How much does a custom mobile app cost in 2026?

A simple mobile app without its own server runs 25,000–40,000 PLN net today. An MVP with a user account and backend — 48,000–96,000 PLN. A full-featured product with payment integrations, an admin panel, and multi-language support starts at 120,000 PLN and grows with the number of platforms. The final price is hours worked times rate, not a price-list line item — which is why the ranges are this wide.

What determines the cost of a mobile app?

Five factors decide which of the three brackets above a project lands in:

1. Number of platforms — one cross-platform build for Android and iOS costs less than two separate native apps.
2. Backend and user accounts — an app with no login and no server is a completely different budget than a system with registration, roles, and a database.
3. External integrations — payments (Stripe, PayU), maps, push notifications, SMS. Each integration means extra testing and error handling, not just an API hookup.
4. Admin panel — if the business owner needs to manage content or users from a separate panel, that’s practically a second application alongside the mobile one.
5. Number of screens and UX complexity — a 50-screen app is rarely better for the business than one with 10. Start with an MVP — what’s actually needed for the first sale, not the full product vision.

Native or cross-platform — which to choose?

This is the question we hear on nearly every brief. Native development (separate Swift/Kotlin builds for iOS and Android) gives the highest performance and full access to system features, but doubles the work — you write and maintain two separate apps. Cross-platform (React Native, Flutter) means one codebase for both platforms, a faster start, and lower maintenance cost, at the price of a bit of performance on the most demanding animations or 3D graphics.

Criterion	Native (Swift/Kotlin)	Cross-platform (React Native/Flutter)
Starting cost	Higher — two separate projects	Lower — one codebase, two platforms
Time to MVP	Longer	Shorter
Performance	Maximum	Very good, outside extreme cases (3D, heavy graphics)
Maintenance cost	Higher — two teams/codebases	Lower — one codebase
Access to new system features	Immediate	Usually delayed by a few weeks
When it makes sense	Apps heavily dependent on hardware (AR, games, NFC payments)	Most business and consumer apps

For most business projects — management apps, loyalty programs, tools for clients — cross-platform wins on the cost/time/maintenance balance. Native makes sense where the app lives off hardware capability, not business logic.

What does the process of building a custom mobile app look like?

1. Workshop and functional spec — you and the team write down what the app needs to do, for whom, and which screens are actually needed to start. The more precise the brief, the fewer surprises in the quote.
2. Wireframes and prototype — a wireframe or clickable UI prototype to verify the navigation flow before anyone writes a line of code.
3. Technology choice — native vs cross-platform, backend (if needed), integrations. The decision from the section above, matched to the specific project.
4. Iterative development — sprints with regular demos, not one delivery after three months of silence.
5. Testing on real devices — a simulator won’t catch everything, especially around push notifications and payments.
6. Publishing to the App Store / Google Play — Apple’s review process can take a few days longer than Google’s — worth factoring into the launch timeline.

A simple app takes 4-8 weeks, an MVP 6-12 weeks, an advanced product 3-6 months. Timelines grow not only with complexity but with how fast the client decides — the longest delays we’ve seen came from waiting on mockup approval, not from the coding itself.

Does a mobile app need to comply with GDPR?

Yes — if the app processes any personal data, GDPR applies regardless of company size or user count. This covers practically every app with a user account, since a name, email, or IP address already counts as personal data.

Privacy by Design isn’t something to bolt on at the end of a project — it’s a design requirement from the first screen. The app needs a privacy policy compliant with GDPR Articles 13/14, clearly stating the purposes of processing and the legal basis for each. If the app collects sensitive data under GDPR Article 9 — health, real-time location, biometric data — the consent requirements are stricter, and a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is often needed too.

Payment integrations add PSD2 obligations, and publishing to the App Store and Google Play means additional compliance with the platforms’ own terms — Apple has its own App Tracking Transparency requirements, independent of GDPR. Planning for compliance at the functional-spec stage is cheaper than bolting it on after testing, when already-built screens need rework.

How much does mobile app maintenance cost after launch?

Roughly 10-20% of the build cost per year — a line item that some quotes skip, and that shows up only after the app’s first year in production. Unlike a website, a mobile app doesn’t run unattended — Apple and Google change app store requirements every year, and without updates the product starts breaking on newer phones.

The maintenance budget covers: backend hosting (roughly 200-2,000+ PLN per month, depending on user count), developer account fees (Apple App Store: 99 USD/year, Google Play: 25 USD one-time), stability monitoring, bug fixes, and adapting the app to new iOS and Android versions. New feature development is quoted separately, outside this budget — that’s not maintenance, it’s further product expansion.

Mobile app or web app (PWA)?

If the main goal is reaching users without forcing an app-store install, a progressive web app (PWA) can be a cheaper middle ground — it runs in the browser but offers some native-app features (notifications, a home-screen icon, offline use). The trade-off is no full access to system features and a weaker experience on iOS, where Apple limits PWA capabilities more than Google does on Android. For simple tools and an early MVP, it’s often a sensible first step before investing in a full native or cross-platform app. And if even a PWA is too much to start, a plain website on a well-chosen CMS sometimes gets the job done cheaper and faster.

FAQ

How much does a simple mobile app without a backend cost? 25,000 to 40,000 PLN net — a few screens, content presentation, maybe a contact form, no own server or login.

How much does an MVP mobile app with a user account cost? 48,000–96,000 PLN net, depending on the number of integrations and backend complexity. This is the level where most products looking for their first customers start.

Does a mobile app need to comply with GDPR? Yes — GDPR applies to any app processing personal data, regardless of company size. This already covers a simple user account or analytics, and the requirements get stricter for sensitive data (health, location, biometrics).

How much does mobile app maintenance cost after launch? Roughly 10-20% of the build cost per year — hosting, developer store fees, updates for new OS versions, and bug fixes. New feature development is quoted separately.

How long does it take to build a custom mobile app? A simple app 4-8 weeks, an MVP 6-12 weeks, an advanced product 3-6 months — depending on complexity and how fast the client decides.

Is a PWA a good alternative to a mobile app? For simple tools and an early MVP, yes — cheaper and faster, at the cost of limited access to system features, especially on iOS.

Need a quote for a specific project? Get in touch — you’ll get real ranges matched to scope, not an averaged market benchmark.