PWA or a real app: which is enough for me?

If you need no store presence and no deep device features, a PWA gets there faster and cheaper, and can be updated without store approval. If your users look for the brand in the store, you need the app installable from there.

Knowledge base · Updated: 20 August 2026 · WebPot DEV

Mobile app development prices 2026: how much does an app cost?

Q: Why is the spread in app prices so wide?

Most of the price is not in the mobile interface but in the logic behind it: the server side, the integrations, the permissions and the testing. Two apps that look alike from outside can differ tenfold.

Q: How can the cost of an app be reduced?

Narrowing the first version to a single job and choosing a cross-platform technology. Features are cheaper in the second round, because by then real usage data tells you which ones are needed.

The short answer: making an existing website installable (a PWA layer) can be arranged from €700 net, a bespoke PWA web app from €1,900 net, one with its own backend and integrations from €3,900 net, a cross-platform MVP downloadable from the stores from €7,000 net, and a native or complex app from €14,000 net. On the Hungarian market the full band runs from around €1,500 to above €51,000, so a single figure on its own says nothing: the feature list, the integrations and the size of the server side decide where a project lands. Hosting and further development always have to be counted in, starting at around €150 net a month.

Solution	Realistic price in 2026	Lead time
Installable PWA layer for an existing website (no store)	from €700 net	around 1 week
Bespoke PWA web app	from €1,900 net	2 to 5 weeks
Web app with its own backend and integrations	from €3,900 net	5 to 10 weeks
Cross-platform MVP (Flutter, React Native)	from €7,000 net	6 to 12 weeks
Native or complex app (Swift, Kotlin)	from €14,000 net	3 to 6 months
Enterprise platform with several roles	above €40,000-60,000 net	from 5 months
Hosting and further development	from €150 net/month	ongoing

With us, mobile app development starts at these guide prices, with an itemised written quote. The guide below is not about us, though: it is here so that whoever you ask for a quote, you understand why the number is what it is.

What decides the price of an app

The price of an app is not decided by the „how many screens” question but by how much logic and how many connections sit behind it. Five items move it the most.

Platform and technology. One codebase for two platforms (Flutter, React Native) is typically 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than two separate native builds. Native is needed when deep system or sensor integration, exceptional graphics performance or a platform-specific function is at stake.
Server side and admin interface. Many quotes leave this out, yet it is often half the project. If the app stores data, manages users or publishes content, it needs an API, a database and an admin interface behind it.
The number of integrations. Payment, invoicing, CRM, ERP, maps, push notifications, single sign-on. Every external system is separate development, testing and error handling.
Design and states. A screen is not one picture: it has loading, empty, error and offline states too. A bespoke identity and animations push the design hours higher still.
Store compliance and data protection. Privacy statement, justification of permissions, account deletion, age rating. Without these the store rejects the submission, and every round costs time.

PWA, cross-platform or native: a decision tree

The biggest saving is not in haggling over the price but in choosing the right technology. These four questions settle it in most cases.

Question	If yes	If no
Does it have to be findable in the App Store and Google Play?	cross-platform or native	a PWA may be enough
Do you need offline operation, the camera, bluetooth or background location?	cross-platform or native	a PWA may be enough
Does split-second graphics performance or deep OS integration matter?	native	cross-platform is enough
Is the main question whether the customers want it at all?	a PWA or a narrow MVP	a full app

In practice a cross-platform MVP is the right entry point for most small and medium-sized Hungarian projects: one codebase, two platforms, and most of the money goes on features rather than on building everything twice. It is worth moving to native once usage has proved the need.

Store fees and publishing

The cost of publishing is not high, but the lead time tends to come as a surprise. It is worth creating the accounts at the very start of development.

Item	Cost	What to watch out for
Apple Developer Program	99 USD / year	A company account needs a D-U-N-S number, and obtaining that alone can take days
Google Play developer account	USD 25 one-off	Personal accounts opened after November 2023 must run 12 testers for 14 consecutive days before publishing
Store commission	15 to 30 per cent	It only applies to in-app sales of digital content and subscriptions, not to physical products and services
Handling certificates and keys	development work	Losing the publishing keys is a serious headache later, which is why with us they always belong to the client

What quotes leave out

An app is not finished at handover. These items return every year and are missing from most quotes.

Keeping up with OS updates. A new iOS and Android version arrives every year, and the stores regularly raise the required target API level. If the app does not keep up, it disappears from search after a while.
Server and database. For a small app, from around €30 to €120 a month; for a busier system, more. Managed VPS hosting is the same item here as with webshops.
Push notifications and error monitoring. Crash reports, monitoring and measuring real usage. Without these a fault only comes to light when a user reports it, and most people do not report it, they delete the app.
A budget for further development. The usage data of the first year always brings requests for changes. It is worth planning 15 to 20 per cent of the development price as an annual budget.
Marketing and getting downloads. An app does not find its users on its own. This is not a development cost, but it comes out of the same budget.

Quote request checklist

If you ask every bidder these five questions, you get comparable figures.

Does it include the server side and the admin interface, or only the mobile part?
How many platforms does the price cover, and with which technology?
Who owns the source code, the store accounts and the publishing keys?
How long is the warranty period, and what counts as a fault versus a new requirement?
How much is the yearly upkeep, and what happens if an OS update breaks something?

The third question is the most important. If the source code or the store account is not yours, changing developer means rewriting the app in practice.

Frequently asked questions about app prices

As an installable web app (a PWA layer) from €700 net, as a bespoke PWA web app from €1,900 net, as a cross-platform MVP downloadable from the stores from €7,000 net. The word „simple” is misleading: once there is user management and a database behind it, it is no longer a simple app.

Because most of the price is not in the mobile interface but in the logic behind it: the server side, the integrations, the permissions, the testing. A listing app and a booking system look the same from outside, yet there can be a tenfold difference between them.

If you do not need a presence in the stores and no deep device features (bluetooth, background location), a PWA gets there faster and cheaper, and it can be updated without store approval. If your users would look for the brand in the store, however, you need the real app.

The Apple Developer Program is USD 99 a year and a Google Play developer account is a one-off USD 25. So the money is little, the time is more: a company Apple account needs a D-U-N-S number, and personal Google accounts opened after November 2023 have to run 12 testers for 14 days before publishing.

Support starts at around €150 net a month, plus the server, the store fees and the budget for further development. A good approximation is to plan 15 to 20 per cent of the development price per year.

Narrow the first version down to the one job that will make people use it, and choose a cross-platform technology. Features are cheaper in the second round, because by then real usage data tells you which ones are needed.

Would you like a concrete figure for your own app?

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