An in-house mobile team is the most expensive way to get an ecommerce app. You need at least 4-5 people (iOS developer, Android developer, product manager, designer, QA), which runs $700K-$1M+ per year in fully loaded costs.
You spend time interviewing and finding the right people - then they still need 6-12 months to build the app. That's 9-18 months and over $1M before a single customer downloads anything.
MobiLoud gets you a native iOS and Android app, built on your existing website, live in the App Store in around 6-8 weeks, for a predictable monthly cost. Every integration, every feature, every page carries over automatically. No hiring, no codebase to maintain, no turnover risk.
Here's how the two approaches compare:
| In-House Team | MobiLoud | |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 Cost | $830K - $1M+ | ~$20K |
| Annual Ongoing Cost | $700K - $800K+ | ~$15K/yr |
| Time to First App | 9 - 18 months | 6-8 weeks |
| Team Size Needed | 4 - 6+ people | 0 (fully managed) |
| Recruiting Time | 3 - 6 months | None |
| Integration Work | 3,000+ hours to rebuild | All inherited from website |
| Website Changes | Manual mobile updates | Automatic, real-time |
| Turnover Risk | High (2-3 yr avg tenure) | None |
| OS Update Handling | Your team handles it | MobiLoud handles it |
| 3-Year TCO | $2.2M - $2.6M+ | ~$50K |
An in-house team makes sense if mobile is your core product (ride-sharing, banking, delivery) or you need capabilities your website fundamentally can't provide (AR, offline functionality, hardware integration).
For most ecommerce brands, the goal is a native app that drives repeat purchases, push notification revenue, and higher LTV from your best customers.
That doesn't require a permanent engineering team - or even a full rebuild. Your site does all of that; you just need someone to extend it to a native app.
The rest of this page breaks down what an in-house mobile team actually costs, what the hiring and build process looks like, and how MobiLoud works differently.
What it Costs to Build and Maintain a Mobile App In-House
You’re building a full in-house team; which means significant staffing overhead.
At minimum, you're hiring:
- 1 iOS developer (average salary: $132,000/year)
- 1 Android developer (average salary: $107,000/year)
- 1 mobile product manager ($130,000-$160,000/year)
- 1 UI/UX designer with mobile expertise ($90,000-$120,000/year)
- 1 QA engineer ($80,000-$100,000/year)
That's the lean version. A more realistic team for an ecommerce app with real complexity adds backend developer support for API work ($120,000-$150,000/year).
Fully Loaded Costs
Salary is only part of it. Benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, tooling, and office overhead add 25-40% on top of base salary.
| Role | Base Salary | Fully Loaded Cost |
|---|---|---|
| iOS Developer | $132,000 | $165,000 - $185,000 |
| Android Developer | $107,000 | $134,000 - $150,000 |
| Mobile Product Manager | $145,000 | $181,000 - $203,000 |
| UI/UX Designer | $105,000 | $131,000 - $147,000 |
| QA Engineer | $90,000 | $113,000 - $126,000 |
| Annual team cost | $579,000 | $724,000 - $811,000 |
Sources: Glassdoor, Salary.com, PayScale
On top of that, you may run into costs such as:
- Recruiting costs: Agency placement fees run 15-25% of first-year salary. For five hires, that's $85,000-$145,000.
- Developer tooling and infrastructure: Apple Developer accounts, Google Play Console, CI/CD pipelines, testing devices, monitoring and analytics. Roughly $20,000-$40,000/year.
- Management overhead: Someone on your leadership team is now spending real time overseeing a mobile engineering function.
Your realistic Year 1 total: $830,000 - $1,000,000+.
Year 2 and beyond still runs $700K-$800K+ in team compensation.
The Timeline Problem
Not only does building an in-house team cost a lot, it also means potentially a year and a half until you even get the chance to start recouping your investment.
Hiring Takes 3-6 Months
Before any code gets written, you need to find, interview, hire, and onboard your team. The average time to fill a software engineering role is 40-60 days, and mobile specialists are in particularly high demand.
Need ecommerce-specific experience? The pool gets smaller.
Realistically, 3-6 months from "let's build a mobile team" to having everyone in place.
Building Takes Another 6-12 Months
Once you have a team, they still need to build the app. Standard ecommerce features (product browsing, search, cart, checkout, account management, order tracking) take 6-12 months of development before the first version hits the App Store.
