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Guide·Idea stage
What an App Costs
An app built for a founder costs between a few thousand dollars and about $20,000 in 2026, depending on how many kinds of user it has, whether it takes payments, and whether it needs to be in the app stores.
Below: what founders actually post as budgets, what moves the price, what Onekode charges, and how to read any quote you get.
What founders post as budgets
Posted on Upwork, September to October 2026, 2,779 founder product jobs. Posted budgets, not what was paid.
Job
Jobs posted
Median posted budget
Note
A first version of an app
1,161
$750
About 200 whole-build jobs a week; 23 of them at $5,000 or more
A founder’s brief of $5,000 or more
40
$8,000
19 of the 40 at $10,000 or more
Finish or fix an existing build
632
$600
504 ask for the whole job
Design only
about 320
$300
App store release
141
$150
The next version
252
$1,000
Mostly hourly
Most of these budgets do not get a finished app. The median first-version budget is below what a single week of a developer’s time costs. The briefs that get built are the ones at $5,000 and up.
What moves the price
1How many kinds of user.One kind (customers) is the base. Two or three (customers, sellers, admin) roughly doubles the screens and the logic.
2Payments.Taking money means accounts, receipts, refunds, and the rules that go with them.
3Mobile.The App Store and Google Play each add a review, a listing and a release process.
4What already exists.A prototype that runs cuts the plan and design; a prototype that must move platforms adds work.
5How much changes mid-build.A fixed price needs room to change inside it; an open-ended bill does not.
What Onekode charges
$10,000Build My App or Finish and Launch, for one main kind of user on the web.
$20,000For several kinds of user with payments, or for mobile.
$3,000a month. After Launch: a set amount of work, stop any time.
Paid in steps, each after a live demo. The first step is the plan; you can stop after it.
How to read a quote
Three questions to ask anyone who bids, from the Price and Scope Check:
1What is in the price, part by part, and what is not?
2When is each payment due, and what do I see before I pay it?
3Whose name are the code, hosting, domain and store accounts in?
Plus: a named date; what happens if it slips; whether the quote is fixed or hourly.
