We build your app.
Two ways to do it. One is ready in weeks. One goes in the App Store.
// start here
Which one do you need?
Almost everyone who says “I need an app” needs the first one. Read both, pick the one whose bullets sound like your business.
// option a
An app on the home screen
Your customers add it to their phone from a link. Icon, full screen, no browser bar. It looks and behaves like any other app on their phone.
Pick this if
- Your customers are people you already know — clients, members, staff
- You want it live this quarter, not next year
- Nobody is going to search the App Store to find you
- You want to prove the idea works before spending App Store money
// option b
A real App Store app
Listed in the Apple App Store and Google Play, under developer accounts in your name. Downloaded, searched for, rated, and updated like any app on your phone.
Pick this if
- The store listing itself is part of how you look credible
- You need notifications that always land on iPhone
- It holds sensitive information and needs the tighter security
- The app is how the business grows, not a convenience
still stuck · Start with option A. It uses the same design, the same logins, and the same data as the App Store build, so going to the store later wraps work you already own instead of starting over.
Why these numbers
- The work is the price
- An App Store build is 14–20 weeks — roughly 560 to 800 hours. It isn't a template with your logo on it.
- The market says the same
- US agencies quote $80,000–$140,000 for a build this size. Independent senior developers, $70,000–$150,000. We start at the bottom of that.
- Cheap has a reason
- Under about $40,000 someone is quoting offshore rates for a US build. Fine, right up until it's holding your customers' data.
The $9,997 app is the same reasoning, smaller: 4–6 weeks instead of months, because skipping the app stores skips the part that takes the longest.
// build it
Price your app yourself. Add a website, social management, AI staff or a phone line and watch the total move. No card, no email, nothing to sit through.
// side by side
The real differences.
- Home-screen app
- Native app
- Price
- $9,997 one-time
- from $75,000, scoped
- Time to launch
- 4–6 weeks
- 14–20 weeks
- How people get it
- You send a link, they tap Add to Home Screen
- They search the App Store or Google Play
- Icon on the phone
- Yes
- Yes
- Works on iPhone + Android
- Yes, one build
- Yes, one codebase, two store listings
- Notifications
- Android yes · iPhone limited
- Full, on both
- Camera, photos, GPS
- Yes
- Yes, plus everything else the phone can do
- Works with no signal
- Shows the screens it already loaded
- Works fully offline if we build that in
- App store review
- None — change it whenever
- 1–7 days each time, both stores
- Updates
- Instant, everyone gets it
- Store review, then customers update
- Yearly account fees
- None
- Apple $99/yr · Google $25 once
- Who owns it
- You
- You, including the store listings
// what's in it
Both sides, every time.
- 01
A customer side
What your clients see. Their account, their history, their documents. Nothing else.
- 02
An owner side
What you see. Every customer, every job, every invoice, and the buttons to run them.
- 03
Real logins
Accounts and permissions. A customer can never see another customer's anything.
- 04
Photos that stick
Taken in the app, stamped with the date and time, attached to the job forever.
- 05
Getting paid
Send an invoice, take a card or bank transfer through Stripe, or mark a check received by hand.
- 06
Emails that go out on their own
Report ready, approval needed, invoice sent, payment overdue. Written once, sent forever.
// how it runs
You pay as it arrives.
An App Store build is split into stages. Each one ends with something you can open on your phone, and you pay for that, not for time passing. You can stop between stages.
- 01
Working it out
We go through how you actually work, then put a tappable version of your screens on your phone. It's paid, and it comes off the build price.
- 02
Foundations
Logins, who can see what, how your information is stored, hosting. The part nobody sees and everything sits on.
- 03
The daily screens
The ones you or your crew touch every day. The part we redo the most, by far.
- 04
The customer side
What your clients log into. History, documents, approvals, requests.
- 05
Money
Invoices, cards, bank transfers, checks recorded by hand, and a view of who owes you what.
