How much does it cost to build a small business app?

Updated 22 October 2026

There are four ways to get a small business app: an agency, a freelancer, an app builder you assemble yourself, or a ready-made app with your name on it. The first two usually cost from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars and take months; an app builder costs little, but the work and the app stores are yours; a ready-made app costs a monthly fee and goes live the same day. One question decides it: do you need features only your business has, or do you need to talk to your customers?

Telaio small business app: creating an offer from the phone — Creating an offer from the owner's phone, in a shop's own app.

Hotel app: the Home with the weather, the booking button and the welcome — **The Home** The weather, the button to book, the welcome and the photos: the first thing the guest sees.

Restaurant app: managing menus, the drink list and specials from your phone — **Management** Menus, drink list and specials: switch everything on and off with one tap, whenever you like.

Winery events: the harvest and open days, in the winery’s own app — **Events and Offers** The harvest, open cellar days, and the offer to use in the cellar.

Digital concierge in eight languages: the hotel app in the language of the guest’s phone — **Eight languages, their choice** The app switches itself to the phone’s language, and the guest can change it whenever they like.

Telaio: the fourth way, and the simplest

Your own app, with your name, logo and colours, on your customers’ phones. They install it by scanning a QR code: ten seconds, no App Store, no account.

A model for every trade: restaurant, bar, hotel, B&B and mountain hut, winery, shop and seller
Offers and a digital loyalty card that count by themselves
Notifications, scheduled if you like, to people who said yes
Eight languages, and it works offline
Live the same day, and you update it from your phone

from €59 a month · no setup fee · no commission · cancel any time

Founder code: a reserved price for twelve paid months, plus one month free · Get it ›

Build your app See a client’s app ›

1. An agency

It can build anything: bookings, payments, links to your other systems. A simple first version takes 150 to 400 hours (Techsy, June 2026). Projects reviewed on Clutch typically cost $10,000–$49,999, with an average of about $90,780 and an average timeline of about eleven months. Then maintenance costs 15–20% of the build price every year.

With Telaio: what you’d usually ask an agency for (offers, a loyalty card, notifications, several languages) is already there, ready the same day.

2. A freelancer

Cheaper per hour, and often quicker to start. The risk is that everything depends on one person: if they move on, the app is left with nobody to look after it.

With Telaio: you don’t depend on one person: we look after the platform every day.

3. An app builder

Some services let you assemble an app yourself, from blocks, for a subscription. It costs little, but the time to build it, fill it and keep it up to date is yours, and so is publishing it: Apple charges $99 a year for the App Store, Google a one-time $25.

With Telaio: nothing to build and no app stores: customers install it from a QR code.

4. A ready-made small business app, with your name

That's Telaio's way: the platform already exists, and you get your own app, with your name, logo and colours, on the model of your trade: restaurant, bar, hotel, B&B and mountain hut, winery, shop and seller. It comes with offers, a digital loyalty card and notifications to people who installed the app and said yes; customers install it by scanning a QR code, with no store, account or password.

It costs €59 a month (€69 for hotels and B&Bs), with no setup fee, and goes live the same day. What it doesn't do, said up front: it doesn't sell online, take payments or handle bookings.

What you need, whichever way you go

A logo and colours: they're the face of the app.
The content: your menu, rooms, wines or products, and someone to keep them current.
A way to hand it out: the QR code on the table, in the room, at the counter, on your business card.
A reason to keep it: offers, a loyalty card, news that matters.
Someone who answers when something goes wrong.

With Telaio: you give us your logo and colours; you load the content from your phone, or we do it for you.

How much does it cost to build an app, over three years

A simple custom app, with two years of maintenance, comes to roughly $13,000 to $70,000 over three years for most projects. With Telaio, three years cost €1,476 to €2,124 (€1,728 to €2,484 for hotels and B&Bs), depending on the plan. Loading your content, if you'd like us to do it, is separate, at a price agreed beforehand. Telaio is billed in euro.

Who already uses it

Hotels in Bibione and the Dolomites, a country inn in Farra d’Alpago, a farm restaurant and a winery in Vittorio Veneto, in north-east Italy: each has its own small business app, with its own name.