App Development Cost Index 2026 · React Native app
React Native app development cost in 2026: one codebase, three price bands
Updated · our quoted ranges, at ₹95 = $1, ₹127 = £1 and ₹25.9 = AED 1 on 3 November 2026
Quick answer
A React Native app for Android and iPhone costs ₹3–6 lakh ($3,000–6,500) when it runs on a backend you already have, ₹6–12.5 lakh ($6,500–13,000) as an MVP with its own API, database and admin console, and ₹12–25 lakh ($12,500–26,500) for a two-app platform such as customer and driver apps with payments and payouts. These are our quoted ranges; every phone app we have built is React Native, and four of them are live on Google Play.
How much does a React Native app cost?
React Native gives Android and iPhone from one codebase, so the second platform is mostly a second store review, not a second app. What sets the price is everything around the screens: whether the app needs its own server and console, how money moves, and how many kinds of user it serves.
Simple app
₹3–6 lakh
$3,000–6,500
Android and iPhone from one codebase, on a backend you already have.
The simple tier is an app on top of an API you already run: the core flow on both platforms' patterns, sign-in that fits your users, push notifications, account deletion inside the app, crash reporting with readable stack traces, and the store submissions. We start by reading your API so week five holds no surprises.
- UK, for reference
- £2,500–4,500
- UAE, for reference
- AED 11,500–23,000
MVP with backend and admin
₹6–12.5 lakh
$6,500–13,000
Adds its own API, database and an admin console.
The MVP tier adds the half of the project most apps need: its own Node.js API and database, an admin console where your team approves, refunds and moderates without a release, and the store-required pieces wired to it.
- UK, for reference
- £4,500–10,000
- UAE, for reference
- AED 23,000–48,500
Two-app platform
₹12–25 lakh
$12,500–26,500
Two apps, such as customer and driver, on one backend, with payments and payouts.
The platform tier is two apps on one backend, as on Pakka: a customer app and a driver or provider app, with payments, wallets and payouts, and a console that runs the whole operation.
- UK, for reference
- £9,500–19,500
- UAE, for reference
- AED 46,500–96,500
Our quoted ranges for builds of this size, not a client's fee. Dollars, pounds and dirhams are the rupee range at ₹95 = $1, ₹127 = £1 and ₹25.9 = AED 1 on 3 November 2026, rounded to the nearest 500: the price is the same wherever you are. Clients in India are quoted and invoiced in rupees and everyone else in US dollars, so the pound and dirham figures are for reference. Every app type is compared in the App Development Cost Index 2026, and the build itself is described on React Native App Development.
What changes the cost of a React Native app?
These are the levers we see move React Native quotes, each from an app we built and tagged with the tier where it usually lands.
Features
Screen count and rolesMVP
Screens are where most build time goes, and roles multiply them. A focused app has a few dozen screens; Trainr has 159 app screens for clients and trainers, LeafRanger 93 and Temphera 86.
Real-time chat and presencePlatform
Sockets, delivery to every device a person is signed in on, and catch-up after a dropped connection. LetSlic joins every socket to a personal room so a message lands on each device.
Media handlingMVP
Compression and conversion before upload: LetSlic converts HEIC, HEIF and WebP photos to JPEG on the phone so every device can show them.
Offline behaviourLater
Queues and retries for the flows your users run on bad networks, added once the core flow is stable.
Integrations
Store billing for digital featuresMVP
Decided before any payment code. LetSlic's Premium runs on Google Play Billing through RevenueCat; LeafRanger replaced RevenueCat with our own Kotlin module over Play Billing Library 9.1.0.
Card payments for real-world servicesPlatform
Deliveries, rides and training sessions are paid through your own gateway, which both stores require. Each payment path brings receipts and refunds.
Native modulesLater
Only where a library falls short of the platform; each one is written and tested twice, once per platform.
Ads with consentLater
LetSlic shows a native ad after every fifth post on Android, with a consent form before the ads code loads and G-rated ads for under-18s.
Roles
One app or twoPlatform
Pakka has separate customer and driver apps; Trainr serves clients and trainers from one. Two apps are two store listings and two release trains.
An admin consoleMVP
Where your team approves, refunds, moderates and changes content without shipping an update. Often half the project.
Several apps for one operationPlatform
Medtrakr has a driver app with live GPS and photo proof, a pharmacy app with barcode scanning and a patient app, all on one backend.
Compliance
Account deletion and privacy answersSimple
Both stores require in-app deletion and honest data-safety and privacy answers. Building them late delays review.
Permission explanationsSimple
Trainr's iPhone build needed six privacy purpose strings before it reached TestFlight. Every permission needs a reason the reviewer accepts.
A reviewer who can sign inSimple
Reviewer accounts are prepared before submission so a sign-in limit never locks Apple or Google out.
