First published on tychelabs.net.
We read 80 UK agency websites on 27 October 2026 to find out what they publish about price. Here are the figures, the medians and the full dataset, with every number linked to the page it came from.
Most UK agencies do not tell you what they charge. On 27 October 2026 we checked the websites of 80 UK app and web agencies; 66 were live, UK-based and in scope. Only 12 of the 66 (18%) publish any price of their own: a starting price for an app, a website package, a support plan or a day rate. Another 11 publish a market cost guide, with typical ranges for the whole market, but no price of their own. 43 (65%) publish nothing at all.
Where agencies do publish, the numbers are these:
- App builds: 9 agencies publish a starting price. The median is £14,000, and the range runs from £5,000 to £60,000 [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].
- Websites: 3 agencies publish a starting price: £3,000 for a brochure site, £12,000, and £25,000 for a full web project [2][11][13].
- Monthly support: 4 agencies publish a plan. Website support starts at £75 and £950 a month; app support at £675 and £1,000 a month [1][3][12][15].
- Day rates: 3 agencies publish one: about £390, £650 to £1,200, and £950 a day. A fourth publishes £90 an hour for website support [1][7][11][14].
- Market guides: across the 13 market cost guides we could verify, the cheapest band each one names has a median starting point of £15,000 and a median top of £60,000 [3][6][7][8][16][17][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].
The full dataset is a free download [18]: one row per agency, with the page each figure came from and the words it was quoted in.
Who publishes prices, and who does not
| What the agency publishes | Agencies | Share of 66 |
|---|---|---|
| Any price of its own (app, website, support or rate) | 12 | 18% |
| A starting price for an app build | 9 | 14% |
| A monthly support or maintenance price | 4 | 6% |
| A day or hourly rate | 4 | 6% |
| A website price | 3 | 5% |
| A market cost guide only, no own price | 11 | 17% |
| Both its own price and a market guide | 6 | 9% |
| Nothing about price at all | 43 | 65% |
The pattern is regional as well as general. The 12 agencies that publish come from London (2), the Midlands (3), the South West (3), the North West (2) and Yorkshire (2). None of the 26 agencies we checked in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North East, the South East or the East of England publishes a price of its own.
Why so few? The usual reason is that scope varies too much for one number. Scorchsoft puts it in a line: "the same idea can honestly cost £10k or £200k" [26]. That is true, but it leaves buyers with no anchor at all, and the agencies that do publish show it can be done: Bluesparrow Apps lists three app tiers at £14,000, £19,000 and £31,000 [5]; Atomic Smash answers "How much do you charge?" with "Our day rate is £950 +VAT" [14].
App build prices agencies publish
These are the agencies' own prices, as stated on their own pages on 27 October 2026, excluding VAT unless the agency says otherwise.
| Agency | Region | What they publish | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pixelbeard | North West | AI-assisted builds "from around £5,000 for a basic app" | [4] |
| Scorchsoft | Midlands | "A bespoke project under £7.5k is unlikely" (a floor, not a price list) | [8] |
| Magora | London | Startup MVP from £10,000; full production build £25,000 to £60,000 | [2] |
| Fifteen Design | Midlands | Bespoke app "begins at a competitive rate of £10,000" | [9] |
| Bluesparrow Apps | South West | Three tiers: £14,000, £19,000 and £31,000 | [5] |
| Foresight Mobile | North West | Simple app or MVP £15,000 to £40,000; complex £80,000 or more | [3] |
| Newicon | South West | Live software "from around £50,000 to £500,000+" | [10] |
| The Distance | Yorkshire | A product built on its own platform "usually falls between £60,000 and £90,000" | [6] |
| Pocketworks | Yorkshire | MVP £60,000 to £250,000 | [7] |
The median of the nine starting figures is £14,000. That number hides two different markets. Six agencies start at £5,000 to £15,000 and describe small, fixed-scope first versions. Three start at £50,000 to £60,000 and describe a funded product with discovery, design, a back end and a team for months. Both are legitimate. The mistake is comparing a quote from one market with a quote from the other.
Comparing quotes? Put each one through the same three questions: what exactly is in the first release, who owns the code and accounts on day one, and what does it cost per month after launch. Our free estimator gives you a range for your own app in a few minutes, so you have an anchor before the first call.
Website prices agencies publish
Only three agencies in the sample publish a website price, so treat this as three data points, not a market median.
| Agency | Region | What they publish | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ALT Agency | Midlands | Small brochure website from £3,000 + VAT; small website with advanced functionality £4,000 to £8,000 + VAT | [11] |
| Creative Brand Design (CreativeWeb) | London | "Projects start from £12,000. Average project size is around £20,000 to £25,000." | [13] |
| Magora | London | Full production mobile or web project £25,000 to £60,000 | [2] |
One more agency, KIJO in Birmingham, says in its homepage FAQ that most web design projects in the city "start around £10,000", with mid-range custom builds between £12,000 and £30,000 [27]. It frames that as the local market, not its own price list, so it sits in the market column of the dataset.
