How Much Does It Cost to Convert a Website into an App?

To convert a website into an app, you’ll typically need to bring mobile developers on staff, hire an agency, or use some kind of software or managed service.

And that can come with a pretty large price attached.

Converting a website into a mobile app can range from a modest project to a major investment for a small or medium-sized business. 

The total cost and effort depend on the development approach, app complexity, and who builds it. 

Below is a breakdown of key considerations, looking at several different development methods, ultimately giving you a ballpark estimate of what it costs (both for the initial build, and ongoing maintenance) to turn your website into an app.

Learn more: Websites vs Mobile Apps: Key Functional Differences You Need to Know

Development Approaches (& Cost Impact)

There are a few different ways to turn a website into a mobile app. The method you choose can have a significant impact on the final cost.

Native Development

Native apps are built separately for each platform (Android and iOS) using platform-specific languages (e.g. Swift/Objective-C for iOS, Kotlin/Java for Android).

This yields the best performance and user experience tailored to each platform. But it also comes with the highest price tag.

Cross-Platform

Cross-platform frameworks allow you to build a single codebase that runs on both Android and iOS. Popular options include React Native, Flutter, and others. The goal is to share a high percentage of code between platforms while still delivering a near-native experience in the UI.

Cross-platform is largely preferred to fully native development today, as you can get a result of largely the same quality, with less work, maintenance, and cost.

Hybrid (MobiLoud)

“Hybrid” in this context refers to apps that are essentially your website or web app packaged inside a native mobile framework.

This is what MobiLoud does – reusing what you’ve already built for the web to make up the bulk of your mobile app, rather than reconstructing it from scratch (while adding native features like push notifications).

Learn more: Native, Web or Hybrid App: Which Is Right For You?

Cost to Turn Your Website Into an App (3 Different Methods)

Now let’s examine how much you can expect it to cost to turn your website into an app, with estimates for each of the development approaches discussed above.

Cost of Native Development

Developing two native apps (one for each platform) is the most expensive route. 

You essentially have to build and maintain two codebases. Industry data shows native development can cost from around $50,000 up to $500,000 for one platform, depending on complexity​. 

Building both iOS and Android natively often doubles the effort – for example, iOS alone might start around $75K, and Android $50K on the low end​. 

Very simple apps may cost less, but for a website to app conversion (considering you likely need to build an API to share data between website and app), you’re unlikely to find anything less than 5 figures.

Separate vs. simultaneous development

With native development, you can choose to build for one platform first and the other later, or develop both in parallel. 

Developing simultaneously (with two teams) shortens time-to-market but means paying two development streams at once. 

Staggering the development (e.g. build an iOS app then later port to Android) spreads out costs over time, but the total cost remains about the same in the end. 

Either way, two native apps mean roughly double the development effort and cost compared to one. There may be some savings by reusing design and backend components, but expect a substantially higher budget for true native apps on both platforms.

Cost of Cross-Platform Development

Cross-platform development is generally more cost-effective than separate native apps. 

With one codebase to build and maintain, you can save a significant amount of effort. Estimates suggest this approach can save roughly 20–30% in development costs compared to building two native apps​. 

For example, instead of spending $100K on two native apps, a cross-platform project might cost around $70K for equivalent functionality (on both iOS and Android).

In practice, small to mid-sized apps built cross-platform often fall in the $25,000 to $60,000 range​, which is notably lower than the cost of native development. 

These savings come from reusing code for both platforms and needing a smaller development team.

Cost of Hybrid Development with MobiLoud

Hybrid approaches are typically cheaper and faster than building fully custom apps.

This is because hybrid development reuses part of your web code in building the app, cutting down the amount that has to be built from scratch.

If your website is already functional on mobile browsers, wrapping it into an app can be done at a fraction of the cost of bespoke development.

With MobiLoud, it’s likely to cost between $1-2K upfront, with a recurring cost of a few hundred per month thereon, for both iOS and Android apps, fully synced with your website.

This approach is ideal for ecommerce sites, news sites, web apps, online courses, or any other digital-first businesses that already have a fast, well-optimized mobile web experience.

Ongoing Maintenance Costs

Aside from the initial development cost, the recurring cost of maintenance and updates must be a consideration.

This is a crucial but often overlooked cost factor. Native apps require maintaining two separate codebases. That means if you need to fix a bug or update a feature, you have to do it twice (once in the iOS code, once in Android). 

It also means when Apple or Google release OS updates, you may need to update each app to ensure compatibility. 

This double workload increases ongoing maintenance costs, and typically adds 15-20% of the initial development cost per year in recurring expenses.

Cross-platform apps simplify maintenance by having a single codebase – fix a bug once and it applies to both platforms (assuming the issue is in shared code). 

This can reduce long-term costs and effort, but still requires extensive testing on multiple platforms and a large degree of expertise.

Hybrid development with MobiLoud is, again, the most cost-effective option.

The subscription includes all technical maintenance and updates for the apps, costing a few hundred per month – far less than the maintenance costs for either native or cross-platform mobile apps.

What’s the Best Way to Convert Your Website Into a Mobile App?

The best option depends on the business – and the size of your budget, the resources at hand, and the performance and feature set required.

In terms of cost, hybrid development (MobiLoud) is easily the winner when it comes to converting your website into a mobile app.

• Native development 
  
  • From $50,000-$500,000 per platform (potentially as much as $1M for native iOS and Android apps)
  • 15-20% of the initial cost per year in maintenance ($15K minimum; potentially six figures)
• Cross-platform development
  
  • Starting from $25K (possibly up to six figures, for more demanding projects)
  • Likely five figures+ per year in maintenance
• MobiLoud
  
  • $1-2K to build (ready in under a month)
  • A few hundred per month to maintain (new features on your website sync automatically; no additional cost to integrate these with your mobile apps)

For ROI, MobiLoud gives you a much clearer path to a positive return.

All you need is for your mobile app to generate a few thousand in new revenue, and clear four figures monthly, and you’ll be making a profit on your investment.

For native and cross-platform development, your app needs to be a hit; or else it’ll be a loooong time until your investment is paid back.

Want to see what’s possible?

You might be asking; can you really build a high-quality mobile app for just $1-2K?

The answer is yes. We’ve helped over 2,000 businesses do just that; turning their already well-optimized mobile web experience into mobile apps that drive higher mobile engagement, increased retention, and a significant boost in LTV.

You can see a collection of case studies here to learn about the kinds of businesses that have had success with this approach.

Even better, you can see for yourself what your own website could look like as an app.

You can get a free, interactive preview of your app, using only your website URL. We’ll show you what the end result could look like, and how these apps deliver 95% of what a native app does, for 5% (or less) of the cost.

Get your free app preview now and start the path towards launching your own mobile apps (without investing hundreds of thousands of dollars).