Plan freelance developer costs from scope, capacity, review and handover. Compare equivalent proposals and separate a person's rate from total delivery cost.
What does the assignment actually cost?
A quoted rate alone cannot price a backlog. Compare the same tasks, capacity and duration, then include your team's review time, onboarding, hosting and maintenance. Ask what is included and which assumptions could change the total.
What does an app developer charge per day?
Silkhom, a recruitment firm, publishes a day-rate barometer with its method. Its 2025 edition is based on its placements, its clients' job descriptions and data from more than 20,000 freelancers analyzed from 2019 to 2025, and gives ranges by role, experience and area (Paris, the largest cities, the regions). Treat them as orders of magnitude: the figures come from Silkhom's recruitment business, and Silkhom notes that its averages take experience and programming languages into account and should be weighed against each field's own dynamics.
What drives app development cost?
A day rate tells you what a day costs, not how many you need. A team brings several roles together (development, design, project management, testing), and the days each one needs depend on what the app has to do. The items that weigh:
- Scope: the number of screens and user journeys, and above all the features behind them, such as user accounts, search, notifications or offline mode.
- Platforms: iOS, Android, a web version, or all three. Each added platform means more development, more testing and one more release.
- Integrations: payment, CRM, ERP, maps, messaging or a partner's API. Each one has to be built, tested and followed up when the third-party service changes.
- The back office: the interface where your teams manage content, users and orders, to include from the first estimate.
- Design: starting from an existing interface kit or creating custom screens, tested with users.
- Security and personal data: authentication, encryption, consent, logging. France's data protection authority, the CNIL, has published recommendations for mobile apps aimed at publishers and developers alike.
- Testing: on real devices, across several screen sizes and operating system versions.
- What already exists: taking over an app or connecting to an older system starts with understanding it.
How should you compare proposals?
Keep currency, billing unit and included responsibilities consistent. Ask who handles coordination and replacements. SDK quotes the actual brief; this guide gives no SDK price or universal market rate. Request written assumptions before committing.
Key takeaways
- A quoted rate alone cannot price a backlog.
- Keep currency, billing unit and included responsibilities consistent.
- The cost of an app: days of work multiplied by a day rate, plus fixed fees and maintenance
FAQ
What does the assignment actually cost?
A quoted rate alone cannot price a backlog. Compare the same tasks, capacity and duration, then include your team's review time, onboarding, hosting and maintenance. Ask what is included and which assumptions could change the total.
How should you compare proposals?
Keep currency, billing unit and included responsibilities consistent. Ask who handles coordination and replacements. SDK quotes the actual brief; this guide gives no SDK price or universal market rate. Request written assumptions before committing.
I am not sure exactly who I need. Can you help?
Yes. Describe the problem in your brief or on a call and we help you shape the role. If it turns out you need a project delivered instead, we can do that too.
Sources
- Silkhom: Baromètre des TJM 2025 dans l'informatique et le digital (accessed September 29, 2026)