Answer · cost benchmarks + revenue data from 746,534 iOS apps
How much does it cost to make an app?
Typically $5,000–$30,000 for a simple app built by a freelancer, $30,000–$100,000 for a moderately complex app from a studio, and $100,000–$500,000+ for a complex product — those are widely used industry benchmark ranges, not precise quotes. But the build cost is only half the question. The half every cost article skips: across the 746,534 iOS apps we track, only 7.4% show any revenue signal at all, and the median earning app makes an estimated $643/month. The quote tells you what you'll spend; the market data tells you whether you'll ever see it again.
Development-cost figures on this page are general industry benchmarks, clearly labeled — they are not GetAppNiche data. Every revenue figure is a labeled estimate from GetAppNiche's proprietary multi-signal model (746,534 iOS apps, July 7, 2026 snapshot). Check what apps in your niche earn free with the app revenue checker.
The invoice side
What building an app costs in 2026
Cost is driven by two things: complexity (screens, backend, integrations) and who builds it (hourly rates span roughly $20–$200 depending on region and seniority). The ranges below are the benchmarks most of the industry quotes — treat them as orientation, not an estimate for your spec.
| How it gets built | Typical cost (benchmark) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| No-code app builder | $0 – $5,000 + subscription | A template-based app; fastest to ship, hardest to differentiate |
| Build it yourself | ≈ $99/year + your time | Apple's developer fee is the only hard cost; months of evenings are the real one |
| Freelance developer (simple app) | $5,000 – $30,000 | A focused utility or MVP: a few screens, one core feature, standard backend |
| Small studio (moderate complexity) | $30,000 – $100,000 | Accounts, payments, push, API integrations, proper design and QA |
| Agency (complex product) | $100,000 – $500,000+ | Marketplaces, social feeds, real-time features, custom backend at scale |
Benchmark ranges as commonly quoted across the industry in 2026 — not GetAppNiche data and not a quote. Real proposals vary widely with scope, region, and how well-specified the brief is.
The build is also not the last invoice. Recurring costs that outlive launch: Apple's $99/year developer fee, server and API costs that scale with usage, and maintenance — a widely used rule of thumb is 15–20% of the build cost per year for OS updates, dependency upgrades, and fixes. A $50,000 app plausibly costs another $7,500–$10,000 every year it stays alive.
The side nobody prices
What apps actually earn after they're built
Here's where our data takes over from benchmarks. Across the 746,534 iOS App Store apps we analyzed (July 7, 2026 snapshot), 92.6% show no revenue signal at all. Only 3.2% clear an estimated $1,000/month and just 1.1% clear $10,000/month. Among apps that do earn, the median is an estimated $643/month and the top 10% make an estimated $21,214+/month — the full odds ladder is in how many apps make money. Put the two sides of the ledger together and the payback math looks like this:
| Build cost | Payback at the median earning app (est. $643/mo) | At a top-10% earner (est. $21,214/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | ≈ 16 months | < 1 month |
| $25,000 | ≈ 39 months | ≈ 1 month |
| $50,000 | ≈ 78 months (6.5 years) | ≈ 2.4 months |
| $100,000 | ≈ 156 months (13 years) | ≈ 5 months |
Illustrative arithmetic: build cost divided by the published medians from our July 7, 2026 dataset ($643/month median, $21,214/month 90th percentile among earning apps — labeled estimates). It assumes the app earns at all, which 92.6% of apps don't, and ignores Apple's commission and running costs — so treat these as optimistic floors, not projections.
Build cost divided by the median earning app's published estimate of $643/month (labeled estimates, July 7, 2026 snapshot). The $25,000 bar — a typical freelance build — is highlighted. Assumes the app earns at all, which 92.6% of apps don't.
That's the real shape of the decision. A $25,000 build that lands at the median of earning apps needs over three years to pay for itself — and the modal outcome is an app that never starts the clock. The same $25,000 in a niche whose incumbents demonstrably earn five figures a month is a different bet entirely. The spread across categories is wide: the median earning Games app makes an estimated $2,250/month while most other categories sit near $643/month — see average app revenue by category for the full percentile table.
Before you spend five figures on a build: the odds of clearing $1,000/month for every App Store category, in one table.
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How much does it cost to build software (not just an app)?
