Bengaluru-based · Remote across India
Freelance Mobile App Developer in Bangalore
One codebase, both stores, one person accountable for it. iOS and Android apps built in Flutter or React Native — scoped honestly, quoted as a fixed price, and handed over with the repository and the store accounts in your name.
- One codebase, both stores — Flutter or React Native, chosen for your case
- Fixed quote after a prototype — not a number guessed from a brief
- Fortnightly builds you can install — no silent months
- Submission included — App Store and Play Store, rejections handled
- Your code, your store accounts — in your name from day one
The short answer
A freelance app developer in Bangalore charges ₹25,000–₹6,00,000 for a focused single-purpose app, ₹1,50,000–₹15,00,000 for a standard business app, and ₹15,00,000 upwards for a marketplace. Add ₹2,000–₹20,000 a month for hosting and 15–20% of the build cost a year for maintenance.
Flutter or React Native covers both stores from one codebase, which is where the saving comes from. Native Swift and Kotlin roughly doubles the front-end work and is worth it only for deep OS integration, AR or heavy background processing — for an ordinary business app, nobody can tell.
What I build
Six kinds of app, and which band each lands in
The category matters less than the scope inside it, but it sets the starting point — and one of these is routinely under-estimated by a factor of three.
Business and service apps
Bookings, customer accounts, catalogues, notifications and a back-office view. The commonest request and usually the one where a smaller scope would have worked better.
Standard business app band
E-commerce apps
Catalogue, cart, payments, order tracking and push-driven re-engagement — often alongside an existing website that has to stay the single source of stock.
Standard business app band
On-demand and marketplace apps
Two-sided flows: customers and providers, live tracking, dispatch, wallets, ratings. The most under-estimated category by a wide margin, because it is two apps and a dispatch system.
Marketplace band
SaaS and subscription apps
A mobile front end to a product that already exists, with authentication, plans, in-app purchase or a payment gateway, and usage limits that hold under a refund.
Depends on the backend you already have
Internal and field apps
Attendance, inspections, delivery proof, stock counts — usually offline-first, because the warehouse or the site has no signal and syncing later is the whole job.
Single-purpose band
MVPs for a first version
One flow, done properly, shipped to both stores. Built to be thrown away if the market says no — which is the point, and the cheapest way to find out.
Single-purpose band
Tech stack
What it gets built on.
Flutter or React Native for the app itself, with the choice made on your case rather than my preference. Behind it, a Node or Postgres backend — or Firebase and Supabase where managed infrastructure genuinely beats building your own — plus push notifications, crash reporting and analytics wired in before launch rather than after the first outage. Payments through Razorpay or Stripe, and the store accounts registered in your name.
Flutter
React
Dart
TypeScript
Firebase
Supabase
Node.js
PostgreSQL
iOS / App Store
Google Play
Stripe
Razorpay
Lifecycle
How an app build actually runs
The two stages people skip are the third and the fifth. A fixed quote before a prototype exists is a guess dressed as a number, and an app that reaches the store without a real beta reaches your users with its first bugs intact.
The framework decision
Flutter vs React Native vs native — cost, time and performance
This is the decision that moves the budget by lakhs, so it is worth five minutes rather than a coin toss. Below is what each choice costs you in money, in weeks and in what the user actually feels.
