A mobile app built by a competent team in India costs ₹1,00,000 to ₹20,00,000, and the number is decided less by the design than by how many kinds of user the app has. One user role and one core flow: ₹1,00,000–₹3,00,000 in 4–8 weeks. A customer app with a real web admin behind it: ₹3,00,000–₹8,00,000. Two apps that talk to each other, such as a customer app plus a delivery partner app, start at ₹8,00,000. Below is where the money goes, what the stores charge, what the app costs every month after launch, and an honest section on whether you need an app at all.
Cost bands and timelines
All figures exclude 18% GST. Timelines assume you answer questions within a day and your content is ready when the team asks for it.
| App type | What is in it | Typical cost in India | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|
| MVP or single-purpose app | One user role, 4–8 screens, OTP login, one core flow, basic admin | ₹1,00,000 – ₹3,00,000 | 4–8 weeks |
| Business app with admin panel | Customer app, payments, notifications, full web admin, reports, staff roles | ₹3,00,000 – ₹8,00,000 | 8–14 weeks |
| Marketplace or on-demand | Two apps, live tracking, commissions, partner payouts, support tools | ₹8,00,000 – ₹20,00,000 | 4–7 months |
| Enterprise or regulated | Single sign-on, audit trails, offline sync, ERP integration, security testing | ₹20,00,000 upwards | 6–12 months |
The bottom of each band assumes a written scope: a screen list and a list of user roles. The top of each band is where “we will decide that during development” ends up.
What each band actually buys
MVP app
One user role, four to eight screens, OTP or Google login, one flow built properly, and a plain admin view so you can see what is happening. No chat, no wallet, no maps unless the core flow needs them. An MVP is not a shrunken final app; it is the single feature someone would pay for, shipped early enough to learn from. If your idea only works with two sides, buyers and sellers, it is not an MVP at ₹1,00,000 — you are building two apps.
Business app with an admin panel
A customer app plus a web admin your staff actually work in: catalogue or bookings, orders, payments through Razorpay or UPI, notifications, GST invoices, staff logins with different permissions, and reports. The admin panel is usually a third of this budget and it is the part most quotes underestimate. If you are selling physical products, check first whether a well-built online store does the job — it costs far less and reaches customers who will never install anything.
Marketplace and on-demand
Two apps that talk to each other, plus an admin console: customer, partner or rider, live location, an order state machine, commissions, payouts, cancellations, refunds, ratings and support tools. Most of the cost is not screens, it is behaviour — what the system does when a rider accepts a job and then loses network in a basement. Add delivery integrations such as Shiprocket or Delhivery, and COD handling, where an RTO is charged back to you.
Enterprise and regulated
Single sign-on, audit trails, offline-first sync for staff in low-network areas, integration with an ERP or Tally, and a security test before go-live. Six to twelve months and ₹20,00,000 upwards. Before committing, check whether the work is really an app: much of what gets specified as an enterprise app is a web system with a small mobile piece, and belongs in custom software at a lower cost.
Why one Flutter app costs about 60% of two native apps
Flutter and React Native let one team write a single codebase that produces both an Android and an iOS app. That removes roughly 40% of the app-building line in a quote — not 50%, because you still test on both platforms, meet two sets of store rules, and write platform-specific code for permissions, payments and push. Here is the same business app quoted both ways.
| Line item | Two native apps | One Flutter app |
|---|---|---|
| UI and UX design | ₹40,000 | ₹40,000 |
| Android app build | ₹1,20,000 | — |
| iOS app build | ₹1,10,000 | — |
| Flutter build for both platforms | — | ₹1,25,000 |
| Platform-specific work | included above | ₹15,000 |
| Backend and APIs | ₹90,000 | ₹90,000 |
| Web admin panel | ₹60,000 | ₹60,000 |
| Testing on real devices | ₹40,000 | ₹35,000 |
| Store setup and submission | ₹15,000 | ₹15,000 |
| Total before GST | ₹4,75,000 | ₹3,80,000 |
The saving is real but narrower than it is usually sold. On the app layer alone Flutter is about 60% of native. On the whole project it is about 80%, because design, backend, admin panel and store work cost the same either way. Anyone promising you half off the total is quoting the wrong line.