Support, maintenance and day rates
| Agency | What they publish | Source |
|---|---|---|
| ALT Agency | Website maintenance and support packages from £75 a month (up to £375); ad hoc support £90 + VAT an hour | [11][12] |
| Foresight Mobile | App Care plans at £675, £995 and £1,495 a month | [3] |
| Atomic Smash | Website support and maintenance from £950 + VAT a month; day rate £950 + VAT | [14][15] |
| Magora | Maintenance retainer from £1,000 a month; from £49 an hour per developer, "about £390 a day" | [1] |
| Pocketworks | £650 to £1,200 a day "for an agency like Pocketworks" | [7] |
Two figures we did not count as maintenance: one agency quotes about £200 a month for hosting, and another quotes £3,000 to £30,000 a month for post-launch optimisation, which is ongoing development rather than upkeep. Both are in the dataset with a note.
For comparison, our own plans are public: Website care is £95 a month and App care £550 a month for one live iPhone or iPad app.
What the market guides say an app costs
Seventeen agencies publish a cost guide with market ranges. Thirteen are about apps and we re-read their figures on 27 October. Of the other four, one is in US dollars, one describes savings rather than a price band, one is about websites (KIJO, above) and one we could not re-read. The table takes the cheapest band each guide names, because that is the figure a first-time buyer is looking for.
| Agency guide | Cheapest band it names | Guide date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pulsion Technology | Entry level £3,000 to £18,000 | March 2026 | [24] |
| Big Lemon | MVP £5,000 to £20,000 | not stated | [21] |
| Appoly | From £10,000 | 2020 | [23] |
| Scorchsoft | £10,000 (the same idea can cost £200,000) | not stated | [26] |
| Foresight Mobile | Simple app or MVP £15,000 to £40,000 | not stated | [3] |
| Pocketworks | £15,000 to £50,000 for a self-funded startup | June 2025 | [22] |
| The Distance | From £15,000 | 2026 | [6] |
| Pocket App | MVP £25,000 to £60,000 | February 2026 | [16] |
| Magora (market column) | Startup MVP £25,000 to £80,000 | October 2026 | [1] |
| Vidatec | Simple (MVP) £30,000 to £60,000 | 2026 | [25] |
| 3 Sided Cube | First iOS and Android app £50,000 to £250,000 | 2022 | [20] |
| Pixelbeard | MVP £60,000 to £150,000 "twelve months ago" | 2026 | [19] |
| Sonin | iOS and Android from around £80,000 | May 2026 | [17] |
The median starting point is £15,000 and the median top of the cheapest band is £60,000. The spread is the story: the cheapest band starts anywhere from £3,000 to £80,000, a 27-fold difference for what is nominally the same thing, a first version of an app. Part of that is scope (one platform or two, with or without a back end), part is the kind of client each agency wants, and part is age: three of the guides are from 2020 to 2022, before AI-assisted development started pulling small-project prices down. Pixelbeard says the same MVP scope that cost £60,000 to £150,000 a year ago now costs 35 to 60% less [19].
Method
- Sample: 80 UK agencies that build apps, websites or both, chosen to cover every UK region and a range of sizes. 59 were well-known agencies picked from our knowledge of the market; 21 were added to fill regional gaps (Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the North) and were picked before anyone looked at their prices. 66 were live, UK-based and still trading; 10 sites were unreachable, redirected or for sale, and 4 were excluded (two rebranded or acquired, one sister site, one with no verifiable trading presence).
- What counts: a price the agency states as its own ("our apps start from", "our day rate is", plan prices). Market commentary ("apps typically cost") is recorded separately as a cost guide. We read each site's sitemap for price, pricing, cost, package, plan, rate and fees pages, tried the common paths (/pricing, /packages, /costs), and stopped after about six pages if nothing was found.
- Date: every page was read on 27 October 2026. Prices change; the CSV records the exact URL and quote so anyone can re-check.
- Medians: the app median is the median of each agency's lowest published app figure (n = 9). Market medians use the cheapest band each verifiable guide names (n = 13 for the starting point, n = 9 for the top, where a top is given).
Caveats
- Small numbers. Nine app prices, three website prices and four support prices are enough to show what the published market looks like, not to set a national average.
- Published is not charged. A "from" price is a floor for the smallest project; most clients pay more. Agencies that publish nothing may charge more or less than those that do.
- Selection. We cannot rule out that agencies willing to publish prices differ from those that do not, for example by being smaller or more productised.
- VAT and scope. Some agencies quote excluding VAT and some do not say. A brochure website and a web application both count as a "website" in some lists; we kept each agency's own words.
- Our interest. We are a UK agency and we publish our own prices. We have not included ourselves in the medians.
How to use these numbers
- Decide which market you are in. A first version of one app with one core journey sits in the £5,000 to £40,000 band. Two platforms, a back end, integrations and a team for months sits from £50,000 up.
- Ask for a price before discovery, not after. Agencies that publish prices are telling you a fixed-scope quote is possible. If an agency cannot give a range until a paid discovery phase, ask what discovery costs and what you own at the end of it.
- Price the year, not the build. Monthly support ranges from £75 for a small website to £1,495 for an app plan. Add it to the build price before comparing quotes.
