What Does It Cost to Design an App?
UI design for an app typically costs SEK 100,000–400,000 in Sweden in 2026. The price depends on the number of unique screens, how many platforms the design must adapt to, and how much custom visual style is developed. A smaller app with few screens sits at the lower end, while apps with their own component libraries land higher.
When you gather quotes for an app, the design is often a single line: “design included.” But UI design – the interface the user sees and touches – is its own line item with its own cost drivers, separate from research and flow work. Here’s the pricing picture for 2026 and what determines whether the design budget actually shows up in the finished app.
What’s included in UI design for an app?
UI design picks up where the overall UX work leaves off. The flows are decided – now every screen has to be drawn so it can be built.
A typical deliverable includes:
- Visual style – colors, typography and iconography adapted to the brand.
- Component library – buttons, forms, lists and cards in all their states.
- Finished screens – every screen in its normal state, but also empty, loading and error states.
- Interactions – transitions, gestures and micro-animations that bring the app to life.
- Handoff – structured design files, tokens and documentation that developers build from.
Research, information architecture and user testing are separate line items. Don’t lump them in with UI design when comparing quotes – that’s comparing apples with oranges.
Price range: SEK 100,000–400,000
| Scope | Typical cost | What it usually involves |
|---|---|---|
| Smaller app, 5–10 screens | SEK 100,000–180,000 | Standard components with a custom visual style, one platform |
| Medium app, 10–25 screens | SEK 180,000–300,000 | Custom components, adaptation for both iOS and Android |
| Larger app with a design system | SEK 300,000–400,000+ | Complete component library, animations, documentation |
The number of screens is the strongest price driver. A screen is also rarely a single image: a five-step booking flow with error messages and a receipt view is, in practice, maybe ten screens that all need to be drawn and hang together.
The second platform doesn’t double the price – most of it is reused – but navigation, component behavior and typography need adapting. Expect a markup of roughly 15–30 percent.
HIG and Material Design set the frame
Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and Google’s Material Design describe how apps are expected to look and behave on each platform. Designing with the guidelines instead of against them does three things: users recognize the patterns, app store review goes more smoothly, and developers can use proven components.
A good app designer puts the distinctiveness where it shows and pays off – color, typography, illustrations and the key flows – and follows platform standards for the rest. Inventing your own date picker costs design hours, development hours and bugs, without making the app any better.
The handoff decides whether the budget pays off
The most common reason an app doesn’t end up looking like the mockups isn’t bad design – it’s a bad handoff. If developers are forced to interpret static images freehand, a gap opens up between design and code that costs at both ends.
So require that the deliverable includes:
- Design tokens – colors, typography and spacing defined as values that are read into the code.
- Components with states – variants named so they map to the developers’ component library.
- Documentation – how components may be combined and what happens in edge cases.
At Weapp we design and build apps under the same roof – like Sejfa, a digital home insurance product for young adults – and our experience is that it’s in the seam between design and code that design budgets either pay off or run into the sand.
Worked example: a booking app with 15 screens
Say your app has 15 unique screens, a custom visual style, and is being released on both iOS and Android. Expect roughly SEK 200,000–280,000 and 6–8 weeks of design work, including the component library and handoff.
If you also want your own icon library and an animated onboarding flow, you move toward the upper end of the range. If you drop Android from the first version and settle for standard icons, you instead land around SEK 150,000–200,000. That’s how you should use the range: every choice has a price tag, and it’s cheaper to choose before the design work starts than after.
How to get the most out of the design budget
- Prioritize screens by business value – onboarding and the core flow first, admin screens and edge cases last.
- Order components, not screens. Twenty screens built from ten components are cheaper than twenty unique screens.
- Require tokens and documentation in the deliverable, not just pretty pictures.
- Have a developer review the design continuously, not only once everything is drawn.
Want to know what your specific app would cost to design? Get in touch with sketches or a feature list, and you’ll get a range to budget against.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between UX design and UI design?
UX design is the whole picture: research, flows, structure and testing. UI design is the visual and interactive surface – screens, components and visual style. In quotes, UI design is often its own line item, and that's the item the price ranges on this page apply to.
Can the same design be used for both iOS and Android?
Largely, yes. The visual style, colors and most screens are reused, but navigation, component behavior and typography need to be adapted to each platform's guidelines. Expect a markup of roughly 15–30 percent for the second platform, not double the price.
How long does UI design for an app take?
A smaller app often takes 3–5 weeks to design, a medium-sized one 6–10 weeks including the component library and handoff. The time depends on the number of screens, how many decision rounds you need, and how quickly you give feedback on drafts.
What are design tokens?
Design tokens are design decisions – colors, typefaces, spacing and corner radii – defined as named values that can be read directly into the code. They let design changes take effect everywhere at once, and keep the app looking like the mockups even after many releases.
Is it cheaper to use an off-the-shelf UI kit?
Yes, an off-the-shelf kit can cut the design cost substantially for an internal app or an early MVP. The price is that the app looks generic and the kit rarely covers all your cases. For a consumer app where the first impression matters, a custom visual style is usually worth the money.