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App development cost calculator
Pick where your app runs, what it needs to do and any compliance rules it must meet. You get a budget range, a timeline, the team and a feature-by-feature plan, from the effort tables Pulore uses to plan its own projects.
Start from an example, then change anything
One line, used as the title of your plan. Please leave out personal or payment details.
Your estimate
$15,000 to $55,000
3 to 8 weeks
Your estimate
$15,000 to $55,000
About 159 to 366 hours at $100 to $150 an hour.
- Timeline
- 3 to 8 weeks
- Effort
- 11 to 25 days of engineering
- Team
- 1 senior engineer
- A lead for architecture and code review
- A product designer, part-time
A planning range, not a quote.
See the full planEstimate updated: $15,000 to $55,000, 3 to 8 weeks.
Your plan
Effort is in working days for one senior engineer. It changes as you change your choices.
Breakdown
| Item | Effort |
|---|---|
| Sign-up, login and user accounts (Clerk) | 1 to 2 days |
| Payments and subscriptions (Stripe Checkout and Billing) | 2 to 4 days |
| Admin panel for your team | 3 to 7 days |
| Email, push and in-app notifications (Resend and Expo notifications) | 2 to 4 days |
| Project setup, environments and deployments | 1 to 3 days |
| Testing, hardening and launch | 2 to 5 days |
| Total engineering | 11 to 25 days |
Phases
- 1.Discovery and planning2 to 5 days
- 2.Design head start3 to 7 days
- 3.Build, test and launch2 to 5 weeks
Suggested stack
- Next.js and TypeScript for the web app
- Clerk for sign-in, users and organizations
- Supabase (PostgreSQL and storage) to move fast, with room to grow
- Stripe for payments
- Resend for email and Expo or OneSignal for push
- Hosting on Google Cloud or Vercel, set up as code with Pulumi
Assumptions
- A senior team working the way Pulore does: managed services where they fit and AI-assisted development. These are planning ranges, not a quote.
- The budget uses $100 to $150 an hour, a typical range for senior engineers and designers. It covers discovery, design, engineering, code review, testing and launch, but not hosting, app store fees, third-party services or formal compliance audits.
- Design starts a few days ahead and then runs alongside the build.
- Third-party services work as documented.
Next steps
Talk it through
In 30 minutes we can go through the plan, what could wait until after launch, and what a quote would cover. Your choices are already in the booking notes.
Email me this plan
Get the full plan in your inbox, with the breakdown, phases and stack, to share with your team.
What drives the cost of an app
Five things decide most of the price, and the calculator prices each one separately.
Platforms
Mobile means iOS and Android, built from one React Native codebase, so a mobile app costs about the same as a web app with the same features. Building both shares the backend and most of the logic, so the second platform adds about 40% to each feature rather than doubling it.
Features
Features are the biggest lever. Sign-up and login take 1 to 2 days with Clerk, and payments with Stripe 2 to 4 days. A two-sided marketplace with payouts takes 7 to 15 days, and offline mode with sync 5 to 12 days.
Integrations
Each outside service your app talks to is a small project: learning its API, handling its errors and testing it. A few third-party integrations add 2 to 5 days. Managed services such as Clerk, Stripe and Resend pull the other way, replacing custom code for accounts, payments and email.
Compliance
Regulated data needs access controls, audit logs and encryption. HIPAA adds 4 to 8 days of engineering, SOC 2 readiness 5 to 10 days and GDPR 2 to 4 days. Formal audits are separate.
Design
Without designs, a product designer starts 3 to 7 days ahead of the build, then works alongside it at about 25% of the engineering time. With designs or a design system in hand, that cost drops out.
How this estimate works
The calculator runs the same engine as Pulore App Planner, our plugin for ChatGPT. Each feature has a range of working days for one senior engineer, working the way we do today: managed services where they fit and AI-assisted development.
It adds up the features, compliance, project setup and testing, then 2 to 5 days of discovery, design if you need it, and a lead's architecture and code review at 10% of the engineering time. Bigger plans get a second or third engineer, which shortens the timeline.
The budget prices those hours at $100 to $150 an hour: the low estimate at the low rate and the high estimate at the high rate, which is why the range is wide. Hosting, app store fees, third-party services and formal compliance audits aren't included.
Treat it as a planning range, not a quote. A quote comes after a call about your users, your data and what has to be ready at launch.
Example app costs
Six common scopes, priced by the same engine when this page was built. The inputs are listed so you can check the numbers, and each is a starting point in the calculator.
| App and inputs | Timeline | Budget |
|---|---|---|
MVP web appThe first version of a SaaS product
| 3 to 8 weeks | $15,000 to $55,000 |
Community app for iOS and AndroidProfiles, photos, chat and search
| 3 to 9 weeks | $17,000 to $62,000 |
AI assistant over your docsAnswers questions from documents your team uploads
| 3 to 9 weeks | $17,000 to $63,000 |
Booking app for web and mobileClasses or appointments, with payments and reminders
| 4 to 10 weeks | $20,000 to $76,000 |
MarketplaceBuyers, sellers, listings and payouts
| 3 to 9 weeks | $27,000 to $98,000 |
Health app with HIPAAPatient app and clinician portal, with bookings, secure messages and file sharing
| 3 to 9 weeks | $27,000 to $105,000 |
Across these scopes, budgets run from $15,000 to $105,000 and timelines from 3 to 10 weeks.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to build an app?
With a senior team at $100 to $150 an hour, an MVP web app with sign-up, payments, notifications and an admin panel costs about $15,000 to $55,000. A booking app for web and mobile is about $20,000 to $76,000, and a marketplace about $27,000 to $98,000. Your feature list decides where you land.
How much does mobile app development cost?
About the same as a web app with the same features, because iOS and Android share one React Native codebase. A community app with profiles, photos, chat, notifications and search comes to $17,000 to $62,000. Adding a web app as well adds about 40% to each feature.
How much does an MVP cost?
A web MVP with accounts, payments, notifications and an admin panel takes 3 to 8 weeks and costs $15,000 to $55,000. Every feature you hold back until after launch makes it cheaper and quicker.
How much does AI app development cost?
An AI assistant that answers questions from your documents, with sign-in, uploads and an admin panel, costs $17,000 to $63,000 over 3 to 9 weeks. AI document processing adds 5 to 12 days of engineering. Model usage fees from OpenAI or Anthropic are extra.
How long does it take to build an app?
The examples on this page take 3 to 10 weeks from discovery to launch. A second or third engineer shortens the timeline but not the budget, because the hours stay the same.
Is this estimate a quote?
No. It's a planning range from fixed effort tables at $100 to $150 an hour, without hosting, app store fees, third-party services or formal audits. For a quote, book a call and we'll go through your scope.
Pulore is a small, founder-led software studio building web, mobile and AI products. See our work, read about our services, or get in touch.