When native is still the right answer
- Heavy camera, AR, Bluetooth or background location work, where native code gets written anyway.
- Games, or anything where you are fighting for frames.
- You already have Android or iOS developers in-house, or you need only one platform.
- The app will be handed to a large IT team that has an existing native standard.
What the backend and admin panel add
The app on the phone is roughly half the work. The other half is the part nobody demos: the server, the database, the APIs, and the web panel where your team runs the business. On a typical business app the backend is 25–35% of the cost and the admin panel another 15–20%.
A backend quote should name the hosting, the database, how images are stored, how OTP is sent, and how you get your data out if you leave. Insist on two things. An admin panel means screens your staff can use for orders, users, refunds and reports, not a login to the Firebase console. And put the database export format in the contract: it costs nothing to agree at the start and is painful to obtain later.
Play Store and App Store: fees, and what delays launches
The fees are small. Google Play charges $25 once, about ₹2,200. The Apple Developer Program is $99 a year, about ₹9,000, billed in rupees. Both accounts must be in your company’s name, never the agency’s. The delay is in the process, not the fee.
- Google, personal accounts: a new personal developer account must run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 continuous days before it can apply for production access. Plan that fortnight in.
- Google, organisation accounts: you need a D-U-N-S number for your company. It is free and takes a few working days to a couple of weeks, so start it the day you decide to build.
- Both stores: a privacy policy URL, a data-safety declaration, and in-app account deletion if users can create an account. Apple rejects for the missing delete option regularly.
- Apple review: usually a day or two per submission. The common rejection for Indian businesses is minimum functionality — an app that is only a wrapper around your website will be refused.
Budget two weeks of calendar time between “the build is finished” and “it is live on both stores” for a first release. We publish our own marketplace app, EditoHub, on the Play Store, so this is a queue we stand in ourselves.
Store commission
Digital goods and subscriptions sold inside the app must use the store’s billing, which takes 15–30%. Physical goods and real-world services — deliveries, salon bookings, a plumber, offline class fees — are exempt, and you can take payment through Razorpay, PhonePe or UPI with no store cut. This rule changes app economics more than the build cost does, so settle it before you design the checkout.
What the app costs every month after launch
- Servers and database: ₹1,500–₹8,000 a month for most business apps. A marketplace with live tracking costs more, because location updates never stop.
- Push notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push are free at the volumes you are likely to reach. The cost is developer time when token rules change.
- OTP and messages: SMS needs DLT registration on the operator portals, one time and a few thousand rupees, plus template approvals, then a fraction of a rupee per message. WhatsApp OTP is usually cheaper and gets opened more.
- Payments: roughly 2% plus GST on cards and netbanking; UPI is effectively nil for merchants at present.
- Forced OS work: Google requires updates to target a recent Android API level to stay publishable, and Apple requires builds from a recent SDK. Even if you change nothing, expect two rounds of compatibility work a year.
- Maintenance retainer: the market rate is 15–20% of the build cost per year for bug fixes, small changes and the OS work above.
A ₹4,00,000 app is therefore a commitment of roughly ₹60,000–₹80,000 a year after launch, before you spend a rupee on getting anyone to install it. That last cost is the one that kills most apps.
Be honest about whether you need an app at all
Many Indian small businesses that ask for an app do not need one, and it is fairer to say so than to sell one. An app has to be found, downloaded, kept and reopened. Paid installs are expensive, a large share of installs are deleted within the first month, and an app used twice a year does not survive the first phone cleanup. A fast mobile website with a WhatsApp button gets most of the same result for far less money — see small business websites.
An app earns its cost when at least two of these are true
- Customers would use it weekly or more often, not seasonally.
- You have riders, technicians, field staff or franchise partners who need a tool rather than a website.
- You genuinely need the phone: camera, background GPS, offline use, barcode scanning.
- Push notifications are part of the operation, such as order status or class reminders, and not a marketing wish.
