The first question is usually how much, and the honest first answer is a different question: does this need to be an app? It is the cheapest question anyone will ever ask you, and skipping it is the most expensive mistake in this category.
Do you actually need one?
Apps are justified by frequency and by capability. If someone would open it weekly — a delivery service, a learning platform, a loyalty programme, an internal tool used daily — an app makes sense. If they would use it once a month to check something, a fast mobile website does the same job at a fraction of the cost, and nobody has to install anything.
The capability argument is the other valid one: push notifications, offline use, camera or location, or a hardware integration. If none of those apply and usage is occasional, the honest recommendation is a website.
What it costs
| What you are building | Our published price | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Flutter app, iOS + Android | from 70,000 EGP | 12–20 weeks |
| E-learning platform | 20,000 EGP | 6–8 weeks |
| Custom web platform with admin | 35,000–90,000 EGP | 6–10 weeks |
| Enterprise platform | 150,000–700,000 EGP | varies |
Cross-platform is the default for a reason: one codebase serving both stores removes roughly half the build and most of the ongoing maintenance. Native becomes worth its premium when the app leans hard on device hardware or needs the highest graphical performance — games, heavy camera processing, complex background work.
What moves the number
- Distinct screens. Not features in a list — screens that need their own design and logic.
- Accounts and roles. One user type is simple; customer, provider and admin is three products in a trench coat.
- Payments. Each gateway is an integration, a test cycle and an approval process.
- Backend and admin panel. Someone has to manage the content; that panel is real work.
- Two languages. Arabic means full right-to-left layout, not a translation file.
- Notifications and live data. Straightforward individually, and they add up.
The sequence that avoids building the wrong thing
- Write the one job. One sentence describing what the app does for whom. If it takes a paragraph, the scope is not ready.
- List the screens. Every screen a user needs to do that job, and nothing else.
- Prototype before code. Clickable screens cost days and save weeks; most scope disagreements surface here, which is exactly where you want them.
- Build version one small. The job and nothing else. Everything you were going to add is version two.
- Prepare the store listing early. Developer accounts, privacy policy, screenshots and descriptions take longer than teams expect.
- Launch, then watch. The first month of real usage teaches more than six months of planning.
The discipline in step four is what separates apps that ship from apps that do not. Scope added mid-build is the single most common reason a twelve-week project becomes a nine-month one.
Who you are actually hiring
An app needs more roles than most clients expect: someone to design the screens, someone to build the app, someone to build the backend, and someone to test on real devices. A quote from a single freelancer covering all four is either a very small app or an optimistic timeline.
Ask who does each part and how testing happens. Device testing in particular is routinely skipped and routinely causes the first wave of one-star reviews — an app that works on the developer's phone and crashes on a three-year-old Android is the standard version of this failure.
Store requirements, briefly
Both stores require a developer account with annual or one-off fees, a privacy policy hosted at a real URL, and a review process that can reject a build for reasons ranging from a broken link to an unclear data-collection disclosure. Apple's review is stricter and slower. Budget two to three weeks between "the app is finished" and "the app is downloadable", and more for a first submission.
The costs after launch
An app is not a project that ends on delivery. Operating systems update twice a year, libraries deprecate, payment providers change their APIs, and an app with no maintenance arrangement simply stops working within a year or two. Budget for servers, store fees, maintenance and the improvements the first month of usage will make obvious.
The improvements matter most. Almost nothing in version one survives contact with real users unchanged, and the teams that succeed are the ones who planned to keep working on it.
What you must own
The source code and the repository, the developer accounts registered to your company, the backend and database, and the design files. An app whose store account belongs to the agency is an app you cannot update without them.
Apps we have built are on the apps page, published prices on pricing, and if you are not certain an app is the right answer, describe what it would do — we have told clients to build a website instead more than once, and it was the right call both times.
Quick answers.
01How much does a mobile app cost in Egypt?
Our published price starts at 70,000 EGP for a Flutter app covering both iOS and Android. What moves the number is the number of distinct screens and integrations, not the platform count.
02Native or cross-platform?
Cross-platform with Flutter covers both stores from one codebase and suits most business apps. Native is worth the extra cost when you depend heavily on device hardware or need the very highest graphical performance.
03How long does it take?
Twelve to twenty weeks for a first version with real functionality. Most overruns come from scope added mid-build and from content that was never prepared.
04Do I need an app at all?
Often not. If customers would use it once a month, a fast mobile website does the job. Apps earn their cost when usage is frequent or when you need notifications, offline use, or device features.
05What are the running costs?
Store fees, servers, maintenance for OS updates, and the work of actually improving the thing. An app with no maintenance budget stops working within a year or two as the platforms change.
