An app development quote that is a single number is not a quote you can compare. The number is the easy line. The lines under it decide whether you are buying a repository you own, a native iOS app someone will review, or a demo you will pay to rebuild. In 2026 the missing line is often the review, because the drafting got cheap and the quote still prices "development" as if typing were the work.
We do not publish rates. The pricing section offers hourly, daily and monthly billing, and Junior, Medior and Senior, and every amount on that page is blank. Each card says "Get a Quote". So this article cannot show you a worked example with our prices in it. A made-up sample would be a rate card wearing an essay. What follows is the lines to look for in anyone's quote, ours included.
Which build the app development quote is actually for
"iOS and Android" is not a platform. The quote should say which of these it is:
- Native iOS in Swift and SwiftUI. On our side that is a direct build, done by me, mostly with AI, reviewed before it ships.
- Android in Kotlin, as a dedicated engineer from the Davao team joining your sprints.
- A shared UI toolkit, named, with a sentence about what happens at the native edges.
- A website or a Mac app. Those are separate offers on the same page, not a free extra on a phone quote.
If the quote is silent, ask. The article on native or cross-platform is the decision behind the question. Swift on Android is a fourth shape, shared logic rather than a shared screen, and it has its own piece. A quote that treats all of these as one line item is pricing a choice it has not made.
Native or cross-platform? How to choose in 2026
Who writes, and who reviews
Agents sit inside Xcode and Android Studio now. A quote that prices development and never mentions review is pricing the part of the job that got cheap and skipping the part that did not. Ask who reads the diff, who is allowed to reject it, and whether that person is the same one who will deal with the store rejection.
Our native iOS line says the review happens before shipping, and that a person does it. The staff-augmentation article is the longer argument: you are buying judgement, not headcount. A Junior seat on our page says they are guided by senior team members. If your quote has juniors and agents and no senior reader, the gap is the quote's, not a detail to sort out later.
Staff augmentation when AI writes the code
Whose repository, accounts and keys
The number does not tell you who owns the app. Look for a line about the git organisation, the Apple Developer account, the Play Console account and the signing keys. "Source code provided on completion" is not the same sentence as "the repository is in your organisation from the first commit".
Our dedicated-developer offer says your tools, your sprints, your codebase. If a quote from anyone, including us, parks the repo elsewhere, that is a different shape and it should be obvious in the document. The ownership article is the checklist. The Android verification article is the Play-specific half, including why the account that creates the app is hard to unwind.
What the number leaves out
- Store commissions. Apple's EU terms changed on 1 October 2026. If the app sells digital goods, the route is a product decision, not a rounding error. The fees article has the routes. This one does not restate the rates.
- Accounts, devices and the year of developer-program fees. They are small next to a build and annoying when nobody named them.
- The second platform, translations, and the month after launch. A quote for a build that ends at submission is a quote for a build that ends at submission.
- Custom work that does not fit the published tiers. Our pricing note says a requirement outside the standard shape is open for discussion, and it does not name a surcharge. Anyone's quote should be that explicit about what is outside it.
Apple's new EU App Store terms: which distribution route fits your app
The shape of the engagement
Two shapes are on our page, and a readable quote says which one it is. Dedicated developers from Davao City, managed from Antwerp, part-time or full-time, on your team. Or a direct native iOS build. Billing on the public page is hourly, daily or monthly, at Junior, Medior or Senior. There is no amount next to any of those words, so a quote that adds an amount should also say which word it belongs to.
We can recruit a profile the current team does not have. The page says a custom requirement may fall outside the public pricing and is open for discussion. That is an invitation to a conversation, not a hidden rate.
What this article will not do
It will not show you a sample with invented euros. It will not tell you that a lower number is the better quote. A low number with no review, no owner and no second-platform line is often the expensive one, and I will not pretend to have measured by how much. Take the lines above, put them next to the document in front of you, and ask for the ones that are missing.
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