Mobile app development for US startups

Mobile app development for US startups, at a price agreed before we start

Apps Value is a mobile app development company in Kraków, Poland, building Flutter and React Native products for founders in the United States. One written scope, one fixed price, one team from the first call to the release in both app stores.

MarketUnited States 🇺🇸
StackFlutter and React Native
ModelFixed price, fixed scope
First release8 to 12 weeks
Book an intro call See how we price
Before you commit

What exists before any code is written

  • ScopeWritten document
  • PriceFixed for that scope
  • TimelineMilestones with dates
  • OwnershipCode and accounts yours
  • ContactThe people building it
19+products delivered for clients in the US and Europe
6years building mobile apps as one team
13+positive reviews from founders and product owners
8 to 12weeks from kickoff to a first release, typically
Straight answer

What does mobile app development for a US startup look like here?

Short answer

You describe the product, we run discovery, and you receive a scope document with a fixed price and a release date. One team then builds it in Flutter or React Native, ships to the App Store and Google Play, and hands over the code and the accounts. A first version usually reaches real users in 8 to 12 weeks.

Key facts for US founders
  • Where we are. Kraków, Poland, on Central European Time, six hours ahead of New York and nine ahead of San Francisco.
  • How we contract. Fixed price against a written scope, billed by milestone, invoiced in dollars to your US entity.
  • What we build with. Flutter or React Native for the app, with Supabase, Firebase or a custom backend behind it.
  • What you own. The repository, the App Store and Google Play accounts, and the documentation, from day one.
  • Where we stop. Consumer health and fitness yes, products storing protected patient records under HIPAA no.
The three real options

Why founders compare a US agency, a freelancer and a nearshore team

Short answer

A US agency gives you full coverage at a price built for funded companies. A freelance marketplace is cheap until the developer moves on and the code has no owner. A nearshore product team gives you the coverage of an agency with a budget a seed stage company can approve.

Option one

A US agency

Strong process, senior people, and a rate card written for companies with a Series A behind them. The work is rarely the problem, the entry point is. Many founders discover the quote covers a product two versions ahead of what they need now.

Option two

Freelancers on a marketplace

The lowest number on the page and the fastest start. The risk appears in month two, when one person holds the whole codebase, works without review, and has three other clients. Recovering that work usually costs more than building it properly once.

Option three

A nearshore product team

A permanent European team with design, mobile development and release ownership in one place, contracted for a fixed scope. You get one accountable partner instead of a hiring problem, at a price that fits a first product budget.

A startup does not need more developers. It needs a version that reaches real users, on a number that was agreed before anyone opened an editor.

Fit

Is this the right team for your stage?

Short answer

We fit founders who know what version one has to prove and want a complete product team for a defined budget. We are a poor fit for open ended research work, for filling a single seat inside an existing team, and for products handling patient data under HIPAA.

A good fit

Pre seed and seed companies building their first mobile product. Funded founders replacing a no code prototype that has hit its ceiling. Teams with a web product that now needs a real app on both platforms.

Also companies that started with a freelancer, ended up with a half finished codebase, and need one team to audit it and take it to a release.

A poor fit

Projects where the scope cannot be described yet, because a fixed price needs something to be fixed against. In that case we start with a paid discovery and quote afterwards.

Requests to add one developer to an internal team, since we take responsibility for a whole product instead. And anything storing protected patient records, where we stay in consumer health, fitness and wearables.

How the work runs

Three things that decide how a startup build ends

The scope document is the contract, not a wish list

Discovery produces a document naming every screen, every state and every integration in version one, plus what is deliberately left for later. The price is attached to that document. When something new appears mid build, and it always does, we price it as a change instead of quietly absorbing it and losing the deadline.

The same document protects you. Everything written in it works on release day, and fixes to agreed scope are ours to make rather than a support invoice.

In the scope document

What gets written down

  • Screens and states. Empty, loading, error and offline, not only the happy path.
  • Integrations. Payments, auth, analytics and push, with an owner for each account.
  • Out of scope. The list that stops the build from drifting.
  • Acceptance. What has to be true for a milestone to be signed.

One team from discovery to the store listing

The people on your intro call are the people who write the code. There is no handover from a sales team to a delivery team you have never met, and no layer of account management between you and the engineers. You work with a product lead who owns the release and with the mobile developers building it.

Store submission is part of the job. Review rejections, privacy declarations, subscription setup and the first production incident all belong to the same team.

Your side of the project

Who you actually talk to

  • Product lead. Owns scope, milestones and the release date.
  • Mobile developers. Flutter or React Native, present on your calls.
  • Design. Screens and clickable prototypes before code starts.
  • Weekly build. Something installable on your phone, every week.

Time zones stop mattering once the overlap is fixed

Kraków runs on Central European Time, six hours ahead of New York and nine ahead of San Francisco. Our afternoon is your morning, which gives a reliable window every working day for calls and decisions. Everything outside that window runs asynchronously in writing, so a question asked in the evening in California has an answer waiting at breakfast.

