"Basic app" is doing a lot of work in that question, and the honest answer is: it depends almost entirely on how many real screens and features it needs — not on how impressive you want it to sound in a pitch.
What "basic" actually means
A realistic basic app for a small or growing business usually has:
- 3–5 core screens (home, listing, detail, profile, a form or two)
- One login method (phone OTP or email)
- A simple backend — storing and showing data, not a complex multi-sided marketplace
- Basic, clean UI — not a custom animation-heavy design system
If your idea needs real-time chat, payments, multiple user roles, or heavy backend logic, it's no longer "basic" — and pricing it as if it were is how projects blow their budget three weeks in.
Android-only vs. both platforms
This is the single biggest cost decision. Building natively for Android and iOS separately roughly doubles the engineering cost, because they're two different codebases maintained in parallel. Most small businesses don't need that split:
- Cross-platform frameworks (like React Native) let you build the app once and ship it to both the Play Store and the App Store from a single codebase.
- This is the right default for almost every "basic app" use case — you only pay for native, platform-specific development when you genuinely need deep hardware integration most small business apps don't.
What it typically costs in India
| Approach | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| No-code app builder | ₹5,000 – ₹25,000/yr | Days, but limited flexibility and a recurring fee |
| Freelancer, basic app | ₹30,000 – ₹80,000 | 2–6 weeks, variable quality and support |
| Studio, fixed-price, cross-platform | ₹1,00,000 – ₹2,00,000 | 2–4 weeks, one build shipped to both stores |
| Agency, custom-everything | ₹3,00,000+ | 2–4 months, warranted for complex or funded products |
Before asking "what will this app cost," ask "does this need to be an app at all, or would a WhatsApp flow or a mobile website do the same job for a fraction of the price?" Plenty of ideas don't need native app complexity.