Build cost by complexity
These are the ranges GoodFirms publishes for the Dubai market in 2026, and they are consistent with what agencies here quote:
| Complexity | Build cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Simple — one clear job, few screens | AED 30,000 – 80,000+ | 3–6 months |
| Medium — accounts, payments, back office | AED 80,000 – 200,000+ | 6–9 months |
| Complex — enterprise, real-time, regulated | AED 200,000 – 400,000+ | 12–18+ months |
Those timelines assume a conventional agency process with long phases between reviews. They are not a law of physics. We work in twenty-eight day cycles specifically so that something is installable on your phone in the first one rather than the sixth month.
Native or cross-platform, and what each costs
This single decision moves the price more than any feature on your list. The Dubai market rates:
| Approach | Typical range |
|---|---|
| iOS only, native | AED 50,000 – 180,000 |
| Android only, native | AED 45,000 – 170,000 |
| Both, built natively | AED 95,000 – 340,000 |
| Cross-platform — both from one codebase | AED 65,000 – 220,000 |
Cross-platform — React Native or Flutter — cuts the initial cost of covering both platforms by roughly 20 to 40 per cent, and it halves your maintenance thereafter because there is one codebase to fix rather than two. For most business apps it is the correct answer.
Native earns its premium when the app leans hard on the hardware, needs new platform features the day they ship, or has performance demands cross-platform cannot meet. Heavy graphics, intensive background processing, certain device integrations. If an agency recommends native without naming which of those applies to you, ask why.
The costs nobody puts in the quote
The build is the smaller half of a three-year number. Plan for these from the start:
- Maintenance: 15 to 25 per cent of build cost, every year. This is not optional padding. iOS and Android both release annually and periodically tighten privacy and permission rules; an app that is not updated eventually stops being accepted by the stores and then stops installing.
- Developer accounts. Apple charges USD 99 a year, Google a one-off USD 25. Both must be registered in your company's name, not your developer's.
- Backend and infrastructure. Most apps need a server, a database and file storage. That is a monthly bill that grows with your users.
- Third-party services. Push notifications, SMS or OTP, maps, payment processing. Each carries a per-use cost that scales with success.
- Compliance. Regulated sectors add 30 to 50 per cent. UAE PDPL compliance work alone is commonly quoted at USD 5,000 to 25,000.
Before you spend anything, check you need an app
A good agency will talk you out of apps you do not need. The honest test is usage frequency and device capability.
An app earns its cost when people use it weekly or more, when it needs the camera, GPS, offline access or push notifications, or when it is a field tool for staff who are away from a desk.
A responsive web page is better when the task happens once a quarter, when discovery matters more than retention, or when you simply need something that works on every device without anyone installing anything. Asking a customer to install an app to do something once a year is asking for a download that never happens.
If you are not sure which side you fall on, that is a conversation worth having before the quotes, not after.
How we price it
We quote per twenty-eight day cycle, with the number agreed before anything starts. A focused app with a clear job is usually two cycles. Something with payments, real-time updates and a back office behind it is more.
The first cycle is scoped to put something real on your phone rather than to produce a document. Your App Store and Play Console accounts are created in your company's name with your billing, and the source code sits in your repositories from the first commit. Tell us what the app has to do — and if a web page would do it better, we will say so.