Guide

What it costs to design an app

Inside a build, design costs about $9,500 on an app that prices at $62,000 – $88,000, when you start with a logo and brand colors and nothing drawn. With no brand it’s about $12,500. With every screen already drawn, about $3,500 of design is left and the whole app costs $7,000 less.

$9,500: Design, inside a $62,000 – $88,000 app with a brand and no screens drawn
$7,000: Off the same app when every screen is drawn before the build starts
$3,500: Added to it when there’s no brand to start from

Written by

WhatWillMyAppCost

We build the estimator this site runs on, and we design and build custom mobile and web software for a living. Every figure below is the estimator’s own output, except the published vendor prices, which are read off each company’s own page and dated.

You’ve got an idea for an app, maybe a logo, and you want to know what the design part costs. Search for it and most of what comes back answers what the whole app costs. Design rarely gets a number of its own. If you meant the whole app, [what an app costs to build](/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-an-app) has that.

Design is priced here the way the estimator prices it, inside one app: what it costs, what that money pays for, and what the same app costs with no brand, with a brand, or with every screen already drawn.

How much does it cost to design an app?

About $9,500, or 13% of an app that prices at $62,000 – $88,000 and takes 16–23 weeks. That’s for a business with three auto repair shops and a few thousand customers. Customers sign in, find the nearest shop on a map, see where their car’s at as it happens, look at the photos the shop attaches, approve extra work and pay by card. They can sign up for a monthly maintenance plan, message the shop, look up past repairs, and get a notification when the car’s ready. Staff run every job from a web portal, with reports across all three shops.

It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android from one codebase, with two kinds of user. The business has a logo and brand colors. Nobody’s drawn a screen.

That design money is priced inside the build. The estimator doesn’t price design as a job of its own.

What does app design include?

Every screen a customer sees on a phone or an iPad, from signing in to approving a repair, every screen staff use in the portal, and the design system they’re all drawn from. That’s the shared set of colors, type and buttons that keeps one screen looking like the next.

About $3,500 of the $9,500 is there before a single feature exists. Every app that starts with nothing drawn pays that part. The rest depends on what this one does, and only some of what it does adds design.

Design comes second in the order of the work, after discovery. It all gets reviewed before anybody writes production code.

Which features add the most to app design cost?

The staff portal, at about $2,000 of the design on this app. Here are six lines from the description and what each adds to the design.

“Our staff need their own web portal”: About $2,000. It’s a second set of screens for different people, opened in a web browser. The office side of an app has its own permissions and its own testing too.
“Pull reports across all three shops”: About $500. The reports are screens of their own in the staff portal, and each one gets drawn.
“Two kinds of user, customers and staff”: About $500. Each kind of user gets its own screens and its own rules about what they can see.
“They can message us in the app about the work”: About $500. The conversation screens get drawn, including what’s been read and what hasn’t gone through yet.
“Customers sign in”: About $500. Signing up, signing in, resetting a password and deleting an account each get drawn, along with what the customer sees when one of them fails.
“They get a notification when it’s ready”: Nothing. Notifications, live updates on the car, looking up past repairs, the maintenance plan’s monthly billing and the photos staff attach add work to the app and the server, and no design of their own.

Does having a logo and brand colors make app design cheaper?

Yes, by about $3,500 on the whole app, and most of that is design. The rest is testing and project management, which grow a little with the design.

A logo and brand colors don’t draw any screens. The estimator treats them as the usual starting point and prices the screens on top.

How much do finished app designs save?

$7,000 on this app, when every screen, every state each one can be in, and the design system behind them are drawn before the build starts. About $6,000 of that is design, and the rest comes off testing and project management.

About $3,500 of design stays in the build either way, and the mobile cost guide has that as a share. Whichever of the three you’ve got, put it in your description of the app.

What you already have when the work starts moves this app by $10,500: $3,500 more with no brand, $7,000 less with every screen drawn. Nothing about what the app does changed.

Design is about $9,500 of a $62,000 – $88,000 app that starts with a logo and nothing drawn, 13% of the build. With no brand the same app costs $3,500 more, and with every screen drawn $7,000 less.

The staff portal adds the most design, about $2,000. Testing and project management move with whatever design is left to do.

FAQ

Questions about app design cost

How much does UI/UX design cost for a mobile app?

The estimator prices UI and UX together, as one line called product and UI design: the screens, every state each one can be in, and the design system behind them. On an iPhone, iPad and Android app with sign-in, messaging, card payments, a maintenance plan and a staff web portal, that line is about $9,500 of a $62,000 – $88,000 build when a logo and brand colors already exist, and about $12,500 with no brand.

What percentage of app development cost is design?

13% of an iPhone, iPad and Android app with a staff web portal, when the business has a brand and nothing drawn. With no brand to start from it’s 16%. With finished designs handed over it drops to 5%, which is the design work that still comes up during the build.

Does it cost more to design an app for both iPhone and Android?

No. The design part of the estimate is the same with Android or without it. Leaving Android out of an iPhone, iPad and Android app with a staff web portal takes about $3,500 off, and all of it comes off building the app itself and the testing and management that go with it. The React Native guide covers what one codebase for both phones changes.

Does an iPad version add to the cost of app design?

Yes. On an iPhone, iPad and Android app with a staff web portal, the iPad layout is about $1,000 of the design and about $3,500 of the whole app. The iOS cost guide has the share a tablet layout adds to design and building.

Do finished app designs make the build faster?

Not on this app. An iPhone, iPad and Android app with a staff web portal runs 16–23 weeks from kickoff to the app stores whether every screen and state is drawn before the build starts or nothing is. Finished designs take $7,000 off the price and leave the calendar where it was.

Can I hire a designer separately and hand the designs to a developer?

Yes, and the estimator prices that as finished designs handed over. An iPhone, iPad and Android app with a staff web portal costs $7,000 less that way than the $62,000 – $88,000 it prices at with nothing drawn. That saving assumes the designer hands over every screen and state, plus the design system. What the design job costs on its own is a separate number the estimator doesn’t produce. About $3,500 of design stays in the build regardless.