What a simple business app really costs to build and run

Here is a cost that rarely makes it onto an app quote: US$99, paid to Apple every year, whether or not anyone downloads your app. On its own it’s small. It’s also a good clue that the build is only the first bill.

Introduction

When owners ask us what an app costs, they usually mean the build. That’s a fair question, but it leaves out most of the decisions that matter later: what you pay once, what you pay every year, and what the app stores take when you sell something.

We can’t give you a build price that holds for every business. A booking app with one login and a calendar is a very different job from a shop with a loyalty scheme and three payment methods. So this guide sticks to the costs that Apple and Google publish, and the ones you can plan for. We checked every figure on their own pages on 8 November 2026.

What it actually means

Costs you pay once

The build is the big one: design, development, testing and the store listings. Its size depends on how many screens you need, whether people log in, whether money changes hands, and what the app has to talk to, such as your booking system or stock list.

Getting into the stores is cheap by comparison. Google Play Console Help lists “a US$25 one-time registration fee”. If the app is published under your company’s name, both stores also ask for a D-U-N-S number, a business ID. Apple says these are “free in most jurisdictions”. Google warns that verifying your organisation “can take up to 30 days”, so start that before launch week, not during it.

Costs you pay every year

Apple charges 99 USD a year for its Developer Program, shown in local currency when you enrol. Stop paying and your app leaves the App Store.

Then there’s the backend: the server side that stores bookings, accounts and messages. Many simple apps use a service such as Google’s Firebase. Its free Spark plan, according to Firebase’s pricing page, covers up to 1 GiB of stored data in its Firestore database, 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes a day, and sign-in for up to 50,000 monthly active users. Past that you move to the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan, which you also need for Cloud Functions (small pieces of server code). Those come with 2 million calls a month at no cost, then US$0.40 per million. For a small business, early bills are often close to zero. They grow with use, which is fine, as long as someone is watching them.

What the stores take when you sell

This depends on what you sell, and it’s the part owners most often get wrong.

If people pay for something they use outside the app, such as a haircut, a table or a delivery, the stores’ own payment systems are off the table. Apple’s App Review Guideline 3.1.3(e) says apps selling “physical goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app” must use other methods, “such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry”. Google’s policy says its billing system “must not be used” for physical goods or services. You pay your payment provider’s fee instead, and no store commission.

Digital goods are different: premium content, paid features, subscriptions. Apple’s commission is 30%, or 15% if you’re in the App Store Small Business Program (for developers with up to 1 million USD in proceeds the year before) and for qualifying subscriptions. Google’s standard fee is 15% on your first US$1 million a year and 15% on auto-renewing subscriptions. Google is changing this by region, though. Since 30 June 2026 the US, UK and European Economic Area have had a 10% service fee plus a 5% billing fee if you use Google Play’s billing, Australia and Japan followed on 30 September, and the rest of the world is scheduled for 30 September 2027. Check which rules apply where your customers are.

The cost of staying in the stores

Neither store lets an app sit untouched for ever. Since 28 April 2026, Apple has required apps uploaded to App Store Connect to be built with Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK. On Google Play, since 31 August 2026, new apps and updates must target Android 16 (API level 36). These requirements move, and when they do, someone has to rebuild, test and resubmit your app. We’d budget for at least one or two maintenance updates a year, even for an app that does exactly what you want.

A real-world example: a salon’s booking app

Say you run a hair salon in Kochi and want an app where regulars book a slot and pay a small deposit by card or UPI.

Before launch, you pay for the build, US$25 to Google, and you give your D-U-N-S paperwork a month’s head start.

Each year, you pay US$99 to Apple, plus your payment provider’s fees on deposits, plus the cost of one or two updates to keep up with the stores. The backend probably stays inside Firebase’s free allowance for a long time. Even a few hundred bookings a month, each saving a handful of records, sits far below 20,000 writes a day.

Store commission: none. A haircut is a service used outside the app, so the stores’ billing rules don’t apply to it.

Now suppose that next year you add paid video tutorials inside the app. Those are digital content, so they go through in-app purchase and the store takes its cut, 15% from Apple if you’re in the Small Business Program. Same app, very different maths.

Why it matters for your app

The build quote is the easiest number to compare, so it gets all the attention. The running costs decide whether the app is still in the stores in year three.

When you talk to a studio, ours included, ask:

• Whose name are the developer accounts in? They should be in your company’s, so you keep the app if you change studios.
• Which backend will you use, and what happens to the bill when we pass the free tier?
• How will you handle the yearly Apple and Google requirements, and what does an update cost?
• Will any of our sales count as digital goods, and if so, what commission have you assumed?

A studio that answers these clearly has thought about your app after launch day. If the answers are vague, the costs will arrive anyway, just later and with less warning.

The quick takeaway

• The fixed store costs are small: US$25 once for Google, US$99 a year for Apple, plus a D-U-N-S number for a company account.
• Store commission applies to digital goods and subscriptions. Bookings and physical orders go through your own payment provider.
• Budget every year for hosting beyond the free tier and for the updates Apple and Google require.

Your turn

Take the last app quote you were given, or ask for one, and add a second column headed “year two”. If the studio can’t fill it in, that’s your first question for them.

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Image credits: Banner photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash. Images marked as AI-generated were created with AI (Claude) for iZenesis.