How much does mobile app development cost in Saudi Arabia? What actually sets the price

"How much does an app cost?" is like "how much does a house cost?". Mobile app development cost in Saudi Arabia varies several times over from one proposal to the next, and the honest answer is: it depends on what you want. Whoever gives you a number before asking is giving you a random number.

We will not print development prices here. Any number without a scope misleads, and the ranges published online are so wide they tell you nothing about your app. Instead we open the invoice line by line, so you know what you are comparing when proposals arrive. The only figures here are Apple's and Google's fees and rules, because they publish them.

First, if you are not sure you need an app at all, read when you need an app and when a mobile site is enough. Many people save the whole amount there.

App development cost by type of app

"App" covers things that have little in common:

Type of app	Usually includes	What raises its price	What it costs after launch
Content and showcase app	Display screens, notifications, a contact or WhatsApp button	Custom design, two languages, sign-in	Store accounts, the server, new store requirements
Store or booking app	Accounts, basket or appointments, payment, a dashboard	Inventory or Odoo integration, many order states	Payment fees, verification messages, maintenance
Multi-party app (delivery, services)	Customer app, driver or technician app, dispatch dashboard	Live tracking, automatic assignment, cash collection	Maps, a bigger server, driver support
Internal company system	Roles, reports, links to your systems	The number of roles, reports and integrations	Hosting, ongoing development

The last column never goes away. We broke down website costs in Saudi Arabia the same way; an app follows the same logic with more lines.

The eight lines that set the price of an app

1. Number of screens and features

An app is a set of screens, each with logic behind it. Sign-up, a list, a detail page, a basket, payment, an account and notifications is roughly ten screens with their logic. A delivery app is three apps (customer, driver, dispatch dashboard), as we covered in the parts of a delivery app the customer never sees.

What raises the price here: every "small" feature has details: payment needs failure states, the map needs tracking, chat needs instant notifications. Write the feature list before requesting a proposal, and mark what is essential for the first version.

2. The backend

The part the customer never sees, and often the heaviest: the server that stores data, handles accounts, sends notifications, and connects to payment and maps.

What raises the price here: complex data (orders with many states, permissions, reports) and integration with existing systems such as Odoo. The good news: one backend serves the website, the app and the dashboard, so you do not pay for it twice. Ask whose account the server runs on: the cloud bill should be in your name.

3. The admin dashboard

Every app needs somewhere to manage users, orders and content. A simple dashboard costs far less than one with reports, multiple roles and automatic assignment. Decide who will use it and what they need to see.

4. One platform or two

Separate iOS and Android code means two teams and double the maintenance. Shared technologies such as Flutter (which we use) build both from one codebase, which clearly reduces cost and time for most business apps. Apps that genuinely need native code per platform (games, heavy video processing) are rare. And if people will use it rarely, a fast mobile site may replace both.

5. Design

A custom design for your brand takes longer than one built on ready components. Both are fine, but know which one is in your proposal. And Arabic design is not a translation of English: screen direction, fonts and numerals are real work.

6. External integrations

Every external service has an integration cost and often a subscription: payment, maps, SMS verification, push notifications, WhatsApp. Ask for the list, because you pay those after handover.

One question changes the calculation: what do you sell inside the app? Subscriptions, digital content or unlocked features must go through Apple's and Google's in-app purchase, which carries a commission (App Review Guidelines 3.1.1, Google Play Payments policy). Goods and services consumed outside the app, such as a delivery, an appointment or an oil change, must be paid through a normal gateway or Apple Pay (Apple's 3.1.3(e), and the same exception at Google). So a delivery app pays no store commission, only the payment gateway's fee.

7. Publishing to the stores

Two developer accounts you pay for directly: the Apple Developer Program at 99 USD per membership year (shown in local currency), and Google Play's one-time 25 USD registration fee. What surprises people:

• A company Apple account needs a D-U-N-S Number. Apple uses it to verify the legal entity and address, does not accept trade names or branches, and shows the organisation's name as the seller. Get it before the app is finished.
• A new personal Google account needs a closed test. Personal accounts created after 13 November 2023 must run one with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 continuous days before production. Two weeks on the schedule.
• Review rules become development work. Apple requires a privacy policy link on the store page and in the app, in-app account deletion if users can create accounts, and, when the main sign-in is Google or another social login, a second login option that keeps the email private. A proposal that leaves these out comes back as a rejection.

Apple says it typically reviews at least half of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48, and incomplete ones are delayed or rejected. The review is usually quick; a rejection and the fix are what take time, with every update.

8. Maintenance after launch

The line that disappears from cheap proposals, and it is not optional, because the stores raise their requirements every year:

• Since 28 April 2026, Apple only accepts uploads built with Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK.
• From 31 August 2026, Google Play requires new apps and updates to target Android 16, and existing apps targeting below Android 15 stop reaching new users on newer devices.

