AI has made the visible half of an app cheap. What app development really costs is decided underneath. Honest ranges instead of bait numbers.
If you google this question, you want a number. You will get one here, as an honest range further down. Before that, one thing you need to know: AI has shifted the costs of app development. But not the way most people think.
A serious answer to “What does an app cost?” doesn’t start with a number. It starts with the question of what your app has to withstand in everyday use.
The range is genuinely huge. Between a clickable prototype and an app that carries many users, integrations and sensitive data lie worlds. Both are colloquially called “an app”.
The visible half has become cheap
With AI, an app is built quickly. At least the half you can see.
A prototype that looks like the finished product now takes days. Screens, click paths, a first impression of the product: this part has genuinely become cheaper. That shifts expectations on cost and speed, rightly so.
That is good news. You no longer have to risk a big budget to find out whether an idea works. A prototype answers the direction question before the real investment begins.
The expensive part was never what you see
The expensive part of an app sits underneath: that it doesn’t crash under load. That it connects cleanly to your systems. That it handles sensitive data correctly. And that it is carried through every new iOS and Android version for years.
Concretely, the invisible part contains: the backend with data storage and interfaces, authentication and permissions, tests, monitoring and the handling of error cases. None of this shows in a demo. All of it decides whether the app holds up in everyday use.
This is exactly the part AI doesn’t make cheaper. It helps you get there faster. The decisions about what holds up are still made by an experienced team.
Honest ranges
These are the ranges you can expect:
It only gets more precise with your specific project. Any more exact number without a conversation would be a guess, and guessed numbers end up being the most expensive ones.
What really drives the price: user numbers and load peaks. Connections to existing systems. Sensitive data and regulation. And years of operation: updates, new OS versions, stability.
Then there is the point many calculations leave out: the costs after launch. An app isn’t a project with an end date, it’s a product in operation. Updates and further development belong in the budget from day one, not in a footnote.
And yes, this is a clear statement: below these ranges, a pure senior team can’t work seriously. If your budget is well below them, a different setup is more honest for you. We would rather say that before than after.
- A clickable prototype: days to a few weeks of work. Good for testing an idea. Not yet a product.
- Smaller, serious app projects: with us, usually starting in the range of 30,000 euros.
- Complex apps with many users, integrations or sensitive data: well above that.
How to recognize a serious estimate
A serious estimate names a realistic range early instead of a bait number designed to hook you.
For clearly defined parts, fixed prices are possible and sensible. With unclear scope, a fixed price is the illusion of safety: someone always ends up paying the difference between assumption and reality.
The better start with unclear scope is a discovery: clarify within days what the app really has to do, with a clickable prototype instead of slides. After that, honest math becomes possible.
The question “iOS, Android or both?” belongs in that conversation too. The honest answer depends on your users, not on a blanket rule.
The real calculation
The honest calculation goes like this: AI lowers the cost up to the demo. What an app costs in real operation is decided by the things AI doesn’t take off your hands.
That is why it pays to flip the question. Not: What does the app cost until launch? But: What does it cost over the years it carries your business?
An app that has to be rebuilt after two years was not cheap. It was only cheap at the beginning. In the end, the cheapest app is the one that lasts.
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Moritz Miedler · Founder, replies personally