- Check the date. Several of the guides buyers find first were written in 2020 to 2022.
Questions we get asked
How much does an app cost to build in the UK in 2026?
Among the nine UK agencies that publish their own app prices, the median starting price is £14,000, with a range of £5,000 to £60,000. The market cost guides published by 13 agencies put the cheapest band at a median of £15,000 to £60,000. A small first version on one platform sits at the bottom of those ranges; two platforms with a back end sits well above them.
How much does a website cost in the UK?
Only three of the 66 agencies we checked publish a website price: £3,000 for a small brochure site, £12,000 as a starting point with an average of £20,000 to £25,000, and £25,000 to £60,000 for a full web project. Three data points are not a market average, but they show the bands agencies work in.
What day rate do UK app agencies charge?
Three agencies in our sample publish a day rate: about £390 (from £49 an hour), £650 to £1,200, and £950 plus VAT. A fourth publishes £90 plus VAT an hour for website support. Most agencies do not publish a rate at all.
Why don't agencies publish their prices?
Usually because scope varies so much that a single number can mislead. In our check, 43 of 66 agencies published no price and no cost guide. The 12 that do publish show that fixed tiers, starting prices and day rates can be stated clearly without misleading anyone.
Can I use this data?
Yes. The CSV is free to download and reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit Tyche Labs and link to this page. Each row includes the page the figure came from and the words it was quoted in, so you can check any number yourself.
What to do next
- Free: get a price range for your own app from our estimator, then compare it with the bands above.
- Talk it through: book a 20-minute call and we will tell you honestly whether a quote you have looks right, even if we are not the people to build it.
- Fixed price: our iPhone app MVP in 6 to 10 weeks starts at £15,000, typically £15,000 to £25,000, with App Store submission included and the price fixed once the scope is agreed in week one.
Sources
- Magora, "UK software development pricing" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://magora-systems.com/uk-software-development-pricing/
- Magora, "App development cost UK 2026" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://magora-systems.com/app-development-cost-uk/
- Foresight Mobile, "How much does it cost to build an app?" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://foresightmobile.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-an-app
- Pixelbeard, "Build faster" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.pixelbeard.co/build-faster
- Bluesparrow Apps, "Costs of app development" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://bluesparrowapps.com/costs-of-app-development/
- The Distance, "App development costs: what to expect in 2026" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://thedistance.co.uk/insights/app-development-costs-what-to-expect-in-2026
- Pocketworks, "UK app development costs in a nutshell" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://pocketworks.co.uk/blog/uk-app-development-costs-in-a-nutshell/
- Scorchsoft, "App development cost" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.scorchsoft.com/app-development-cost
- Fifteen Design, "App development" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.fifteendesign.co.uk/website-development/app-development/
- Newicon, "Software development cost" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://newicon.net/services/software-development/cost
- ALT Agency, "How much will a website cost me?" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.altagency.co.uk/blog/how-much-will-a-website-cost-me/
- ALT Agency, "Website maintenance" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.altagency.co.uk/services/development/website-maintenance/
- Creative Brand Design (CreativeWeb), homepage (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.cbwebsitedesign.co.uk/
- Atomic Smash, "FAQs" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.atomicsmash.co.uk/faqs/
- Atomic Smash, "Website support and maintenance" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.atomicsmash.co.uk/website-support-and-maintenance-bristol/
- Pocket App, "App development cost in the UK: budget ranges, timelines and what's included" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.pocketapp.co.uk/app-development-cost-in-the-uk-budget-ranges-timelines-and-whats-included/
- Sonin, "How much does an app cost?" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://sonin.agency/insights/how-much-does-an-app-cost/
- Tyche Labs, "UK agency published prices, 27 October 2026" (dataset, CSV): https://www.tychelabs.net/data/uk-agency-prices-2026.csv
- Pixelbeard, "Agency vs in-house: the honest cost of building a dev team in 2026" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.pixelbeard.co/post/agency-vs-in-house-the-honest-cost-of-building-a-dev-team-in-2026
- 3 Sided Cube, "How much does an app cost? (2022)" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://3sidedcube.com/blog/how-much-does-an-app-cost-2022
- Big Lemon, "How much does an app cost to build?" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://biglemon.co.uk/blog/how-much-does-an-app-cost-to-build
- Pocketworks, "App development cost UK" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://pocketworks.co.uk/blog/app-development-cost-uk/
- Appoly, "How much does it cost to develop a mobile app?" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.appoly.co.uk/resources/how-much-does-it-cost-to-develop-a-mobile-app/
- Pulsion Technology, "How much does it cost to develop an app in the UK?" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.pulsion.co.uk/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-develop-an-app-in-the-uk/
- Vidatec, "How much does it cost to build an app in the UK? 2026 guide" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://vidatec.com/uncategorised/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-an-app-in-the-uk-2026-guide/
- Scorchsoft, "How much does it cost to build an app?" (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://www.scorchsoft.com/guides/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-an-app
- KIJO, homepage FAQ (seen 27 Oct 2026): https://kijo.co.uk/
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