Worked example

Digital banking app development cost

Accounts, cards, transfers and a ledger that must balance. Priced as an app with similar functionality to Chime or Revolut, at US rates and launch scope.

A feature-complexity comparison, not an official estimate for any named company’s product. This site is not affiliated with them.
Estimated development cost
$1,150,000 – $1,600,000
Timeline9.7 – 13.4 months
Engineering hours8,600 – 10,900
Team9 people
Blended US rate$140/hr

Planning range, not a quote. Every figure comes from the same engine the calculator runs on.

Why it costs this

What makes it expensive

Correctness is not optional when the product is money. A double-entry ledger, idempotent writes and settlement reconciliation are a large unglamorous backend, and KYC, AML and fraud each add both a product surface and an operations queue somebody has to staff.

What is in scope

  • KYC and sanctions screening
  • Double-entry ledger and reconciliation
  • Card issuing through a sponsor platform
  • Fraud scoring and a dispute workflow
Finance & FintechFinance / bankingiOSAndroid
Cost breakdown

Where the money goes

The six largest disciplines in this build. The calculator shows all 11, itemised down to individual features.

Largest cost disciplines
DisciplineHoursShareCost
Backend engineering3,02533%$450,000
Security & compliance90012%$150,000
QA & testing1,40010%$135,000
Project management9109%$120,000
iOS engineering7008%$100,000
DevOps & cloud6307%$95,000
Scope options

The same product at four standards of finish

Identical answers, four levels of depth. This is usually the most useful comparison on the page, because it is the decision you actually control.

MVP$650K – $900K7.4 – 10.2 months · 5,400 hrs
Standard$900K – $1.25M8.8 – 12 months · 7,600 hrs
Advanced$1.15M – $1.6M9.7 – 13.4 months · 9,550 hrs
Enterprise$1.48M – $2.05M11.1 – 15 months · 12,200 hrs

Advanced is highlighted because that is what this example is configured at.

After launch

What it costs to keep running

Separate from the build, because operating cost scales with usage and development cost does not.

Cloud & vendors
$8,550 – $34,550

per month at 45,000 monthly users

Annual maintenance
$330,000 – $370,000

24% – 28% of build cost

Architecture
Cached & load balanced

78 peak concurrent users

Price your own digital banking app

Open this configuration and change anything — platforms, features, traffic, compliance. The estimate follows every answer.