What would your app roughly cost to build?
Three taps, honest range, no form and no email. The exact number comes from a Blueprint, but this gets you in the neighbourhood before you message anyone — including the neighbourhood where the answer is “more than you were hoping”.
Last updated: 21 August 2026
Ranges are indicative. The Blueprint locks exact scope and price, and its fee is credited 100% toward your build.
Foundreco builds start at $4,000 for an MVP, $5,000 for a web app, $7,500 for a mobile app and $10,000 for a SaaS product. The estimator multiplies that base by feature complexity — 1× for lean, 1.5× for standard, 2.2× for complex — and adds $2,500 if you want AI features inside. Every price is fixed and paid per delivered milestone, never hourly.
How the number is worked out
There is no black box here. The estimator does exactly this, and you can do the arithmetic yourself:
| What you are building | Base range | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| MVP — validate an idea | $4,000–$6,500 | about 14 days |
| Web app — dashboards, portals, internal tools | $5,000–$9,000 | 6–10 weeks |
| Mobile app — iOS and Android, both stores | $7,500–$12,000 | 8–12 weeks |
| SaaS product — multi-tenant, with billing | $10,000–$18,000 | 10–16 weeks |
The base range is then multiplied by the complexity factor, and the AI add-on is added on top.
| Complexity | Factor | What that actually means |
|---|---|---|
| Lean, core features only | 1× | One user type, one job done well, no payments. The right choice for validating. |
| Standard | 1.5× | Payments, user profiles, an admin area, email notifications, roles. |
| Complex | 2.2× | Marketplace with two sides, multi-role permissions, real-time features, heavy integrations. |
| AI features inside | +$2,500 | A chatbot, a copilot or LLM features: prompt design, guardrails, evaluation and cost control. |
So a standard mobile app with an AI copilot comes out at $7,500 × 1.5 + $2,500 to $12,000 × 1.5 + $2,500, which is $13,800 to $20,500. That is the same sum the estimator above does, rounded to the nearest hundred.
What the estimate includes
What it does not include
Two things sit outside the build price, and both are stated before you sign rather than after.
The App Blueprint, $800 to $2,500, if you start there — and the whole fee is credited against the build, so starting with a Blueprint does not cost you more in the end. Running costs, which are yours and are paid to the platforms, not to Foundreco: hosting, database, authentication, email, Stripe fees, and any AI usage. For a typical early-stage product that is $0 to $95 a month, plus $99 a year and a one-off $25 if you ship to the app stores. You get a per-line sheet for your specific product before you sign. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.
What makes the real number differ from this one
The estimator has three inputs; a Blueprint asks dozens. The things that most often move a quote away from the range above:
| Factor | Which way it pushes |
|---|---|
| An existing codebase to work with rather than a blank start | Usually down — sometimes sharply. See Vibe-Code Rescue, from $1,500. |
| Design already done and signed off | Down |
| Web only, no app stores | Down |
| Third-party integrations with poor or paid APIs | Up |
| Regulated data — health, finance, children | Up, because compliance is real work |
| Offline support, or real-time sync between users | Up |
| Migrating live users and their data from an existing product | Up |
| A hard external deadline — a demo day, a funding round | Up, if it means running more people in parallel |
How this compares
For context on whether these ranges are sane: published rates run from $5 to $10 an hour on Upwork with no accountability, through $70-an-hour hourly shops, to agency minimums of $15,000 and full-service firms starting at $70,000. Foundreco sits deliberately in the middle on price and at the top on terms — fixed price, six written guarantees, and your code in your own repository from the first commit. The named comparison table is on the pricing page.
Questions about the estimate
How accurate is this estimator?
Why is the range so wide?
Is the price really fixed?
Can I get an estimate below $4,000?
Do I have to pay it all up front?
What do I get if I ask for the exact quote?
Does the AI add-on cover ongoing AI costs?
Turn the range into one fixed number
Send your idea in three sentences and get an honest verdict within 24 hours, free. If it is worth building, a Blueprint replaces this range with a price that does not move.