App development cost in the UK, for business apps

Published UK prices for business apps, the parts that move the figure, and the yearly costs nobody quotes for.

Updated 4 October 2026 · 9 min read

The short answer

UK studios publish prices from about £15,000 for a focused business app up to £100,000 for separate iPhone and Android apps with several connections. The figure moves more with the office system behind the app than with the screens on the phone.

Many staff apps need no app store at all. A web app that staff add to their home screen can work without signal and send notifications, and it avoids a yearly round of forced updates.

Most UK pages about app costs are written for someone launching an app to the public, so they spend their words on downloads, marketing and reviews. A business app is a different purchase. Its users are already on your payroll or already your customers, nobody has to be persuaded to install it, and so the money goes on other things.

What UK studios publish

Kind of app	Published UK range	Typical time
One job and a handful of screens	£8,000 to £30,000	8 to 12 weeks
A business system or internal app	£15,000 to £60,000	Not published
An app with logins, payments or one or two connections to other systems	£30,000 to £80,000	12 to 24 weeks
Separate iPhone and Android apps	£40,000 to £100,000	3 to 5 months
Large systems with many connections	£80,000 to £300,000 and above	6 to 12 months or more

Ranges published in 2026 by Tappable, Red Eagle Tech and Codeleap, before VAT. We take on work from £10,000 and most of our projects land between £15,000 and £55,000.

The ranges overlap because they are measuring the same thing from different ends. What decides where your app lands is in the next table, and most of it has nothing to do with the phone.

Where the money goes in a business app

Part	Why it costs	What to ask
The office side	Somebody has to see what the app collects: a board for the dispatcher, reports for you, a place to set prices or assign jobs. It is often bigger than the app.	What will the office see, and is it in this quote?
Connections to what you already run	Your accounts package, the trackers in the vans, the CRM. Each one is a piece of work, and the first time a supplier connects to a system it costs more.	Which of our systems have you connected to before?
Working without signal	Basements, plant rooms and country lanes. The phone has to keep the work and send it later, and cope when two people changed the same job in the meantime.	What happens to a job written up with no signal for an hour?
Logins and leavers	Staff leave and phones get lost. Switching off one person’s access without touching anyone else’s has to be designed in.	How do we cut off a leaver the same afternoon?
Phone hardware	Camera, barcode scanning, location and signatures are routine. Bluetooth printers and tracking a location with the app closed are not, and they decide the next question.	Which parts of the phone does it need, and when?
iPhone, Android or both	A separate iPhone app and Android app means two pieces of software to build and keep up. One app that runs on both costs less.	Are you building it once or twice?

Does it need to be in an app store?

Three of the systems we have built put the work on staff phones: stock counts for a grocery chain, deliveries for a food wholesaler and job sheets for a building services contractor. None of them is in an app store. They are web apps. A member of staff opens a link once and adds it to the home screen, and from then on it opens like an app. The engineers’ one keeps a whole job sheet in a basement with no reception and sends it when the engineer is back upstairs.

	Web app on the phone	App store app
Getting it onto phones	Send a link	Download from the store, or private distribution for staff
Updates	Everyone has the new version at once	Each version goes through store review, then has to reach each phone
Working without signal	Yes, if it is built for it	Yes, if it is built for it
Notifications	Yes, on iPhones too since an Apple update in 2023, once it is on the home screen	Yes
Bluetooth devices, location with the app closed	Limited, especially on iPhone	Yes
Yearly cost of being in the stores	None	Apple £78.99 a year, Google US$25 once, plus a forced update each year

Choose the store when the app needs the phone in ways a browser cannot reach, such as following a van with the app closed or printing to a Bluetooth label printer. Choose it as well when the app is for the public, who expect to find it there. For a team that needs a job list, a form and a camera, a web app is usually the cheaper and quicker route.

What it costs every year after launch

Store accounts. Apple charges £78.99 a year and Google US$25 once. Put both in your company’s name, never the developer’s, or moving supplier later turns into a negotiation.
Apple’s yearly deadline. Since 28 April 2026 every app sent to Apple has to be built with its latest tools, the ones for iOS 26. The requirement moves every spring, so an app nobody has touched for a year cannot ship even a small fix until it has been brought up to date.
Google’s yearly deadline. From 31 August 2026, new apps and updates on Google Play must be built for Android 16. Existing apps built for anything older than Android 15 stop being offered to new users with newer phones. This also moves every year.
The office side. Rented computers to run it on (the hosting), backups and someone to look after it, the same as any business system. Software maintenance and support covers what that involves and costs.
Commission. Apple takes 30 per cent of what users pay, or 15 per cent for small developers. A free app for your own staff pays nothing.

A web app has none of the store lines. It still needs hosting and looking after, but nobody sets it a deadline.

Questions that tell you whether an app quote is real

Does this need to be in an app store, and what for? A supplier who has never built a web app will not suggest one.
What does the office side cost, separately from the app?
What happens when there is no signal? Ask to see it working with the phone in flight mode.
Whose name will the store accounts and the hosting be in?
What will next year’s Apple and Google deadlines cost us, and is that in the support price?
Are you building one app that works on iPhone and Android, or two?

Common questions

How much does it cost to build an app in the UK?

UK studios publish from about £8,000 for a single-purpose app to £100,000 for separate iPhone and Android apps with several connections, and more for large systems. Published ranges for business and internal apps sit between £15,000 and £60,000. The office system behind the app and the connections to your existing software move the price more than the screens do.

Is it cheaper to build for iPhone only?

Building for one kind of phone is cheaper than building two separate apps. If your company issues the phones, one kind may be all you need. If staff use their own, you need both, and a web app or a single build that runs on both is usually cheaper than two apps.

Can a web app work without signal?

Yes, if it is built to. It keeps the work on the phone and sends it when the connection comes back. The job sheet app we built for a building services contractor is a web app and works in plant rooms with no reception at all.

How long does a business app take?

Published UK timings for a full build are around three months. The delivery and engineer systems described above took fourteen and ten weeks. Store review adds a day or two at the end, and longer if Apple asks for changes.

Does Apple take a commission on a business app?

Only on money users pay through the app. Apple takes 30 per cent of what users pay, or 15 per cent under its Small Business Program. A free app that your own staff use pays no commission.

Who should own the app store accounts?

Your company. Apple and Google both let an app move between developer accounts, but it is far simpler if the account was yours from the start and the developer was given access to it.