App development cost in the UK is one of the most over-googled and under-answered questions in tech. The honest range is wide — a focused MVP and a fully featured platform are different orders of magnitude — but the variables are knowable, and once you understand them the number stops feeling like a dartboard.
This guide sets out realistic 2026 GBP bands for building a mobile app in the UK, from a single-platform MVP through to a complex consumer or B2B app with native integrations. We build production apps in React Native and Expo, shipping to both the App Store and Google Play from one codebase, so our framing assumes apps that go live and get maintained, not prototypes that die in TestFlight.
The figures below are total project costs for a senior delivery team, invoiced in GBP. They exclude ongoing maintenance — which mobile uniquely demands, because iOS and Android both ship breaking changes every year — and we cover that separately so you can plan the full cost of ownership rather than just the build.
| Engagement | Range | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| MVP (one platform, core flow) | £30,000–£60,000 | The smallest version that proves the app should exist: one platform or a cross-platform build of a single core flow, real auth, and enough polish to put in front of users. Built to validate, not to scale, but on a foundation you can grow. |
| Cross-platform consumer app | £60,000–£120,000 | A full iOS and Android app from one React Native codebase: several flows, push notifications, analytics, subscriptions or payments, and store submission handled for you. The typical band for a serious consumer or B2B launch. |
| Feature-rich app with integrations | £120,000–£220,000 | An app with native modules (camera, BLE, biometrics), back-end integrations, real-time features or offline support, and a back end built alongside it. Common for marketplaces, field tools and data-heavy products. |
| Complex platform / multi-app product | £220,000+ | A platform spanning consumer and admin apps, a substantial back end, third-party integrations and demanding performance or compliance needs. Priced as a full software programme rather than a single app. |
MVP (one platform, core flow)
£30,000–£60,000
The smallest version that proves the app should exist: one platform or a cross-platform build of a single core flow, real auth, and enough polish to put in front of users. Built to validate, not to scale, but on a foundation you can grow.
Cross-platform consumer app
£60,000–£120,000
A full iOS and Android app from one React Native codebase: several flows, push notifications, analytics, subscriptions or payments, and store submission handled for you. The typical band for a serious consumer or B2B launch.
Feature-rich app with integrations
£120,000–£220,000
An app with native modules (camera, BLE, biometrics), back-end integrations, real-time features or offline support, and a back end built alongside it. Common for marketplaces, field tools and data-heavy products.
Complex platform / multi-app product
£220,000+
A platform spanning consumer and admin apps, a substantial back end, third-party integrations and demanding performance or compliance needs. Priced as a full software programme rather than a single app.
One platform is cheaper than two. React Native and Expo let us ship iOS and Android from a single codebase, which is the right call for roughly four in five apps — true native Swift or Kotlin is reserved for heavy on-device ML, AR or low-latency audio, and costs accordingly.
Camera, Bluetooth, biometrics, background location and offline sync each add native work and device testing. An app that reads content is far cheaper than one that talks to hardware in the user's hand.
Most apps are an iceberg — the back end, APIs and third-party integrations underneath are often larger than the screens above. If the app needs a new back end rather than wrapping an existing one, factor that in as its own line.
In-app purchases and subscriptions via RevenueCat, App Store entitlements and the gating logic around them are real engineering, plus they pull Apple and Google into your launch timeline through their review processes.
Getting through App Review is a fixed cost regardless of app size — privacy manifests, account-deletion requirements and first-pass rejections are routine. It is why we do not take mobile projects below a sensible floor: the launch overhead does not shrink with the app.
iOS and Android apps users actually open more than once.
We'll send back an itemised proposal in GBP — scope, line items, timeline, and the team that would run it.
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