The short answer
A UK studio build in 2026 runs from about £15,000 for a focused web app to £250,000 for a full SaaS platform. Where you land depends mostly on the type of app and how much it has to do:
| App type | Softgen 2026 range | Typical v1 timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Web app | £15,000 – £90,000 | 3 – 10 weeks |
| MVP (web, production-grade) | £24,000 – £90,000 | 4 – 8 weeks |
| AI app or AI feature | £18,000 – £120,000 | 3 – 6 weeks |
| Mobile app (iOS + Android) | £30,000 – £150,000 | 6 – 10 weeks |
| SaaS platform | £45,000 – £250,000 | 8 – 12 weeks |
These are Softgen's 2026 ranges — the low end a focused v1, the high end a complex, multi-sided product. Timelines are for a first release; bigger platforms keep shipping in phases after that.
What actually drives the price
- Scope. Every screen, flow and edge case is engineering. The fastest way to spend less is fewer, sharper features.
- Platforms. Web is the cheapest place to start. iOS and Android add surface area — cross-platform frameworks keep that in check.
- Integrations. Payments, identity checks, calendars, CRMs and third-party APIs each add real work.
- AI. Agents, copilots and retrieval-augmented generation add cost — and, done properly, are often the reason the product is worth building.
- Data sensitivity. Health, finance and children's data need stronger security and compliance engineering.
- Design polish. A premium interface costs more than a bare one — and usually pays for itself in conversion.
Freelancer, agency or in-house?
We compare the three in depth in agency vs freelancer vs in-house; the short version:
- Freelancers are cheapest per day but you manage the project, and a single person is a single point of failure.
- In-house gives you control but takes months to hire and costs far more once salaries, recruitment and management are counted.
- A senior studio costs more per day than a freelancer but ships faster, with design, engineering and delivery covered — and a fixed price removes the risk of an open-ended bill.
The running costs people forget
Budget for ongoing costs from day one: hosting and database (often £50–£200 a month at MVP scale), transactional email, AI usage, error monitoring, a maintenance budget for updates and security patches — and, for mobile, the store fees: Apple's Developer Program is an annual fee and Google Play charges a one-off registration fee.
How to cut the cost of an app
- Launch on web first. It's the cheapest, fastest place to prove demand — and it's indexable by search engines.
- Go mobile on one codebase. When you need native apps, a cross-platform framework ships iOS and Android together instead of paying twice.
- Pick one platform to lead. If your users skew iPhone or Android, launch there first and follow fast.
- Fix the scope before the build. A short paid discovery turns the idea into a fixed price and date.
What it costs at Softgen
Our packages start at £4,950 for a Discovery Sprint, £24,000 for an MVP, £18,000 for an AI build, £30,000 for a mobile app and £45,000 for a SaaS platform — every project on a fixed price and date. Try the cost estimator for a rough number, or send us a brief.