Mobile app development in Dubai costs between [[CLIENT: A8]] and [[CLIENT: A10]] depending on complexity. A straightforward single-platform app starts at [[CLIENT: A8]]; a mid-complexity app for both iOS and Android is around [[CLIENT: A9]]; fintech and marketplace apps start at [[CLIENT: A10]]. Most builds take 12 to 20 weeks.
[[CLIENT: adjust to match your real packages]]
| App Type | Cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Simple — one platform, basic features | [[CLIENT: A8]] | 8–12 weeks |
| Mid complexity — both platforms, accounts, payments | [[CLIENT: A9]] | 12–20 weeks |
| Complex — fintech, marketplace, real-time | [[CLIENT: A10]] | 20–36 weeks |
| Maintenance | [[CLIENT: confirm]] /month | Ongoing |
Two native apps cost roughly double one. A cross-platform build with React Native or Flutter serves both from one codebase, typically 30–40% cheaper than two native apps.
An app displaying content is a fraction of the cost of one handling user accounts, payments, real-time updates and third-party integrations. The backend is often more than half the total.
A customer app is one thing. A customer app plus a driver app plus an admin dashboard is three products.
Adding payment processing brings security requirements, compliance work and substantially more testing.
Fintech, healthcare and anything handling personal data carries requirements that add engineering and testing time. In the UAE that can include Central Bank considerations and UAE PDPL data handling.
A generic template is cheap. A distinctive product with a considered interface is not — and for consumer apps it is usually the difference between retention and deletion.
An app is not a one-off purchase.
| Cost | Typical | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Developer account | USD 99/year | Required to publish on iOS |
| Google Play account | USD 25 one-off | Required to publish on Android |
| Backend hosting | Varies with usage | Servers, database, storage |
| Maintenance | [[CLIENT: confirm]] | OS updates, bug fixes, security |
| Push notifications, analytics | Often free tier, then usage-based | — |
Maintenance is not optional. iOS and Android ship breaking changes every year. An unmaintained app typically stops working within about 18 months. Budget for it from the start.
What that budget usually buys is a template app with your branding, or an offshore build with no ongoing support. Both routinely cost more to fix than a proper build would have cost originally.
If the budget is genuinely limited, better options exist:
We would rather tell you this than take a budget that cannot produce a good outcome.
Hourly billing puts all the risk on you and gives the developer no reason to be efficient.
Scoping covers what the app must do, who uses it, which platforms, what the backend needs, and what genuinely belongs in version one. Most budget overruns start with a scope nobody pinned down.
Yes. On final payment the code and assets transfer to you, in your own repository.
[[CLIENT: C5]]
[[CLIENT: confirm payment schedule — typically tied to milestones]]
Small changes are absorbed. Anything that alters scope materially is quoted separately before work starts — you always know before it costs you.
Usually. We audit the code first. Sometimes rebuilding is cheaper than continuing, and we will say so plainly.
Depends entirely on the existing code quality. The audit tells us, and it is a fixed fee.
Tell us what the app needs to do. We will come back with an approach, a timeline and a fixed cost band.
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