East Coast founders usually need one scheduled call a week and a written update. West Coast founders tend to take an early call and keep the rest in Slack.

Working rhythm

A normal week on a build

  • Monday. Written plan for the week, sent before you wake up.
  • Midweek. One call inside the overlap window, 30 minutes.
  • Friday. Build on your device plus a note on what changed.
  • Any day. Direct messages to the developers, without a ticket queue.
Thomas Siudut, Co-Founder and CEO of Apps Value
Thomas SiudutCo-Founder and CEO, Apps Value

Bring the version you want in the stores first, and you will hear what it takes to build it and how long it runs.

Book an intro call
Coverage

Which US time zones do you work across?

Short answer

All four continental US time zones. Kraków is on Central European Time, which puts our afternoon inside your morning everywhere from New York to San Francisco. Founders in Eastern and Central time get the widest window, Pacific time founders usually take one early call a week.

Eastern time

New York, Boston, Miami

Six hours behind Kraków. Your 9am is our 3pm, so a full working afternoon overlaps with your morning.

Central time

Chicago, Austin, Dallas

Seven hours behind. Calls land comfortably in your morning and our late afternoon, with written updates waiting when you start.

Mountain time

Denver, Salt Lake City

Eight hours behind. One fixed call slot a week plus asynchronous updates covers most projects at this distance.

Pacific time

San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles

Nine hours behind. An early call on your side, and every question asked in your evening has an answer before you wake up.

Entity

Contracting from Poland

We invoice your US company in dollars against accepted milestones, under one agreement covering scope, schedule and ownership.

Travel

Kickoffs in person

For larger builds we travel for a kickoff or a launch week when it helps the project, agreed as part of the plan.

Technology

Should a US startup build in Flutter or React Native?

Short answer

React Native fits teams with an existing React web codebase or a heavy dependency on native modules. Flutter fits products with a lot of custom interface work and a need for identical behaviour on both platforms. Both ship iOS and Android from one codebase, and both are a better first move than staffing two native teams.

Flutter

When we recommend Flutter

Interface heavy products, animation and design led apps, and cases where one team has to hold both platforms without divergence. It is also our fastest path from designs to a working build. See Flutter app developers in Poland.

React Native

When we recommend React Native

Companies with React on the web, teams that expect to hire US based developers later, and products relying on native libraries with mature React Native bindings. See our React Native work.

Product types

What kinds of apps do you build for early stage companies?

Short answer

Marketplaces, booking and scheduling products, subscription consumer apps, fitness and consumer health products, field operations tools, and takeovers of unfinished codebases. These are the categories where we already know where the hard parts sit, which is why our estimates hold.

Two sided marketplaces

Supply and demand in one app, matching, in app booking and payouts. The cold start problem is a product decision before it is a technical one.

Booking and scheduling

Slot locking, cancellations, recurring schedules and calendar sync. Simple to describe, unforgiving to build correctly.

Subscription consumer apps

Onboarding, paywall, trials and renewals across both stores, with the analytics needed to see where the funnel leaks.

Fitness and consumer health

Training and habit products, wearable integrations and progress tracking. Consumer scope only, no protected patient records.

Field operations

Apps used away from reliable signal, where writes queue locally and sync later without losing a technician's work.

Rescue and takeover

An existing Flutter or React Native codebase from a previous supplier, audited, stabilised and taken to a release.

Proof

What have you actually shipped?

Short answer

19 products so far, across marketplaces, booking platforms, fitness apps and field operations software, for clients in the United States and Europe. Three of them are the clearest reference points for a startup build.

Loopy Jobs

A two sided marketplace built in Flutter with an in house booking backend, delivered in two week iterations with the founder reviewing a build every Friday. Read the Loopy Jobs case study.

EveSport

A fitness booking product that went from kickoff to launch in 20 weeks. In the first 60 days the client measured 18 percent more bookings and a 4.9 average trainer rating.

Gridio

A booking and fleet platform for seasonal equipment rental, running real inventory across locations. Read the Gridio case study.

Beyond consumer products we build field operations software, including a technician app for an HVAC services company in Florida, which is our closest US delivery reference. If you want to see how an engagement runs before you commit, read what each stage of the project asks of you.

Process

How does a project run from first call to release?

Short answer

Five stages: an intro call, discovery and scope, a fixed quote, the build in two week iterations, then release and handover. Most first versions run 8 to 12 weeks from kickoff, and you have an installable build on your phone from the early weeks onward.

  • Stage one

    Intro call

    Thirty minutes on what the product has to prove, who it is for, and when it needs to exist. If we are not the right team for it, you hear that on the call.

  • Stage two

    Discovery and scope

    Working sessions that turn the idea into a screen by screen scope, a technology choice between Flutter and React Native, and an explicit list of what stays out of version one.

  • Stage three

    Fixed quote

    One price for that scope, split into milestones with dates. Nothing starts until you have it in writing and are comfortable with it.

  • Stage four

    Build in two week iterations

    Design first, then development, with an installable build on your phone every week and a written summary of what changed and what comes next.

