Mobile app development
Mobile apps, and the backend that makes them work.
iOS and Android apps for UK businesses, native where it counts, built on the same kind of Laravel backend we build for web applications. Most of what makes an app good happens on the server, and server work is what we know best.
Apps and the backend behind them
Most of an app is the part you never see
Mobile apps are a newer part of what we do, and we would rather say so up front. What is not new is everything underneath them. Accounts, payments, notifications, integrations, the admin your staff use to run it: that is the same work as a web application, and web applications are what we have built for years.
So we build the app and the backend together, with one named technical lead across both. The API is designed for the app from the first sprint, the admin comes with it, and when you later want a web version or a partner integration, the foundations are already there.
What we build
Everything an app needs to be a product
The app is what people download. The rest is what keeps it running.
Proof
Compound's investor app, built from inside the team
Compound is a UK workplace pension provider. We were embedded in their engineering team, and the work covered their investor app on iOS and Android as well as the staff portal and the pensions platform employers and accountants use.
A lot of the app work happened on the backend. Onboarding moved off the device and onto the server, so the team could change it without waiting for an app release. We take the same approach on every mobile build.
- Investor app on iOS and Android
- Staff portal and pensions platform alongside it
- Onboarding moved from the device to the server
Pricing
What an app costs
Every app starts with a two-week discovery sprint at £5,000. That is where we agree what the first version has to do, what can wait, and the fixed price of the build.
Builds come in three sizes: Launch from £25,000, Growth from £45,000 and Platform from £80,000. Platform builds are delivered with an extended team from our bench of vetted developers, led by the same technical lead. You pay 30% at the start, 40% at beta and 30% at launch.
Once the app is live, Care is £1,250 a month with a six-month minimum. All prices are ex VAT, and you own the code, the accounts and the store listings.
no surprise invoices
Good questions
Things people ask about app builds
Straight answers, no small print.
Apps, built properly
Got an app that needs a proper backend behind it?
Also from Ikigai
Other ways we can help
Web application development
Custom web applications and APIs: customer portals, internal systems, SaaS and integrations built in Laravel, with a named technical lead from discovery to launch.
Laravel development
Laravel applications, Filament admin, APIs, migrations and Laravel developers for hire, from a UK agency that built its own CMS in Laravel.
Bespoke software development
Bespoke software for UK businesses: portals, operations systems, billing and integrations, built in Laravel and Nuxt at a fixed price you own outright.
Embedded developers
Staff augmentation with senior developers: in your team within weeks, on a monthly plan with a named technical lead, weekly worklogs and invoices that explain themselves.