Guide
What startups spend on their first app
A startup building an app for youth sports clubs would spend $44,000 – $62,000 over 15–21 weeks on the version it launches with. Holding four features back for later takes about $12,000 off that first build and saves about a week. The single most expensive choice in it, the club admins’ web portal, costs about as much as all four held-back features together.
- $44,000 – $62,000
- The first version, from kickoff to both app stores
- $12,000
- What the four held-back features would add to the first build
- $37,000 – $69,000
- The same first version, with what’s in it still undecided
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 a product idea, maybe some early money, and a feature list that keeps getting longer. Before you talk to anyone about building it, you want to know what the first version costs and which of your decisions are expensive.
One startup’s app, built for youth sports clubs, gets priced two ways here: as the version it launches with, and with the held-back features put back in. Then come the early choices that move the first number most.
How much does a startup’s first app cost?
$44,000 – $62,000 over 15–21 weeks for the club app. The startup sells to youth sports clubs. Parents sign in, see the team schedule, get a notification when practice moves, and pay club fees by card. Coaches take attendance on screens of their own. Club admins run the season from a web portal. iPhone and Android from one codebase. They’ve got a logo and colors. Nobody’s designed a screen.
That’s the founders’ cut: what a club needs to run a season, and nothing it can live without for a few months. Messaging, reports, Spanish and a usage dashboard for the founders all wait.
The estimator would cut further, to a small management screen in place of the portal, notifications later and two kinds of user instead of three. What an MVP should cost goes into how far a first version can come down.
What does a startup save by holding features back?
About $12,000 on the first build, and about a week. With messages between coaches and parents, reports for club admins, the app in Spanish and the founders’ usage dashboard all built in, the app is $54,000 – $76,000 over 16–22 weeks.
- Everything in the first version
- $54,000 – $76,000, all of it spent before the first club signs up.
- The founders’ cut
- $44,000 – $62,000. The other four get built later, if clubs use the app, and only the ones clubs ask for.
Holding four features back saves this startup about $12,000 and a week. What it buys is the chance to build only the ones clubs ask for, once clubs are using it.
Does it cost more to add features after launch?
Yes. Built later, as their own round on an app people already use every week, the same four cost more than the $12,000 they’d add now, because a round of work on a live app has its own planning, testing, release and store review, whatever’s in it. Why a feature costs more after launch goes through that.
That extra is the price of not betting the whole budget on a guess about what clubs want. It gets spent only if the first version works.
Which early decisions move a startup’s app budget most?
The web portal for club admins comes first, at $12,000, then two native apps at $8,500. Card payments, the biggest feature in the first version, are worth less than half the portal, and the admin portal entry has why a portal costs what it does.
A web portal for club admins: $12,000.
Two separate native apps instead of one codebase: $8,500 more, for $51,000 – $72,000.
Coaches as a third kind of user, on screens of their own: $5,000.
Card payments for club fees: $4,500.
One more moves the range without moving the middle. If the founders haven’t settled what’s in the first version, the same app prices at $37,000 – $69,000, $32,000 wide instead of $18,000. A written brief is how you get the narrow one.
How long does it take a startup to build its first app?
15–21 weeks for the club app’s first version, from kickoff to both app stores. With the four held-back features in, it’s 16–22 weeks.
Holding features back saves money more than time, because a bigger build gets a bigger team and the calendar barely moves. A start date that lines up with a sports season is worth planning back from.
The club app’s first version costs $44,000 – $62,000 and takes 15–21 weeks. Holding four features back saves about $12,000 and a week.
If the founders haven’t settled what’s in it, the same first version prices at $37,000 – $69,000.
FAQ
Questions about app development for startups
How much does it cost to build an app for a startup?
A startup app for youth sports clubs, with sign-in, notifications, card payments, coaches’ screens and a web portal for club admins, prices at $44,000 – $62,000 over 15–21 weeks. Adding messaging, reports, Spanish and a usage dashboard to that first build would make it $54,000 – $76,000.
Should a startup build an MVP first?
Usually, even though it costs more in total. On a youth sports club app, the four features held back would add about $12,000 to the first build, and more as a later round. What you get for that is not spending it until customers are using the first version.
Should a startup build a native app or a cross-platform app?
Cross-platform, unless the product needs something only native code does well. Two separate native apps put a youth sports club app’s first version at $51,000 – $72,000, $8,500 more than one codebase for iPhone and Android. What React Native saves goes through when native is worth it.
Can a startup get an app built for $25,000?
Not with this much in it. Even with one kind of user and no admin portal, an app with sign-in, notifications and card payments starts at $26,000, at the bottom of its range. What $25,000 buys shows what fits.
Does a startup’s first app need an admin portal?
Not always. On a youth sports club app the admins’ web portal is $12,000, the most expensive single choice in the first version. The estimator’s smaller first version swaps it for a small management screen, and the full portal can come once there are enough clubs to need it.
What does a startup’s app cost after launch?
Hosting, the two store accounts and a yearly upkeep budget, on top of whatever comes next. What it costs to launch an app adds up the first year, and app maintenance has what a year of upkeep runs.
Why do two quotes for the same startup app differ so much?
Often because the brief left things open and each studio filled the gaps differently. An unsettled first version of a youth sports club app prices at $37,000 – $69,000, so two quotes $32,000 apart can both sit inside it. How to write an app brief covers closing that gap.