Powstania Warszawskiego 15
31-539 Kraków
A reference for anyone building a quote or reading one. Every feature below is placed in an effort band, with what pushes it up a band and what it quietly depends on.
By build effort, not by a price tag. We place every feature in one of three effort bands, then apply multipliers for role count, offline requirements, payments and external integrations. The band plus the multipliers is what turns into a number in a quote.
The reason a feature list alone cannot be priced is that the same word covers wildly different products. Chat can mean a support inbox with one operator, or presence, typing indicators, attachments, read receipts and moderation across thousands of users. One is a band two feature. The other reshapes the backend.
Money figures for whole builds sit on our pricing page, on mobile app development cost and, for first versions, on MVP cost by app type. This page is about what sits underneath those numbers.
Band one features are self contained and take days. Band two features need backend work, several states and their own testing, and take one to two weeks. Band three features change the architecture and carry cost into everything built after them.
Reads or submits simple data. No new architecture, few states, testing is quick. Days of work, not weeks.
Needs backend endpoints, permissions, edge cases and its own admin view. One to two weeks including testing.
Sets how the whole app stores, syncs or secures data. Weeks of work, and it raises the cost of every feature added later.
The band is the starting point. Then four multipliers move a feature upward, and any one of them can push a band one feature into band two.
Registration, login, password reset and session handling on a standard authentication provider.
Rises with email verification rules, custom password policies or account merging.Sign in with Google, Apple or Facebook. Apple sign in is mandatory on iOS if another social provider is offered.
Each additional provider adds its own configuration, review and edge cases.Face or fingerprint unlock on top of an existing session, with a fallback path.
Cheap on its own, more work when it guards payments or sensitive records.Who can see and change what. Touches every screen, every endpoint and the full test matrix.
The single most underestimated item on most feature lists.Login through a corporate identity provider, usually SAML or OIDC.
Effort depends almost entirely on the client's IT team and test environment.Intro screens, permission prompts and first run setup.
Moves up when onboarding branches by role or collects verified data.Delivery infrastructure, permission handling, deep links into the right screen and per user preferences.
Sending is easy. Targeting the right people at the right moment is the work.Real time messaging with history, unread state, attachments and delivery status.
A hosted messaging service cuts build effort and adds a monthly cost you own.Threaded or flat comments with moderation and reporting.
Any user generated content brings a moderation obligation at store review.Paginated list with filters, caching and empty states.
Personalised ranking moves this into band three.Query, filters, sorting and result states across a growing dataset.
Full text or fuzzy search needs a dedicated search service, which is band three.Capture, compression, storage, retry and progress state.
Uploading on weak signal is a common source of field defects, so test it early.Multiple languages, plus date, number and currency formats.
Cheap if planned from day one, expensive when retrofitted into a finished app.Real time media, permissions, background behaviour and call quality handling.
Built on a third party platform in practice, with usage billed to you.Checkout, payment confirmation, receipts, refunds and failure handling.
Physical goods and services can use a payment provider. Digital goods usually cannot.Store products, receipt validation, renewals, restores, grace periods and entitlement state.
The store takes a commission and the review is stricter, so plan the model early.Splitting money between the platform and sellers, seller onboarding, verification and payout schedules.
Identity verification requirements are usually the long pole, not the code.Code generation, validity rules, usage limits and reporting.
Rules multiply fast, so define them before the build rather than during it.Document generation, numbering, tax rules and delivery to the customer.
Usually cheaper as an integration with an accounting system than as custom logic.Stored value, transaction history and reconciliation.
Anything holding customer money raises both compliance and testing effort.A map with markers and basic interaction, using a hosted map provider.
Map usage is billed to you and scales with active users.Reading the device position, with permission handling and a manual fallback.
Permission wording matters at store review, especially on iOS.Triggering actions when a device enters or leaves an area.
Accuracy and battery behaviour differ between platforms and need real world testing.Continuous position updates in the background, streamed to other users or a dispatcher view.
Background location, battery drain and store justification make this a heavy feature.Directions between points, distance and time estimates.
Turn by turn guidance inside your own app is band three.Downloaded map data usable with no connection at all.
On an inland waterways product covering around a thousand kilometres of rivers, this set the architecture for the whole app.Cached data stays visible when the connection drops.
This is what most clients mean when they say the app must work offline.Creating and editing records with no connection, queued and reconciled when the device is back online.
Ask any supplier how they resolve two devices editing the same record before you compare prices.Data moving while the app is not open, within platform limits.
Both systems restrict background work, so behaviour has to be designed around the limits.Counting or recording that continues when the screen is locked or the user takes a call.
On a field service product this requirement surfaced from real use rather than from the spec, and it touched both platforms.Filtered exports to spreadsheet or document formats, scheduled or on demand.
Often replaces an expensive integration, at a fraction of the effort.Connecting to an ERP, CRM, scheduling or accounting system.
The estimate depends on their documentation and sandbox, so it cannot be firm before we see both.Web panel to manage users, correct data, handle exceptions and see what happened.
Left off most feature lists and present in every working product.Editing in app content without a release.
Worth building the moment content changes more often than the app does.Event tracking and dashboards on a hosted analytics tool.
Deciding which events matter takes longer than wiring them up.Automatic reporting of crashes and failures from real devices.
Cheap, and the first thing to add before a wider rollout.A record of who changed what and when.
Usually required in regulated, financial or field operations contexts.Calling a language model for summaries, classification or assistance, with prompts and guardrails.
Build effort is moderate. Token usage is billed to you directly and sits outside a fixed price.Talking to hardware, sensors or printers over Bluetooth.
Effort depends on the hardware's protocol documentation and on having real devices to test with.A watch app or companion experience alongside the phone app.
A separate product with its own design, build and review, not a setting in the main app.Camera scanning with permission handling and a manual entry fallback.
Scanning in poor light or on damaged labels is where the testing time goes.Capturing a signature on device and attaching it to a record or document.
Legally binding signing is a different requirement and needs a specialist provider.Mark every band three feature on your list, then check whether the supplier's price and timeline reflect them. A quote where structural features are priced like standard ones is not cheap, it is incomplete.
If you are still preparing the brief that goes to suppliers, our guide on choosing a development company covers what to send and what to ask for in return.
One off card payments are a standard feature of one to two weeks including testing. In app purchases and subscriptions are structural, because receipt validation, renewals, restores and entitlement state touch the whole product. Budget ranges for complete builds sit on our pricing page.
Chat is a structural feature. A support style inbox with one operator is far lighter than messaging between users with presence, attachments and moderation. Using a hosted messaging platform reduces build effort and adds a recurring cost you pay directly.
Showing a map is a component. Tracking means continuous background location, battery management, platform restrictions and a justification at store review. The first is a screen, the second is architecture.
Start by cutting roles rather than features. After that, the usual candidates are a second language, in app chat, wallet balances and anything with a hardware dependency. Our MVP cost breakdown shows how those choices land in practice.
Something has to be. It can be a minimal panel covering the three or four operations someone will actually perform. What does not work is launching with no way to correct data, because the work then falls on developers at development rates.
Broadly yes. Both build from one codebase, so the band reflects product complexity rather than the framework. Differences show up in specific areas like hardware integration and background work, which we cover on our Flutter and React Native pages.
Thomas sets the company's long term strategy and direction, identifies market opportunities, and owns business development and client acquisition. He builds strategic partnerships that last beyond a single project. He works with clients from the first strategy conversation, so their business goals, not just their feature list, drive every decision.
We will mark which items are structural, which can wait for version two, and what we would need to see before a fixed price can be firm.
Book an intro call30 minutes, no preparation needed.