Apps carry more unknowns than websites, so the honest structure is a fixed-price discovery followed by a fixed-price build. The ranges below are what comparable projects have actually cost.
Four build sizes, from a progressive web app to a full product with a backend and an admin dashboard, each quoted after a paid discovery.
Nothing here is a starting point that quietly grows. If your project needs something outside a package, it appears as a separate line before you sign.
App behaviour without the app stores
From R55 000
once-off
One platform, one job, in front of real users
From R95 000
once-off
iOS and Android from a single codebase
From R165 000
once-off
App, backend, dashboard and the operations around it
From R320 000
phased, quoted per milestone
Added to a package at these rates, quoted in the proposal rather than discovered on the invoice.
All prices exclude VAT. Builds are billed 40% on acceptance, 30% at the midpoint milestone and 30% on release.
Developer accounts are yours and billed to you directly: Apple Developer Program is roughly R1 900 a year, Google Play is a once-off R480.
Running costs for an early-stage app are typically R900 to R3 500 a month in hosting and services, on your own accounts.
The repository sits in your GitHub organisation from the first commit. You own the code and the infrastructure throughout.
Most apps do not fail on code. They fail because nobody decided what the first version was allowed to leave out.
What the app is for, who it is for, and what version one is explicitly not doing. Written down and signed.
Flows and a clickable prototype tested with real users before any production code exists.
Data model, auth, environments and pipeline. Unglamorous week that saves the following three months.
Two-week sprints with a working build at the end of each one, installable on your own phone.
Store submission, monitoring, handover of infrastructure, and a support window while real usage starts.
General questions about fees, ownership and revisions are answered on the FAQ page.
Because the scope genuinely is not knowable on day one. The discovery sprint exists to close that gap: two weeks, R18 500, and it ends with a firm figure that is credited against the build if you proceed.
That is usually the right call. An MVP that answers one question well beats a full build that answers none, and the architecture is set up from the start to be extended rather than replaced.
Budget 15 to 20 per cent of the build cost a year for a live app: OS updates, store policy changes, dependency patching and small improvements. The Managed Cloud plan at R3 900 a month covers this for most products.
Only where there is a real reason: heavy device APIs, demanding graphics or strict platform requirements. For the vast majority of products React Native ships faster, costs less and performs indistinguishably.
Send a brief, even a rough one. You'll have a fixed quote and a dated schedule within two working days of our call.
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Bonolo Mathabela · Designer & Developer · bonolomathabela.com
