What an app costs to build in the UK in 2026: £10,000–£25,000 for an MVP, £25,000–£60,000 for a production app, and the five things that actually move the number.
Table of Contents
App development cost in the UK runs from about £10,000 for a lean MVP with simple features to £80,000+ for an enterprise app with a complex backend, an admin system and multiple integrations.
Anyone quoting a single figure without asking questions first is fortune telling. This page gives the ranges, then explains what moves you between them — because the difference between £15,000 and £50,000 is rarely the app you can see.
The ranges
| What you are building | UK range | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of concept | £2,000 – £5,000 | 2–4 weeks |
| MVP, iOS + Android, one core journey | £10,000 – £25,000 | 6–8 weeks |
| Production app, iOS + Android, backend, admin | £25,000 – £60,000 | 3–5 months |
| Regulated or integration-heavy (fintech, health, logistics) | £80,000 – £120,000 | 5–8 months |
| Annual run cost after launch | 15–25% of build | ongoing |
These are UK agency rates with senior talent and AI development practices. An offshore team quotes 40–60% less and the gap is real, but so is the reason for it — see below.
One line that is not in the table: the working prototype is free. We build it, you keep it, there is no commitment attached — so the first number above is the first thing you would actually pay for, not the first thing you get.
The five things that move the number
1. How many journeys, not how many screens
Screens are the appearance; the cost is in the logic. A journey that fills in a simple form is cheaper than one with multiple steps, branches and checks. “Twenty screens” tells a developer nothing. “Sign up, verify identity, take a payment, issue a refund” tells them almost everything.
2. What it has to talk to
An app with its own database is a known quantity. An app that must read from a twelve-year-old ERP over a nightly file drop is a different project. Most of the cost sits in the integration, and in the failure modes of the system you do not control.
3. How it will be used in the real world
Edge cases, offline mode, support for old devices, mobile bandwidth, a separate tablet experience. Each one is cheap to say and not cheap to build.
4. What happens after launch
Apps are not a one-time purchase; they are a subscription to your own product. Budget 15–25% of the build cost annually for OS updates, dependency maintenance, store policy changes and improvements. Teams that skip this line pay it anyway, in emergencies.
5. How the app is actually developed
AI-assisted development with proper human oversight brings the price down when the saving is passed on. AI maturity is now the biggest single pricing factor: expect to pay 1.5–2× more from a team that only uses AI to proof-read its emails.
Where money is genuinely wasted
Building every feature from day one. A minimum viable product answers the only question that matters — will anyone use it — for half the money.
Custom where a service exists. Authentication, verification, payments, push, analytics and search are solved problems. Custom versions cost weeks and earn nothing.
Ignoring AI coding tools. Not every project suits AI coding agents, but not using them where they fit adds cost for no return.
Contracts on unclear scope. The price reflects the vendor’s picture of the product rather than yours, and the gap usually surfaces after most of the budget is spent.
What the cheaper quote is missing
An offshore quote at £15,000 for the same brief is usually missing four things: a senior engineer on the project full time, QA as a discipline rather than a final week, clear deliverables, and someone who will still be there in month nine.
Sometimes that trade is right — for a throwaway prototype it often is. For a product a business depends on, the saving tends to be repaid with interest during the first serious incident.
For context, this is what the UK market charges by tier:
| Who you are hiring | Typical rate |
|---|---|
| Offshore freelancers | £15 – 30 / hour |
| Offshore agencies, UK-fronted | £25 – 50 / hour |
| London product-engineering houses | £45 – 90 / hour |
| Boutique London digital agencies | £60 – 140 / hour |
| Tier-1 consultancies | £120 – 250 / hour |
A quick way to sanity-check any quote
Ask for the estimate broken into specific features and clear areas of work: discovery, design, iOS, Android, backend, admin, QA, release and post-launch. If a supplier cannot produce that breakdown, you cannot know what the number is based on.
Then ask what happens in month four if a core assumption turns out to be wrong. The answer tells you what kind of contract you are actually signing.
Where to go from here
If you want a number for your own brief rather than a range, our mobile app development company page describes how we scope and what we charge. For anything that is more system than app, bespoke software development covers the same ground for platforms, CRMs and internal tools.
App development cost: frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build an app in the UK?
Median UK app project sits around £60,000–£120,000 across London product-engineering houses. Magora's published bands: free working prototype £0, Discovery from £3,000, Startup MVP from £10,000, a production mobile or web build at £25,000–£60,000, bespoke enterprise from £80,000+. Below £10,000 you are looking at offshore freelance, not a UK agency.
What's a typical day rate for app developers in the UK?
Five clear tiers: offshore freelancers £15–30/h; offshore agencies with UK-fronted PM £25–50/h; London product-engineering houses (Magora sits here) £45–90/h; boutique London digital agencies £60–140/h; tier-1 consultancies £120–250/h. Magora's effective rate is £45–85/h for senior-led in-house delivery.
Is offshore app development cheaper?
Cheaper per hour, usually more expensive across an 18-month lifecycle. When an offshore agency quotes 60% less for 'the same project', they have removed 80% of the senior Product Owner time and 50% of the QA cycle. The build ships, but it ships the wrong thing — or breaks at the first production load.
How long does a UK app project take?
A coded prototype lands in 5–10 working days. A Startup MVP ships in 6–8 weeks. A full production mobile or web project runs 3–6 months. Bespoke enterprise platforms typically 6–12 months. Compressing a 16-week timeline into 10 weeks adds about 30% to the price for overtime and parallelisation overhead.
Can I get a fixed-price quote?
Yes — after Discovery. Any agency that fixed-prices a vague brief is either padding by 40% to cover unknowns or will run out of money halfway through. Magora's standard model: free working prototype, £3,000 Discovery sprint, then fixed-price quote for the build. You can take the Discovery output to another agency for comparison.
What's the cheapest realistic UK app project?
The free working prototype + Discovery sprint at £3,000 gives you a coded prototype and a roadmap. The cheapest paid production build is the Startup MVP at £10,000: one or two flows, one platform, production hosting, auth, analytics, 30 days post-launch maintenance. Below £10,000 you are buying offshore freelance dressed up in a UK invoice.
Why is UK app development more expensive than offshore?
You pay for in-house senior delivery, English-law contracts, GDPR and EU AI Act compliance by default, and a single accountable legal entity. Across an 18-month project lifecycle the UK premium usually pays back through fewer rebuilds, fewer compliance incidents, and a real Product Owner who pushes back when the scope drifts.
Do you take payment in stages?
Yes. Standard Magora payment model is based on sprints: you pay a small part upfront, then every two-three weeks on delivery.
What does an MVP include for £10,000?
The £10,000 Startup MVP covers one or two core flows fully working, production hosting on AWS or DigitalOcean with monitoring, authentication and user management, baseline analytics, and mobile or web experience. 30 days of post-launch maintenance included. Additional flows, third-party integrations, AI features and admin panels are quoted as add-ons.
Will I own the source code?
Yes. IPR in bespoke software shall, without prejudice to our rights in pre-existing IPR, be transferred to you on payment. Source code, designs and IP all transfer in full — English-law contract, Companies House 03637036. No retained rights on 'non-competing' projects.