Mobile app development
Apps built for real phones on real networks
iOS, Android and cross-platform — designed for mid-range devices and unreliable connectivity, because that's what most of your users actually have.
Free scoping session, including a build-approach recommendation.
What mobile app development involves
A mobile app is only partly the thing on the phone. The visible app is usually a third of the work; the rest is the backend it talks to, the sync logic that copes with a dropped connection, the authentication, the push infrastructure, and the release process that gets updates past two app stores.
That's why apps quoted purely as screens overrun. A login screen is an afternoon; login that handles token refresh, device changes, biometric unlock and a forgotten password across two platforms is a fortnight.
We build for the conditions Indian users actually experience: mid-tier Android devices, intermittent 4G, and data plans where a 60MB app update is a real barrier to adoption. Offline-first is a default here, not a premium feature.
Native, cross-platform, or web app?
The first real decision, and the one that most affects cost. Here's how we choose.
| Native (Swift / Kotlin) | Cross-platform (React Native / Flutter) | Progressive web app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best when | Heavy device integration, or performance is the product | Standard app features, two platforms, one budget | Reach matters more than device features |
| Relative cost | Highest — two codebases | Moderate — one codebase, some platform work | Lowest — it's a website |
| Device access | Everything, immediately | Almost everything; new OS features may lag | Limited — no deep hardware access |
| App store presence | Yes | Yes | No (installable, but not listed) |
| Update speed | Store review each time | Store review, plus over-the-air for JS changes | Instant — you control the deploy |
| Typical fit | AR, video processing, complex offline sync | Most business and consumer apps | Internal tools, low-frequency use |
We recommend cross-platform for most business apps and say so plainly — building the same app twice is rarely justified by the result.
What we build
Apps that people use to do a job, more often than apps people browse.
Field and operations apps
For staff working away from a desk — job lists, capture, signatures, photos, barcode scanning — designed to keep working when the signal doesn't.
Customer apps
Accounts, orders, bookings, tracking and support in the place customers already look. Usually the mobile face of a portal we've also built.
Commerce apps
Browsing, cart and checkout with UPI and card payment, plus push notifications tied to real order events rather than marketing blasts.
Backend & APIs
The server side of the app — data model, API, auth, push and the admin interface your team runs it from. Built together with the app, by the same team.
App modernisation
Rescuing apps stuck on unsupported frameworks or abandoned by a previous team, including reclaiming store listings and signing keys.
Release & store management
Store listings, review submissions, staged rollouts, crash monitoring and the ongoing OS-upgrade work that keeps an app from silently breaking.
The parts that actually cost money
Every one of these is scoped explicitly in our estimates, because leaving them implicit is how app projects double.
Offline and sync
Deciding what works without a connection, what queues, and what happens when two devices edited the same record. This is the single most underestimated area in app work.
Authentication across devices
Token refresh, biometric unlock, session expiry, device changes and account recovery. Simple on the happy path, and a long tail of cases elsewhere.
Push notifications
Two platforms, two delivery services, permission flows, deep links into the right screen, and the difference between a useful alert and an uninstall.
Store review and releases
Apple and Google both reject builds for reasons that aren't in your code. We budget review cycles into the plan instead of treating rejection as a surprise.
From idea to the store
Five stages. You see the app on a real device from the third one.
Scope
What the app must do, who uses it in what conditions, and which platforms genuinely need covering. We recommend a build approach and size the work.
Design
Flows first, then screens, following each platform's conventions rather than forcing one design onto both. Clickable prototype before code.
Build
Two-week iterations with a test build on your device at the end of each. Backend and app develop together, so integration isn't a phase at the end.
Beta
TestFlight and Play internal testing with real users on real devices. Crash reporting and analytics wired up before launch, not after.
Launch & maintain
Store submission, staged rollout, then the ongoing work: OS updates, SDK deprecations, and the changes that come out of actual usage.
Apps need maintenance in a way websites don't — both platforms ship breaking OS changes annually. We'll be explicit about that ongoing cost before you start.
FAQ
Mobile app questions
Should we build native or cross-platform?
For most business and consumer apps, cross-platform with React Native or Flutter gives you both platforms for close to the cost of one, with no difference users would notice. Go native when the app depends on heavy device integration, sustained high performance, or platform features the moment they ship. We'll recommend one in the scoping session and explain the trade-off rather than defaulting to whichever is more billable.
How much does a mobile app cost?
It depends on how much of the hard stuff it needs. An app that reads data from an existing API and displays it is a fraction of the cost of one with offline sync, payments and role-based permissions. The scoping session produces a range before you commit to anything paid, and we itemise the expensive parts so you can cut scope knowingly.
Do we need a backend as well?
Almost always, unless the app is purely local or reads from a system you already expose properly. We build both, and quoting them together avoids the common failure where an app is delivered against an API that was never designed for it.
Who owns the app store accounts?
You do. Apple Developer and Google Play accounts are registered to your company, with us added as a team member — so the listing, the reviews, the signing keys and the users are yours permanently. We've had to rescue apps where a previous agency held these, and it's an avoidable problem.
How long until it's in the stores?
A focused first version is typically three to five months including design, build, beta and review. Apple review is usually days but can be longer for a first submission, so we submit early with a staged rollout rather than aiming at a launch date with no margin.
What happens after launch?
Apps decay without maintenance — iOS and Android both ship annual changes that break things, and SDKs get deprecated on their own schedules. Most clients keep a maintenance retainer covering OS compatibility, crash fixes and a small change budget. We'll tell you the realistic annual cost of that before you start.
Related services
Tell us what the app needs to do
Who uses it, where, and on what. We'll come back with a build approach, a rough cost, and the parts that will be expensive.