Mobile app development company in UAE — 800website builds iOS and Android apps for businesses across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE. Apps start at AED 9,999 and take 6 to 8 weeks. We built the ordering app for ChickenWay and the Novomed healthcare app.
What does a mobile app development company in UAE actually do?
Four things, and it is worth knowing which you are buying. Design — the screens and how someone moves through them. Development — building for iOS and Android. Integration — payments, accounts, notifications, and anything connecting to systems you already run. Submission — getting through Apple and Google review, which is its own step with its own rejections.
Quotes in this market range from around AED 15,000 to well over AED 300,000, and the spread is almost entirely scope rather than quality. An app with six screens and no back end is a different project from one with user accounts, payments and an admin system, even though both get called “an app”.
The question that separates quotes fastest: what is the back end, and who builds it? Anything with accounts, orders or content needs a server behind it, and quotes that omit this are quoting half the project.
How much does app development cost in the UAE?
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Mobile app — iOS and Android, 6–8 weeks | from AED 9,999 |
| User authentication and profiles | AED 1,500 |
| Push notifications setup | AED 1,000 |
| Payment integration (Stripe or local gateway) | AED 2,500 |
| Booking or appointment system | AED 3,000 |
| Real-time chat or messaging | AED 3,500 |
| Maps and location features | AED 1,500 |
| Each screen beyond six | AED 1,200 |
A realistic ordering or booking app — accounts, push notifications, payments and a few extra screens — lands around AED 16,000 to AED 20,000. Store developer accounts are separate and paid directly to Apple and Google, and should be opened in your own company name rather than your developer’s.
Do you work with companies in Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates?
Yes. App projects run remotely almost by default — the work is design reviews, builds and test versions on your own phone, none of which require being in the same room. We work with clients in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the northern emirates on the same terms.
Two UAE-wide considerations rather than emirate-specific ones. Payment gateways require a trade licence and corporate bank account regardless of where you are licensed, and mainland versus free zone affects approval rather than price — start that application before the build, because it regularly takes longer than the app. Arabic matters more for consumer apps than for internal tools, and it is a decision to make at the design stage, not after, because right-to-left layout changes the screens rather than just the text.
What kind of apps do you build?
ChickenWay — an ordering app for a restaurant, where the constraint was placing an order in under a minute and getting it right. Saved addresses and fast reorder are what make an F&B app worth building at all.
Novomed — healthcare, where the app sits alongside the website and the requirements are appointment booking and privacy rather than persuasion.
The pattern in both: repeat usage. Apps earn their cost when customers come back. For a business whose customers buy once a year, a mobile-first website does the same job without the download step.
Should you build an app or a mobile website?
Our honest answer to most enquiries is a mobile website first. An app requires someone to visit a store, download it and keep it — and acquiring those downloads is a marketing cost most businesses have not budgeted for. A website is one tap from a search result.
Build the app when three things are true together: customers use you repeatedly, they need something a browser cannot do, and you have a route to getting it installed. If any one is missing, the money is better spent elsewhere. See website design and development if that is the honest answer for you.
How long does it take?
Six to eight weeks from the point we have your content, brand assets and a signed-off screen list, plus one to three days for Apple review. Two things sit outside that estimate: payment gateway approval, and any integration with a system you already run.
The fastest projects are the ones that decide what version one does not do. Apps that ship have a narrow first release.
Common questions
Do we own the app?
Yes — the code, and the store listings, which should be under your own Apple and Google developer accounts from day one.
What happens after launch?
iOS and Android ship major versions yearly and apps break against them. Budget roughly 15 to 20 percent of the build cost annually to keep an app healthy. Ours include 60 days of post-launch support.
iOS first, or both?
Both. The UAE market splits meaningfully between the two, and shipping one platform makes you invisible to roughly half your users. Our pricing covers both because building them separately is the expensive route.
Can you work with our existing system?
Often, if it exposes an API. Tell us what you run and we will confirm before quoting rather than after.
Talk to us
Send the details and you get a fixed scope and a fixed price back. Contact us, message us on WhatsApp, or call +971 58 578 5380. Full pricing is on our packages page, and mobile app development covers the service overview.