Free tool
App development cost calculator
Answer a few questions about who will use your app and what it has to do, and get a range in Canadian dollars from the pricing model we actually quote from. Free, no email, and every assumption is written down below.
Who uses it?
Where the estimate starts
The biggest factor is who uses the app, because that decides how many separate surfaces, permissions and edge cases have to be built. These are the starting bands, before anything is added.
Internal tool or dashboard
CA$12,000–CA$25,000
Your team only
Sign-in, a designed database, the core screens, reporting and an admin area, hosted and deployed. The low end is a tool whose requirements you already know; the high end has more workflows and integrations.
Customer portal
CA$18,000–CA$38,000
Your customers log in
Everything above plus roles and permissions and two surfaces: what customers see and what your team manages. Always scoped in a paid discovery first, because who-can-see-what decides most of the cost.
Platform or SaaS
CA$35,000–CA$85,000
Anyone can sign up
Public sign-up, several user types, multiple surfaces and an admin back office. Also scoped first. At this size the range is wide because two products with the same description can differ by months of work.
What moves it
Additions are priced as what they are, with a low end for the simple case and a high end for the involved one. They don't simply stack: the calculator combines them the way the work actually overlaps.
| Factor | Adds | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Customer accounts | CA$900–CA$3,200 | Sign-up, sign-in, password reset and a profile, on a tool that didn't need them. |
| Payments | CA$250–CA$1,300 | Stripe Checkout or similar, with webhooks and receipts. Subscriptions with proration and dunning sit at the high end. |
| Each tool you already use | CA$250–CA$1,500 | A CRM, mailing list or analytics tool with a documented API. |
| Your own internal system | CA$900–CA$4,000 | An in-house database or legacy system. Higher because nobody can see inside it before work starts. |
| A custom feature | CA$1,200–CA$5,500 | A specific piece of behaviour the base doesn't cover, such as a scheduling rule or a calculation engine. |
Assumptions
- Prices are in Canadian dollars, before sales tax, for a web application built by StillAwake Media.
- Every base includes authentication, database design, hosting setup and deployment. Design is included at a level that suits the product; a separate brand identity is not.
- Native iOS and Android apps, app store submission and hardware integrations are outside the calculator and scoped individually.
- Third-party running costs (hosting, email delivery, payment processing fees, paid APIs) are billed by those providers and aren't in the estimate.
- Content, data migration from an old system and the number of people approving the work all move the final figure; the calculator asks about the ones it can.
Questions
Is this a quote?
No. It's the same pricing model we quote from, applied to your answers, so it's a realistic range rather than a lead-capture guess. Portals and platforms, and anything estimated above CA$40,000, go through a paid discovery from CA$1,800 first. Its fee is credited against the build, and it ends in a written scope and a fixed price.
Does it cover native iOS and Android apps?
Not directly. The estimate is for a web application, which runs in any browser and can be installed to a phone's home screen as a progressive web app. A native app adds a second or third codebase, app store review and device testing, so we scope native work individually rather than quoting it from a calculator. Our guide to app development costs in Canada explains how much that typically changes the picture.
Why is the range so wide?
The low end is the simplest realistic build of what you selected. The high end is the same selection once integrations, workflows, data migration and revision rounds turn out to be substantial. They aren't a margin of error around one number, and most projects don't land at either extreme.
What does it cost after launch?
Hosting, monitoring, security updates and small fixes are an ongoing cost for any application. The estimate's result screen shows the care plan we'd recommend alongside the build. Larger new features are scoped and priced like any other work.
Related
- How much it costs to build an app in Canada: native, cross-platform and web apps compared, with worked examples.
- Do you need custom software? When an existing product is the better answer.
- Project cost calculator: websites, stores, SEO and automation.
- Custom software development: how we build and what we've built.