What $5K–$12K Actually Gets You in Mobile App Development

“How much does it cost to build a mobile app?” The honest answer is: anywhere from $5,000 to $500,000, depending on what you mean by “app.” That range is so wide it’s useless. So let’s talk about a more specific question: what does $5,000 to $12,000 actually buy you in mobile app development in 2026?

This is the price band we work in for MVPs at dedev — fixed-price Flutter apps shipped in 2–8 weeks. Below $5k, you’re getting a prototype. Above $12k, you’re scoping a v1 product, not an MVP. Here’s what each price point looks like.

The $5,000 lean MVP

Timeline: 2–3 weeks. Platform: single (iOS or Android). Features: 3–5 core, no fluff.

A $5k MVP is a focused single-platform Flutter app that does one thing well. You’re cutting everything that isn’t load-bearing for the value prop. Think:

• Email + password login (no social login, no SSO)
• 3–5 screens that deliver the core flow
• A simple backend (Firebase or Supabase) with one or two data models
• Basic styling — clean and consistent, but not custom-designed
• One-platform App Store or Google Play submission

What you don’t get at $5k: a custom design system, multi-platform shipping, push notifications, offline mode, in-app purchases, real-time features, animations beyond what Flutter ships out of the box, an admin dashboard, or analytics beyond a basic install.

Who this is for: founders who want to validate a single hypothesis with a real, store-shipped app. Not a prototype, not a Figma demo — something a beta user can install on their phone and actually use.

The $8,000 standard MVP

Timeline: 4–6 weeks. Platform: iOS + Android (single Flutter codebase). Features: 6–10 core.

The $8k tier is the sweet spot for most early-stage founders. You ship to both iOS and Android, you get push notifications, you get a real backend, and you get enough polish to not be embarrassed showing the app to investors.

What’s typically included:

• iOS + Android from a single Flutter codebase
• Auth (email + password + social login if needed)
• 6–10 screens covering the full core flow
• Push notifications via Firebase Cloud Messaging or OneSignal
• Backend integration (Firebase, Supabase, or a simple Node/Postgres backend)
• Basic analytics (PostHog, Mixpanel, or Firebase Analytics)
• Real-device QA on at least 2 iOS and 2 Android devices
• App Store + Google Play submission, including screenshots and store listings
• 30 days of post-launch bug fixes

What you still don’t get at $8k: complex animations, real-time multiplayer / chat, video streaming, payment processing (beyond a Stripe link), an admin web dashboard, or in-house custom UI design.

The $12,000 full MVP

Timeline: 6–8 weeks. Platform: iOS + Android + light web surface if needed. Features: 10–15.

At $12k you’re shipping a real, polished MVP that can credibly compete with a funded startup’s v1. You can afford a few “complex” features — payments, real-time, custom design — instead of cutting them.

Typical scope:

• Everything in the $8k tier, plus:
• Custom UI design (Figma) tailored to your brand
• 1–2 complex integrations: Stripe payments, Mux/Cloudflare video, Algolia search, Twilio messaging, etc.
• Real-time features (e.g. live updates via Supabase Realtime or Firestore)
• Admin web view for managing your data (a lightweight Next.js or Retool dashboard)
• Performance budget — animations, list scrolling, and cold start measured and tuned
• Crash reporting (Sentry) and structured logging
• Real-device QA on 4+ devices across iOS and Android versions
• 30 days of post-launch bug fixes + advisory on the next sprint

What’s NOT in the $5k–$12k range

Honesty matters here. Not everything is achievable in this price band, no matter how good your developer is. Things that legitimately need a bigger budget:

• Heavy ML / AI features. Training a model, hosting it, and iterating on it takes engineering time that doesn’t compress.
• Complex video streaming. Live streaming, low-latency chat over video, or VOD with adaptive bitrate is its own discipline.
• Multiplayer games or real-time collaborative editing. The sync layer alone is a $30k–$80k engagement.
• Hardware integration. BLE peripherals, IoT devices, custom Bluetooth protocols.
• Regulated industries. HIPAA, PCI, SOC 2 compliance work needs more than just code — it needs process, audits, and documentation.
• Native-only features that don’t have a Flutter / React Native plugin. Wrapping a custom native SDK can eat 1–2 weeks.

If your idea needs any of those, you’re not looking at a $5–12k MVP. That’s not a “no” — it’s a “this is a $20k+ engagement and you should know that going in.”

Hidden costs nobody warns you about

The build is only one line item. Budget for these too:

• Apple Developer Program: $99/year. Required to publish to the App Store.
• Google Play Developer: $25 one-time. Required to publish to Google Play.
• Backend hosting: $0–$100/month for an MVP on Firebase, Supabase, or a small VPS. Can grow significantly with usage.
• Domain + email: $20/year for the domain, $6/month for a Google Workspace inbox.
• Push notification service: Free up to a few thousand devices on Firebase / OneSignal.
• Crash reporting and analytics: Free tiers cover most MVPs (Sentry, PostHog, Firebase).
• App Store screenshots and assets: $0 if you DIY, $200–$800 if you outsource to a designer.
• Post-launch bug fixes after the included 30 days: usually billed hourly. Budget $500–$2,000 for the first 90 days post-launch.

All-in, expect $5k–$13k for a $5k build, $8k–$16k for an $8k build, and $12k–$22k for a $12k build, once you include hosting and post-launch ops for the first six months.

How to stretch your budget

A few tactics that consistently buy more for less:

• Pick one platform first. Even with Flutter, “iOS only” cuts QA time meaningfully.
• Use existing components and templates. A polished off-the-shelf design system beats half-finished custom design.
• Skip “nice to have” features ruthlessly. Dark mode, multi-language, account deletion flows — none are needed for v1.
• Start with Firebase or Supabase. They give you auth, database, file storage, and push notifications for free or near-free up to ~10k users.
• Defer the admin dashboard. For the first month post-launch, you can manage data through Firebase / Supabase consoles directly.
• Lock the scope. Every change to the scope mid-build costs more than it would have at the start. Scope ruthlessly upfront.

What the price doesn’t tell you

Two MVPs at $8k can deliver wildly different outcomes. The variables that matter more than the dollar amount: who wrote the code (a senior engineer who’s shipped 30+ apps vs. a junior on Upwork who’s shipped two), how clear the scope was (one-page brief vs. “we’ll figure it out as we go”), and whether the developer actually owned the App Store submission (or threw the binary over the wall and said “good luck”). Pricing is a starting filter — it’s not the answer.

If you’d like a fixed-price quote for your specific app, we offer two ways:

• Run the cost calculator for an instant ballpark.
• Book a free 30-minute call for a real, scoped quote — we’ll walk through your feature list and give you a number you can take to your co-founder.

Either way, no sales pitch. We turn down about a third of the projects we’re asked to quote because they’re not a fit — and we’ll tell you that on the call if it’s true for you.