Development
How much does an app cost to build in the UK in 2026?
Typical UK app costs, three fully worked budgets at real hourly rates, the running costs most quotes leave out, and when a web app…
· 8 min read
A progressive web app (PWA) is a website built to behave like an app. Someone opens it in their browser, taps “Add to Home Screen”, and from then on it launches full screen with its own icon, loads quickly, works on a poor signal and can send push notifications. We build PWAs for UK businesses at £60 an hour plus VAT, and for a lot of projects that come to us as “we need an app”, a PWA is the cheaper and more sensible answer.
There is no App Store listing, no review queue and no 80 MB download for people to abandon on a train. You update it the way you update a website, and every user has the new version the next time they open it.
PWA or native app: our honest view
We build both, so we have no reason to push one. The question we ask is how often your users will open the thing and what it needs from the phone.
| Item | Progressive web app | Native app (Flutter) |
|---|---|---|
| Typical build cost | Lower: one web codebase | Higher: app plus store work |
| Install | From the browser, one tap | From App Store or Google Play |
| Updates | Instant, no review | Store review, users update |
| Found on Google | Yes, public pages can rank | No, only the store listing |
| Push notifications | Yes, including iPhone (iOS 16.4+, home-screen apps) | Yes |
| Bluetooth, NFC, background tasks | Limited, especially on iPhone | Full access |
| Store fees | None | Apple $99/year, Google $25 one-off |
If your users will open it weekly or less, if staff need a tool in the field, or if you want the same thing to work on desktops in the office, start with a PWA. If you need deep hardware access, a store presence that matters to your brand, or heavy background processing, go native with our mobile app development service. Sometimes the right plan is a PWA now and a Flutter app later on the same backend, once you know people use it.
Where PWAs work well
- Field and staff tools: job sheets, inspections, stock counts, delivery proof with photos. A surveyor in a basement in Glasgow or a driver on a rural route in Wales loses signal; the PWA keeps working and syncs when the connection comes back.
- Customer portals: check an order, download an invoice, rebook a service, see a loyalty balance.
- Booking and ordering for businesses whose customers come back regularly but would never download a dedicated app for it.
- Internal dashboards that need to work on a phone, a tablet and a desktop without three builds.
- Event and membership apps used intensely for a short time, where asking people to visit a store first loses half of them.
What PWAs can and can’t do in 2026
Support is much better than it was. On Android, Chrome offers an install prompt and an installed PWA behaves very much like a native app. On iPhone, Apple added web push for web apps saved to the home screen in iOS 16.4, which removed the biggest objection we used to hear.
Some limits remain on iOS and we design around them rather than pretend they don’t exist. Installation has to be done by the user through the share menu, so we add clear, short instructions inside the app. Offline storage can be cleared by the system if the app isn’t used for a while, so anything important syncs to the server as soon as it can. Background tasks are restricted. We test on real iPhones and Android handsets, old and new, before anything goes live.
What we deliver
- A web app manifest, icons and splash screens so the PWA installs cleanly on iPhone, Android and desktop.
- A service worker with a caching strategy chosen per screen: some content instantly from cache, some always fresh.
- Offline mode with queued actions, so forms and photos taken without signal are sent later rather than lost.
- Push notifications with sensible opt-in, plus email fallback for people who decline.
- Front ends in React or Vue, backends in Laravel or Node, or Firebase where it fits.
- Stripe payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay in the browser.
- Speed and accessibility work: we target Lighthouse 100 and WCAG 2.2 AA on every template.
What it costs
PWA work is billed at our custom web development rate of £60 an hour plus VAT, with volume discounts of 5 % at 10 hours up to 25 % at 100 hours. These ranges are guidance from projects of this kind, not a quote.
| Project | Typical effort | Cost before VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Make an existing site installable with offline pages | 20–40 hours | £1,020–£2,040 |
| Field or staff tool with offline sync and photos | 80–150 hours | £3,840–£6,750 |
| Customer PWA with accounts, bookings and Stripe | 150–300 hours | £6,750–£13,500 |
A worked example: 50 hours is £3,000, less the 20 % discount is £2,400, plus VAT of £480, so £2,880. Hours never expire, and you can pay in full or with a 50 % deposit. Compare that with a booking app in Flutter, which more often starts around 200 hours at £70, and you can see why we suggest a PWA first when it fits.
How we work
We begin by listing the jobs users will do, how often, and where they will be when they do them. That tells us what has to work offline and what can wait for a connection. We prototype the main screens, test them on phones, then build in short cycles with a staging link you can install on your own handset from week two.
Our team is based in London and we meet clients in London when it helps, but PWA projects run comfortably by video call with businesses in Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh or anywhere else in the UK. You will speak to the developers building it, not a go-between.
Mistakes to avoid
- Caching everything. A badly configured service worker can serve yesterday’s prices for a week. We decide what is cached screen by screen.
- Asking for push permission on the first visit. Most people say no and you rarely get a second chance. Ask after they have booked or ordered.
- Ignoring iPhone users. Test the install flow and notifications on a real iPhone, not only an Android phone and a desktop browser.
- Treating it as a separate project from your website. Shared design, shared login and shared content keep running costs down.
If you are weighing up an app, a PWA or a better mobile site, get in touch and we will tell you which we would build and why. If you already know what you need, you can book development hours online.
