The Cheapest Way to Get a Real iOS App in Marbella (2025)

If you're searching for the cheapest iOS app developer in Marbella, you've probably already seen the range: freelancers quoting €300, agencies quoting €15,000, and no clear explanation for why there's a 50x difference.

This post is going to cut through that. I'll explain what cheap app development on the Costa del Sol actually looks like in 2025, what you genuinely get for €690, and where the traps are. No marketing fluff. Just the engineering reality.

What "cheap" actually means in iOS development

Let's start with a distinction that matters: cheap and affordable are not the same thing.

Cheap means cutting corners. It means a developer who uses outdated tools, skips testing, delivers something that looks like it was built in 2017, and disappears when you need a fix. Cheap means you pay twice — once for the initial build and again to rebuild it properly.

Affordable means getting legitimate work at a price that makes sense for what you need. It means scoping the project honestly, stripping out features you don't need yet, and delivering something real within a constrained budget.

When someone searches for "cheap iOS app Marbella," they usually want the second thing. They want affordable app development on the Costa del Sol that doesn't require a massive commitment just to test an idea. That's a reasonable thing to want. The problem is that most of the market doesn't serve this need well.

The typical options break down like this: you either go very cheap and get garbage, or you go to an agency and pay for a full product build before you know if your idea even works. There's almost nothing in between.

That gap is exactly what we built our App Launch tier to fill.

What €690 actually gets you

At QPC8, the App Launch package costs €690. Here's what's included, with no ambiguity.

A native Swift iOS app. Not React Native. Not Flutter. Not a web app wrapped in a container. Actual Swift code compiled for iOS, running natively on iPhones. This matters because native apps are faster, smoother, and don't break in weird ways when Apple releases a new iOS version.

A single-purpose application. This is an app that does one thing well. A branded info app for your business. A simple utility. A portfolio showcase. A single-feature tool. Think of it as the minimum viable version of your idea — the thing that lets you put a real app in people's hands and see if it resonates.

Template UI kit. You get a clean, professional interface built from a proven design system. It won't be a fully custom design with bespoke animations and hand-crafted interactions. It will look good, feel native to iOS, and function correctly. Think clean typography, proper spacing, standard iOS navigation patterns. Professional, not custom.

App Store submission. We handle the entire submission process. That includes creating the App Store listing, preparing screenshots, writing the description, configuring metadata, and submitting to Apple for review. If you've never done this, trust me — the App Store submission process is its own special kind of bureaucratic friction. Having someone who's done it before handle it saves you hours of frustration.

Basic analytics. You'll know how many people are using your app, what they're doing, and where they're dropping off. Not a full analytics suite, but enough to make informed decisions about whether to invest further.

One revision round. After the initial build, you get one round of feedback and changes. This is enough to catch things that don't feel right and polish the experience before launch.

What it doesn't get you

This is the part most developers won't be upfront about. The App Launch tier at €690 is deliberately limited. Here's what's not included — and why.

No backend or API. Your app runs entirely on the device. It doesn't connect to a server. It doesn't sync data across devices. It doesn't have a database in the cloud. This means no user accounts, no server-side logic, no dynamic content that updates without pushing an app update. For many simple apps, this is fine. For anything that needs to store user data on a server, it's not.

No push notifications. Push notifications require server infrastructure — an API to trigger them, a service to deliver them, logic to decide when to send them. That's backend work, and backend work isn't in this tier.

No in-app purchases or payment processing. If your app needs to charge users, you need Apple's StoreKit integration, receipt validation, and typically a backend to manage entitlements. That's a different scope of work.

No custom animations. You get standard iOS transitions and interactions. Not custom parallax effects, not hand-crafted loading animations, not micro-interactions designed by a motion designer.

No ongoing updates. The deliverable is a finished, submitted app. Future feature additions, iOS compatibility updates, and bug fixes after launch are separate work. You own the code, so you can hire anyone to continue it — but continued development isn't included.

I'm spelling this out because honesty up front prevents expensive surprises later. If you need any of the above, you need a bigger scope. That's not a sales pitch — it's just the engineering reality.

The alternatives (and why they often fail)

Before you decide, you should understand what else is available for cheap iOS app development in Marbella and the broader Costa del Sol.

Fiverr and Upwork freelancers: €200-500

You can find developers on freelancing platforms who will quote you €200 to €500 for an iOS app. Some of them will even deliver something. Here's what that typically looks like in practice.

The app is built with a cross-platform framework or a no-code tool, then exported as an iOS build. It looks generic. The performance is sluggish. The code is unmaintainable — you can't hire another developer to pick it up and improve it because it's spaghetti. App Store submission is your problem, and when Apple rejects it (which they often do for quality issues), the freelancer is nowhere to be found.

I've seen businesses come to us after going this route, having spent €400 and three months on something they couldn't use. They end up spending the full amount anyway, plus the lost time. The €200 "saving" cost them €400 plus months of delay.

When it works: Almost never for iOS apps. Freelance platforms can work for simple tasks like graphic design or data entry. Building a production iOS application requires sustained attention, architecture decisions, and accountability that gig-based work rarely provides.

