How much does a mobile app cost in 2026? Prices and maintenance

What is the app development cost in 2026? An MVP — the minimum version of the product with one key feature, a simple backend and publication in the app stores — comes to roughly €6,000–15,700 net (excl. VAT) and 2–4 months of work. A mid-sized app — with user accounts, payments, push notifications, an admin panel and analytics — usually falls in the €9,700–25,400 net range, while an extensive product with many modules, integrations and high scale starts at around €23,000 net.

Euro amounts converted at the NBP mid-market rate of 14 September 2026 (€1 = 4.3391 zł) and rounded. We invoice in PLN.

On top of that come the fixed costs after launch: an Apple developer account at USD 99 per year, a Google Play account at USD 25 one-off, a server from around €10 per month and maintenance at 15–25% of the build cost per year.

App development cost — the price ranges in one table

These are indicative ranges. The real price depends on the number of screens, the number of integrations and how many exceptions have to be handled — which is why we only give an exact figure after a conversation and a review of the scope.

What makes up the price of a mobile app?

A bespoke app is far more than the screens on a phone. You are paying for several layers at once, and the user sees only one of them.

• The app for iOS and Android (or for a single platform, if you deliberately narrow the scope).
• Backend and database — usually half the work in a project, even though the user never sees it. This is where accounts, data, logic and security live.
• Admin panel for managing content and users. Without one, every change in the app needs a developer.
• Publishing on the App Store and Google Play — preparing the materials and getting through review. In mobile app projects from Szczecin, CodePort handles this process on your behalf.
• Push notifications, analytics and crash reporting — without them you have no idea whether the app works or whether anyone is using it.
• Compliance with GDPR and store policies — privacy policy, consents, a description of how data is processed. Health data comes with more requirements — we cover them in our article on medical apps under GDPR and the MDR.

If someone quotes you a price for an "app" that looks suspiciously low, check whether the backend and the admin panel are included.

Why the backend is half the budget

A mobile app without a server can do very little: a calculator, a notepad, an offline catalogue. The moment accounts, sync across devices, payments or a panel for your team appear, the backend becomes a product in its own right. It has to be secure, predictable and ready for the number of users to grow.

Cross-platform, native or a mixed approach — which to choose?

The choice of technology translates directly into the budget — and into what you will pay for maintenance in the years that follow.

Cross-platform means one codebase for iOS and Android. For an app with accounts, lists, forms, payments and notifications it is the default choice, and the cross platform app development cost saving repeats every year in maintenance.

Going native makes sense when maximum performance and full access to the hardware matter. An example of a project where the hardware was key: a VR flight simulator for IDI Global. A mixed approach — a cross-platform core with performance-critical modules written natively — works well for products that keep growing and only hit a single bottleneck later on.

How we calculate the cost of a mobile app

We do not have a price list saying "an app costs X". We count hours and multiply them by transparent rates: development €46/h net, design €35/h net. The market range is €35–58/h, so comparing with other offers is straightforward.

Example (an illustration, not an offer):

That is the arithmetic behind the ranges in the table above. Your project may need fewer or more hours — which is why, before we give a figure, we break the scope down into specific features.

What raises the cost of an app the most?

The price grows above all with the number of things that have to talk to each other and must not get it wrong.

• Accounts and login — registration, password reset, login via external providers, roles and permissions.
• Payments — subscriptions, one-off payments, refunds, handling failed transactions.
• Push notifications — simple in their basic form, but sending rules and segmentation increase the scope.
• Offline working with sync — a local database and sending changes once the connection is back. It requires resolving data conflicts, so it noticeably increases the scope of work.
• Connecting to your company system via API — if the app is to read and write data in your ERP, CRM or shop, the cost depends on the quality of the API documentation and the number of exceptions. We write more about this under system and API integrations.
• The number of modules — every additional area (bookings, chat, reports, loyalty) is a separate set of screens, logic and tests. How such a set adds up for a sports club — bookings, passes, notifications — is shown in our article on a sports club management app (in Polish).

What you cannot see in an estimate but still takes time

Testing on different devices, handling network errors, edge cases ("what if the user deletes their account mid-payment") and preparing store assets. These are not extras — they are the part of the work that decides whether the app passes review and does not start throwing up crashes in the first week.

How much does it cost to maintain an app after launch?

Launch is not the end of the spending. The fixed costs are small, but they are fixed — and maintenance needs to go into the annual budget from day one.

iOS and Android ship major updates every year. An app left unattended starts to "break": libraries age, something stops working on a new version of the operating system, the stores change their requirements. That is why post-launch support at CodePort covers monitoring, backups, library updates, testing on new OS versions and further development — typically 5–15 hours a month, billed at the hourly rate.

How long does it take to build and publish an app?

An MVP takes 2–4 months. We split the process into stages so that you know what you are paying for and when you can change your mind without rewriting half the project.

1. Conversation and estimate — a free price range and schedule within 2–3 working days.
2. Prototype — a clickable mock-up of the screens before the first line of code exists. A change in a mock-up is far cheaper than the same change in a finished app.
3. Sprints — a working version of the app every 1–2 weeks. You see the product, not a report.
4. Publication in the stores — preparing the assets and going through review. Google Play usually approves an app in 1–3 days, the Apple App Store from one day to a week, sometimes with comments to address.
5. Development and support — further features based on analytics data.

It is worth factoring store review into your launch schedule. One day of slippage during a marketing campaign can hurt more than the fix itself.

How to reduce the cost of the first version

The cheapest app is the one you did not build unnecessarily. These decisions cut the cost of the first version the most:

• Start with an MVP. Pick the one feature that will make a user download the app and do it properly. A working product will fund the rest. If you are unsure about scope, a comparison of an MVP and a full product will help.
• Choose cross-platform unless you have a hard reason to go native. That is 30–40% less for the build and maintenance than with two native apps.
• Build a prototype before the code. A clickable mock-up catches misunderstandings before they turn into a rewritten module.

A less obvious piece of advice: limit the number of integrations in the first version. Every connection to an external system is a separate set of errors to handle. One integration done solidly is worth more than three done hastily.

If your app does not need phone features — the camera, push notifications or offline use — a web application running in the browser can be cheaper. You will find a cost comparison in our article on how much a web application costs.

How quickly will you get a concrete estimate?

You will see an indicative price range for your project straight away in the cost calculator — no conversation, no obligation. If you have unusual features, the calculator estimates them with the help of AI.

When you need a figure you can base a budget on, fill in the project brief builder: goal, features, style. We reply within one working day, and we prepare a free, detailed estimate with a schedule in 2–3 working days. We work remotely with clients from all over Poland and abroad — in Polish, English, German, Ukrainian and Russian.

If you already have an outline of your idea, check the price range in the cost calculator and compare it with the budget you have for this year.