I've taken two mobile apps from first commit to the App Store and Google Play, so when someone asks what mobile app development costs, I answer from invoices and store dashboards, not from an agency pricing page. Here are the real 2026 numbers — including the Swiss and French markets where this question gets asked the most.
A serious product app costs €15k–60k to build and roughly 15–20% of that per year to keep alive. The two biggest cost levers are chosen before any code: native vs cross-platform, and how much product you stuff into version one.
The 2026 price map
| App type | Independent (remote) | Local agency (FR/CH) | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| MVP — one core flow, auth, payments | €10k–25k | €40k–90k (CHF ≈ ×1.05) | 6–10 weeks |
| Full consumer app — offline, push, analytics | €25k–60k | €80k–200k | 3–5 months |
| Platform — marketplace, multi-role | €60k+ | €200k+ | 6+ months |
Swiss agencies bill CHF 140–220/hour; French agencies €90–160. A senior independent in the same timezone bills €40–80 — same stores, same review process, same Swift-free React Native codebase.
The decision that halves (or doubles) your budget
Cross-platform (React Native, Flutter) vs native (Swift + Kotlin). One codebase for both stores cuts build and maintenance roughly in half, and in 2026 cross-platform covers 90% of product apps — both of my published apps are React Native. Go native only for heavy games, extreme performance needs, or deep hardware work. If a provider pushes native "for quality" on a standard product app, they're selling hours.
What the quotes always hide
- Store publication: provisioning, review rejections, staged rollouts — real work, often "extra".
- The yearly cost of staying alive: OS updates, dependency upgrades, small fixes — budget 15–20% of build cost per year.
- Backend and admin: "app development" quotes sometimes cover only the app. Ask what happens server-side.
How to keep it in the low ranges
Same discipline as any MVP budget: one core workflow in v1, boring proven stack, production from week one. And vet the builder on shipped apps you can install — my checklist is in hiring React Native developers.
Get a real number
Describe your app — market, core flow, platforms — and I'll reply with a fixed quote and timeline, in euros or francs. Both my store-published apps were built end to end: UI, API, release pipelines, submissions. My mobile service · contact.
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