Same arithmetic, same benchmarks: hours × hourly rate. Commonly quoted ranges put an internal tool or simple web MVP at $10,000–$50,000, a SaaS MVP at $25,000–$150,000, and enterprise-grade systems at $100,000–$500,000+ — benchmark ranges, not our data, moved by the same hourly-rate spread as apps. Two structural differences are worth pricing in: software shipped outside the app stores skips Apple's commission and review cycle but carries its own hosting, security, and compliance costs; and shipping web and mobile together typically multiplies the budget 1.5–2×, because it means two codebases or a cross-platform compromise. If the software you're pricing is an app, the payback data above is the half of the business case to research first.
What this means
Three takeaways before you sign a build contract
- Price the market before you price the build. A development quote without revenue research is half a business case. Look up what the incumbents in your niche are estimated to earn — free, in the app revenue checker — before anyone writes code.
- Cheap builds change the math more than big ones. At the median earning app's estimated $643/month, every extra $10,000 of build cost adds ~16 months of payback. Scoping a $30,000 idea down to a $10,000 MVP is often the difference between a survivable experiment and a sunk cost.
- The niche moves your odds more than the codebase. Only 3.2% of apps clear an estimated $1,000/month, but that rate swings from 15.7% (Games) to under 1% by category — pick the pond first with finding profitable iOS niches, then validate the idea properly.
FAQ
App development cost — quick answers
How much does it cost to develop an app?
Widely used industry benchmarks put a simple app built by a freelancer at $5,000–$30,000, a moderately complex app from a small studio at $30,000–$100,000, and a complex product (marketplace, social, real-time) from an agency at $100,000–$500,000+. Those are benchmark ranges, not our data — real quotes vary with scope and team location. The number cost articles skip: across 746,534 iOS apps we analyzed (July 7, 2026), only 7.4% show any revenue signal at all, so the build quote is usually the smaller half of the financial decision.
How much does it cost to hire an app developer?
Commonly cited hourly benchmarks: roughly $100–$200/hour in the US and Western Europe, $40–$80/hour in Central and Eastern Europe, and $20–$50/hour in South and Southeast Asia — treat these as directional ranges, not quotes. A simple iOS app is typically 300–600 development hours, which is how a $30/hour team and a $150/hour team can quote $12,000 and $75,000 for the same brief.
Can I make an app for free?
Almost. If you write the code yourself, the unavoidable costs are Apple's $99/year developer fee (Google Play charges a one-time $25) plus whatever your backend hosting costs — often $0–$20/month at small scale. The real spend is time: even a simple app is typically hundreds of hours. No-code builders shift that cost into a monthly subscription and less differentiation.
How much does it cost to maintain an app?
A widely used rule of thumb is 15–20% of the original build cost per year — covering OS updates, dependency upgrades, bug fixes, and small features. Add Apple's $99/year fee and server costs that scale with usage. A $50,000 build therefore realistically costs another $7,500–$10,000 every year it stays alive; an abandoned app slides off the store fast — in our dataset, most of the App Store is effectively unmaintained.
Will my app earn its development cost back?
Statistically, most don't — and this is the question that matters more than the quote. Across 746,534 iOS apps we analyzed (July 7, 2026), 92.6% show no revenue signal at all, only 3.2% clear an estimated $1,000/month, and the median earning app makes an estimated $643/month. At that median, a $25,000 build takes about 39 months to pay back — and that's conditional on being in the earning 7.4% at all. The way to shift those odds is researching the niche and its incumbents' estimated revenue before you spend on development, not after.
How much does it cost to make a software product?
The same benchmarks apply as for apps, because the cost driver is identical: hours × hourly rate. Commonly quoted ranges put an internal tool or simple web MVP at $10,000–$50,000, a SaaS MVP at $25,000–$150,000, and enterprise-grade systems at $100,000–$500,000+ — benchmark ranges, not our data. Software shipped outside the app stores skips Apple's commission and review but adds hosting, security, and compliance costs, and shipping web and mobile together typically multiplies the budget 1.5–2×. Whatever the platform, the build quote is only half the business case — the other half is whether the market pays it back.
How much does it cost to make an app like Uber or Tinder?
Benchmark estimates for a functional MVP clone of a marketplace or matching app run $150,000–$500,000+, because two-sided logic, real-time features, and safety infrastructure are expensive. The honest caveat: the build cost is not the barrier. Those products win on liquidity — riders, drivers, users on both sides — and marketing budgets that dwarf development. Copying the software without a plan for the market is the most expensive way to learn that.