If you ask a web development agency for an app quote, you will probably hear a number between $25,000 and $150,000. That figure is not inflated. It accurately describes the cost of a custom-built native Android app with a backend, user accounts, and several months of engineering time. The problem is that this is almost certainly not what you are trying to build.
Most of the businesses that ask the question, "How much does an app cost?" are really asking, "How much does it cost to get my website onto the Play Store?" That is a different product with a different answer. The gap between the quoted price and the actual requirement explains most of the confusion about mobile app pricing in 2026.
Custom Development: $25,000 to $250,000+
US-based Android developers charge $75 to $150 per hour for senior work. Eastern European developers typically run $35 to $75. South and Southeast Asian developers are generally $20 to $50. A medium-complexity project at 200 billable hours works out to $6,000 at the low end and $30,000 at the high end before design, project management, and testing. Most real projects exceed the initial estimate.
Custom development is appropriate when you are building something that requires genuine engineering: novel product logic, deep device hardware access, complex offline functionality, or a custom backend built from scratch. For a business that wants its existing website on the Play Store with push notifications, it is the wrong tool by a wide margin. The agency quoting $40,000 for that job is not overcharging for what they build; they are quoting for a product the client does not actually need.
iOS development is a separate codebase and roughly doubles the cost. If both platforms are essential and you need custom features, the investment may be warranted. If Android is sufficient for your audience, or you are comfortable launching Android first, the options below are far more practical.
Monthly Subscription Tools: $30 to $300 per Month
Several platforms convert websites to apps for a recurring monthly fee. AppMySite runs $49 to $199 per month depending on features and iOS access. BuildFire is $159 to $299 per month, aimed at businesses with ongoing app management needs. These platforms typically cover both Android and iOS, push notifications, and managed infrastructure.
The actual cost of a subscription tool is not the monthly fee; it is the cumulative total. AppMySite at $99 per month is $1,188 per year, $3,564 over three years. An app you build in January and update twice before December costs $1,188 in subscription fees for three actual build events. Whether that pricing makes sense depends on how often you rebuild and how much you value having the vendor manage platform compliance updates.
Median.co takes a different approach: an annual license at approximately $179 per year. Effective cost is around $15 per month while still covering Android and iOS. Median is primarily aimed at developers with some technical background; the setup is more involved than consumer-facing tools.
Pay Per Build: $15 to Start
WebToAppConvert charges only when you build. No monthly or annual subscription. Credits are purchased in packs and spent on builds: 10 credits for a debug build to install directly on a test device, 50 for a Starter build (signed APK for direct distribution), 100 for a Professional build (signed AAB for the Play Store, with push notifications and AdMob).
The $15 pack contains 150 credits, covering one Professional build with credits remaining. The $30 pack contains 350 credits, enough for three Professional builds. For a small business that launches an app and updates it twice a year, the annual cost is roughly $15 to $30 total.
WebToAppConvert currently focuses on Android, with iOS support on the roadmap. For most businesses this is the right starting point regardless: Android holds approximately 72 percent of global smartphone market share, meaning you reach the large majority of your potential users before spending a dollar on iOS. Getting to market faster and cheaper on Android, then expanding to iOS, is a path a lot of businesses take deliberately. If you need iOS in parallel right now, you can run a subscription tool for iOS alongside WAC for Android, or reach out to us about a custom iOS build by our development team.
Costs That Apply Regardless of Which Tool You Use
A Google Play developer account is a one-time $25 registration required for any Play Store publication, regardless of how the app was built.
Firebase for push notifications is free for any reasonable usage volume. Creating a Firebase project and downloading the configuration file takes about 20 minutes.
App icon design: Play Store submission requires a 1024x1024 pixel PNG with no transparency. If you do not have one, Canva can produce a serviceable version, or a designer will charge $50 to $200 for a proper one.
Play Store submission time: writing a store listing, capturing device screenshots, completing a content rating questionnaire, and filling in the data safety form takes four to six hours for a first submission. Not a cash cost, but real time to include in planning.
Matching the Option to the Situation
For a small business, restaurant, blogger, or nonprofit with a working mobile website: the $15 credit pack plus the $25 Play Store account is the right starting point. Total outlay: $40, with the first rebuild when you need it covered by remaining credits.
For agencies building across multiple clients: the $30 pack covers three Professional builds, and the API allows builds to be automated once the workflow is established.
For businesses that want a single vendor managing both Android and iOS from the start: AppMySite or Median covers both platforms. Alternatively, use WAC for Android now and add iOS later, either through a parallel tool or through us directly.
For genuinely novel products requiring custom backend logic, deep device integrations, or complex architecture: custom development is warranted and the cost reflects what the work actually requires.
The assumption that any mobile app requires tens of thousands of dollars persists because it was accurate for a long time. For the specific case of converting a working website into a Play Store app, that assumption stopped being accurate several years ago.