Skip to content

Build · Mobile Apps

Mobile app development for iOS and Android

We build and ship mobile apps that reach the store and stay there — five of ours are live right now, across fintech, legal education, tax and school safety.

Get a scoped estimate What you get

Typical timeline: 6-16 weeks for a first release, depending on scope

Illustration: Mobile AppsiOSAndroid

Deliverables

What you get

Concrete outputs, agreed in writing before work starts.

  • Native iOS development in Swift
  • Native Android development in Kotlin
  • Cross-platform builds in React Native or Flutter
  • App Store and Google Play submission, including review responses
  • Post-launch maintenance and OS-version upgrades

Who it is for

Is this you?

  • Founders taking a validated idea to both app stores
  • Businesses whose customers expect an app, not a website
  • Teams replacing an app that has become impossible to change

How we work

From first call to live product

  1. 01

    Discover

    We learn the problem, the users and the constraints, and tell you what we would and would not build.

  2. 02

    Design

    Flows and screens designed with the engineers in the room, so what you approve is what ships.

  3. 03

    Build

    Short cycles with a working build you can try every week, not a reveal at the end.

  4. 04

    Launch

    Store submission or deployment, monitoring switched on, and a rollback ready.

  5. 05

    Support

    OS upgrades, platform deadlines and new features, on a schedule rather than in a panic.

Most app projects do not fail at the coding stage. They fail at submission, at the first OS upgrade, or three months in when nobody can safely change the code. We build for the whole lifecycle, which is why the apps we have shipped are still on the stores.

What we actually do

We take an app from a defined scope to a live store listing, then keep it working as iOS and Android change underneath it. That includes the parts teams usually discover late: store review responses, privacy disclosures, and the OS-version upgrade that arrives every September whether or not the roadmap allowed for it.

Native or cross-platform

This is the first real decision and it is worth getting right, because reversing it is expensive.

Cross-platform — React Native or Flutter — is the right default when the product is content-, form- or data-led and the audience is split across both platforms. One codebase, one release schedule, both stores. Four of our five shipped apps took this route.

Native — Swift or Kotlin — earns its extra cost when the product depends on the platform itself: sustained camera or video pipelines, background location, tight OS integration, or performance work where the framework layer is the bottleneck.

We will tell you which one your project needs, including when that answer is the cheaper one. Our React Native vs Flutter comparison sets out how we choose.

What it costs

App development spans a very wide range, and any agency quoting a single number before understanding scope is guessing. Independent Canadian surveys put most professional builds between roughly USD 18,000 and 64,000, with agency rates around USD 65–115 per hour — and complexity, not platform count, is the dominant factor.

What the market charges, in US dollars

Typical professional app build
USD 18,000–64,000
Agency rates, per hour
USD 65–115
Freelancer rates, per hour
USD 35–65
Market figures from Canadian surveys, converted from Canadian dollars at the Bank of Canada daily average exchange rate of 1 USD = 1.4002 CAD on September 18, 2026. These are market ranges, not our quotes. Source rate.

We scope before we quote. For a breakdown of what actually drives the number, see what an app really costs to build in Ontario.

Apps we have shipped

We also build and publish our own apps, including Arrow Ark on the App Store — so the store submission and live-ops process is one we run for ourselves, not only for clients.

Related work

Reading on this

Common questions

How much does it cost to build a mobile app in Canada?

Independent Canadian surveys put most professional app builds between roughly USD 18,000 and 64,000, with agency rates around USD 65–115 per hour (converted from Canadian dollars). Complexity drives the number, not platform count. Payments or heavy integration sit well above the low end.

Full answer
How long does it take to build a mobile app?

A first release usually takes between 6 and 16 weeks. Straightforward content-led apps reach the store in around 6 to 8 weeks; anything with payments, real-time features or significant third-party integration runs to 12 to 16 or beyond. Store review adds days, not weeks, but rejection and resubmission can add more.

Full answer
Should we build native or cross-platform?

Use cross-platform (React Native or Flutter) when your app is content, form or data-led and your audience spans both platforms. Choose native (Swift or Kotlin) when the product depends on the platform: sustained camera pipelines, background location, or a profiled framework performance ceiling.

Full answer
What privacy law applies to apps in Canada?

PIPEDA is the federal law covering how private-sector organisations collect, use and disclose personal information in Canada, and it applies if your app handles personal data commercially. Bill C-27 has been proposed to replace it. Some provinces have similar laws. General information, not legal advice.

Full answer

Other services

Let's talk

Tell us what you are building

Send us the scope and we will come back with an honest assessment: what it takes, roughly what it costs, and whether we are the right people for it.

Start the conversation See our work
  • A written reply from an engineer
  • No call required
  • No obligation