What does a club app cost to build?
Quotes for a club app range from a few thousand to well over a hundred thousand, which tells you the question is badly specified. Here is what each route actually costs.
The three routes
| Route | Up front | Ongoing |
|---|---|---|
| Custom build | €25,000–90,000+ | Maintenance contract, usually 15–20% a year |
| White label platform | Setup fee | Monthly licence |
| Template app builder | Low | Low, but rarely fit for a club |
What the custom quote leaves out
An agency quote covers building the app. It usually does not cover:
- Two platforms. iOS and Android are separate builds unless the quote specifies cross-platform.
- The backend. An app with no content system is an empty shell. Someone has to build the thing that feeds it.
- Live data. Fixtures, results and scores come from somewhere. That is either a licensed feed or a person typing.
- Store maintenance. Apple and Google change requirements yearly. An app that is not updated stops working, usually within eighteen months.
- Developer accounts. Apple charges annually, Google once.
The eighteen-month rule. A custom app that nobody maintains will break within about eighteen months, because the operating systems move underneath it. Budget for maintenance or budget for rebuilding.
Why platform pricing is usually cheaper
The maintenance is shared. When Apple changes a requirement, it gets fixed once for every club on the platform rather than once per club at agency rates.
The trade-off is that you get the platform's app, configured for your club, not something designed from scratch. For most clubs at this level that is the right trade — a bespoke app that nobody maintains is worse than a shared one that stays current.
The cost nobody quotes for
Content. An app with nothing new in it gets deleted, and the deletion is permanent in a way a website visit is not.
Before commissioning anything, work out who is posting to it on a Tuesday in the off-season. If the answer is nobody, the app will fail regardless of what it cost. That is covered in why most club apps are opened once and deleted.
What we charge
The app is included from our Season tier upward, with the website, live match centre and supporter database. Full pricing is on the pricing page, and the surrounding platform on matchday and team apps.
What a custom quote breaks down into
Agency quotes arrive as a single number. Broken apart, a typical €45,000 club app looks like this:
| Component | Share | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Design | ~15% | Screens, states, brand application |
| iOS and Android build | ~40% | Two platforms, or one cross-platform codebase |
| Backend and CMS | ~25% | The system that feeds the app content |
| Integrations | ~10% | Push, analytics, any data feed |
| Testing and store submission | ~10% | Device testing, review process |
Note what is absent: content, live sport data, and every subsequent year of maintenance. Those are the three lines that decide whether the app is still working in season three.
The ongoing cost, honestly
- Maintenance contract — typically 15–20% of build cost annually, covering OS updates and store requirement changes
- Apple Developer — annual, per account
- Google Play — one-off registration
- Push infrastructure — free at club volumes on most providers
- Data feed licensing — where your competition charges for it
- Content — the largest real cost, and never in the quote
A club budgeting €45,000 and nothing else will have a broken app within two seasons. Budget the maintenance or budget the rebuild.
Why platform pricing is usually lower
Maintenance is shared. When Apple changes a requirement, it is fixed once for every club on the platform rather than once per club at agency day rates. The same applies to new OS versions, store policy changes and security patches.
The trade-off is real: you get the platform's app configured for your club, not something designed from scratch. For most clubs at this level that is the correct trade, because a bespoke app nobody maintains is worse than a shared one that stays current.
The cost that decides everything
Content. An app with nothing new in it gets deleted, and unlike a website visit, that deletion is permanent.
Before commissioning anything, answer honestly: who is posting to this on a Tuesday in the off-season? If the answer is nobody, the app fails regardless of what it cost to build. Two or three items a matchday cycle is what a two-person digital team can actually sustain, and any plan requiring more than that is a plan that will not survive contact with a season.
Common questions
What does a club app cost to build?
A custom build typically runs 25,000 to 90,000 euro plus a maintenance contract of 15 to 20 percent a year. A white-label platform charges a setup fee and a monthly licence.
What do agency app quotes leave out?
Two platforms, the backend that feeds the app, live data, ongoing store maintenance, and developer account fees.
Why do unmaintained apps break?
Apple and Google change requirements yearly. A custom app that nobody maintains typically stops working within about eighteen months.
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