App Development CostWhat building an app
really costs.
App pricing ranges wildly, and most of it is vague. Here is a straight answer: what drives the cost, what a focused MVP versus a larger build includes, and honest fixed pricing from £16,000 — no hourly meter, no surprises.
app.yourmarketplace.com
Live marketplace
Two-sided liquidity, one platform
Supply and demand, matched. Listings, search, payments, and trust — built to move volume.
Recent activity
NNew listinglive
BBroker onboardedverified
EEnquiry matchedsent
PPayment cleared£4,200
Platforms and marketplaces we have built and worked on
Loopasellyourboat.ioKompiPaybusesforsale.comeuropeanyachtbrokers.com
What drives costWhere the money
actually goes.
An app costs what it costs because of scope and complexity. These are the real drivers, plainly.
01
User types
One kind of user is simple; several, each with their own experience, adds cost.
02
Feature scope
Every genuinely-required flow for launch adds build time; scope is the biggest lever.
03
Web, mobile, or both
Mobile and dual-platform builds cost more than web alone.
04
Integrations & payments
Connecting to other systems and handling money adds real work.
05
AI layer
An AI-powered app carries extra build and ongoing inference cost.
Why app quotes range from thousands to six figures
Search for app development cost and you will find numbers from a few thousand pounds to well over a hundred thousand. That range is not just markup — it reflects genuinely different things being sold. At the low end is a no-code build or template: fast and cheap, but limited and often rented rather than owned. At the high end is a large custom app from a big agency, billed hourly, frequently over-scoped and slow.
Our pricing sits deliberately in between and is fixed: from 16,000 GBP for a focused app MVP, from 30,000 GBP for a larger build. You get a real custom app that you own outright — not a rented no-code build, not an open-ended agency invoice. That is the sweet spot for a founder who needs something real, ownable, and priced with certainty.
We can price it this way rather than padding for unknowns because we have built real apps ourselves, with our own money, so we know where the work actually is.
The cost-saving moveThe cheapest app is the one that validates before it scales
The single biggest way to control app cost is not to negotiate the day rate — it is to build less, first. Most of what makes apps expensive is scope: features assumed to be essential that real users never touch. Building the full eventual vision before anyone has used the app is the most reliable way to spend a large budget on things nobody wanted.
A focused MVP is cheaper because it deliberately builds only the core flows that make the app real and testable. From 16,000 GBP, you put a genuine app in front of genuine users and learn what actually matters — before committing to the rest. If the core resonates, you invest in scale with evidence. If it does not, you have spent 16,000 finding out, not 60,000.
This is not a lesser version of the app. It is the disciplined version. Ship the core, learn from real usage, then spend the larger budget on the features you now know people want. That sequence is how you spend the least to get the most.
What you pay forWhat is in the price, and what is passed through
The fixed price covers everything that is the build: the design, the full-stack development, the app itself, and the complete codebase handed to you on delivery. There is no separate design fee, no per-screen charge, no licensing. The number you agree is the number.
What sits outside the fixed price is third-party usage, and we pass it through to you at cost, never marked up. That means payment processing fees, AI inference if your app has an AI layer, mapping or location APIs, and app store developer fees. These scale with how much your app is used, so it is fairer for them to sit with you directly and transparently than to be padded into a build price.
That is the whole picture. A fixed build price you own outright, plus transparent pass-through usage. No hourly meter, no surprise invoices, no line items you did not expect.
ProofWe price with confidence because we have built our own
The reason we can quote app development as a fixed price, rather than a wide hourly range hedged against the unknown, is that the unknowns are known to us. Loopa is a premium iOS app we built from scratch, end to end. sellyourboat.io is a Wall & Fifth venture: a full web platform and marketplace we built and run, with over 12,000 listings and a Claude-powered AI layer.
Having built and shipped real apps with our own money, we know where the work actually is — and where it is not. That is why we can price a focused MVP at 16,000 and a larger build at 30,000 with confidence, instead of padding every estimate against surprises we have already dealt with on our own products.
We have also delivered app and platform work for busesforsale.com and europeanyachtbrokers.com. The pricing is grounded in having done this, repeatedly, for real.
ProofPricing grounded in apps we built ourselves
Loopa is our own iOS app. sellyourboat.io is our own platform. Having shipped real apps is why we can price yours with certainty.
£30k
extensive build, fixed
Fixed pricingThe numbers, plainly
No hourly meter. You know the price before we start, and you own everything we build.
App MVP
from £16,000
The core flows that make the app real and testable. The smallest build that lets you launch and learn.
Extensive Build
from £30,000
Multiple user types, richer features, integrations, and admin — an app built to scale.
Embedded Partner
from £8,000 /mo
Ongoing senior involvement once live, if you want a partner in growing the product rather than a one-off build.
Get a fixed price
for your app.
Tell us what you are building and roughly what you have in mind. We will scope it and come back with a clear, fixed number — MVP or full build.