Every app project in Nigeria starts with the same question, and most agencies answer it with "it depends". That is true, but useless. This guide gives you the actual numbers DPX charges, what moves them up or down, what the stores and services cost after launch, and when you should not build an app at all.
The short answer
A custom mobile app from DPX Digital Network starts at ₦1,300,000 for Android and ₦1,500,000 for iOS. Most projects are delivered in six to twelve weeks. Those figures cover design, development, testing and publishing to the store under your own developer account.
Building for both platforms costs less than two separate projects, because a single shared codebase covers most products. Where an app needs deep device features or heavy performance work, native code for each platform is the right call, and we say so before you commit.
What actually drives the price
Screens are cheap. Features are not. The price of an app tracks the number of things it must do reliably, each of which needs building, securing and testing:
- User accounts — from ₦200,000. Signup, login, password reset, sessions, and the admin side of managing users.
- In-app payments — from ₦300,000. Paystack or Flutterwave, card, transfer and USSD, plus receipts, refunds and the failure states that protect a customer who was debited.
- Chat or messaging — from ₦350,000. Real-time delivery, read states, notifications and moderation.
- Admin dashboard — from ₦400,000. The web panel your team uses to run the business behind the app.
Beyond features, three things quietly decide cost: how much of the product is already defined before development starts, whether the app must work with systems you already run, and how much of the content is yours to supply versus ours to produce.
What you should budget after launch
The build is a project. The app is a product, and products have running costs:
- Store fees. Google Play charges a one-off developer registration fee, currently US$25. Apple charges an annual Developer Program fee, currently US$99. Both are set by the stores, paid under your own account, and change from time to time.
- Servers and services. If the app has a back end, it needs hosting. Push notifications, SMS or email verification, and file storage are usually billed on usage.
- Maintenance. Android and iOS ship yearly updates that break things, and both stores enforce new requirements. An app that gets no attention for two years typically needs paid rescue work, and may be removed from the store meanwhile.
Android first, in most Nigerian cases
Android holds the large majority of Nigerian phones, so for most businesses here the sensible route is Android first, then iOS once the product has proved itself. The exception is when your customers are specifically the iPhone-owning segment: fintech aimed at professionals, premium services, or apps intended for the diaspora as well as the local market.
When an app is the wrong purchase
An app asks a customer to search a store, download 30MB or more, and give up storage on a phone that is probably already full. People do that for services they use often. They do not do it to read your prices once.
If your goal is to be found and to convert visitors, a fast website earns more for less. See what a website costs in Nigeria for that comparison. Two middle options are worth knowing:
- A progressive web app, which behaves like an app, can be added to the home screen, works offline and needs no store download. We covered the trade-offs in our guide to PWAs in Nigeria.
- Converting your existing website into an app, which is a cheaper, quicker route when your value is already delivered through your site. That is a separate service to a full custom build.
How to avoid paying twice
The most expensive app is the one built twice. Three habits prevent it:
- Agree the first version narrowly. Ship the one thing your customers need, learn from real use, then extend. Version two is where most of an app's value is won.
- Insist on owning everything. The source code, the store accounts, the back end and the databases should be in your name from day one. If a developer will not agree to that, the price is not the problem.
- Budget for analytics from the start. Installs, active users, crashes and the two or three events that matter to your business. Without them, deciding what to build next is guesswork.
Get a real number for your idea
Prices in this guide are our published starting points; a quote depends on what your app must do. Tell us the job the app has to perform and we will give you an itemised breakdown, not a single figure. Request a quote, or read more about our mobile app development service.
