Having an App Developed: Cost, Process and Commissioning
Anyone who wants to have an app developed and asks about the price is often given a range that explains nothing. This article takes the question apart: what the cost of an app for field work and operations consists of, how the process runs from review to handover, which questions to ask a developer before you commission the work — and when you do not need a native app at all.
Short answer
At IT Carrot the first module of an employee app costs €2,500 with a fixed scope: daily tasks, completion mark, a photo from the site and work without a connection. Every further stage is quoted separately; we state the price in writing before the work starts. The process review comes first: done remotely it costs €350 and counts in full towards the project if you commission a solution within 30 days of receiving the document. What an app costs overall depends on scope, integrations, offline work, roles and notifications. A reliable figure only exists once these points are set down in writing.
Why “What does an app cost?” has no answer without a scope
The question about cost usually comes before the question of what the app should do. That is understandable: whoever approves a budget wants a number. But “an app” is not a product with a list price. The same word covers a checklist for a small team and a system that ties together routes, time tracking, signatures and payroll. A range that covers both is so wide that it cannot carry a decision. For companies with field staff there is one more thing: the app is only one side. The other is the part the office sees — the place where completed tasks, photos and times arrive. Whoever prices only what is visible on the phone overlooks the part that actually ends re-entry in the office. A reliable figure therefore does not come from a rough estimate in the first call, but from a scope set down in writing: what is included, what is not and what the next stage would be.
What app development costs: the price structure
First module: €2,500 with a fixed scope
The first module covers daily tasks, the completion mark, a photo from the site and work without a connection. The price applies to exactly this scope. According to our pricing page, the first version takes from 15 working days, counted from the moment the scope of the first module is agreed.
Every further stage: quoted separately
Anything beyond the first module — such as time tracking, a signed record or the vehicle fleet — is quoted and paid as a stage of its own. We state the price in writing before work on that stage begins. There is no overall price that quietly grows along the way.
Before that: process review from €350
The remote process review costs €350 and ends with a written document within 3 working days of the first conversation. If you commission a solution based on it within 30 days of receiving the document, 100 % of the price counts towards the project. If the process cannot be read from a conversation and documents, the on-site review for €1,200 is the right format.
Payment, source code, maintenance
The build is paid 50 % at start and 50 % at handover. The source code is handed over to you once payment has arrived. There is no maintenance subscription: changes after handover are quoted separately, and we state the price before work begins.
What the cost of an app depends on
Scope of features
Every type of job the app covers brings its own screens, required fields and statuses. A daily plan with a completion mark is a different order of magnitude from a flow with a checklist, photo, signature and approval. Scope determines the price more than the choice of technology does.
Integrations
Whether the data lands in an office part of its own or has to go to an existing system, to accounting or to payroll changes the effort. Every interface needs a decision on which data flows where and in what form — and someone on the other side to confirm it.
Work without a connection
In a basement, on a building site or in the countryside there is no signal. The app then has to hold entries locally and sync them later, including the question of what applies when two people have changed the same job. This is logic of its own, not a detail; that is why work without a connection is already part of our first module.
Roles and permissions
Staff, dispatch, management: who may see, change or approve what? Separate areas for administration and staff, corrections as a request with an audit trail — every rule of this kind is a product decision that has to be made before the build.
Notifications
Push messages for a new task, a changed route or a missing signature need rules: who is told what and when. Without them you get either messages nobody reads or too few — and the phone call replaces the app again.
Records and data protection
Photos, signatures and timestamps are data with a retention period and access rights. In Germany a location stamp touches the co-determination rights of the works council and usually requires a data protection impact assessment. We build the technical part switchable and with an adjustable retention period; the legal basis stays with you.
Having an app developed: how does it work?
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Process review
We look at how the work runs today: what the employee does on site, what reaches the office, and when. The result is a written document, not a sales proposal.
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Scope and price
Put in writing before work begins: what is included, what is not, what it costs and how long it takes. For the first module the scope is set; for every further stage it is agreed separately.
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First module
Daily tasks, completion mark, a photo from the site, work without a connection. The employee app and the part the office sees are built together.
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Rollout and extension
The app is rolled out step by step. Further modules follow as stages of their own, each with a price stated in writing before it starts.
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Handover
Access to the repository and to the admin screen, a walkthrough over video. From then on the source code is yours, and changes are commissioned one by one.
Checklist: questions for the developer before you commission the work
- What exactly is included in the fixed price — and what is explicitly not?
- Is the price of every further stage stated in writing before work on it begins?
- What happens without a signal: is the entry held, refused or silently discarded?
- Is the part the office sees included in the price or a separate item?
- Which systems receive the data, and who confirms the format on the other side?
- Who gets the source code and repository access, and from when?
- Is there a maintenance subscription, and how is a change after handover charged?
- Who deals with the works council and data protection if the app records times or locations?
When you do not need a native app
A native app is worth it when staff work without a signal, capture photos and signatures on site or need to be notified as soon as something changes. If everyone works at a computer or with a stable connection and the main task is collecting and distributing requests, an application in the browser is enough. Our “Request intake” product for €800 runs in the browser and needs no installation. In between sits the web app that can be placed on the home screen (Progressive Web App) and does without an app store. Whether camera, offline work and notifications work reliably in the browser on your staff’s devices has to be tested on exactly those devices, not read off a general comparison table. And if it is still disputed in the company who may close a job or which details are mandatory, no app solves that: it makes the dispute visible but does not settle it. In that case the process review is the more sensible first order.
Example: an employee app at a home care service
Starting point
At a home care service, staff, routes, working time, service records and vehicles were managed in different places. Management had to reconcile hours, tasks and documents by hand.
What the app does on site
Staff work through the app: route plan, checklist, a timestamp at the start and at the completion of a task, the patient’s signature for the service provided, on the tablet. No location is recorded between the two stamps.
What reaches the office
The office sees progress without asking. According to the project description, manual working-time checks and manual hour calculation have disappeared from day-to-day operations. The odometer reading arrives as a photo in the app, and the values are taken over automatically.
Limit of this example
The project belongs to the “Operations system” tier (from €6,000) and is not a first app module. It shows where stages can lead, not what your first step costs. We have also built corrections as a request with an audit trail in a separate time-tracking portal.
Key takeaways
- An app has no list price. A figure becomes reliable only once scope, exclusions and next stage are set down in writing.
- At IT Carrot the first module costs €2,500 with a fixed scope; every further stage is quoted separately and stated before work begins.
- Cost is driven mainly by scope, integrations, offline work, roles and notifications.
- The part the office sees belongs to the app. Leave it out of the price and you keep the re-entry.
- If a browser is enough or the process is still disputed, a native app is not the right first order.
FAQ
What does it cost to have an app developed?
How long does it take to get the first version?
Do we need an app for field work, or is the browser enough?
Do we own the source code, and is there a maintenance subscription?
Define the process first, then price the app.
The free self-check shows where your process loses information between the site and the office. For a written scope with a price, the process review for €350 is the next step.
Or directly: Order the process review — €350