How much does it cost to build an app in South Africa?

The short answer

No honest developer can price an app without knowing what it must do. Two apps with the same number of screens can differ hugely in cost, because one shows information and the other takes payments, tracks staff live and works offline.

So the useful question isn't "how much is an app?" but "what does my app need to do?" Answer that in writing, and you can get a fixed price you can compare.

The six cost drivers

• Platforms: iPhone, Android, Windows or the web. One build that runs on iPhone and Android usually costs far less than two separate apps. Each extra platform still adds testing and store work.
• Types of users: one kind of user is simple. Customers, staff and admins who each see different things and have different permissions add work on every screen.
• Features: payments, bookings, maps and live location, working offline, NFC tags, chat, push-to-talk and push notifications each add real build time. Live features cost more than screens that just show information.
• Connections to your systems: linking to your accounting, stock, booking or payment systems saves typing later, but each connection has to be built and tested.
• The admin side: most apps need a dashboard where your team manages users, bookings, content and reports. It's often as much work as the app itself.
• Design depth: a clean, standard layout costs less than a fully custom look with animations and illustrations.

Costs after launch

An app keeps costing a little every month, and the quote should say so.

• Hosting: the servers, database and storage the app runs on.
• Maintenance: fixes, security updates and small changes.
• Operating system updates: Apple and Google release new versions every year, and apps need updates to keep working and to stay in the stores.
• Store fees: Apple charges a yearly developer membership fee, and Google charges a once-off registration fee. Both publish their current fees on their developer sites.
• Payment fees: if the app takes money, the payment provider charges per transaction. Digital goods sold inside an iPhone or Android app may also have to use the store's own billing, which takes a share.
• Messages: text messages and WhatsApp business messages are charged per message.

Why app quotes can differ ten times over

• Different scope: one quote assumes a simple app, another assumes the full system, because the brief was vague.
• Hourly vs fixed: an hourly estimate looks cheaper until the hours run over.
• What's left out: the admin dashboard, the store submission, hosting or testing may be missing from the cheaper quote.
• Who does the work: a team with experience in your kind of app spends less time finding its way.
• Ownership: some low quotes come with the developer keeping the code or the store accounts, so you pay again later.

How to keep the cost down

• Start with the one job the app must do well, and launch that first.
• Build in stages, so you pay for what's proven and add the rest later.
• Use the phones and systems your team already has.
• Skip a custom look in version one if a clean standard design does the job.
• Ask whether a website or a WhatsApp assistant would do the job first. Sometimes it would.
• Get one fixed price on a written plan before work starts.

What to ask for in a quote

• A written list of what the app does, per type of user.
• One fixed price, and what happens if you change your mind mid-build.
• The stages, with what you'll be able to test at the end of each.
• Who owns the code, the store accounts and the hosting accounts.
• What's included after launch, and what the monthly running costs are.
• Whether store submission and review are included.

How Peak Software prices an app

A short call, then a written plan and one fixed price before work starts. We build in stages so you test as it grows, you own the code and the accounts, and we fix anything that comes up in the first 30 days after launch.

After launch, the optional care plan starts at R800 a month and covers monitoring, fixes, support, maintenance and hosting. We work remotely with businesses across South Africa.

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