So an app untouched for a year needs a full update before you can ship even a small fix, plus library and security updates. Ask what maintenance costs, what it covers, and who tracks the store deadlines.

Costs that never appear in the proposal

After handover, bills arrive monthly or yearly, mostly in your name. Get them in writing before you sign:

• Store accounts: Apple yearly, Google once.
• Server and storage: grows with users and files.
• Maps: usually billed by usage; delivery apps use a lot.
• Verification codes (OTP): every SMS has a price.
• WhatsApp messages: Meta charges per message; see what you pay Meta and what you pay the platform.
• Payment fees, or the store's commission for digital content.
• VAT: is it included in the proposal's figure?
• E-invoicing: if the app sells and you are VAT registered, invoices must meet ZATCA's requirements. See ZATCA e-invoicing and Odoo.
• Privacy: customer data falls under Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law; ask your adviser what it requires of your app.

Who builds it: freelancer, local company or offshore team

• A freelancer: usually cheaper, fine for a small, clear app. But an app needs design, front end, server, publishing and maintenance, which one person rarely covers, and if they get busy everything stops.
• A local company: more expensive, but a team still there in a year that knows local payment and Arabic design.
• An offshore team: possibly cheaper per hour, but count the time difference, the language, and who tests in Arabic with local gateways.

The bigger question than price: who maintains the app after handover, and whose name are the code and accounts in? Before signing, ask the questions that reveal a tech company.

How long it takes, and where the money goes

1. Scoping: the user journey and feature list. The cheapest stage, and the one that saves the most.
2. Design: screens you try before coding, when changes are cheap.
3. Building in milestones: server, app, dashboard, each tested on your phone.
4. Testing: different devices, both languages, real payments.
5. Publishing: store accounts, review, and Google's closed test for personal accounts.
6. Soft launch: a small group first, then everyone.

Duration follows scope, but what stretches it most is usually outside the code: late decisions, missing content, store accounts opened in the last week.

Why the "cheap" proposal costs more

The proposal at a quarter of the price has usually removed one or more of these:

• A solid backend, replaced by a ready-made service that will not grow with you.
• Code in your name, or it is a template shared with many other apps.
• Store accounts in your name, so the app is not really yours.
• Design, replaced by ready screens in your colours.
• Maintenance, so the next store requirement blocks your updates.
• A dashboard, so every change needs a developer.

You pay the difference a few months later, with a rebuild.

How to reduce the cost without wrecking the project

1. A small first version: only what the app cannot work without.
2. Shared code for both platforms.
3. One app first if there are several parties: say the driver app and a dashboard, with customers ordering on WhatsApp or the website.
4. Ready design components in your brand.
5. A written scope with a fixed price, paid by milestone.

How to request and compare proposals

Send every company the same page: the problem, the users, the feature list (essential / later), systems to integrate, and a rough budget. Without it you are comparing guesses. Then compare these, not the total:

• What exactly is included, and what is not, in writing.
• External services, their subscriptions, and who pays.
• Whose name the code, server and store accounts are in.
• Payments tied to stages you can see.
• Warranty and maintenance after handover.

The company that comes back with questions before a number is the one you want.

Mobile app cost: quick questions

How long does it take to build an app?

What sets the price sets the duration: the scope. Ask for a date per stage and what is needed from you before each, and allow for store review and Google's closed test.

Is an Android app cheaper than an iPhone app?

The real difference is two separate apps versus one shared codebase. With Flutter most work is shared; what differs is device testing, each store's rules and its account fee.

What does app maintenance cost per year?

Add Apple's yearly account, the server, external services by usage, and the maintenance contract: store-required updates, bug fixes, response time. When someone quotes a ready-made percentage of the build price, ask what it is based on.

Do Apple and Google take a cut of my sales?

Only on digital things unlocked inside the app: subscriptions, content, features. Goods and services consumed outside the app go through a normal gateway or Apple Pay.

Pay in full upfront, or by milestone?

By milestone: a payment at the start, the rest with each delivery you see and approve. Paying everything upfront puts all the risk on you.

The short version

An app's cost comes from eight lines (screens and features, backend, dashboard, platforms, design, integrations, publishing, maintenance) plus running costs no proposal lists. A proposal that deletes lines looks cheaper and costs more.

How we do it

At kerneltics we build iOS and Android from one Flutter codebase, and we price only after a session where we write the scope with you; the price is then fixed against it. We publish to the App Store and Google Play on accounts in your name and hand over the source code, the server and the dashboard. The driver app in our delivery and transport apps solution builds on our work on the Zaiti oil-change services app; other projects are on our works page. To scope your app together, book a free consultation.