How much does it cost to build an app in the UK?

It depends on who builds it and how much it does. Here are rough UK ranges for 2026, for a first version of an app for iPhone and Android:

• UK agency, simple app (a few screens, no accounts or a simple login, content you manage): £15,000–£50,000.
• UK agency, mid-sized app (accounts, bookings or payments, an admin area, notifications): £50,000–£150,000.
• Complex apps (marketplaces, real-time features, integrations with other systems, strict compliance): £150,000 and up.
• Freelancer: often £300–£600 a day; a simple app might take 20–60 days.
• No-code or AI app builder, built by you: from free to a few hundred pounds a year, plus your time.

These figures are indicative. Quotes vary widely by region, experience and how clearly the app is specified, which is exactly why the next section matters.

1. Number of screens and journeys. Every screen has to be designed, built and tested in its loading, empty and error states.
2. Accounts and data. Logins, profiles, password resets and account deletion add a surprising amount of work and require a backend.
3. Payments. Taking money means a payment provider, receipts, refunds and the store rules on in-app purchases.
4. Integrations. Connecting to your booking system, accounting package or a third-party API can be quick or painful depending on the other side.
5. Native features. Camera, location, Bluetooth, background tasks and push notifications each add effort.
6. Design. A custom design system costs more than a clean, standard look, and is not always needed for version one.
7. Platforms. One cross-platform codebase (React Native, Flutter, Capacitor) is usually cheaper than two separate native apps.

The single biggest saving is to cut version one down to one main journey. An app that does one thing well costs a fraction of one that tries to do everything, and you learn what users actually want before spending more.

An app is not a one-off purchase. Budget for:

• Apple Developer Program: an annual fee, £79 a year in the UK at the time of writing.
• Google Play Console: a one-off $25 registration.
• Hosting and backend: from a few pounds a month for a small app to hundreds for a busy one.
• Domain and email: around £10–£20 a year for the domain.
• Maintenance: every year Apple and Google release new versions of their systems, and apps need updating. For agency-built apps, 15–20% of the build cost per year is a common rule of thumb.
• Store commission: if you sell digital goods inside the app, Apple and Google take a cut (15% for most small developers). Physical goods and services, such as a haircut or a table booking, are paid outside that system.

Agencies quote high when they’re unsure. A clear one-page brief reduces the uncertainty and the price:

• one sentence: who opens the app, how often and to do what;
• the main journey, step by step;
• the screens you think you need, sketched on paper;
• what data it stores, and whether users need accounts;
• what it must connect to;
• what is not in version one.

Ask at least three suppliers, compare what’s included (design, testing, store submission, a period of bug fixes after launch) and who owns the code at the end. You should.

For many small businesses and first-time founders, yes, at least for version one. A café loyalty app, a booking app for a personal trainer, an internal app for engineers or a club’s membership app are well within reach of today’s tools. Building it yourself also means you understand it, which makes every later conversation with a developer cheaper.

They are less suitable for apps with heavy regulation (health records, financial services), complex real-time features or large numbers of users from day one. In those cases a professional team is worth the money, and a prototype you built yourself is still a great brief.

Read how to build an app without coding for the step-by-step version.

Almost always. A working prototype, even a rough one, answers questions that no specification can: do people understand the main screen, do they come back after the first week, is the idea worth £40,000 at all? It also changes the conversation with agencies, because you’re showing them something rather than describing it.

A sensible sequence for a small business or a first-time founder is: build a simple version yourself, put it in front of ten real users for a month, write down what they did and didn’t use, and only then decide whether to keep improving it yourself or hand it to professionals with a much sharper brief. Many apps never need the second step.

Building with Plannify is free. You describe the app, and a team of AI agents builds it in front of you on your own computer: real iPhone and Android apps with React and Capacitor, or web apps. The only cost while building is the AI, and you choose it: a free model running on your computer (in the browser or with Ollama) costs nothing, while your own API key from OpenRouter, Anthropic or OpenAI is paid to them, typically a few pounds for a small project.

The paid part is optional and done by people: the Plannify team can put your app or website online on a real server with your domain, publish it to the App Store and Google Play, and provide support. You still pay Apple and Google their own developer fees.