How much does it cost to hire a developer to build an app?

Hiring a developer to build an app costs their rate multiplied by the scope of the work, plus the costs around the code: design, a backend if you need one, App Store setup, testing and maintenance after launch. The scope is the part you control, and it moves the price far more than the choice between a freelancer, an agency or a studio. Write the scope down first and you can get comparable quotes within a week.

We build apps for brands and ship three of our own iPhone apps (Dreamify, Viola and GERG, which we built for GERG Stroop & Coffee). Below is how the bill is put together, the three ways developers price it, and the questions that make quotes comparable. We are not going to quote a price list, because a number without a scope is a guess.

What you are actually paying for

"Build an app" covers more jobs than writing code. When a brand asks us for a number, we split the work into these lines first. Whoever you hire, ask which of them are in the quote.

The two lines that change the number most are the backend and the integrations. An app that stands alone is a small project. An app that talks to your till, your payment provider and your menu is several projects, each with another vendor's rules. We wrote about this in more detail in what drives the cost of a brand app.

The three ways developers price an app

Hourly

You pay for the time spent. This is common with freelancers and for work where the scope will change. It is flexible, and it is honest about uncertainty. The risk sits with you: if the work takes twice as long, you pay twice as much. Ask for a weekly time report and an estimate range before work starts.

Fixed price

You agree a scope and a number. The developer carries the risk of overruns, so the price includes a buffer for it. Fixed price works when the scope is written down in detail. It works badly when the scope is vague, because every change becomes a negotiation.

Retainer

You pay a monthly fee for an agreed amount of ongoing work. This is the usual model after launch, for maintenance, updates and small features. It also suits brands that want one team to run the app over time rather than hand it over.

Many projects combine them: a fixed price for the first version, then a retainer. That is the shape we use most often for brand apps, because the first version can be scoped tightly and the work after launch cannot.

Freelancer, agency or studio

The rate is not the whole comparison. What changes is who does the work around the code.

• A freelancer usually has the lowest rate. You become the project manager, you find a designer, and you need a plan for the weeks they are sick or busy with another client.
• An agency covers design, development and project management, and has more people to absorb absences. The rate is higher, and you may talk to an account manager more than to the person writing the code.
• A small studio sits between the two. At KNT App Studio one person owns each app end to end, which we explain in why we put one person on each app. You talk to the person who builds it.

Pick the model by what you can manage yourself. A brand owner with no time to run a project should not save on the rate and then spend their evenings coordinating a designer and a developer.

Costs that are the same whoever you hire

Some costs come from Apple, not from the developer, so they belong in your budget regardless of the quote.

The Apple Developer Program is a yearly membership. You need it to publish on the App Store, and the app should live in your own account, not the developer's. If you sell digital goods or subscriptions inside the app, Apple takes a commission. Under the App Store Small Business Program, developers who earn up to $1 million a year from the store pay a reduced 15 percent commission. Physical goods and in-person services, such as a coffee ordered ahead, are paid outside Apple's in-app purchase system under the App Store Review Guidelines.

Then there is hosting for any backend, and the payment provider's fees if the app takes payments. None of these depend on who writes the code.

How to make the cost smaller before you ask for quotes

The cheapest app is the one with the fewest features that still changes what your customers do. Three decisions cut most budgets in half without making the app worse:

1. Start with one platform. Building for iPhone and Android doubles the surface to build and maintain. We usually start on iOS and add Android when the app proves itself, for the reasons in why we build iOS first.
2. Ask whether you need an app at all. For a stamp card, an Apple Wallet pass can do the job of a full loyalty app at a fraction of the work.
3. Connect to one system first. Pick the integration your staff would miss most. The five integrations a cafe loyalty app needs rarely all need to ship on day one.

How to compare quotes

Send the same written scope to two or three developers. One page is enough: who uses the app, the five things it must do on day one, the systems it connects to, and the platforms. Then ask each of them the same questions:

• Which lines from the table above are included, and which are not?
• Who designs the screens and the App Store listing?
• How is the app tested, and on which devices?
• What does maintenance cost per month after launch, and what does it include?
• Does the app go into my Apple Developer account, and do I get the source code?
• What happens to the price if the scope changes?

A quote that answers all six is worth more than a lower one that answers two. The cheapest quote often leaves out the backend, testing or maintenance, and you pay for those later anyway.

The honest answer to "how much does it cost to hire a developer to build an app" is: less than you fear if the scope is small and written down, and more than you planned if it is not. If you want us to look at your scope before you collect quotes, tell us what the app should do and we will reply with what we would build first and why.