How Long Does App Development Take? Realistic Timelines by Project Type
Straight to the point: an MVP mobile app takes 2–3 months. A moderately complex app with a backend and admin takes 3–5 months. A complex project — a marketplace or a system with many integrations — takes 6 months or more. A simpler web application or a company website is done in 2–6 weeks.
These are real timelines from projects we build. Not marketing promises ("an app in 14 days!"), not the cover-your-back estimates of big agencies ("12–18 months, we'll see"). In this article we break down what those months consist of, what really drives development time — and what you, as the client, can do about it.
Development time by app type
| Project type | Development time | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Company website / simple web app | 2–6 weeks | Design, content, deployment |
| Booking system | 1–3 months | The core is quick; payments and integrations add time |
| Startup MVP | 2–3 months | Sharply trimmed scope, one platform technology |
| Internal company app | 2–4 months | Depends on the number of processes and integrations |
| Custom CRM | 2–5 months | Data migration can surprise you |
| Customer-facing mobile app (iOS + Android) | 3–5 months | Including backend and admin |
| E-commerce app | 3–6 months | Payments, inventory, shipping, accounting |
| Marketplace | 5–9 months | A two-sided market means double the logic |
The ranges are deliberately wide. A "booking system" can be a simple calendar with slots — or a system with staff shifts, deposit payments and an accounting integration. For a more precise estimate for your specific project, the configurator takes two minutes.
What really drives development time
1. Scope — by far the biggest factor
Every screen, every user role, every "and it could also do…" extends development. And it doesn't scale linearly, it scales exponentially: features interact with each other, and every new one has to be tested against all the others. Ten features aren't 2× the work of five — it's more like 3×.
2. Integrations with third-party systems
Connecting to accounting, an ERP, inventory or a payment gateway looks like a single bullet point on paper. In practice it means studying someone else's documentation (if it exists), a test environment (if they provide one) and handling the states where the other side doesn't respond. Every non-trivial integration is 1–3 weeks of work.
3. App Store and Google Play review
The review itself typically takes 1–3 days at Apple these days, and a few hours to a day at Google. But the first release of a new app can bring rejections over details (missing privacy policy, a test account for reviewers, screenshots). Plan for 1–7 days and one extra iteration. An experienced vendor knows this and prepares the materials in advance — more in our guide on how to create an app.
4. Client feedback — the silent deadline killer
Most agencies won't tell you this: the most common cause of slippage isn't a slow developer, it's waiting for the client's decisions. The design waits a week for approval. The copy arrives a month late. DNS access "we'll send tomorrow". When development stalls on something, the team switches to another project in the meantime — and coming back costs additional time.
If you want to hit the deadline, set aside 2–3 hours a week for feedback during the project and appoint one person who decides. What the collaboration looks like from our side is described on the how it works page.
An MVP schedule, week by week
This is what a typical three-month MVP looks like with us:
| Weeks | Phase | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Analysis & specification | Workshop, scope definition, wireframes of key screens |
| 3–4 | Design | UI design, prototype, visual approval |
| 5–9 | Development | Backend + app in parallel, a demo every 2 weeks |
| 10 | Internal testing | QA, fixes, tests on real devices |
| 11 | Client testing | Beta version (TestFlight / internal distribution), final tweaks |
| 12 | Release | Store assets, review process, launch |
Two things deserve attention. First, the programming itself is only half the time — analysis, design and testing make up the rest, and those are exactly the places where cutting corners doesn't pay. Second, the bi-weekly demos aren't a formality: the sooner you see the real app, the cheaper it is to change anything.
"Fast, cheap, good — pick two"
The old adage applies to app development too:
- Fast + cheap = poor quality. A WebView wrapper from Fiverr for five thousand crowns that falls apart with the first iOS update. We wrote about it in our article about the five-thousand-crown app.
- Fast + good = expensive. It's possible, but it means a full-time senior team and a premium for priority.
- Cheap + good = slow. A smaller team, a longer schedule, a reasonable budget.
Our monthly subscription model is deliberately the third path with one improvement: because you pay as you go instead of millions upfront, we can start with a smaller scope, launch sooner and keep developing in production. The first version is out in 2–3 months and doesn't have to do everything — because new features arrive every month.
How to shorten development (and how not to)
Works:
- Shrink the scope of the first version. The only reliable way. Three features people actually use beat fifteen features still in development. A guide to what to cut is in MVP planning.
- Cross-platform technology. React Native or Flutter — one codebase for iOS and Android instead of two.
- Ready-made building blocks. Sign-in with Apple/Google, payments via Stripe, notifications via Firebase. You don't pay for (or wait on) development from scratch.
- Fast feedback. Decisions within 48 hours instead of two weeks.
Doesn't work:
- Adding more developers. The software engineering classic: nine women can't deliver a baby in one month. A new person needs to get oriented, the team needs more coordination — in the short term development actually slows down.
- Skipping testing. You save two weeks now and pay with two months of fixes after launch, with angry users as a bonus.
- Pushing for "done by Christmas" without adjusting scope. A deadline without a matching scope leads to quiet quality cuts — usually exactly where it doesn't show immediately, but does six months later.
Summary
Realistic timelines: a website in weeks, an MVP in 2–3 months, a full-featured app in 3–5 months, a complex system in half a year or more. You hold the biggest lever on the deadline — a sharp scope and fast feedback. And if someone promises you a full-featured app in three weeks, ask what exactly is not included in that price and timeline.
Want to know how long your project would take? Run it through the configurator — besides the price it also shows an indicative delivery time. Or book a consultation right away and discuss it with us directly.
