Apps your customers will love to open.

A gym owner with six locations asked two developers for the same app. One quoted $9,000, the other $50,000. One of those quotes was going to cost her more, and it's not the one you think. This video covers how app pricing actually works, four questions that cut a quote down, and a free tool that prices an app in minutes.

Jess runs six fitness and wellness studios and wants one app where members book classes, check in, and earn rewards at every location. One quote was 9 months and 30 screens, including a social feed she never asked for. The other was $9,000 and live in 3 weeks, but the fine print was a template with her logo, a fee for every location, and an extra charge to connect her membership software. Neither quote was wrong. They were quoting different things.

An app is priced like a house, and four things decide the price. Screens: every screen is like a room. Most studio apps need around 8 to 12, and the big quote had 30. Ask what the smallest version is that customers would actually use. Integrations: membership software, payments, and class schedules. Ask which systems the app connects to, and whether that is in the price. Platforms: iPhone and Android used to mean building twice. Today most apps are built once and run on both. Who builds it: with AI doing the repetitive coding and testing, a small team builds in weeks what used to take months. Ask whether the price is fixed in writing before you start.

You might not need an app. When customers show up several times in a short span, an app earns its spot. Jess needed 10 screens, not 30. The $9,000 quote was the one that would cost more, because the build is the down payment. Over three years, $200 a month per studio is $43,200, connecting her membership software is $3,000, and texts, maps, and payment fees are $5,400. That $9,000 app costs over $60,000. Ask what it will cost each month after launch, and what you own.

Jess priced her app in about 5 minutes with the TechMate Instant Estimator. Describe what you want the app to do, and you get an instant estimate. Book a free 30-minute call, and you get a fixed written quote before anyone writes a line of code. Her estimate landed on 10 screens, one app for every location, and a fixed price of $12,000. Members started booking more classes and showing up more often. Bain & Company found that keeping just 5% more customers can boost profits by 25 to 95%, and signing a new member costs about nine times more than keeping one.