of every screen before we build.
  6. Testing and app store approval. An app has to work on different phone sizes, different versions of iOS and Android, and with poor signal as well as good. It also has to pass Apple's App Store and Google Play checks, which have their own rules on privacy, payments and content. Allow time — and budget — for testing and for the first submission, because a rejection and a resubmission is normal, not a failure.

What most quotes leave out: the cost after launch

The build price is not the whole cost. Budget for these too, or ask whether your quote includes them:

  • Hosting and the backend. The server and database your app talks to have a monthly cost. It is usually modest for a small business app, and it grows with the number of users.
  • App store accounts. Apple charges an annual developer fee; Google Play charges a one-off fee. They are small, but they are yours to pay, every year in Apple's case.
  • Maintenance and updates. Phones change. Apple and Google release new versions every year, and an app that is not updated stops working properly. Budget for updates, bug fixes and small improvements — most businesses allow a modest monthly amount, or a few days of work a year.
  • Changes after launch. The first version teaches you what customers actually use. The best apps launch lean, learn from real users, and add features in a second version — which is cheaper than trying to build everything in version one.

An app that is launched and then left alone slowly stops working. An app with a small maintenance budget stays useful for years.

How to keep the cost down without cutting corners

Start with a minimum version. Launch the screens and features your customers need most, and leave the nice-to-haves for version two. That is not a compromise — it is how most successful apps are built, because real customers will tell you what to add next, and you will not pay to build features nobody uses.

Use one codebase for both platforms unless you have a clear reason not to. Keep the design simple and consistent, and reuse the same patterns — the same buttons, the same forms, the same navigation — on every screen. And have your content ready: your text, your logo, your photos, your prices and your terms. Content delays slow apps down just as they slow websites down — see our guide to how long a website takes to build.

Do not save money by skipping testing, security or the admin area. A cheap app that crashes, loses bookings or cannot be updated will cost you more than a properly built one within a year.

What a fixed quote should include

Before you agree to anything, your quote should say in writing: which platforms are included, how many screens, which features, whether there is a backend and admin area, who owns the code and the app store accounts, what testing is included, and what happens after launch — who fixes it, how fast, and what it costs. If any of that is vague, the price is vague too.

That is also why we quote a fixed price, not an hourly rate. You should know the full cost before work starts, not discover it halfway through.

How an app project runs at AKTechForce

Day 1: a short call. What the app must do, who will use it, and what success looks like — more bookings, more orders, less admin, or a better service for existing customers.

Within 24 hours: a fixed written quote, with price and timeline. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.

Design first: you approve the look of every screen before we build, so there are no surprises when the app arrives on your phone.

Build in weekly chunks you can look at and comment on, then we test, submit to the App Store and Google Play, and hand over every login and account. You own the app, the code and every account. Nothing is locked to us.

Want a real price for your app?

Tell us what you need on our contact page and you'll get a fixed price and timeline within 24 hours. It helps to include: iPhone, Android or both; the main things users should be able to do; whether you need logins, payments or bookings; and anything the app needs to connect to. Or message us on WhatsApp for a faster chat.