Platform updates every yearLater
Google raises the required Android target level each year and Apple changes its rules; see Android API levels. This is maintenance, not build.
Simple app, MVP or two-app platform: which one you are buying
The three bands are three different purchases. Pick by what already exists around the app, not by how many screens you can imagine.
| Part | Simple app or MVP | Two-app platform |
|---|---|---|
| Backend | Simple: yours, already running; MVP: a new API and database | One backend serving two apps, with sockets and scheduled jobs |
| Admin | Simple: your existing tools; MVP: a new admin console | An operations console for both sides |
| Apps | One app on Android and iPhone | Two apps, each on Android and iPhone |
| Money | None, or store billing for a digital plan | Card or UPI payments, wallets and payouts |
| Store work | One listing per store, deletion, privacy answers | Two listings per store, each reviewed on its own |
| Release checks | Crash reporting with source maps | A verifier that reads the server address and signing certificate out of every build |
If your API exists, buy the simple app. If it does not, the MVP band is the honest number, because the server and console are half the work. Buy the platform only when two kinds of user each need their own app on day one.
Costs that keep coming after the app is in the stores
Once an app is in the stores, three kinds of cost keep coming: the stores' own fees, the services the app calls, and the yearly work to stay compatible with new Android and iOS releases.
- Developer accountsGoogle Play and Apple, opened in your company's nameYearly / one-off
- Store commission on digital goodsOnly on features unlocked inside the app; the App Store fee calculator works it outPer sale
- Subscription toolingIf store billing runs through a third-party service rather than your own modulePer revenue
- Push, crash reporting and storageUsually small at launch; they grow with users and mediaMonthly
- Your backend's hostingOnly in the MVP and platform bands, where we build the serverMonthly
- Yearly platform upgradesTarget API levels, iOS changes and React Native upgrades; in the Grow and Partner maintenance plansPlan
- Maintenance after launchCare ₹20,000 ($210) · Grow ₹45,000 ($470) · Partner ₹95,000 ($1,000), a monthfrom ₹20,000
The App Store fee calculator prices store commissions, the app maintenance cost calculator sizes upkeep, and running costs lists the third-party costs we have measured in our apps. Maintenance plans are priced on app maintenance plans.
How long a React Native app takes, from our records
React Native timelines in our records run from about 25 days of build work for LetSlic's app and APIs, spread over a calendar that ran at the client's pace, to about 7 months for Temphera, our own 86-screen app with two backends and a console. Pakka's two apps and web platform reached the web go-live in 15 weeks.
- Weeks 1–2
Discovery Sprint
The core journeys on both platforms' patterns, store billing rules checked for your product, and the native work identified.
- Milestone 1
The core flow
Sign-in, the main journey and the backend behind it, on Google Play's internal testing track and TestFlight as features land.
- Milestone 2
Everything the stores check
Billing, notifications, account deletion, privacy strings and forms, then a break-testing pass on every screen.
- Milestone 3
Review and release
Listings, review, a staged release and the first weeks watched through crash reports.
Measured on our builds
- LetSlicAbout 25 days of build workSocial media app · Jun 2025 to Jul 2026
- LeafRanger12 weeksAI plant-care app and plant marketplace · Jun 2026 to Sept 2026
- Pakka15 weeksDelivery / logistics marketplace · May 2026 to Aug 2026
- Tempheraabout 7 monthsJournal, planner and personal-finance app · Jan 2026 to Aug 2026
Four React Native builds of different sizes. LetSlic is counted in days of work, the others in calendar time from the start of build work. Every row, with its start and end points, is on build timelines.
Paying for a React Native build
You pay for builds you can install. Every milestone of a React Native project ends with a build on your own phone, through internal testing on Android and TestFlight on iPhone.
Discovery Sprint: ₹1,50,000 ($1,600), 2 weeks
Scope, user flows, a clickable prototype, the architecture, a risk list and a fixed-price quote in milestones. Paid up front; the full fee is credited to the build if it starts within 60 days of the walkthrough.
Fixed price and milestones
Written down after the Discovery Sprint, with store requirements listed as acceptance checks, not left to the end.
Milestone 1: the core flow
Paid when you can install the app on both platforms and complete the main journey against the real backend.
Milestone 2: store-ready
Paid when billing, notifications, deletion and the privacy answers pass, and the break-testing pass is clean.
Milestone 3: in the stores
Paid on release. If a reviewer rejects the app, we fix the cause and resubmit as part of the launch work.
Clients in India pay in rupees; everyone else pays in US dollars, at the same price. A change during the build is priced before it is built. How milestone payments work in full is on pricing, and when a fixed price suits you is in fixed price vs time and materials.
React Native apps we shipped
Every phone app we have built is React Native, with native Kotlin only where a platform API needs it. Four are live on Google Play.
