A focused business app typically runs from a few thousand dollars for a lean MVP to tens of thousands for a full-featured product with payments, dashboards and integrations. The price is set by what the app does, not by the platform alone.
A focused mobile app for a small or mid-sized business typically costs between a few thousand dollars for a lean first version and tens of thousands for a full-featured product with payments, an admin dashboard, and integrations to your existing systems. The number is set by three things you control: which features the first version really needs, how many platforms it runs on, and how much of the back office it has to connect to. So the honest answer is a range, and a reputable studio gives you a fixed price after a scoping session - never a guess up front, and never a per-screen rate that quietly doubles when the screens get hard.
For a small or mid-sized business, a first version falls into three broad bands. A lean MVP - one platform, a handful of screens, user accounts, a simple backend, no payments - sits at the low end and exists to prove the idea with real users. A full business app - both platforms or a solid cross-platform build, payments, push notifications, an admin dashboard, and one or two integrations such as a store or a shipping provider - sits in the middle. A complex product - real-time tracking, chat, offline mode, heavy media, ERP or healthcare compliance, or a large catalogue - reaches the top of the range. Any studio that quotes a single number before it has seen your requirements is guessing. The useful figure is always a range tied to a written scope, and the first conversation to get that range should cost you nothing.
First, features: a login and a list of items is a week of work; a payment flow with refunds, a live map, or an offline-first database is several weeks each. Second, platforms: building native for Android and iOS means two codebases and two release trains, while a cross-platform framework such as Flutter or React Native ships both from one codebase and usually cuts the build cost meaningfully. Third, the admin side: every app needs a dashboard to manage content, users and orders, and the dashboard is often a second project the quote forgets to mention. Fourth, integrations: connecting the app to your payment gateway, your shipping provider, your ERP or your CRM is real development work, and each connector carries its own quirks. Fifth, polish and compliance: design that feels native, Arabic right-to-left layout done properly, store listing optimisation, and privacy or sector rules such as healthcare data handling. Ask which of your requests are standard and which are custom - a good partner tells you before you pay for them.
A properly scoped quote covers discovery and requirements, UI and UX design, development, testing on real devices, store submission, and a period of post-launch support. It should state what happens when you ask for something outside the scope and how change requests are priced. What it usually does not include: the developer accounts for the stores, which are annual fees paid directly to Google and Apple; the hosting and database costs for the backend the app talks to; third-party services such as maps, SMS or email, which bill per use; and ongoing maintenance after the included support window ends. Ask for these explicitly, because the gap between the quote and the real first-year cost is almost always in the items nobody listed.
A suspiciously low number usually means something is being skipped: testing on mid-range devices, the admin dashboard, Arabic layout, or the integrations that make the app actually useful to your business. The bill arrives later, either as change requests, as a rewrite when the first version cannot scale, or as users who uninstall because the app freezes on their phone. In a market where most of the audience uses mid-range Android devices, performance on those devices is not a nice-to-have - it is the difference between an app that is used and an app that is deleted. The comparison that matters is not the quote against zero, it is the quote against the cost of building it twice.
Bring your real numbers to the first conversation: which platform your customers actually use, the three features the first version cannot launch without, the systems the app must talk to, and the deadline that is real rather than wished for. A serious studio then writes a phased plan - a first version that proves the concept, then the features that follow - with a milestone list, a timeline, and a price per phase, and explains which parts are fixed and which are estimates. That document is what you compare between studios. EGYmass works exactly this way: the consultation is free, the recommendation covers native versus cross-platform honestly, and you walk away with a real range even if you decide nothing.
Not a custom one. That price range buys a template or a no-code configuration with your logo and colours, and it is a legitimate choice for a very simple catalogue app. But the moment you need payments, a dashboard, Arabic layout, or a connection to your own systems, you are building software, and a template will not get you there without a rewrite.
In Egypt and the Gulf, Android carries most of the market, so an Android-first launch reaches the majority of your customers and costs roughly half of a two-platform build. iOS can follow once the product is validated and the business case is clear. If both platforms are essential from day one and the app is mostly forms and content, a cross-platform build usually delivers both for less than two native codebases.
The store developer accounts, hosting and database for the backend, any third-party services such as maps or SMS that bill per use, and maintenance if you want updates, bug fixes and help for your team. Some studios include a support window in the project price; others bill it monthly. Get this in writing before you sign, because post-launch support is the line item most often left out of comparisons.
Native and cross-platform apps with admin dashboards, payment and ERP integrations, and free scoping - get a phased plan with a price per phase.
The companion guide: where native still wins, where cross-platform saves the budget, and a checklist that settles the choice.
The same phased approach applied to web - what sets a project timeline and what slows it down.
EGYmass handles hosting, security, and ongoing management - so you can focus on your product.
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