Mobile Health App Cost Calculator

Development and maintenance cost for patient-facing apps.

Inputs

Development Hours

Developer Hourly Rate ($)

HIPAA Compliance Cost ($)

Base Monthly Hosting ($)

Projected Users

Maintenance Period (years)

Tab to move between fields

Results

Total Cost of Ownership ($)

$528,180.00

≈ 13 Teslas

Cost per User ($)

$105.64

≈ 7 movie tickets

Development Cost ($)$300,000.00

Monthly Amortized Cost ($)$14,671.67

Total Hosting Cost ($)$20,880.00

Total Maintenance Cost ($)$180,000.00

How to Use This Calculator

Select the app type: patient-facing, clinician portal, or combined platform.
Enter the number of features required and the complexity level (MVP, standard, enterprise).
Set the number of platforms: iOS only, Android only, or cross-platform.
Review the Estimated Development Cost and the Monthly Maintenance Cost.
Use the Break-Even Subscriptions output to determine the pricing model needed to recover development investment.

How the result changes with Development Hours

Development Hours	Total Cost of Ownership ($)	Cost per User ($)
5,090	$1,269,780.00	$253.96
17,565	$4,263,780.00	$852.76
32,535	$7,856,580.00	$1,571.32
45,010	$10,850,580.00	$2,170.12

What each input means

Development Hours: Total hours for design, development, and QA of the mobile app.
Developer Hourly Rate ($): Average blended hourly rate for the development team.
HIPAA Compliance Cost ($): Initial HIPAA compliance setup: encryption, BAA, pen testing, audit.
Base Monthly Hosting ($): HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting base cost (AWS/Azure/GCP healthcare tier).
Projected Users: Expected number of active users on the app.
Maintenance Period (years): Number of years to include in total cost of ownership.

What each result means

Total Cost of Ownership ($): Complete cost including development, compliance, hosting, and maintenance.
Development Cost ($): One-time design, coding, and QA cost.
Cost per User ($): Total TCO divided by projected user count.
Monthly Amortized Cost ($): TCO spread evenly across the maintenance period.
Total Hosting Cost ($): Cumulative HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting over the maintenance period.
Total Maintenance Cost ($): Ongoing bug fixes, OS updates, and feature improvements.

How this is calculated

Worked example, using the default values

Identify Input Parameters
4 parameters
Development Hours = 2000, Developer Hourly Rate ($) = 150, HIPAA Compliance Cost ($) = 15000, Base Monthly Hosting ($) = 500 = 6 input(s) provided
Calculate Total Cost of Ownership
Total Cost of Ownership = developmentCost + totalHipaaCost + totalHostingCost + totalMaintenanceCost + ...
528180 = $528,180
Calculate Cost per User
Cost per User = totalTCO / projectedUsers
105.64 = $105.64
Calculate Development Cost
Development Cost = devHours * devHourlyRate
300000 = $300,000
Calculate Monthly Amortized Cost
Monthly Amortized Cost = totalTCO / (maintenanceYears * 12)
14671.67 = $14,671.67

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