Local agencies in Marbella: €8,000-15,000+

At the other end, local agencies and established studios on the Costa del Sol typically start at €8,000 for even a simple app. Business apps with user accounts, booking systems, or payment processing run €15,000 to €25,000 and up.

These prices aren't inflated — they reflect real work. A full iOS app with backend infrastructure, proper testing, custom design, and ongoing support is a substantial engineering project. The price is legitimate.

The problem isn't the price. It's the mismatch. If you're a small business owner in Marbella who wants to test whether a simple app would help your business, €8,000 is a significant bet. You don't need a full product build. You need a proof of concept. You need the minimum viable version to see if users care before committing to the full investment.

Most agencies can't (or won't) scope that small. Their teams, overhead, and processes are built for larger projects. Asking them for a €690 app is like asking a restaurant to sell you a single ingredient.

DIY app builders: €0-50/month

Platforms like Adalo, Glide, and FlutterFlow let you build app-like things without code. They're getting better every year. But they have fundamental limitations for iOS.

The apps they produce are not native. They're web apps packaged in a wrapper, and users can feel the difference — slower transitions, non-standard UI patterns, that subtle "something's off" sensation that makes an app feel cheap. App Store acceptance is hit-or-miss. Apple has gotten more strict about rejecting apps that are just websites in a container.

More importantly, you hit a ceiling fast. The moment you need something the builder doesn't support, you're stuck. You can't export the code and hand it to a developer. You start over.

When it works: For internal tools that don't need to be on the App Store. For very early prototyping before committing to real development. Not for anything customer-facing where quality matters.

When to upgrade to App Core

The App Launch tier is a starting point. If your app gains traction — if users like it, if it generates business, if you want to add features — the next step is what we call App Core, priced at €2,900 to €5,500.

Here's when you should make that jump:

You need user accounts. The moment your app needs to know who's using it — login, profiles, saved preferences that sync across devices — you need a backend. That's App Core territory.

You need push notifications. If you want to send updates, reminders, or alerts to users, that requires server-side infrastructure.

You need payment processing. Subscriptions, one-time purchases, booking payments — all of these require more than just the app.

You need more than 3-5 screens with real functionality. App Launch is a single-purpose tool. Once you need a multi-screen experience with complex navigation and multiple features, the scope outgrows the starter tier.

You need custom UI design. If your brand demands a unique look that stands apart from the standard iOS design patterns, custom design work takes the project into a different budget range.

The App Core tier gets you a custom UI, 3-5 real features, a backend API, push notifications, an analytics dashboard, App Store optimization, and two rounds of revisions. It's a real product, not a proof of concept.

The smart move is often to start at €690, validate the idea, learn what your users actually want, and then invest €2,900-5,500 to build the real thing informed by actual usage data. That approach costs less and produces better results than guessing your way through a €15,000 build.

The real cost of going too cheap

Here's something I tell every potential client who leads with budget as their primary concern: the cheapest option almost always costs the most.

I don't mean that philosophically. I mean it literally, in euros.

A €300 Fiverr app that doesn't pass App Store review costs you €300 plus the time you spent managing it. A €500 app built with a no-code tool that looks terrible costs you €500 plus the reputation damage of putting something amateurish in front of your customers. A DIY builder that takes you 60 hours to produce something mediocre costs you whatever your time is worth times 60.

Then you come to a real developer and start over. Now you've spent the original amount plus the real development cost plus the opportunity cost of months of delay.

The cheapest viable iOS app in Marbella in 2025 is not €300. It's €690 — because that's the minimum required to produce something that's actually native, actually professional, and actually gets through the App Store. Below that number, you're not saving money. You're wasting it slower.

A note on what "native Swift" means for your business

If you're not technical, you might wonder why native Swift development matters when cheaper options exist.

Here's the practical version: native Swift apps run directly on Apple's hardware. They're faster. They're smaller. They use less battery. They follow iOS design conventions that iPhone users expect. They don't crash in the weird, unpredictable ways that wrapped web apps or cross-platform builds sometimes do.

From a business perspective, this means your app feels like it belongs on the platform. Users don't think about it — they just use it. That invisible quality is what separates an app that people keep from one they delete after 30 seconds.

At the App Launch tier, you get this foundation. It's not the most feature-rich app, but it's built right. And "built right" means that when you're ready to add features, a developer can open the codebase and work with it — not rewrite it from scratch.

Next steps

If you're a business owner in Marbella or on the Costa del Sol and you want to get a real iOS app without the typical agency price tag, the App Launch tier exists for exactly your situation.

Take a look at our pricing and configuration page to see what's included at each tier, or explore the full breakdown on our iOS development services page. You can scope out what you need, see the real cost, and make a decision based on facts instead of sales calls.

If you're not sure whether your idea fits the €690 scope or needs something bigger, reach out. We'll tell you honestly which tier makes sense — and if the answer is "you don't need an app at all," we'll tell you that too.

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QPC8 is a software engineering studio based in Marbella, Spain. We build native iOS apps, websites, and automation systems for businesses on the Costa del Sol and across Europe. See our iOS pricing tiers.