What a studio needs to know to quote your app

Six answers, and they're all things you already know. Leave four of them out and the same paragraph is a $20,000 – $31,000 project to one reader and a $52,000 – $78,000 one to another, with neither of them reading it unreasonably. That $39,500 is sitting in questions nobody has asked you yet.

$20,000 – $31,000: One honest reading of the description
$52,000 – $78,000: Another honest reading of the same words
$39,500: The difference, and only four of the six produce it

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 sent one description to three companies and got three numbers back that have very little in common. Before you conclude anything about the three companies, it's worth knowing what happens to a paragraph on the other side, because the same paragraph does price at very different numbers depending on how a handful of gaps get filled.

The six answers a quote is built from and what each one is worth in dollars, why two readings of one description differ by more than the smaller of them, why the answer comes back as a range even when you've been precise, what a quote covers, how long the whole thing takes, and whether to ask for a fixed price.

What does a developer need to know to quote an app?

Six things, none of them technical. Below is what each answer moves on one real build: an app on both phones with sign-in, two kinds of user, notifications, document upload and a couple of reports, which the estimator puts at $29,000 – $45,000.

$13,000: Whether it has to work with no signal
$12,500: Whether your own staff need a screen of their own
$10,000: How many different kinds of person use it
$8,000: Whether something already works behind it
$8,000: One app covering both phones, or two separate ones
$7,000: Whether health or security rules apply to you

Where it gets used is the biggest at $13,000, and it's the one that never makes it into a description, because nobody thinks of a basement as a requirement. Whether your office needs a screen of its own is next at $12,500. Both are questions about your business, not about software, which is why you can answer them today and an engineer can't answer them for you.

Notice what isn't on the list. Which programming language, which cloud provider, how many screens: none of those move the number the way these six do. This page is about what happens to those answers once you've given them. Writing them down in the first place is the other half of the job, and it prices what each sentence of a brief is worth on a different build.

Why do two companies quote the same app differently?

Because somebody has to decide the six, and if you haven't, they will. The $29,000 – $45,000 above is the description taken at face value, with nothing assumed in either direction. Read the same words generously and the project prices at $20,000 – $31,000; read them defensively and it prices at $52,000 – $78,000. Neither reader has done anything wrong.

The generous reading: $20,000 – $31,000. Something already works behind it and can be built on, one kind of person uses it, and nobody on your staff needs a screen of their own. Everything unsaid resolves the cheap way.
The cautious reading: $52,000 – $78,000. Nothing exists behind it yet, three kinds of person use it, your office needs a portal, and it has to keep working with no signal. Everything unsaid resolves the way it usually turns out to be.

When three numbers come back and none of them resembles the others, the most likely explanation is that three people priced three different projects. Nobody misread anything. Three readers filled the same four gaps differently, and on this build that is worth $39,500.

That is also how the cheapest quote ends up costing the most. It was priced for a smaller project than the one you have, the difference surfaces during the build, and that is the costliest moment to discover it. The fix isn't comparing more carefully. It's answering the six before anybody prices anything.

Why is an app quote a range instead of a price?

Because some of the work isn't knowable yet, and a single number would hide that instead of solving it. Even the clearest possible description of the build above comes back as $31,000 – $43,000, which is $12,000 wide on a $37,000 project. That width is correct.

Two things produce it. Every piece of the work has its own range, and those partly cancel out across a project, because real builds run long in some places and short in others. What doesn't cancel is the part common to the whole thing: how fast questions get answered on your side, how well the requirements were understood, and whether the system you're connecting to behaves the way its documentation says.

Then there's contingency, which is the arithmetic of things nobody has listed. It's added to the top of a range and not the bottom, because projects don't accidentally finish early. That asymmetry is why the top of a range is further from the middle than the bottom is, and it's the part of the number worth understanding before you set a budget against it. How the estimate is built has the whole of it.

The practical consequence: set your budget at the top of the range you're given, not the middle. A build described at $29,000 – $45,000 against a budget of $37,000 has already spent the room it was going to need.

What should an app development quote cover?

The work, the calendar, and the assumptions. The third one is the one that makes the first two useful, because a number without the assumptions under it can't be compared with anything.

What is being built, in enough detail that you recognize your own business in it.
What it assumes about the six answers above, so you can correct anything that's wrong while correcting it is free.
How long, in calendar weeks, including the parts nobody controls like app store review.
What is explicitly not included. The year after launch is the usual omission, and it is a real cost.
What nobody can know yet, named. A system with no documentation is a risk whether or not anyone writes it down.

The assumptions matter most and get read least. Every studio that quoted you made a decision about your backend, your user types and where the app gets used, and the one whose assumptions you can see is the one you can actually have a conversation with. The anatomy of a build price sets out what the number is made of.