- 06
Security
Sensitive information scrambled, every login recorded, every permission tested. Not rushed, ever.
- 07
Launch
Tested on real phones, sent to the stores, reviewed, launched. Then a window where fixes are on us.
// after launch
What it costs to keep.
Every one of these lives in an account with your name on it and your card behind it. We never resell them and we never mark them up. Live figures get confirmed before you sign.
- Apple Developer
- $99/year — App Store app only, in your account
- Google Play
- $25 once — App Store app only, in your account
- Hosting + storing your data
- Small at the size most service businesses run. We confirm the figure before you sign
- Photo + file storage
- The one that grows. We decide how long files are kept on day one, not in year three
- Sending email
- Low volume, low cost. We confirm the figure before you sign
- Card + bank payments
- Stripe's published rates. Bank transfer costs a lot less than card
// it's yours
Keep it yourself. We'd still put you on a care plan.
You own the code, the accounts and the store listings. Hand it to your own developer, run it yourself, or walk away from us entirely — nothing has to move and nothing stops working. That's not a courtesy, it's how every Handled build is set up from day one.
But an app is the one thing that ages on somebody else's schedule. Apple and Google update the phones twice a year, and a store listing that falls behind eventually gets pulled. Flair Care (we keep it updated after launch, priced when we hand it over) covers those updates, the yearly renewals and small changes — do it yourself, call us when you need us, or pay monthly. We'll always suggest it. It has never been required.
Works with
The $9,997 app installs on iPhone and Android from day one. App Store builds go to both stores. Payments always run through Stripe.
// straight answers
Before you ask.
- What's actually the difference between the two?
- The $9,997 app opens from an icon on the home screen and updates itself the moment we change something — but it isn't listed in the App Store, and Apple limits the notifications it can send. The App Store build is a real listing people can search for and download, with full notifications and full use of the phone's camera, GPS and everything else. Same look, same logins, same data. Built differently underneath, and priced differently.
- Why is the native app $75,000 and up?
- Because it's 14–20 weeks of work, not a template. A US developer at market rate puts this build between $70,000 and $150,000. Under about $40,000, someone is quoting you offshore rates for a US build — which is fine right up until it's holding your customers' data.
- Do you have an app I can download and try?
- No. Handled's own products are a phone line and websites, so there's nothing in the App Store to show you. What we do instead is better: before you commit to an App Store build, we put a working version of your actual screens on your actual phone. You tap through your own app before you pay for it.
- Who owns it?
- You. The code, the store listings, the domain, the database. The Apple and Google developer accounts are opened in your name, on your card, and the app is published from them. If you and Handled part ways, nothing has to move.
- Does Apple take 30% of my payments?
- Not if you sell a real-world service. Apple's own rules (App Store guideline 3.1.5) say services delivered in the physical world are paid outside the app — so it runs through Stripe and Apple takes nothing. The 15–30% cut applies to digital goods and subscriptions consumed inside the app.
- Can I start with the cheaper one and upgrade later?
- Yes, and most should. The $9,997 app is the same design, the same logins, and the same data. Going to the App Store later wraps work you already own. It isn't a rebuild.
- What does it cost me every month after launch?
- Apple $99/year, Google $25 once, plus hosting, database, file storage, and email — all in your own accounts, at cost, never marked up. At the size most service businesses run, those are small. We confirm live figures before you sign anything.
- Do I have to keep paying you after it launches?
- No. You own the code, the accounts and the store listings, and it keeps working whether or not we're involved. That said, we always suggest a Flair Care plan on an app, because an app is the one thing that ages on somebody else's schedule — Apple and Google update the phones twice a year, and a listing that falls behind eventually gets pulled. Care covers those updates, the yearly renewals and small changes: do it yourself, call us when you need us, or pay monthly. Priced when we hand it over. Suggested, never required.
// next step
Tell us what your app has to do.
Not what it should look like — what it has to do, and who touches it. That's the conversation that produces a real number instead of a range.