App costs for charities and community groups

What software costs a small charity, how it fits inside a typical grant, what funders ask about sustainability, and when not to spend the money.

The App14 team1 min read

The short answer

A sprint sits inside what a single modest grant covers. That is the whole reason this page exists: for most charities the question has never been whether custom software would help, it is whether it was ever affordable.

Starter App

Launch fast

£3,999£2,999

For small and medium businesses ready to launch their first app.

  • iOS & Android app
  • User login & accounts
  • Push notifications
  • Admin dashboard
  • 14 day delivery
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Advanced App

Built to scale

£6,999£5,999

For advanced apps with complex and heavier customer usage.

  • All starter app features
  • Complex app logic
  • AI and blockchain features
  • Security audits
  • 14 day delivery
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Why the price matters more here

For a commercial client, the difference between £3,000 and £30,000 is a budgeting decision. For a community organisation it decides whether the project exists.

Most agency pricing puts custom software permanently out of reach for organisations of this size, which is why so many run on a spreadsheet maintained by one volunteer.

What funders actually ask

Three questions, and the third is the one that catches people out.

What does it cost? A published fixed price is far easier to put in an application than a quote range.

What will it achieve? Be concrete: hours saved, people reached, reporting that currently takes two weeks.

What happens when the funding ends? This is the one that sinks applications. Our answer: you own the code, the accounts, and the database outright. No licence to renew, nothing that stops a volunteer developer or another studio picking it up. That is a stronger sustainability answer than a subscription.

Running costs after the build

  • Hosting: small at charity volumes.
  • Apple Developer Program, about £79 a year. Google Play, about £20 once.
  • Nothing to us. No licence, no retainer, no renewal.

When not to spend the money

Case studyBuilding for a community movementA membership app for an organisation with no software budget.

Common questions

Do you offer a charity discount?

Our price is the same for everyone. It is already low enough to sit inside a single modest grant, which is unusual in this market and does more good than a percentage off an agency rate would.

Will a funder pay for an app?

Digital and capacity-building funds regularly do. What helps an application is a fixed published price and a clear answer on what happens after the grant ends.

What are the running costs after the build?

Hosting, which is small at charity volumes, and the app store fees. There are no licence fees and nothing to renew with us, which is the part funders care about most.

Want to talk it through?

Tell us what you're trying to build and we'll tell you honestly whether a 14-day sprint is the right way to do it.

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About the author

The App14 team · Design and engineering, Appetite Studio

App14 is the 14-day app sprint run by Appetite Studio, a London-registered design and engineering studio. We design, build, and ship production iOS and Android apps in two weeks, at a published fixed price. Everything we write here comes out of work we have actually delivered: the prices are our real prices, the timelines are our real timelines, and the limits are the ones we genuinely hold to.

Our articles are drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the App14 team before publication. The prices, timelines, delivery record, and client outcomes described are our own.

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