How Much Does React Native App Development Cost in 2025?  

Apps are a great way to engage your audience and build a loyal customer base. But creating your dream app can cost you a leg and an arm if you aspire to build a native app. Indeed, it takes a lot of money and time to build native applications for platforms like Android and iOS.   

So, many businesses invest in cross-platform app development that helps them develop a mobile app with a single codebase that can run on both Android and iOS. It not only saves time but also minimizes the overall costs and effort in developing an application.  

While there are several frameworks and technologies to create cross-platform apps, React Native stands out with near-native performance, a strong ecosystem, a reusable codebase, pre-built components, and native modules.  

However, if you are considering developing a React Native app, one thing you would like to know is how much it costs to build one. In this blog, we are going to deep dive into this aspect, providing detailed information on how much it costs to build a React Native app and the factors affecting it.  

An Overview of React Native App Development Cost  

For a rough estimate, the cost of react native app development can range between $10,000 – $350,000. But the actual cost varies with the project requirements, app complexity, features, integrations, and several other factors.  

In fact, the cost can even cross the above range depending on the business requirements and customizations. A highly complex enterprise-grade React Native app is likely to cost more. Apart from this, the developer rates can also affect the cost.  

The following table shows the rough estimates for the React Native app cost based on the complexity level of the app.  

Key Factors Affecting the React Native App Development Cost 

Creating a React Native app requires careful planning, technical expertise, and a professional team. Besides, there are other factors like customization, features, team location, etc, that directly impact the cost of developing a React Native app. Let’s check out all these factors in detail to understand how and how much they impact the cost. 

App Complexity 

Needless to say, the more complex your app is, the more time and effort it will require to be built. App complexity isn’t just about complicated features or design; it includes several factors. Starting with app architecture and the backend. Monolithic application architectures can be complex, but they are not as complex as decoupled or microservices-based architectures that require you to work with diverse technologies and frameworks.  

Further, you may choose to build a custom backend that requires extensive planning and careful execution of the app development process. Therefore, this will increase the overall cost of React Native app development.  

Apart from this, another reason for complexity is advanced apps that involve integration of AR/VR, AI, IoT, and other custom functionalities such as payment and login. In-app purchases also make apps more complex, which increases the React Native app development cost. 

Apps can also leverage native device features such as Bluetooth, Barometers, GPS, etc, that make your app more complex and add more dollars to your mobile app development cost. Integration with legacy systems can add extra complexity in React Native app development.  

Based on this factor, React Native apps can be divided into simple, medium, and complex.  

The following table shows the estimated cost of different features.  

Team Location and Size 

Another crucial factor that determines the React Native app development cost is the location and size of the team. Software development rates vary across the globe. For advanced economies, the rates are quite high, and they are considerably lower in growing economies.  

For example, a React app development company in the USA charges higher rates than a company in Asia or Europe. So, understanding the developer rates will help you determine the right app development cost for your project. Let’s check the table below for rates.  

As you can see in the table, development rates are different for various regions of the world, and they are the lowest in Asia. Therefore, Asia is among the hottest places to outsource app development projects. Developing a React Native app is about 5X cheaper in Asia than in the USA.  

Similarly, it is 2X cheaper to develop your app if your development team is located in Europe. So, your React Native app cost significantly varies depending on where you choose to build an app or where your development team is located.  

Team size also plays a crucial role in the cost of developing a React Native app. The larger the team size is, the higher the cost. A bigger team size depends on the project’s complexity and size.  

Breaking Down the React Native App Development Cost as Per the Development Process 

We can do a breakdown of the cost of React Native development based on different steps in the process. Since the development process involves multiple stages, the cost varies for these stages, such as design, coding, integration, and testing. Let’s check out how it varies. 

Requirement Analysis & Planning 

This is the initial phase of your React Native project where brainstorming, team discussions, and the research part take place. In this phase, your tech partner will analyze your business, gather requirements, and define the project scope. It sets the foundation for your React native development and can cost around 5-10% of the total project cost.  

UI/UX Design 

UI/UX design is where stunning visuals meet seamless interactions. This phase entails various tasks like wireframing and prototyping that help visualize the idea of how the app’s UI will look and how users will interact with it. This phase helps build a seamless and engaging user experience paired with a stunning layout, visuals, and elements. The cost of UI/UX design varies depending on an app’s complexity, and it typically ranges from $3,000 – $30,000. 

App Development 

This is the phase where wireframes and prototypes are turned into tangible app solutions. It involves coding the front-end and back-end development. So, there will be a cost for front-end and back-end. Apart from this, your React Native app needs third-party integrations like a payment gateway, authentication, APIs, etc. Hence, the React Native app cost depends on these factors. This phase takes most of the cost in the process, ranging from $15,000 – $100,000 or more as the app’s complexity and scale increase.  