During this time, you're paying full salaries for a team that hasn't delivered revenue yet. At $65,000-$80,000/month in team costs, a 9-month build means $585,000-$720,000 spent before a single customer downloads the app.
The Integration Wall
Your website runs on dozens of tools: search (Algolia), email and SMS (Klaviyo), reviews (Yotpo, Judge.me), loyalty (Smile.io, LoyaltyLion), subscriptions (ReCharge), personalization (Nosto, Dynamic Yield), live chat (Gorgias), payment processing, shipping, tax, fraud detection.
A typical mid-market ecommerce store runs 20-40 integrations touching the customer experience. Each one needs to be rebuilt in your app.
A single integration takes roughly 150 engineering hours to build and 300 hours per year to maintain. At 20 integrations, that's 3,000 hours for the initial build, 6,000 hours per year to keep them current.
Your small team will spend more time on integration plumbing than on the features that actually differentiate the app.
The Turnover Risk
Software developers change jobs every 2-3 years on average. When a key developer leaves, they take knowledge about your codebase, integration layer, and architecture with them. The replacement takes months to hire and months more to get productive.
For a small team where each person covers a critical function, turnover doesn't just slow things down. It can stall the entire mobile effort.
How MobiLoud Eliminates All of This
MobiLoud replaces the need for an in-house mobile team. No hiring, no codebase, no turnover.
Your website powers the app
Instead of rebuilding your store as a separate mobile codebase, MobiLoud takes your existing website and delivers it as a native iOS and Android app. Every integration, every feature, every piece of content carries over automatically.
Zero integration work
Your entire tech stack works in the app because it works on your website. Swap out a tool, add a new loyalty tier, update your checkout flow. The app reflects it automatically. Your team never touches mobile code.
A dedicated team without the headcount
MobiLoud handles the build, App Store submission, ongoing maintenance, OS updates, and technical support. You get a named account manager and direct access to engineering.
Native features built in
Push notifications (unlimited, with automated abandoned cart and behavioral campaigns), deep linking, native navigation, App Store presence. The features that actually drive mobile app ROI, included from day one.
Live in 6-8 weeks
With no hiring phase, no rebuilding from scratch, you go live significantly faster with MobiLoud, and pay back the cost of the build before your in-house app would even be in the testing phase.
When an In-House Team Actually Makes Sense
- Mobile is your core product. Ride-sharing, delivery, banking, where the app is the business. In-house gives you the control and iteration speed you need.
- You need capabilities your website can't provide. AR, complex offline functionality, Bluetooth/NFC hardware integration, real-time features that don't map to web.
- You're at massive scale. Hundreds of millions in annual mobile revenue, with app features that are distinct from your website. The investment starts to pencil out.
- You already have the team. If mobile engineering capability already exists within your org, the incremental cost calculation looks different.
For most ecommerce brands, the mobile app goal is straightforward: a native shopping experience for your best customers, push notifications to drive repeat purchases, and the conversion lift and higher LTV that apps deliver. That doesn't require permanent mobile headcount.
What MobiLoud Customers See in Practice
Here are some highlights from our latest Ecommerce Mobile App Benchmark Report:
- Conversion rates 3-10x higher in-app versus mobile web.
- Average order values 10-50% higher among app users.
- App users delivering 2.8-5x higher lifetime value than web-only customers.
- 60% of first-time app buyers make at least one more purchase.
These numbers come from brands that launched in weeks, not from teams that spent a year building. The ROI starts from month one.
Next Steps
Here’s how to get your brand in the App Stores, and on your customers’ home screens, without a six figure investment and a year-long dev project.
- Book a strategy call. Share your website URL. We'll walk through your goals and help you assess whether MobiLoud is the right fit. No commitment.
- Get a custom app preview. Our team builds a working preview of your native app. See exactly how your store looks and performs as an app before you commit.
- Launch. We handle the build, App Store submission, and ongoing maintenance. Your app goes live while you focus on growth instead of hiring.
MobiLoud has built 2,000+ apps since 2013, including apps for global ecommerce brands like Jack & Jones, John Varvatos and Estee Lauder. We bring predictable monthly pricing, no revenue share, a dedicated team managing your app from day one.
Book a free strategy call to see what your store will look like as a native mobile app.