- Existing customers already ask whether you have an app.
If only one is true, build a progressive web app instead. It installs to the home screen on Android, works from a browser, and costs a fraction of a native build. Its limits are real: on iPhone it must be added to the home screen before it can send push notifications at all, and behaviour is less predictable than native. Founders who must show an app to investors may not accept that trade-off, though startup websites and a web app usually come first anyway, with the native build following once the flow is proven.
Seven checks before you sign an app contract
- Ask for a live app the team has shipped, open it on your own phone, and check the reviews and the last update date.
- Confirm the Play Console and Apple Developer accounts will be registered in your company’s name, with you as owner.
- Start the D-U-N-S number on day one if you want an organisation account on Google Play.
- Get repository access in the first week, not at handover. Source code you have never seen is not source code you own.
- List every third-party service in the quote — maps, chat, SMS, payments — and ask what each costs per month at 1,000 users.
- Approve clickable screens before development starts. Redesigning after code is written is where budgets double.
- Write the version-1 scope as a screen list and a list of user roles. “An app like Zomato” is not a scope.
What we charge
For transparency, here is our own pricing rather than a market average. App development at Codelith Lab starts at ₹99,999 for an MVP app, ₹1,99,999 for a business app with an admin panel and ₹3,99,999 for a marketplace or on-demand build, with maintenance from ₹9,999 a month. All prices exclude 18% GST, payment is 50% to start and 50% at launch, and the Play Console, Apple account, hosting and analytics are created in your name so the app is yours from day one. Those are starting prices for a scope written down together; live tracking, wallets and partner payouts push a marketplace well past the starting figure, which is why anything complicated begins with a paid discovery sprint.
The short version
- MVP ₹1,00,000–₹3,00,000, business app with admin ₹3,00,000–₹8,00,000, marketplace ₹8,00,000 and up, all before 18% GST.
- Flutter cuts the app-building line to about 60% of two native apps, which is about 20% off the whole project — not half.
- Store fees are trivial; the 14-day closed test, the D-U-N-S number and Apple’s review rules are what move your launch date.
- Budget 15–20% of the build cost per year to keep the app alive, and be sure you need an app before you pay for one.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build an app like Zomato or Ola in India?
The version you use today is years of work by hundreds of people, so no honest team quotes it. A first working version of a two-sided on-demand app — customer app, partner app, live tracking, payments, payouts and an admin console — starts around ₹8,00,000 and commonly lands between ₹10,00,000 and ₹20,00,000 over four to seven months. A quote of ₹1,50,000 for that scope is a quote for a demo, not a business.
Is Flutter really cheaper than building separate Android and iOS apps?
Yes, but by less than people expect. One Flutter codebase replaces two app builds and costs roughly 60% of them, because you still test on both platforms and write platform-specific code for permissions, payments and push. Design, backend, admin panel and store work cost the same either way, so the saving on the total project is closer to 20%. Native still wins for heavy camera, Bluetooth or game work.
What do Google Play and the App Store charge to publish an app?
Google Play charges $25 once, about ₹2,200. The Apple Developer Program is $99 a year, about ₹9,000, billed in rupees. Commission applies only to digital goods and subscriptions sold inside the app, at 15–30%. Physical goods and real-world services such as deliveries, bookings and offline class fees pay no store commission and can take payment through Razorpay, PhonePe or UPI directly.
What are the running costs after an app is launched?
Servers and database run ₹1,500–₹8,000 a month for most business apps, plus the Apple account each year, a fraction of a rupee per OTP message after DLT registration, and about 2% plus GST on card payments. Push notifications are free. The real recurring cost is maintenance: two rounds of forced OS compatibility work a year, and a retainer at roughly 15–20% of the build cost annually.
Should a small business build an app or just a mobile website?
For most small businesses, a fast mobile website with a WhatsApp button. An app has to be downloaded, kept and reopened, and one used twice a year gets deleted in the first phone cleanup. Build an app when customers would use it weekly, when riders or field staff need a working tool, or when you genuinely need the camera, background GPS or offline use.