| Flutter | React Native | Native (Swift + Kotlin) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relative build cost | Lowest — typically 15–25% fewer hours than React Native | Low | Highest — roughly double the front-end work, because it is two apps |
| MVP starting point | ₹2,00,000 | ₹3,00,000 | Quoted after scoping |
| Time to both stores | Fastest of the three — one codebase, one QA pass | Close behind, unless native modules are needed | Longest — two builds, two QA passes, two review queues |
| Time to a testable build | Days, once the design is settled | Days | Weeks, and twice over |
| Everyday performance | Indistinguishable from native for business apps — compiled, with its own rendering engine | Very good; the bridge shows up only under heavy, continuous work | The ceiling, by definition |
| Animation and custom UI | Strongest of the three for heavy custom interfaces | Good, and better when the UI is conventional | Unlimited, at a cost |
| Device consistency | Highest — it draws its own widgets, so a cheap Android looks like the design | Uses platform components, so it varies more across devices | Perfect per platform, by definition different across them |
| Deep OS features | Most things, via plugins; awkward at the edges | Most things, via native modules | Everything, first — AR, background processing, new OS APIs on day one |
| Where it is the wrong choice | You already run a React web codebase and want to share it | Heavy custom UI, or graphics-driven work | A business app where nobody could tell the difference and you paid twice |
Want it at the level of development hours? Flutter vs React Native works the cost difference through properly. Choosing by which situation you are in rather than by cost — codebases, shared logic with your website — is on the app development page.
What it costs
App development cost by complexity
Bands rather than single numbers. What moves you along one is the number of user roles, whether money changes hands inside the app, and how many outside systems it has to talk to — almost never the number of screens.
Indicative pricing
Including the two lines most quotes leave out
Hosting and maintenance are in this table on purpose. An app quote that stops at the build cost is describing about 70% of what you will actually spend in year one, and the missing 30% arrives after you have committed.
| Complexity | Indicative range | Typical timeline | What sits inside it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rescue audit | ₹25,000 – ₹75,000 | 1 – 2 weeks | A written verdict on an abandoned or failing build — what is salvageable, before you commit to continuing or rebuilding |
| Focused single-purpose app | ₹25,000 – ₹6,00,000 | 8 – 14 weeks | Core flow, authentication, backend, admin view and both stores. Flutter is the cheaper starting point |
| Standard business app | ₹1,50,000 – ₹15,00,000 | 4 – 6 months | Multiple roles, payments, push notifications, third-party integrations and analytics |
| Marketplace / complex app | ₹15,00,000 – ₹35,00,000 | 6 – 12 months | Multi-sided flows, wallets, live tracking, chat, moderation and reporting. Two apps and a dispatch system, not one app |
| Backend hosting | ₹2,000 – ₹20,000 / month | Ongoing | Scales with users. Forecast from real numbers before launch rather than discovered on an invoice |
| Maintenance | 15–20% of build cost / year | Ongoing | OS updates, library upgrades, store policy changes and small features. Not optional — an unmaintained app stops working within about a year |
Indicative Indian market ranges, not a rate card. Store fees are extra and go to Apple and Google directly — about ₹8,200 a year for Apple and a one-off ₹2,000 for Google. Every figure is sourced in pricing, and the full breakdown is in what a mobile app costs in India.
Delivery timeline
How long it actually takes
These clocks start after scoping, and they include store review — which is outside my control and inside your launch date, so it belongs in the estimate rather than as a surprise at the end.
| Project | Typical time | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Rescue audit | 1 – 2 weeks | Reading someone else's code is the work; a written verdict comes at the end |
| MVP / single-purpose app | 8 – 14 weeks | One flow done properly. Scope discipline is the entire variable |
| Standard business app | 4 – 6 months | Payments and third-party integrations decide the back half |
| Marketplace / on-demand | 6 – 12 months | Two apps plus dispatch. Nobody has ever finished one of these early |
| Fintech or regulated | 9 months + | Compliance drives the clock, not development |
| Store review itself | 1 – 7 days per submission | Apple reviews manually; a rejection costs a resubmission, so the first one is worth getting right |
- You see it every fortnight
- An installable build on TestFlight or Play testing — not a screenshot, and not a demo I drive
- Payments
- Staged against milestones. If a milestone is not signed off, the next one does not start
- Store accounts
- Registered in your name and billed to you, never published under mine
- After launch
- A warranty window, then maintenance at 15–20% of build cost a year, or ad-hoc at an agreed rate
FAQ
Hiring a freelance app developer — questions I get asked
How much does a freelance app developer charge in Bangalore?