  • Stage five

    Release and handover

    Store submission on both platforms, analytics and crash reporting live, then the repository, the accounts and the documentation transferred to you.

Investment

How much does an app for a US startup cost?

Short answer

The price depends on how many screens the product needs, how many systems it talks to, and whether it needs a backend of its own. We quote three shapes: a focused first version, a full production product, and a platform with several roles or a marketplace. Current figures sit on our pricing page.

First version

One user type and the core flow end to end, released to real users. The version that answers whether the idea works at all.

Full product

Several roles, payments, notifications, admin tooling and the polish a paying audience expects from day one.

Platform

A marketplace or operations product with a custom backend, external integrations and a longer delivery timeline.

Figures live on the pricing page, with the reasoning behind them in our guides on mobile app development cost and what an MVP costs by app type. If you are still choosing a supplier, our guide on how to choose a mobile app development company lists the questions worth asking any of us.

About the source

Who is answering this?

  • CompanyApps Value, mobile app development agency
  • LocationKraków, Poland
  • Markets servedUnited States, Western Europe, Nordics
  • Experience6 years, 19+ projects delivered, 13+ positive client reviews
  • TechnologiesFlutter, React Native, NestJS, Supabase, PostgreSQL, AWS, Google Cloud
  • Engagement modelsFixed price contracts and dedicated development teams
  • Startup workFirst versions and full products for founders in the United States
Definitions

What do the terms in our proposals mean?

Short answer

Five words carry most of the meaning in an app development proposal: discovery, scope, fixed price, MVP and handover. Suppliers use them differently, so here is exactly what each one means in ours.

Discovery

The paid phase that turns an idea into something quotable: user flows, screen list, technical decisions and the boundary of version one. It ends with a document, not a conversation.

Scope

The written list of what the app does and, just as importantly, what it does not do. Anything outside it is a change request with its own price and its own schedule.

Fixed price

One agreed number for that scope. If the build takes longer than we estimated, the difference is ours to absorb. If the scope changes, the price changes with it.

MVP

The smallest version that puts the core promise in front of real users. Not a demo and not a prototype: a product in the stores that people can pay for or sign up to.

Handover

Transfer of the repository, the store accounts, the backend project and the documentation to your company, so nothing about the product depends on us continuing.

Nearshore

A team in a nearby time zone rather than an offshore one. From the United States that means a European partner with a daily overlap, not a night shift handoff.

FAQ

Questions US founders ask on the first call

Do you work with startups that have not raised yet?

Yes, and often. What matters is whether the scope of version one is small enough to match the money that exists today. On the intro call we usually cut the feature list before quoting anything.

Flutter or React Native, who decides?

We recommend, you decide. React Native fits products with an existing React web team or heavy native module needs. Flutter fits products with a lot of custom interface work. Both ship to iOS and Android from one codebase.

How long until the app is in the stores?

Typically 8 to 12 weeks from kickoff for a first version, longer for platforms with a custom backend or several user roles. Store review adds a few days on iOS and usually less on Android.

Who owns the code and the store accounts?

You do, from the beginning. The repository is yours, the App Store and Google Play accounts are registered to your company, and everything is transferred at handover.

What happens when we want a change mid project?

We price it as a change and you approve it before anyone builds it. That mechanism is what keeps a fixed price honest for both sides instead of eroding the deadline quietly.

How do you handle contracts and payments with US companies?

We contract directly with US companies and invoice in dollars against milestones. Payment terms and the delivery schedule sit in the same agreement, so a milestone is paid once it is accepted.

Can you take over an app someone else started?

Yes. We start with an audit of the existing codebase and a written verdict on what can be kept, what has to be rewritten, and what it costs to reach a release. Takeovers are quoted the same way as new builds.

What do you need from us during the build?

One person who can make decisions and is reachable inside the overlap window, plus early access to accounts and any third party systems. Everything else is our side of the table.

Is a nearshore team harder to manage than a US agency?

In practice the daily overlap window matters more than the distance. You get a fixed call slot each week, written updates, and direct access to the developers rather than an account manager relaying messages.

Will you sign an NDA and who owns the intellectual property?

We sign your NDA before the first detailed conversation if you want one. All intellectual property in the work we deliver belongs to your company, assigned in the contract rather than promised verbally.

Have you delivered for clients in the United States already?

Yes. Our clearest US reference is a field technician app for an HVAC services company in Florida, alongside consumer and marketplace products for clients across Europe. We can walk through the closest match to your product on the call.

What happens after launch?

Everything inside the agreed scope is covered by us, so store rejections and defects in delivered features are not billed as support. New features are quoted as their own scope, either as a follow up project or as a rolling arrangement.

Tell us what version one has to prove

Bring the product you want in the stores this year. You will leave the call knowing what it takes to build it, how long it runs, and whether we are the right team for it.

Thomas Siudut, Co-Founder and CEO of Apps Value
Thomas Siudut Co-Founder and CEO, Apps Value
Book an intro call

30 minutes, no preparation needed.