An app development company that will tell you not to build one

An app development company scopes, designs, builds, tests and launches software that runs on phones and tablets, then maintains it as operating systems change. In practice the highest-value part of the job happens before any code is written: deciding whether the idea needs a native app, a cross-platform app, a progressive web app or a plain web app, because that single decision changes the cost by roughly an order of magnitude. Search Converts also runs the marketing channels that would promote the app, so the launch plan is built alongside the product rather than handed over afterward.

Published 2026 guidance puts a focused first version at roughly $15,000 to $50,000, a full business app at $40,000 to $80,000, and a complex platform at $80,000 to $250,000 or more. Those figures assume a cross-platform build with a professional team. Building two separate native apps raises it substantially, and offshore teams reduce it by 40 to 70% with a corresponding increase in management effort. Ignore any single average you see quoted, including the widely repeated $171,450 figure, which traces back to research from around 2015.

You need native or cross-platform when the software requires hardware a browser cannot reach, such as background location tracking, deep camera control or reliable offline operation. You need a web app or progressive web app when people use it occasionally, reach it from laptops as well as phones, or when the content is the same thing your website already shows. The tool at the top of this page walks through the five questions that decide it, and gives you a recommendation with the reasoning attached.

Simple apps are commonly estimated at 300 to 600 development hours and two to four months of work. Mid-complexity business apps typically run four to seven months, and complex platforms with 2,500 or more hours of work run well past that. Add time for app review: Apple reviews most submissions within 24 hours, but a rejection and resubmission cycle adds days each time, and roughly one in four submissions is rejected on the first pass.

Apple rejected 1,931,400 of 7,771,599 submissions in 2024, and over two million of more than 9.1 million in 2025. The largest categories are performance problems such as crashes and bugs, then legal issues like a missing or inaccurate privacy policy, then design, then business rules. The rule that catches small businesses most often is guideline 4.2 on minimum functionality, which blocks apps that are essentially a website in a wrapper. Almost every rejection is a request for changes rather than a ban, so it is a delay rather than a death sentence, but it is a delay you can avoid by scoping correctly.

Budget 15 to 20% of the original build cost every year for maintenance, plus $500 to $5,000 a month for hosting and infrastructure depending on how heavy the backend is. Store accounts cost $99 a year with Apple and $25 once with Google. Published guidance also puts launch extras such as compliance, transaction fees and marketing at 25 to 35% of the project cost. The cost model on this page adds all of it up over five years so you can see the real number before you commit.

Only on digital goods and subscriptions sold inside the app. The standard rate is 30%, reduced to 15% for developers earning under $1 million a year through Apple's Small Business Program, and Google Play charges 15% on subscription revenue from day one. Physical products and in-person services are excluded entirely, so a contractor taking bookings or a retailer selling goods pays no commission. If you plan to sell digital subscriptions, that commission belongs in your business model from the start rather than as a surprise after launch.

Average iOS retention runs about 25.4% on day one and 5.3% by day 30, with Android at 20.2% and 3.8%. Benchmark work in 2026 puts the median app at roughly 4% on day 30, and around a quarter of users never open an app a second time. Social and communication apps hold the most, ecommerce and retail the least. The practical takeaway is that installs are a vanity number and the first session is where retention is won or lost.