Custom mobile application development for iOS and Android
Custom mobile application development from one codebase, shipped to both stores. For businesses that need what a website can't do.
Fixed price after discovery. You own the code and the store accounts from day one.
- Fixed price after discovery
- Discovery is credited against the build.
- Both stores, one codebase
- A fix ships to iOS and Android at the same time.
- Accounts in your name
- Store accounts registered to you at the start.
Much of what is asked for as an app should be a website
If you need information, a form and a phone number, build a website. Nobody has to install it, nothing goes through store review, and it costs a fraction as much.
The test is simple. Would someone open it more than once a month? A crew logging jobs daily will. A customer checking an invoice twice a year will not, and you end up paying to maintain an app nobody opens.
When an app is the right answer, there is a specific reason. It has to work without signal, send a notification someone acts on, or use the camera. Those are good reasons, and we will build it.
If the honest answer turns out to be a website rather than an app, that is our web development work. If the app would mainly exist to stop leads falling through the cracks, read CRM integration first — it is a fraction of the cost. Everything on this page is priced on the pricing page.
How the price is set
Before we quote, we spend a couple of weeks on the process the app serves. Who uses it. What happens when the signal drops. What it needs to know that your other systems already hold. That gives us a scope and a fixed price.
Discovery is quoted separately and credited against the build. Pricing a forty-thousand-dollar project off a one-hour call is how projects run over.
How a custom mobile application development project runs
Four stages. The first saves clients the most money.
Deciding whether you need an app
Before anything is quotedMost app requests are really a website that works well on a phone. That costs a fraction as much and skips store approval. It also skips the install, which is the hardest thing to ask of a customer.
An app earns its cost when you need what a website can't do: offline use, push notifications, the camera, background GPS, or a crew who want it on the home screen. Tell us how it would get used and we will work through which case you are in, before you spend anything.
One codebase, both stores
iOS and Android togetherOne codebase, both platforms. That is roughly half the cost of writing each separately, and a fix lands on both at once instead of the two versions drifting apart.
Some parts need native code, usually hardware access or background work. We write those natively and share the rest. Discovery decides which parts.
Store review, and staying compliant
Submission and ongoing complianceBoth stores reject for reasons nobody guesses first time. Account deletion has to be in the app. Permission prompts have to explain themselves. Certain sign-in options are mandatory. We handle the submission and any rejections.
Then it happens again every year. The operating systems change, the store rules follow, and an unmaintained app quietly stops working. Usually for the customers on the newest phones.
Measuring whether it is used
Analytics · crash reporting · updatesCrash reporting from day one, so you hear about a broken screen from us and not from a one-star review. Analytics on the two or three actions the app exists to produce, not on everything.
Most apps we inherit have neither, so nobody can say whether the app is working.
The scope, written down before you pay
Scope goes in the agreement before any money changes hands. It is written out in full below.
In the build
- Discovery, scope and a fixed price before we start
- iOS and Android from one codebase
- Store submission, including any rejections
- Crash reporting and analytics from the first release
- Handover of the code and both store accounts
After launch
- Monthly maintenance, or a full handover to your team
- Operating system updates tracked before they break the app
- Changes quoted per release rather than per hour
- You can move to another firm at any time
- Nothing switches off if you stop paying us
Not included
- A build that does not match what you described. We raise it before quoting
- Publishing under our developer account
- An app with no analytics, leaving nobody able to judge it
- Ongoing hosting fees for something running on your own accounts
Not sure whether you need an app or just a better website? Talk it through with us, for free.
Three things you can check yourself
- Ask whether a website would do
- A firm that never recommends the cheaper option is selling you the expensive one.
- Ask who holds the developer account
- It should be in your company name before the first submission.
- Ask about the next OS update
- What happens to the app when iOS changes next year. There is a specific answer.
Questions we get on the first call
What does custom mobile application development cost?
Fixed price, quoted after a paid discovery that we credit against the build. The range is wide. An app that shows information and one that syncs offline and takes payments are different jobs, and discovery settles which you have. Starting figures are on the pricing page.
Do I actually need an app, or would a website do?
Often a website would do. Describe how people would use it and we will go through that with you honestly. Apps earn their cost when you need offline use, push notifications, the camera or GPS, or a crew who opens it daily. Someone who would use it once a year will not install it.
How long does it take?
Twelve to twenty weeks to a first release. Store review adds a week or two at the end, and it is the one stage we do not control.
iOS, Android, or both?
Usually both. One codebase makes the second platform cheap. If your users sit mostly on one platform, that comes out in discovery and you can start there.
Who owns the app and the store accounts?
You do. We set the accounts up in your name at the start rather than transfer them later. An app published under an agency's developer account is hard to get back if the relationship ends.
What happens after launch?
Someone has to maintain it. Operating systems and store rules change every year. That is either your team, with a proper handover, or a monthly arrangement with us. An unmaintained app usually breaks within about eighteen months.
Do you do business mobile application development, or consumer apps?
Mostly business. Apps for a crew, a franchise network or an existing customer base, where you already know the audience. Consumer apps that have to win strangers on an app store are a marketing problem more than an engineering one.
Can you take over an app somebody else built?
Usually. We read the code first, then take you through what continuing would cost against a rewrite. Sometimes the honest answer is the more expensive one.
Related: Software overview · SaaS · CRM integration · Websites
Store requirements come from Apple's review guidelines and Google Play's policies, both of which change more often than people expect.
Tell us how the app would get used. We will help you work out whether you need one.
One business day, in writing, including when the honest answer is that a website would do it.