What does an app cost? Prices and examples in 2026

What does an app cost? A simple app with no server costs DKK 40,000–100,000. An app with user accounts and data in the cloud costs DKK 100,000–350,000. Add payments and integrations and the price is DKK 250,000–600,000. On top of that comes 15–20% a year in maintenance, just to keep the app working.

We have developed and published KalorieTracker ourselves — an app with AI image recognition, live in both the App Store and Google Play. So this isn’t a theoretical run-through. These are also the costs we pay every month.

What does an app cost? Prices by type

The range is so wide because “app” covers everything from a single screen to a system with servers, user accounts, payments and two stores’ approval processes.

What drives the price of an app?

The number of screens. Each screen has to be designed, built, tested and adapted to two platforms. Rule of thumb: DKK 8,000–20,000 per unique screen.

Whether there is a server behind it. An app that only runs on the phone is one project. An app with user accounts, cloud data and syncing between devices is two projects — the app and the backend. That often doubles the budget.

Payments. If you sell digital content or subscriptions, it has to go through Apple’s and Google’s own systems, and they take 15–30%. That is both a technical task and a permanent cost on your earnings.

Native or cross-platform. If you build separately for iOS and Android (Swift and Kotlin), you get the best result and pay for two development efforts. With React Native or Flutter most of the code is shared — typically 30–40% cheaper. For most apps the latter is the right choice.

Offline. Making an app work without a network sounds simple and isn’t. Data has to be stored locally and merged back when the connection returns. It is among the most expensive “small” requirements people ask for.

Running costs: what an app costs per year

This is the part that surprises people.

• Apple Developer Program: USD 99 a year. Mandatory. Stop paying and the app leaves the App Store.
• Google Play: USD 25 as a one-off.
• Server and database: DKK 200–3,000 a month depending on the number of users.
• Push notifications: free up to a level, then by usage.
• Maintenance: this is the big one. Apple and Google release new operating systems every year, and an app that isn’t updated stops working. Budget 15–20% of the original development price a year, just to keep the app functioning.

So a DKK 200,000 app typically costs DKK 30,000–40,000 a year to keep alive. That has to be part of the decision from the beginning.

Do you even need an app?

The honest question first. An app only makes sense if at least one of these applies:

• Users will open it several times a week
• You need push notifications, the camera, GPS or offline use
• It has to sit on the home screen as part of the user’s habits

If people will use it twice a year, it won’t get installed — and if it does, it gets deleted at the next tidy-up.

For everything else a web app is better and cheaper: it works in the browser on every device, requires no installation, no approval from Apple, and you can update it whenever you like without waiting for anyone.

A modern web app can be saved to the home screen, work offline and send notifications. The difference in experience has become small.

The price difference isn’t really in the start. For a simple build the two sit close together, whoever does the work. It is everything that comes on top of an app: two platforms instead of one, Apple’s annual developer fee, waiting for approval on every single change, and another round every year when the operating systems update. That is where the budget goes.

Approval in the stores

Something nobody tells first-time publishers:

Apple often rejects the first submission. That is normal. Typical reasons are a missing privacy policy, features that require a login for no reason, or an app that doesn’t offer “sign in with Apple” when it offers other login methods. Budget 1–2 weeks of extra time.

Google Play is more lenient, but now requires videos and documentation for certain categories.

Both require: a privacy policy, icons in every size, screenshots for several device sizes and a description. That is a couple of days of work on top of the app itself.

Our own app

KalorieTracker is ours. The user takes a picture of their food, and the app recognises it and calculates the calories. It is in both stores and has active users.

We built it partly to have gone the whole way ourselves — through Apple’s rejections, through server costs that rise with the user count, and through the annual round with new operating systems. That is a different kind of knowledge from having read about it.

We don’t put a list price on an app. Two ideas that read the same in an email can be months apart in actual work, and a number on a page would either scare off the small projects or promise the large ones too little. You get one fixed quote after a no-obligation conversation instead. It is agreed in writing before we begin, and it is never an hourly rate that slips.

We do usually sit below the table above. Those figures are real enough, but we have three advantages you can verify yourself: we are three developers with no project managers, salespeople or open-plan office downtown; we build on one shared codebase, so iOS and Android aren’t two projects; and we have already worked through the setup, the publishing flow and the stores’ requirements with our own app, so you aren’t paying for us to learn it.

That doesn’t make everything cheap. An app with user accounts, a server and payments costs more, and a marketplace costs a great deal more. There the table still applies.

We build mobile apps for clients, and we say no when a web app is the right answer. It is that more often than people expect.

How to keep app development costs down

Start with the smallest possible thing. Build the three features that are the entire point. The rest comes when real users have told you what they are missing — and it is rarely what you thought.

Choose one platform first. Look at your customer base. If you can get by with iOS to begin with, you halve the price of version 1.

Consider a web app first. Build a web app, see whether people use it, then build the app. It is the cheapest way to find out whether the app is a good idea at all.

Have the content ready. Copy, images, icons. Waiting costs in every project.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take? Simple app: 4–8 weeks. With a server and user accounts: 3–6 months. Plus 1–2 weeks for approval.

What does it cost to make an app for both iOS and Android? With a shared codebase — React Native or Flutter — most of the code is shared, and that is typically 30–40% cheaper than two separate efforts. If you build native for both, you are effectively paying for two development projects. We use a shared codebase by default, so you don’t pay for the same thing twice.

What does it cost to have an app made rather than building it yourself? If you build it yourself, you pay in time instead of money — and you still have to get through both stores’ requirements for icons in every size, screenshots, a privacy policy and approval. That part alone is a couple of days of work on top of the app itself, and Apple often rejects the first submission.

What if I want to change something after launch? Every change has to go through the stores’ approval again — budget a couple of days. That is why it pays to put as much as possible on the server side, where it can be updated freely.

Can I make money from the app? Subscriptions and in-app purchases go through Apple and Google, who take 15–30%. Ads pay very little at small user numbers. Most business apps make money indirectly, by making something easier for existing customers.