What Does App Development Cost in 2026? Native vs. Cross-Platform
Cross-platform (React Native) is the 2026 default: €25,000–€50,000 for a simple app, €50,000–€100,000 for medium complexity, €100,000+ for complex products. Going native with two codebases costs roughly 1.6–1.8x. Before any of that, answer the cheaper question: do you need an app at all, or does a responsive web app do the job?
We build apps for clients — and in a good share of first calls, we talk them out of one. Here's how the numbers actually break down.
What does app development cost in 2026?
Cross-platform ranges from our project work, at boutique rates of €95–€160 per hour:
| App type | Typical cost (cross-platform) | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| MVP app (one core workflow) | €25,000–€50,000 | 8–12 weeks |
| E-commerce app | €50,000–€90,000 | 3–5 months |
| Booking or community app | €60,000–€110,000 | 3–6 months |
| IoT companion app | €70,000–€120,000+ | 4–6 months |
Backend, admin panel and app-store setup are included in these ranges — a mobile app is never just the mobile app.
Native or cross-platform?
Cross-platform is our default: one codebase, one team, both stores. Native means two codebases, two skill sets and two review pipelines — in practice 1.6–1.8x the cross-platform price, and the multiplier applies to every future change too, not just the build.
Native earns that premium in a narrow set of cases: heavy device integration (Bluetooth peripherals, background sensors), demanding graphics, or platform-specific UX your users will genuinely notice. For most business apps, none of these apply.
Do you actually need an app?
This is the 80% question, because for roughly four out of five ideas we hear, the honest answer is a responsive web app: cheaper to build, no app-store review, updates ship instantly, links are shareable, and Google can find it.
An app earns its cost when you need push notifications, offline use, device sensors, or a place on the home screen for a daily habit. If none of those are true for your product, you're paying a five-figure premium for an icon.
The ongoing costs nobody budgets
An app is never finished at launch. The stores change their rules and re-review your app whether you changed it or not. New OS versions arrive every year and break something. Push infrastructure, signing certificates and dependencies all need care. From our projects, plan 15–25% of the build cost per year — an app without that budget doesn't stand still, it decays until the store delists it.
We scope apps — and web-app alternatives — as fixed 4–12 week projects via our MVP development service; for how agencies price this work in general, see our agency hourly rates breakdown.
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