A quote that names the year after launch as out of scope has done you a favor. That year is real money, and a budget that has no line for it will overrun for reasons that have nothing to do with the build.

How long does it take to get an app quote?

A few days to a couple of weeks for a real one, and most of that is waiting on you. The reading and the pricing are the short part. The conversation where somebody works out which of the six you meant is the long part, and it needs you in the room.

What arrives in an hour: A number from a calculator, including this one. Useful for knowing which bracket you're in and whether to keep going. Not something to sign against.
What takes a week or two: A number somebody stands behind, with the assumptions written down. It needs a conversation, and it needs whoever knows how your business actually works to be in that conversation.

If a detailed fixed price arrives the same day on a paragraph, it helps to know what it rests on. Nobody has asked you the six yet, so that number is a reading of your paragraph, and it will move once somebody has.

Should you ask for a fixed price?

Yes, if you can describe the thing precisely enough to deserve one, and that's the real condition. A fixed price is a transfer of risk, and it gets priced accordingly: the less certain the description, the more of the top of the range ends up in the fixed number.

A fixed price on a tight description: Sensible for both sides, and the cheapest fixed price you can get. Answer the six, agree what's in the first release, and the number lands nearer the middle of the range, because there is less unknown left for it to cover.
A fixed price on a loose one: You'll pay for the uncertainty either in the number or in the change requests. The honest version of this is to buy the scoping work first, then fix the price on what comes out of it.

Either way, the thing that moves the number is the same, and it's yours to give: the six answers. Four of them are worth $39,500 on the build here, and none of them costs you anything but the sentence.

A quote is six answers and a description. Where it gets used, whether your office needs a screen of its own, how many kinds of person use it, what already exists behind it, one app or two, and whether any rules apply to you. Four of those six separate the generous reading from the cautious one, and on this build that's $39,500. The other two are worth $8,000 and $7,000 on top if they go the wrong way.

So expect a range, expect it to be wider at the top than the bottom, and set your budget against the top of it. Then answer the six before anybody prices anything, because that is the only part of this you control.

FAQ

Questions about getting a quote

What information do developers need to quote an app?

Six answers, none of them technical: where it gets used and whether it needs to work with no signal, whether your own staff need screens of their own, how many different kinds of person use it, whether anything already works behind it, whether one app should cover both phones, and whether health or security rules apply to you. On a $29,000 – $45,000 build, five of those are worth $7,000 to $13,000 each on their own. The sixth, how many kinds of person, is worth $10,000 across the span from one kind to three.

Why are app development quotes so different from each other?

Usually because they're quotes for different projects. Read generously the description here prices at $20,000 – $31,000; read defensively, $52,000 – $78,000. Four unanswered questions produce that $39,500, and answering them before anybody prices removes most of it. The variance lives in your description rather than in the companies reading it, which is the useful thing to know, because only one of those is yours to change.

What happens to the quote if I add a feature after it is written?

It gets repriced, and how much it moves depends entirely on when. During scoping a feature costs what it costs. Once the build is underway it carries rework in whatever it touches, and after launch it carries a release of its own, which what changes cost after launch prices. The practical version: keep a list of everything you thought of after sending the description, and hand it over in one go before anybody starts, because the same list costs least on the day it arrives earliest.

Why do app quotes come as a range instead of a fixed price?

Because part of the work isn't knowable yet and a single number would hide that. Even a precise description of the build here comes back $12,000 wide. Individual pieces of work have ranges that partly cancel out; what doesn't cancel is the part common to the project, like how fast questions get answered and whether the system you're connecting to behaves as documented. Contingency is added at the top only, because projects don't finish early by accident.

Can a studio quote my app without seeing the system it has to connect to?

They can quote around it, and the quote will say so. What connecting to another system costs is decided by that system rather than by your app, so a modern product with documented access is about a week and an old one with no test environment is a month. A quote written before anybody has looked names that as an open question and prices the app either side of it. Getting somebody technical from your side into a thirty-minute call early is the cheapest way to close it.

Is it worth getting an app development quote before I have designs?

Yes. Designs change the number in a knowable direction and you don't need them to get a useful range. What you do need is the six answers. Having designs drawn already takes real money off a build, so it's worth saying either way, but waiting for designs before asking anybody for a number mostly delays finding out whether the project fits your budget at all.

Should I get a fixed price or pay by the hour for app development?

A fixed price is worth having when the description is tight enough to deserve one. It transfers risk, so it gets priced for that risk, and on a loose description you pay the uncertainty either in the number or in change requests later. The usual honest arrangement is to commission the scoping work first and fix the price against what comes out of it.

Does it cost anything to get an app quote?

A preliminary number should be free, and this site's estimator is one. Detailed scoping work is a real engagement and normally paid, and what it produces belongs to you: drawn screens and a description specific enough to quote from. That takes real money off the design part of a later build, so it isn't money spent instead of building.