How much does it cost to build an app in Ireland?
Why traditional quotes run high, what genuinely affects the cost, and how to get a studio-quality app for significantly less.
Most businesses asking this question have already seen a quote from a traditional app studio, and it was higher than they expected. That price usually reflects how the studio is set up more than what the app actually needs.
This article explains where that money goes, what genuinely affects the cost of an app, and why working with Donworth Studio costs significantly less without cutting corners.
Why traditional quotes run high
A large part of a traditional quote pays for the structure around the work rather than the work itself:
- Layers. Account managers, project managers and meetings between them, all billed into the project.
- Hand-offs. Designers pass work to developers, who pass it to testers. Every hand-off adds time and room for misunderstanding.
- Long lead-in. Weeks of discovery workshops and specification documents before anything is built.
- Two builds. iPhone and Android built and priced as separate apps.
None of that makes the app better for your customers. It makes it slower and more expensive to produce.
How Donworth does it differently
You work directly with the people designing and building your app. There are no layers to pay for, no hand-offs, and one codebase runs on both iPhone and Android. The result is a studio-quality app at a significantly lower cost, delivered in a fraction of the time and with far less of your time spent managing it.
| Traditional studio | Donworth Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Who you deal with | An account manager, then a project manager | The people who design and build it |
| Who does the work | Separate designers and developers, with hand-offs between them | Design and build under one roof, accountable from first idea to launch |
| Before anything is built | Long discovery phases and specification documents | A short scoping conversation, then working software early |
| iPhone and Android | Often built and priced as two separate apps | One codebase for both |
| Price | Carries the cost of layers, meetings and overhead | Fixed, agreed after scoping, and significantly lower |
| Time to launch | Months | A fraction of the time |
Less overhead. Not less quality.
The lower cost comes from removing overhead, not from removing the parts that matter. The admin side, considered design and support after launch are part of the job, not extras.
What genuinely affects the cost
Whoever builds it, a few things decide how much work an app involves:
1. How many screens behave differently
Twelve screens that are variations of a list and a detail page are quick to build. Six screens that each behave differently take longer. Distinct behaviour matters more than volume.
2. Accounts and roles
Once users log in, you need registration, password reset and rules about who sees what. Two kinds of user, such as customers and staff, means two experiences sharing one system.
3. Payments
Taking a simple payment through a provider like Stripe is well-trodden. Subscriptions, deposits, refunds and invoicing each add work. Apple and Google also take a commission on digital goods sold in-app, which affects the commercial case.
4. Integrations
Connecting to a modern service with a documented API, such as Xero or a booking platform, is straightforward. An older system with no API, or messy data, takes longer.
5. The admin side
Every customer-facing app needs a way for the business to manage it: update content, see orders, handle customers. It is a real part of the build and should always be in the quote.
After launch
An app keeps working for you after it goes live. Plan for:
- Hosting and services. Servers, database, notifications and email. You get the exact monthly figure up front.
- Store fees. Apple charges €99 a year for a developer account. Google charges a one-off $25.
- Updates. Operating system changes, security fixes and small improvements as the business grows.
How to get a quote
You do not need a specification. Answers to these are enough:
- Who uses it, and what is the one thing they need to do?
- Does the business need to manage it day to day, and who does that?
- Does it take payment? If so, how: one-off, subscription, deposit?
- What existing systems does it need to talk to?
- Is there anything that must work without an internet connection?
With those answers we can scope the app with you and give you a fixed price. To see what a finished business app looks like first, our app design and development page has working examples you can open and try.