October 08, 2026
A simple app on one platform costs roughly 3,00,000 to 8,00,000 rupees in India. A mid sized app with its own backend and both Android and iOS versions costs roughly 8,00,000 to 25,00,000. A platform with real time features, payments, several user types and an admin system goes above that. The ranges are wide because "an app" covers everything from a calculator that runs entirely on the phone to a system where a fleet of vehicles reports its position to a dashboard every few seconds.
About 1,300 people a month search this question in India, and most answers give a number without saying what's in it. This article gives the lines instead: the platform decision, the backend, each stage of the work, what two real apps looked like, and the running costs after launch. It also says which apps shouldn't be apps, because the cheapest app is the one you didn't need to build.
Four decisions set the number before a screen is drawn.
How many platforms. Android only, iOS only, or both. In India, Android is most of the market, so an Android only first release is common and roughly halves the build.
Native or cross platform. Native means one codebase per platform, Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS. Cross platform means one codebase (Flutter or React Native) that produces both. The section after next covers when each is right.
Whether there's a backend. An app that stores everything on the phone is one project. An app with user accounts, data shared between users, an admin panel or anything that has to survive the phone being lost is two projects: the app and the server it talks to.
How much is designed. An app that follows platform conventions with standard components is quicker to design than one with its own visual system and custom interactions. For a mobile app or larger product we plan 6 to 10 weeks of design, which includes the prototype you can tap through before anything is built.
Take those four and the bands make sense. Single platform, no backend, conventional design: the bottom of 3,00,000 to 8,00,000. Both platforms, a backend, an admin panel and a designed interface: somewhere in 8,00,000 to 25,00,000, with integrations and complexity deciding where.
Android only is where most Indian apps start, and about 170 people a month search for its cost specifically.
An Android only app sits in the 3,00,000 to 8,00,000 band when it's self contained: a utility, a tool for your own staff, a catalogue that reads from your website, a calculator. The position in the band is set by screen count, design effort and how much the app has to do offline.
Add a backend and it moves towards the top of that band or into the next one, even on one platform, because the server, the database, the API and the admin panel are the same work whether one app or two consume them.
Going Android first is a good way to test a product before paying for iOS. The trade is that if you build it native and later want iOS, that's a second app. If you think both are likely within a year, build cross platform from the start and release Android first.
Publishing has small fixed costs on both stores: Google charges a one time developer registration fee and Apple an annual one. Both are minor against the build, and both accounts should be in your company's name, never the developer's.
Native costs more when you need both platforms, because it's two codebases, two sets of bugs and two release cycles. It costs about the same as cross platform when you only need one.
Native is worth the extra when the app leans hard on the phone: heavy camera or sensor use, background services, a dialer or accessibility layer, deep OS integration, or performance that has to be perfect. A dialer replaces a system app and has to behave like one, which is why Voidcaller, the Android dialer we designed and built, was built for Android alone.
Cross platform is the right default for most business apps: forms, lists, dashboards, maps, chat, orders, bookings. One team, one codebase, both stores, and a saving against two native builds that grows with the number of screens.
The wrong choice is expensive in both directions. Cross platform for an app that needs deep native features means fighting the framework; native for a simple two platform app means paying twice. Say what the app has to do and let that decide.
Both platforms roughly doubles the build on native and adds testing and release work on cross platform. It also raises the ongoing cost, because two stores mean two review processes, two sets of OS updates and two lists of device quirks.
The question to ask is where your users actually are. A consumer app in India will find most of its users on Android, but a premium product, an app for doctors, or a B2B tool for a large company may have iPhone users you can't ignore. Look at the phones your existing customers or staff carry before deciding; it's a better guide than the national market share.
A reasonable path for many products: cross platform build, Android release first, iOS release once the app has settled and the first round of feedback is in. The iOS build costs little extra at that point because the code already exists.
The backend is the part of the app you never see and the part that most often decides the band.
It's needed when users log in, when data is shared between people, when there's an admin who manages content or users, when the app sends notifications, when payments are taken, or when anything must survive the phone being lost or replaced. Almost every business app needs one.