Quality Assurance 

Quality assurance is the phase where your React Native app goes through a stringent testing process to check it for bugs, performance issues, security flaws, and more. This process ensures that your app functions seamlessly on different devices while protecting your data. 10-15% of the total React Native app cost goes into this process, which is usually $2,000 – $20,000.  

Launch 

After development, your app is published on Apple App Store and Google Play Store along with necessary configurations and compliance checks. However, costs are relatively lower in this phase compared to other phases. It is around $500 – $2,000 for every project. Publishing an app on different Google and Apple marketplaces also requires a certain fee.  

Post-Deployment Support & Maintenance 

The development and launch of a React Native app is not the end of the story. Support and maintenance take place after launching an app. This is an essential phase that helps you keep your app up-to-date, secure, and high-performance by eliminating hidden bugs, security loopholes, and updating it to the latest versions of frameworks and technologies. Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it costs around 15-20% of the overall development costs annually, usually in the range of $5,000 – $100,000.  

When is React Native App Development a Good Choice? 

Is React Native the best choice for your mobile app development project? Well, the answer depends on your requirements. React Native is indeed an excellent framework to develop high-end native applications for Android and iOS. It is a reliable framework backed by Meta (formerly Facebook) and powers hundreds of thousands of apps, including top brands like Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft Teams, Amazon Shopping, Shopify, Tesla, PlayStation, and more.  

React Native is the right choice for: 

• Cross-platform app development: If you want to develop a single mobile app for both Android and iOS, React Native is the right choice. It helps build apps with a single codebase.  

• MVPs & startups: If you want to test and validate your app idea with an MVP, React Native can be the right choice to do it.  

• Apps with medium-level complexity: React Native is the best framework to build mobile apps with a medium complexity level. 

• Frequent updates: React Native is suitable for apps that require regular updates or frequent iteration cycles.  

• Time & budget constraints: You can choose React Native development for faster time-to-market and cost-efficient development.   

While there are diverse benefits of React Native app development, it is not without its limitations. There are some downsides too. Let’s check them out.  

React Native is not the most perfect app development framework when: 

• High-performance apps: Apps like gaming, AR/VR, or those that require heavy graphics or 3D rendering.  

• Apps dependent on native features: React Native isn’t the best choice for developing mobile apps that require access to low-level APIs such as NFC, advanced geolocation, Bluetooth, custom camera, etc. 

• Extreme UI/UX needs: Mobile apps that require extreme UI/UX needs are also challenging to build with React Native. 

• Apps with highly complex architecture: React Native isn’t the right choice for creating high-grade enterprise apps that have a very complex architecture. 

To Wrap Up 

Mobile apps are vital for modern businesses to ensure growth and brand engagement. However, when it comes to developing a mobile app, businesses find themselves at the crossroads of native vs cross-platform apps. In this dilemma, app development frameworks like React Native are useful, which help develop cross-platform apps, offering a native experience for each Android and iOS device. 

With this framework, you can create native apps for both Android and iOS using a single codebase. It helps develop mobile apps using a single programming language: JavaScript. Galaxy Weblinks helps you build robust React Native apps with its years of experience and an innovative development approach. Our React Native developers are proficient in this framework with proven experience in developing a wide range of apps for various industries.  

You can discuss your project with us, and we can provide an estimate for the cost of developing a React Native app, putting things into perspective. Contact us now to give us details of your project, so we can offer a precise cost estimate and build a top-notch mobile app.  

Frequently asked questions 

What other frameworks than React Native can be used to develop mobile apps? 

React Native is among the top cross-platform mobile app development frameworks. However, there are many other frameworks to build apps like Flutter, Ionic, SwiftUI, .NET MAUI, Xamarin, and more.  

Why should we choose React Native over other frameworks? 

Choosing React Native for app development offers many advantages: 

• Cross-platform development that offers a low-cost option for developing Android and iOS apps. 

• Faster development with a single codebase for both Android and iOS, and a single programming language ensures a quick time-to-market.  

• App development with React Native requires a smaller team size, as a single codebase is created. 

• Near-native experience with apps created with the React Native framework. 

Is React Native the best choice for mobile app development? 

The answer is both Yes and No, because it is only a matter of project requirements, business goals, type of business, etc. If you want to develop a fully native app for both Android and iOS separately, then this framework isn’t a feasible choice. Similarly, if you want to create a high-end graphics application, then React Native may not meet your expectations. However, it’s the best choice for MVPs, medium-complex apps, budget-constrained apps, and apps with heavy native dependency.