Live
Pakka Logistics
Customer and driver apps on one backend: both live on Google Play, both iPhone apps in App Store review. Before the Play submission a QA pass on an Android 16 emulator found and fixed 28 defects, and a verifier now reads the server address out of every build.
- 2 apps live on Google Play
- 28 defects fixed before release
Live
Trainr
One app for clients and trainers, live on Google Play with live Stripe payments. Release builds strip 540 console calls, upload source maps and ship two CPU architectures only; Trainr's team released the iPhone app after our handover.
- 159 app screens
Live
LetSlic
A social app with posts, 24-hour stories, real-time chat, Premium through Google Play Billing and native ads behind consent, built in about 25 days of work for Slic Solutions.
- 202 route handlers in the mobile API
Launching
LeafRanger
Our own plant-care app with a signed production Android build, store billing on our own Kotlin module, and two backends behind it. Not in a store yet.
- 93 screens
- 159 endpoints in the app API
Not in the React Native ranges
Not in the range
- Your existing backend, in the simple band: we build against it, we do not rebuild it.
- Google Play and Apple developer accounts and the store commission on digital sales.
- App store screenshots and listing copy beyond what the launch needs; brand design is its own service.
- Tablet and wearable layouts, priced per device class.
- Yearly platform updates after launch, which a maintenance plan covers.
What we could not confirm
- We do not publish download or revenue numbers for any of these apps; we have none we can source.
- LetSlic's and Trainr's store listings have been updated by their owners since our handover, so the current store builds may include changes we did not make.
- Trainr's iPhone listing was released by Trainr's team; we have not linked it because we could not verify it ourselves.
Have these answers ready for a mobile app quote
A React Native quote turns on what already exists. These answers put you in the right band; the Google Play launch checklist shows what the stores will ask.
- Is there an API and database already, and can we read its documentation?
- Android first, or both platforms at launch?
- Does anything inside the app unlock for money, which means store billing?
- How many kinds of user, and do they need separate apps?
- Which phone features: camera, location in the background, Bluetooth, notifications?
- Whose company name the store accounts will be in.
- Who looks after the app after launch.
React Native app cost: what people ask
How much does a simple Android and iPhone app cost?
Our quoted range for a simple React Native app on a backend you already have is ₹3–6 lakh ($3,000–6,500). If the app needs its own API, database and admin console, it moves to the MVP range of ₹6–12.5 lakh ($6,500–13,000).
Is React Native cheaper than building two native apps?
Usually, because one codebase serves both platforms and the second platform is mostly another store review. Native modules are the exception: where an app needs one, it is written and tested once per platform. Our React Native vs native comparison covers when native is worth it.
Why does an app's backend often cost as much as the app?
Because the backend holds the rules and the data and the console is where your team works: approvals, refunds, moderation and content. The server and console are often half the project, and the MVP band includes them where the simple band does not.
Does the iPhone version cost extra on top of Android?
Not a second build. It is the same code, with its own testing, signing, privacy strings and App Store review. Launching Android first and adding the iPhone a few weeks later is a common way to spread the cost.
What does a React Native app cost to keep running each year?
Store developer accounts, any services the app calls, hosting for your backend, and the yearly work to keep up with new Android and iOS releases. Our maintenance plans include OS, store and React Native upgrades from the Grow plan up; prices are on app maintenance plans.
Can you quote a React Native app if another team built the backend?
Yes, after reading the API. That is the simple band's whole premise. If the backend is in poor shape, a code audit first tells both of us what we would be building on.
What other apps cost
- AI chatbot cost₹2.5–10 lakh
- Fitness app cost₹5–20 lakh
- Delivery app cost₹6–25 lakh
- Marketplace app cost₹6–25 lakh
- SaaS product cost₹10–38 lakh
- Every app type, one tableThe cost index
Where these figures come from
Part ofApp development cost: every page on the topic, in one place
Guides on React Native app cost and timing
- PagesApp Development Cost Index 2026Every quoted range in one table, in ₹, $, £ and AED, with the rate and the date
- Cost by app typeAI chatbot development costA website or WhatsApp bot against an in-product assistant, and the cost per turn
- Cost by app typeFitness app development costFrom a gym booking app to a trainer marketplace like Trainr
- ArticlesSaaS Development Cost in 2026 | Real Ranges After AIThe ranges we actually quote for a SaaS product, and what moves them
- PagesPricingHow we price projects, what changes a quote, and how milestone payments work
- Fixed-price offersDiscovery SprintThe fixed-price first step that turns an idea into a priced scope
Tell us what the app does and what already exists
A few lines are enough: who uses it, the one thing it must do well, and whether there is a backend already. An engineer from the team that would build it replies.
Ask for a quoteStart with the Discovery SprintAbout our mobile app development