The short answer
At Namtech, a focused Starter/MVP app takes 8–12 weeks, a Business app takes 12–20 weeks, and an Enterprise platform is scoped per project. Those timelines cover the whole journey — from the first scoping call through App Store and Google Play submission — with one project manager owning the project end to end. You get the exact timeline in your proposal, right beside the fixed quote, after a single scoping call.
Namtech is a Singapore mobile app studio (Namtech Pte Ltd) working with clients worldwide, and we build iOS and Android from one codebase on one release cycle. That shared build is a big reason a two-platform app fits inside these timelines instead of doubling them.
The six steps every project runs through
Whichever tier you land in, the same six steps produce the timeline. Longer builds don't add new phases — they make each phase bigger.
| Step | What it produces |
|---|---|
| Discover | Defines what the app must do, who uses it and what it integrates with — the source of the fixed quote and timeline. |
| Design | Screens, flows and the look and feel, agreed before any production code. |
| Build | One codebase for iOS and Android; the bulk of the weeks live here. |
| Test | QA on real devices, not just simulators, so the app behaves on hardware people actually carry. |
| Launch | App Store and Google Play submission and release. |
| Support | The app keeps running and improving after launch. |
What moves an app to a longer timeline
The gap between 8 weeks and 20 weeks is scope, not effort put in casually. Five things reliably push a project into a longer band:
- User roles and workflows. A single customer journey is Starter territory. Once you add staff and admin roles — each with their own screens, permissions and rules — you're building several apps' worth of behaviour, which lands in the Business range.
- Payments and money movement. Payment flows, bookings and checkout carry integration work, edge cases and extra testing that a content-only app never touches. That testing time is real weeks, not an afterthought.
- Integrations. Every existing system the app must talk to — POS, ERP, identity, messaging — adds its own discovery, build and test cycle inside the six steps.
- An admin dashboard. Most Business apps need a web dashboard behind them to manage content, users or orders. That's effectively a second product surface with its own design, build and test time.
- Compliance. Apps handling personal or financial data may need documentation and review — for Singapore that can include PDPA work. We scope compliance as an explicit line item, so it shows up in the timeline honestly rather than surfacing as a delay near launch.
Timeline mapped to the pricing tiers
Because timeline and scope move together, the bands line up with our published pricing tiers:
| Tier | Timeline | Price (from, SGD) | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter/MVP | 8–12 weeks | 20,000 | One clear job, one main user journey — the shortest path from idea to a real app. |
| Business | 12–20 weeks | 38,000 | Multiple roles, likely payments or bookings, real integrations and usually an admin dashboard. |
| Enterprise | Scoped per project | 90,000 | Deep integrations, heavier compliance and platform-scale requirements. |
Namtech's published starting points. The exact weeks come from your app's specifics, confirmed in the proposal after one scoping call.
Why the estimate holds
A timeline is only useful if it survives contact with the project. Two things keep ours honest. First, the fixed quote and timeline come after a real scoping call, not a guess over email — so the number reflects the actual app. Second, we bill against milestones: a deposit to start, then payments tied to agreed deliverables, with no full payment upfront. If scope changes mid-project, we re-quote that change explicitly instead of quietly stretching the schedule. One project manager owns the whole thing, so there's a single person accountable for the dates.
What happens after launch
Launch is a milestone, not the end. Plan for maintenance and support from 15% of the build cost per year — monitoring, OS-version updates, security patches, minor improvements and priority support. Hosting, third-party service fees and app-store developer accounts are billed at cost. Budgeting for this from the start keeps the app healthy long after the build weeks are over.
Get your timeline
The bands above tell you which neighbourhood you're in; the exact weeks come from your app's specifics. Tell us what it needs to do, who uses it and what it must integrate with, and we'll come back with a fixed quote and a fixed timeline. Start with a scoping call, or see the full breakdown on our pricing page.