The first question is not "how much does an app cost?" — it is "do I need an app at all?" Often the honest answer is no, and a responsive website does the same job at a quarter of the price.
When a website is enough
If what you want is for people to browse, order and get in touch, a responsive site does all of that — without asking anyone to install something, and without an app-store review on every update. Most shops and service companies do not need an app in their first year.
When an app genuinely is necessary
- Repeat use. If a customer opens it daily or weekly, the icon on the home screen matters. Once a year and they will uninstall it.
- You need device features. Camera for barcodes, GPS for tracking, push notifications, or offline work.
- Notifications are part of the service. A push notification arrives and is free; SMS costs money per message.
- A field team. Reps or technicians on the road need a work tool that runs on a phone even on a weak connection.
One codebase or two?
Apps used to be written twice — once for Android, once for iOS. With frameworks like Flutter it is written once and ships to both. The practical result: noticeably lower cost, and one update reaching both platforms together instead of one lagging behind.
The real cost is not the build price
The line items that get left out of the budget:
- Store accounts — a one-off fee for Google, an annual subscription for Apple.
- Hosting — the app talks to a server, and that server is a monthly cost.
- Mandatory updates — Apple and Google change requirements every year. An app that is not maintained gets removed.
- The admin dashboard — an app without one is half a product.
Budget an annual cost, not a one-time payment.
The biggest mistake: launching with everything
Trying to ship a complete app on the first release delays launch by months, raises the cost, and then you discover nobody uses half of it. The right approach: ship the smallest version that solves the core problem, watch what people actually use, and build on that.
Questions to ask any agency
- Do I own the code, and will you hand it over?
- Are the store accounts in my name or yours? (They must be yours.)
- Is the admin dashboard included in the price?
- What does post-launch support cost and cover?
- If I change vendors, where does that leave me?
The answers to the third and fourth matter more than the price gap between quotes.
At Money Leek we build apps from a single codebase for both platforms, with a dashboard, notifications and integration with your systems. See the service or tell us about your idea and we will say honestly whether you need an app.