How much does an app cost to build in Australia?
Less than the horror stories and more than the ads: simple business apps commonly land in the low tens of thousands from independents, several times that from agencies, and the famous blowouts come from the half of the project most quotes omit. The screens are the visible half; the backend is the expensive half.
The longer answer
In practice.
The half most quotes leave out
An app is a front end to a backend: accounts, data sync, an API, the admin
screen someone in your office needs, and the app-store review process. Quotes
that only price the screens produce the blowout stories, because the other half
arrives as variations.
What makes yours cheaper or dearer
Cross-platform from one codebase halves the store cost against building iOS
and Android separately. Offline capability, camera and GPS workflows, and
integration with your existing systems are the real multipliers, and honest scope
trimming, per what belongs in version
one, is the real discount.
And sometimes the answer is no app
If your list of needs is "customers can find us, read about us and book us", a
fast mobile site does it for a fraction and skips the stores entirely. I quote
that instead when it is true, per mobile apps.
Same rabbit hole