Insurance app development cost
A policyholder self-service app on top of an existing policy system runs $120,000 to $200,000. A quoting and claims platform with rating rules, document handling and adjuster tooling runs $350,000 to $700,000.
Cross-platform mobile, 30 screens, 3 user roles, with the compliance posture this vertical carries.
- Timeline
- 5.8 – 7.9 months
- Engineering hours
- 2,950 – 3,750
- Data sensitivity
- 5 of 5
- Default security posture
- Audited
Compliance and security add $67,069 here
That is 15% of this build, measured rather than asserted: we priced the identical app with no named regime and a baseline security posture, and this is the difference. None of it produces a user-visible feature, and none of it can be retrofitted cheaply.
Regimes that apply in this vertical
- SOC 2 Type IINobody by law. In practice it is the entry ticket for selling software to any US mid-market or enterprise buyer, and it is asked for during procurement rather than after.
- $20K – $48K audit
- GDPRAnyone offering services to people in the EU or UK, wherever your company is. A US-only product with US-only users is generally outside it.
- $0 – $12K audit
- CCPA / CPRABusinesses over the revenue or data thresholds with California consumers. In practice, most US consumer products at any scale.
- $0 – $8K audit
- HIPAACovered entities -- providers, health plans, clearinghouses -- and their business associates. A direct-to-consumer wellness app is usually outside it until it contracts with one of those.
- $8K – $26K audit
- PCI DSSAnyone handling card data. Hosted fields keep card data off your servers and reduce this to a self-assessment rather than a full audit -- which is a large cost difference.
- $4K – $22K audit
Systems you will likely integrate with
- Custom / in-house APIA system you own, but did not build for this product.
- moderate
- StripePayments, subscriptions, payouts and hosted checkout.
- moderate
- SalesforceObject mapping, bulk API, field-level sync, sandbox cycles.
- complex
- ERP (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics)Master data, orders and financials against a system of record.
- complex
- SendGrid / PostmarkTransactional email, templates, deliverability and DMARC setup.
- simple
What makes insurance different
Rating and underwriting are rules engines
Quoting logic varies by state, product and risk class, and it changes on a filing schedule. It has to be configurable rather than coded, which is more work up front and far less later.
Claims is a workflow product
First notice of loss, documentation, adjuster assignment, reserves and settlement is a long-running stateful workflow with an audit trail on every transition.
Legacy policy administration
The system of record is usually decades old and integrates over files or SOAP. Budget integration time in weeks, not days.
Who uses software in this vertical
Each additional role brings its own screens plus a row in a permission matrix that grows faster than the role count — because every new role is a question about every role that already exists.
End customer
The public-facing app
Staff / operator
Day-to-day operational screens
Manager / supervisor
Approvals, oversight, reporting
Administrator
Configuration, users, permissions
Compliance officer
Access reviews, audit logs, incident response
Four standards of finish
The same app in insurance, built to four different levels of depth.
| Level | Cost range | Timeline | Hours | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVP Prove it works | $280K – $390K | 4.8 – 6.7 months | 2,375 | 7 |
| Standard Production ready | $390K – $550K | 5.8 – 7.9 months | 3,275 | 7 |
| Advanced Built to grow | $490K – $675K | 6.5 – 8.8 months | 4,150 | 7 |
| Enterprise Audited and integrated | $650K – $875K | 7.4 – 9.9 months | 5,350 | 7 |
per month, cloud and vendors, at 45,000 monthly users
21% – 28% of build cost
Drives peak concurrency, and therefore the architecture.