When a company considers launching an app, the first question is usually also the hardest to answer outright: how much does it cost? The price is not only development; you also have to add the developer accounts, the test devices, the commissions if there are payments, the company's running costs and taxes. In this article we break down each item with real 2026 figures so you can plan properly.
1. The development cost
This is the main item and the one that varies most, because a custom app is built to solve a specific problem. As a market reference in Spain, these are the usual orders of magnitude:
| Type of app | Example | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | Catalogue, basic bookings, informational | €3,000 – €8,000 |
| Medium | Users, backend, payments, integrations | €12,000 – €40,000 |
| Complex | Real time, geolocation, platform | €40,000 and up |
These figures are indicative: the real number depends on the number of screens, the integrations, the design and whether it is built for one platform or both. Cross-platform development (one codebase for iOS and Android) is usually more efficient than building two separate native apps.
2. Developer accounts in the stores
To publish the app you need a developer account in each store. These are fixed costs, independent of the development:
| Platform | Cost | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Apple — App Store (Apple Developer Program) | $99 (~€99) | Annual |
| Google — Play Store (Play Console) | $25 (~€25) | One-time |
Note that Google requires, for new personal developer accounts, a closed testing phase with a group of testers for 14 days before you can publish publicly. It is a process requirement worth planning into the launch schedule.
3. Devices for testing
An app must be tested on real devices, not just emulators, because behaviour changes across models, screen sizes and system versions. The minimum recommended:
- A real iPhone to test the iOS version.
- A mid-range Android phone, which is what most users have.
The more models and versions you test, the fewer surprises in production. If a company like EBREGIS develops it, this test equipment is already covered on our side.
4. Commissions if the app takes payments
If your app charges, there are commissions that take a percentage of each sale. Which one applies depends on what you sell:
Digital content and subscriptions inside the app (premium features, coins, subscriptions): these must go through Apple's or Google's payment system, which charge a standard 30% commission, reduced to 15% if you bill less than one million dollars a year (the small business program, which the vast majority of businesses qualify for).
Physical goods or services (a shop that ships products, in-person service bookings): these do NOT go through the store's commission; you use an external payment gateway such as Stripe, whose typical fee in Europe is around 1.5% + €0.25 per transaction with European cards. That is far cheaper than the stores' 15–30%.
Telling these two cases apart from the start avoids surprises: selling a digital subscription and selling a physical product have radically different commission costs.
5. The cost of running the company
Beyond development and the stores, behind an app there is a company with fixed costs that don't depend on each sale but have to be covered every month:
- Self-employed (autónomo) contribution for the director: in 2026 there is a flat rate of €80/month for the first year; afterwards you pay by real income, typically €200–€300/month.
- Accountant / tax advisor: keeping a company's books and taxes usually costs €50–€150/month.
- Servers and infrastructure: the app's backend ranges from a few euros a month to several hundred, depending on the number of users.
These are recurring costs: even in a month with no sales, they are still there. That is why the price of your app or subscription has to cover them, not just the development.
6. A real example: what's left of a €10 subscription?
Imagine you sell a €10/month digital subscription through the App Store or Google Play, with EBREGIS as a Spanish micro-company under the small business program (15% commission). This is the journey of the money from what the user pays to what actually remains:
| Price paid by the user | €10.00 |
| − VAT 21% (collected by the store and paid to the tax authority) | − €1.74 |
| − Store commission (15%, small business) | − €1.24 |
| = Revenue for EBREGIS | €7.02 |
| − Corporate tax (19% on profit) | − €1.33 |
| ≈ Net profit (simplified) | ≈ €5.69 |
So of those €10, around €5.7 is left. And it's an optimistic figure: corporate tax applies to profit, so the company costs from the previous section (self-employed contribution, advisor, servers) must be subtracted first. Without the small business program the store would take 30% and even less would remain: around €4.7.
The practical takeaway: if your model is micro-payments or cheap in-app subscriptions, expect nearly half to go on commissions and taxes. Pricing an app is also about doing these sums well.
7. App maintenance
An app doesn't end on launch day. iOS and Android release new versions every year, improvements appear and issues need fixing. Set aside an annual maintenance budget (usually a percentage of the development cost) from the start, rather than treating it as a surprise.
8. How to fit the budget
The most effective way to control cost is to start with an MVP (minimum viable product): the smallest version of the app that already delivers real value to your users. You launch sooner, spend less up front and decide the next features with real usage data in hand, not guesses.
In short
The total cost of an app combines development (from about €3,000 to tens of thousands), the store accounts (€99/year on Apple and €25 one-time on Google), test devices, payment commissions (15–30% on digital content, ~1.5% on external gateways) and annual maintenance. Rather than chasing a fixed number too early, define clearly what problem the app must solve and prioritise. At EBREGIS we build custom apps for iOS and Android, guiding you from idea to launch, and prepare a detailed, transparent quote for your case.