5 min read
If you’re planning to build a mobile app, one of the very first questions you’ll ask is: “How long does it take to develop an app?”
It’s a fair question—time affects your budget, your launch strategy, your investors, your team planning, and the overall momentum of your product. But unlike buying a pre-built product, app development is a custom, iterative, and deeply technical process. Because of that, estimating a mobile app development timeline requires understanding the features, complexity, and team working on the project.
In this comprehensive guide, we break down the app development time frame month-by-month, explain the factors affecting app development time, outline the app development lifecycle stages, and give real examples of what impacts the time required to create an app.
Whether you're planning a small MVP or a large enterprise platform, this guide will help you determine what your app development schedule should look like in 2025 and beyond.
Here’s a high-level look at the average time to develop a mobile app across different complexity levels:
These ranges are industry-accepted and represent the typical end-to-end app development duration from planning to launch.
Estimating how long it takes to build an app isn’t always straightforward. Every app is unique, and countless factors can expand or compress the schedule. This is especially true when navigating different platforms such as iOS or Android, when building custom backend systems, or when designing advanced features like AI, real-time communication, or geo-location.
Below are the biggest contributors to the final duration of a project.
Feature complexity is by far the most influential factor in the app development roadmap timeline.
| Feature | Approx. Duration |
|---|---|
| Create user accounts / email login | 1–2 weeks |
| Social login (Google, Apple, Facebook) | 1–2 weeks |
| Push notifications | 1–2 weeks |
| Payment gateway integration | 2–4 weeks |
| Real-time chat | 4–10 weeks |
| GPS, mapping, & geolocation | 3–6 weeks |
| Video streaming | 6–12 weeks |
| Admin panel development | 4–12 weeks |
| AI/ML recommendations | 4–20+ weeks |
Your iOS app development timeline and Android app development timeline may differ depending on:
Here’s how platform choice affects the custom app development time estimate:
Design is a critical part of the app development lifecycle stages, because UX/UI directly shapes customer satisfaction.
Basic designs take less time, but:
…all add weeks to the timeline.
A simple utility app may need only 2–3 weeks of design work. A high-end app like Uber or Airbnb might require 6–12 weeks.
If your app has any data processing, you’ll need a backend. The backend often determines the majority of the app development process duration—especially for complex apps.
The backend includes:
A lightweight backend may take 4–6 weeks, but a fully customizable, scalable backend can take 3–6+ months.
Your app development schedule depends heavily on:
Larger teams can complete more work in parallel, but also require management, communication, and architecture planning.
Changes in requirements—known as “scope creep”—can add weeks or months of extra work.
A stable scope keeps the timeline predictable. Frequent changes prolong the end-to-end app development duration significantly.
To understand how long it really takes to develop an app, you must understand its major phases. These app development lifecycle stages form the backbone of every project.
Below is a detailed look at each phase, and how long it typically takes.
The first stage of the app development roadmap timeline is all about clarity. It’s when you define:
Deliverables often include:
A thorough discovery phase prevents costly mistakes and rework later.
Design includes:
This stage is crucial because it sets the entire user experience. A poor design foundation almost always leads to delays in development and QA.
Simple apps: 2–4 weeks
Medium apps: 4–6 weeks
Complex apps: 6–12+ weeks
If multiple user types exist (admins, customers, service providers), design expands further.
This is where most of the app development time frame is spent.
Development is split into two major components:
Frontend work includes:
Each screen can take anywhere from 2 to 10 hours depending on complexity.
Backend development includes:
Backend architecture typically takes longer than frontend development, especially for complex platforms.
Simple apps: 2 months
Medium apps: 4–7 months
Complex apps: 8–18+ months
This is the longest stage of the mobile app development timeline.
A strong QA process reduces post-launch bugs and protects your brand.
Testing includes:
QA usually overlaps with development for efficiency.
The final step of the app development lifecycle is publishing the app.
Tasks include:
Apple reviews take 2–7 days; Google Play can approve within hours.
After approval, you’re officially live.
Developers often say:
“Launching the app is just the beginning.”
Post-launch time includes:
This becomes an ongoing part of your long-term app development schedule.
Here are practical timelines showing the time required to create an app based on complexity.
Examples:
These apps often require no backend and minimal UI/UX work.
Examples:
They typically require:
Examples:
These involve:
This level includes the most challenging and extensive app development process duration.
If you want to reduce your app development time frame, here are proven strategies:
Focus on core features first, not everything your competitors have. This approach shortens the custom app development time estimate significantly.
Flutter or React Native can reduce timelines by 30–50% while still producing high-performance apps.
This is especially beneficial for startups with limited budgets or aggressive launch schedules.
Instead of building every backend component from scratch, you can use:
These services accelerate the end-to-end app development duration dramatically.
Changing features mid-project almost always results in delays.
Design frameworks and component libraries can shave weeks off the app development roadmap timeline.
Experienced developers:
…all of which reduce the timeline and cost.
After reviewing all phases of the app development lifecycle, we can confidently summarize the average time to develop a mobile app.
Simple Apps:
2–4 months
Medium-Level Apps:
4–9 months
Complex Custom Apps:
9–18+ months
The more features and complexity your app requires, the longer your mobile app development timeline will be.
That’s why proper planning, professional design, and strategic development decisions significantly speed up the timeline and reduce long-term costs.
