Ask three UK mobile development agencies for a quote and you'll get three different numbers separated by a factor of ten. Some of that is genuine scope variation. Most of it is opacity — junior teams hiding their seniority, big agencies adding three layers of overhead, and offshore quotes that look cheap until you see what they actually deliver. So here is the honest version: three real tiers, what each one buys you, and the running costs first-time founders get caught out by.
For context, we've shipped 11+ mobile apps across iOS and Android — including LuxeLocker (IoT-enabled luxury storage), YallaGrub (restaurant ordering), Guardspur (security guard operations), and Sukuk (Saudi fintech). This post is the conversation we have with founders before they sign anything as part of our mobile app development work.
Starter MVP — from £4,000
Who it's for: founders who need a credible v1 in users' hands fast — to validate the thesis, raise the next round, or both.
What you get: a single-platform MVP (typically iOS or Android, whichever your audience leans toward) covering the core workflow that proves the product. A small set of screens — onboarding, the main feature, settings, and a simple profile — built on a modern stack (React Native or native depending on the brief), with authentication, basic analytics, crash reporting, and a deployable build on TestFlight or Play Internal. Store-ready listing copy and screenshots included.
Timeline: 6–8 weeks from kickoff to a real build in users' hands.
What it isn't: two platforms, integrations beyond auth and analytics, real-time features, hardware integration, or production-grade backend infrastructure. Those land in the next tier.
Standard — £10,000 to £25,000
Who it's for: product teams shipping a real mobile product across iOS + Android with the full feature set the business model requires.
What you get: a cross-platform app (we default to React Native — see our post on choosing the right mobile tech stack for why) covering the full v1 — multiple roles, onboarding flows, payments, push notifications, a deeper feature set, third-party integrations (Stripe, your CRM, your back end), polished design, accessibility, and store-ready submissions for both Apple App Store and Google Play. CI/CD pipelines wired up so your team can ship updates the same week they're written.
This is the tier most production apps live in. YallaGrub and Guardspur both landed here.
Timeline: 12–20 weeks from kickoff to launch.
Complex — £30,000+
Who it's for: products with significant hardware integration (BLE, NFC), real-time data flows, multi-region rollouts, complex backend systems, or regulated workloads (finance, healthcare).
What you get: everything in Standard plus IoT integration, real-time WebSockets or BLE, offline-first sync, advanced security (encrypted local storage, biometric auth), multi-region back-end infrastructure on AWS, more substantial design work, and the deeper observability and ops you need when the product is mission-critical.
LuxeLocker — the IoT-enabled storage app — lives here. So did Sukuk (Saudi-regulated fintech). These projects start at £30k and scale based on hardware complexity and integration depth.
Timeline: 16–32+ weeks depending on hardware partner cadence.
Ongoing / monthly maintenance
Mobile apps need active maintenance because iOS and Android both ship platform updates that break things. Expect:
- From £400/month: essentials — OS update compatibility, library upgrades, monthly crash-free rate report, small bug fixes.
- £800–£1,500/month: production cadence — OS updates, store-policy responses, small feature work, A/B test infrastructure, ongoing analytics.
- £2,000+/month: active product team — multiple features per month, ongoing design polish, performance work, regular store optimisation.
On top of this, Apple and Google take 15–30% of in-app purchases and subscriptions — not your developer's fault, but worth budgeting for. The Apple Developer Program costs $99/year; Google Play is a one-time $25. These aren't optional.
What actually moves the price
In roughly the order they hit the budget:
- Platforms. One platform is the cheapest. Two platforms via cross-platform (React Native, Flutter) is usually only ~30–50% more, not double. Two separate native codebases (Swift + Kotlin) is genuinely close to double.
- Feature set and screens. Each meaningful feature is engineering time — and every additional screen is design, build, and QA.
- Integrations. Payments, CRM, ERP, your back-end APIs, third-party SDKs — each one is real work and ongoing maintenance.
- Hardware. BLE, NFC, custom firmware bridges, IoT cloud (AWS IoT) — significantly more engineering and a longer test cycle.
- Real-time. Live data, chat, presence — adds back-end complexity and battery/connectivity edge cases.
- Design quality. A clean, opinionated, production design takes more time than "make it look nice as we go."
Native vs cross-platform — the real cost difference
For most products, cross-platform (React Native or Flutter) saves 30–50% versus building two separate native codebases. You get one team writing one codebase that ships to both stores. The cases where native is genuinely worth the higher cost: deep platform features (HealthKit, advanced AR, on-device ML), graphics-heavy products, and regulated apps where the platform-native feel is part of the trust signal.
For everything else — most B2C and B2B SaaS — cross-platform is the right answer in 2026. The framework "feels" like a religion debate online; in practice, a senior team ships either tier cleanly. The framework rarely decides whether your app succeeds.
The hidden costs nobody quotes you
- App Store + Play Store submission cycles. Rejections happen. Budget a few extra days the first time.
- Design. A great UI is the cheapest credibility you can buy and the first thing skimped on bad builds.
- Ongoing maintenance. A live mobile app costs something every month forever. Plan for it.
- App Store Optimisation (ASO). Discovery in the stores is a real discipline — listing, keywords, screenshots, response to reviews. Often skipped.
- Analytics and product instrumentation. Cheap to put in early, expensive to retrofit.
App Store + Play Store publishing — included, every tier
In every tier we deliver, store submission is part of the engagement. We handle provisioning, signing, App Store Connect and Google Play Console setup, listing copy and screenshots, review responses, and the first round of post-submission fixes. You don't need a "store specialist" — it's part of shipping the app properly.
How LuxeLocker was built
LuxeLocker is a useful concrete example of the Complex tier. The app pairs with IoT-enabled physical lockers via BLE, syncs state to AWS IoT, supports offline operation (you might be in a basement carpark), and presents a polished consumer UX. It's the kind of product that doesn't fit in the Standard tier — and that's exactly when complex pricing is justified.
FAQ
Can I really build a mobile app for £4k? At the Starter tier — yes, for the right scope. Single platform, MVP-focused, no deep integrations. What you can't get for £4k is a cross-platform app with payments, real-time, and store-ready polish — that's the Standard tier and £10k+.
Should I build native or React Native? React Native is our default for most products. Native (Swift + Kotlin) when platform features or feel are the moat. We give an honest recommendation per project — there's a deeper version of this answer in our tech stack post.
How long does it take to launch a mobile app? Starter: 6–8 weeks. Standard: 12–20 weeks. Complex: 16–32+ weeks. We can usually have an internal TestFlight build within 2–3 weeks regardless of tier.
Do you handle Apple and Google submission? Yes — included. Provisioning, signing, listings, review responses, the lot.
Who owns the code and the App Store developer account? You do. Code in your repos. Developer accounts under your company name. Zero lock-in to us when the engagement ends.
Sketching a mobile app and want a real cost range for your specific brief? Get a project quote — honest tier recommendation, written estimate, no sales pressure.
