"How much does an app cost" has no single honest number, but it does have an honest structure: three complexity tiers, a platform decision that changes the multiplier, and a maintenance cost almost nobody quotes up front but almost everyone ends up paying.
The three tiers
Platform choice changes the multiplier, not the tier
| Kryeo | Native (separate iOS + Android) | |
|---|---|---|
| Codebases to build | Cross-platform: 1, targets both platforms | Native: 2, built and maintained separately |
| Cost multiplier vs. single platform | Cross-platform: close to 1x for both platforms combined | Native: close to 2x, nearly duplicate engineering effort |
| Best fit | Cross-platform: most business apps, tiers 1 to 2, much of tier 3 | Native: capability-constrained apps, see our cross-platform comparison |
For most Tier 1 and Tier 2 apps, cross-platform (React Native or Flutter) reaches both app stores from close to one build, which is why we default to it unless the brief has a specific reason not to, covered in React Native vs. Flutter vs. native.
The cost nobody quotes: maintenance
Apple and Google ship OS updates annually, and each one has a nonzero chance of breaking something: a deprecated API, a new permission prompt, a store-review policy change. An app with zero ongoing maintenance budget degrades quietly until it breaks visibly, usually at the worst time (a major OS release weekend). Budget an ongoing maintenance allowance from day one. It's a fraction of the build cost annually, and skipping it is the single most common regret we hear from teams who built an app elsewhere and came to us for a rescue.
Scoping a mobile app budget?
Send us your feature list and target platforms. We'll place it in a tier, give you a real range, and flag the maintenance cost up front instead of after launch.
Get a scoped estimate →The rule
Figure out your real tier before asking for a number; screen count alone won't tell you. Default to cross-platform unless you have a specific reason not to, since it roughly halves the engineering cost of reaching both app stores. And budget maintenance as a real, ongoing line item, not an afterthought you discover the first time iOS breaks something. We cover exactly this during discovery on every mobile app development engagement.