What it includes: a server and database in your own hosting account, an API the app talks to, authentication, the admin panel your team uses, notifications, and whatever integrations the business needs, such as a payment gateway, the WhatsApp Business API, or a sync with Tally, Zoho or HubSpot.
The admin panel is underestimated most. A fleet dashboard that shows every vehicle on a live map with its route history is a full web application on its own, and it's often more work than the app the drivers use. Smart Waste, an app we designed for waste collection tracking, had exactly that shape: driver onboarding and a live tracking map in the app, and a fleet dashboard for the operator, all designed as one system.
Hosting for a backend is in your own name, at a cost that depends on users and data. It's a monthly line that starts small and grows with the app.
An app project has five stages, and a quote should show all of them.
Brief and structure. A conversation, then a short written brief we prepare, then a fixed quote with a timeline. Nothing starts until you have both. This stage is where the platform and backend decisions above get made, and it's the cheapest place to change your mind.
Design. Flows, wireframes, the visual system, every screen at the sizes that matter, and a clickable prototype in Figma. For an app, 6 to 10 weeks. The prototype is worth the time because it's the last point where a change costs a designer's afternoon rather than a developer's week.
Build. The app itself and, if there is one, the backend and admin panel in parallel. Length depends on the platform decision and the screen count.
Testing and release. Real devices, slow connections, the store review process, the privacy policy and the store listing. This stage is skipped in cheap quotes and shows up later as one star reviews.
Handover. Source code, design files, store accounts, hosting and every credential in your name, with training and documentation. Ongoing work is agreed separately.
If a quote doesn't show these stages, ask which are missing. Usually it's design and testing, and those are the two that determine whether anyone uses the app.
This is the section that saves the most money.
Build a website when the product is mostly reading and filling forms: a catalogue, a booking page, a dashboard your staff use at a desk, a customer portal to check orders. A responsive website works on every phone without an install, needs no store approval, updates instantly, and costs far less than an app. A well built web app can also be added to a phone's home screen and work offline for many cases.
Build an app when you need what only an app can do: push notifications people actually see, camera and GPS in the background, offline use in the field, a dialer or another system level feature, or a presence on the store because your customers look there.
The test we use: if the first version of the product could be a website and you'd learn something from it, build the website first. Article 01 covers what that costs. If the website proves the idea, the app comes later with a far better brief, and often the website's backend becomes the app's backend.
Voidcaller is an Android dialer on the Play Store, designed and built by us. One platform, self contained, and a great deal of work in the interface and in behaving correctly as a replacement for a system app. It's the shape of the first band: the cost sits in design and platform detail rather than in servers.
Smart Waste is a design project for a waste collection tracking app: onboarding for drivers, a live tracking map, and a fleet dashboard for the operator. That's the shape of the second band even before a line of code: two kinds of user, real time location, a web dashboard alongside the app, and a backend that everything depends on. Designing it first meant the operator could see the whole system in a prototype before deciding what to build.
Both are on our portfolio. If you're weighing an app, the start a project form on our contact page asks the questions we need to write the brief, and we'll tell you honestly if it should be a website.
Store accounts, renewed yearly on Apple's side. Backend hosting in your name, monthly. OS updates: Android and iOS release major versions every year, and an app that isn't updated eventually breaks or gets removed from the store. Device fixes as new phones appear. And the changes you'll want once real users arrive, which are the most valuable spend of all.
Budget a maintenance arrangement from the start rather than discovering the need in year two. We offer a monthly plan for updates, backups and fixes, priced on what it has to cover.
Roughly 3,00,000 to 8,00,000 rupees for a simple app on one platform, 8,00,000 to 25,00,000 for a mid sized app with a backend on both platforms, and more for complex platforms. Platforms, backend and design effort decide where in the band an app lands.
For a mid sized app, 6 to 10 weeks of design, then a build that depends on the platform decision and screen count, then testing and store review. A simple single platform app is faster; a larger system is delivered in stages.
For two platforms, usually yes, because it's one codebase. For one platform, about the same. It costs more than native when the app needs deep OS features, because you end up writing native code anyway.
A quote that low is a template app with your logo, a no code builder, or a student project, and each has a place. A designed, tested, maintainable app with the accounts in your own name starts at roughly 3,00,000 rupees because of the work in the sections above.
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