₹25,000 to ₹6,00,000 for a focused single-purpose app, ₹1,50,000 to ₹15,00,000 for a standard business app, and ₹15,00,000 upwards for a marketplace. The range inside each band is wide because scope moves it far more than anything else — the number of user roles, whether money changes hands, and how many outside systems the app has to talk to. Hosting runs ₹2,000–₹20,000 a month on top, and maintenance 15–20% of the build cost a year.
Flutter or React Native — which should I choose?
Flutter for heavy custom UI and predictable performance across cheap Android devices; React Native if you already run a React web codebase and want to share logic and developers across web and mobile. Flutter typically needs 15–25% fewer hours, which is why its MVP starting point is near ₹2,00,000 against ₹3,00,000. The full costing is in Flutter vs React Native, and the fit comparison is on the app development page.
Do I need a native app instead?
Only for deep OS integration, AR, or heavy background processing. It roughly doubles the front-end work because it is two apps, and for an ordinary business app your users genuinely cannot tell. If native is right for you I will say so — but paying twice for something nobody notices is the most common avoidable overspend in this category.
Will one codebase really cover both iOS and Android?
Yes, and that is the entire economic argument for cross-platform. What one codebase does not remove is two store submissions, two sets of review rules and two device-testing matrices — so it halves the build, not the whole project. Anyone quoting you as though Android were free after iOS is quoting wrong.
How long does an app take to build?
Eight to fourteen weeks for a focused app, four to six months for a standard business app, six to twelve for a marketplace. Add one to seven days per store review, and budget for at least one rejection on the first submission — Apple reviews manually and the first attempt is the one most likely to come back.
Who owns the app, the code and the store accounts?
You do, from the first commit. The repository is yours, and the Apple Developer and Google Play accounts are registered in your name and billed to you — never mine. This matters more than it sounds: apps published under a developer's own account are the single most common way a business loses control of its product, and recovering from it means a new listing and losing your reviews.
What does it cost to keep an app running after launch?
₹2,000–₹20,000 a month for backend hosting depending on users, plus 15–20% of the build cost a year for maintenance, plus ₹8,200 a year for Apple and a one-off ₹2,000 for Google. Maintenance is not padding: iOS and Android both ship breaking changes annually, and an app nobody maintains stops working within about a year.
Can you take over an app someone else abandoned?
Often, and it starts with an audit — ₹25,000 to ₹75,000 for a written verdict on what is salvageable. Sometimes the answer is that continuing costs more than rebuilding, and I would rather tell you that with evidence at the start than discover it at your expense three months in.
Will you get it through App Store and Play Store review?
Yes, and submission is part of the job rather than something handed back to you. The rejections that actually happen are mundane and predictable — missing privacy declarations, an account with no deletion path, a login demo that does not work, payments routed outside the store's own billing where the rules require it. They are all avoidable if they are designed for rather than discovered.
Do you build the backend as well?
Yes. An app is rarely just an app: it needs an API, a database, authentication, push infrastructure and an admin view for your own team. Where a backend already exists I will integrate with it, and where one does not I will build it — the cloud consulting page covers where it gets hosted and what that costs at scale.
Is a freelance app developer riskier than an agency?
It is a different risk, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest: one person can fall ill or take on too much, and an app is a longer commitment than a website. What reduces it is structural — your repository, your store accounts, a written scope, milestone payments and fortnightly builds you can actually install. The freelancer versus agency page sets out the whole trade-off, including where the agency is the better call.
Can you add AI features to the app?
Yes — an in-app assistant that can see the user's own context, semantic search over your catalogue, or document and form extraction. It is priced as an increment on the build rather than folded into it, on the AI-powered app development page, so the decision stays reversible and you can see exactly what the AI is costing you.
Tell me what the app has to do.
Send what it should do, who uses it, and whether there is a backend or website it has to work with. You get a scope, a framework recommendation with the reason, a cost and a timeline — within 24 hours. If the honest answer is that a mobile web app would serve you better than a store listing, that is what the reply will say.
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