How to create your own fitness app: three routes, honestly costed

The three routes at a glance

There are only three ways to put an app with your name on it into the App Store and Google Play. Each one moves cost and work to a different place.

Route	Upfront cost	Ongoing cost	Time to launch	Who does the work
Custom build	US$15,000 to US$120,000+	Maintenance, hosting, store fees	3 to 11 months	Your developers
App builder	Little or none	US$400 to US$600+ a month	Weeks	You
Partner on a platform	Varies	Usually a share of sales or a fee	Weeks	The partner, with you

The figures come from the sources below and are covered route by route. Prices are in US dollars because that’s how every platform quoted here publishes them.

Route 1: a custom build

A custom app is software written for you alone, by an agency or freelance developers. You own the code and can make it do anything, which is the whole appeal.

What it costs

Clutch, the agency review site, puts the average app development project in its data at US$90,780, with most projects falling between US$10,000 and US$49,999 and a typical timeline of about 11 months. That covers every kind of app, not just fitness.

For fitness specifically, SolGuruz, a development firm, publishes these 2026 ranges for a cross-platform build with an offshore team:

• Basic app (workout logging, progress tracking, Apple Health sync): US$15,000 to US$40,000, three to four months.
• Mid-level app (personalised plans, subscriptions, push notifications, wearables): US$45,000 to US$120,000, five to eight months.
• High-end app (AI coaching, form correction, live classes): US$120,000 to US$300,000+, eight to 14 months.

A creator selling programs to an audience usually needs the mid-level feature set, mostly because of subscriptions and video. Agencies in the US, UK or Australia generally quote above these offshore figures.

What it costs after launch

Launch is the start of the bill, not the end. SolGuruz estimates annual maintenance at 15% to 25% of the original build. Apple and Google release new operating systems every year, and an app that isn’t updated starts to break.

You also need:

• An Apple Developer Program membership, US$99 a year.
• A Google Play developer account, a one-off US$25.
• Video hosting and streaming, billed by usage.
• A backend for accounts, payments and content, plus someone to run it.

A worked example

Take a mid-level build at US$80,000, with maintenance at 20% a year from year two.

• Year one: US$80,000 build + US$124 in store accounts = US$80,124
• Years two and three: 2 × (US$16,000 + US$99) = US$32,198
• Three-year total: about US$112,300, before video hosting, design refreshes or new features

At US$20 a month per member, that’s roughly 5,600 member-months just to cover the software. Custom makes sense when you have a team, funding and a roadmap that no existing product can serve. For most creators it doesn’t yet.

Route 2: an app builder

App builders give you a template app that you fill with your workouts and brand, then publish under your name. You do the setup and the content; they keep the software running.

Here’s what the main options cost for an app in your own store listing, from their pricing pages in October 2026:

Builder	Plan with your own listing	Price	Extra fees
Passion.io	Expand	US$599 a month, billed yearly	Apple, Google and Stripe fees on payments
Uscreen	App Essentials	US$449 a month, billed yearly	US$0.99 per active subscriber a month
Kajabi	Pro	US$499 a month, or US$399 billed yearly	Card fees
Trainerize	Studio plans	Not published for every tier	Priced by client seat

A few things the headline prices don’t show:

• Passion.io’s cheaper plans start at US$119 a month billed yearly, but the FAQ says a real App Store and Google Play listing under your name starts at Expand. The entry plan also carries a 3.9% payments fee.
• Uscreen’s per-subscriber fee grows with you. At 500 subscribers it adds about US$495 a month.
• Trainerize is built for coaching individual clients. Its US$169 one-off branded app add-on on the Pro plan puts your logo and colours inside the Trainerize app; a separate listing under your brand comes with the Studio plans. Every member who follows a program needs a client seat.

A worked example

Uscreen App Essentials with 500 subscribers, over three years:

• Plan: US$449 × 36 = US$16,164
• Subscriber fees: US$0.99 × 500 × 36 = US$17,820
• Three-year total: about US$34,000, plus card fees

Kajabi Pro billed yearly over the same period is US$399 × 36 = US$14,364, with no per-member fee.

Why your own developer accounts matter

Apple’s App Review Guideline 4.2.6 says apps made from a commercial template or app generation service will be rejected unless they’re submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content. In practice, that means the app is published from your own Apple developer account, so you pay the US$99 yearly fee and you own the listing. That’s good for you: if you leave the builder, the listing and its reviews are still yours.

Route 3: a partner who builds it on an existing platform

The third route sits between the first two. A partner designs and builds your app on a platform they’ve already built and maintain, then looks after it with you. You get a product shaped around your business without paying for the platform underneath to be written from scratch.

Partners usually charge in one of two ways: a project fee plus a monthly retainer, or a share of the sales the app makes. A revenue share costs nothing until you sell, and costs more as you grow. We’ve set out when each model works out cheaper in revenue share vs monthly fee.

Ask any partner who owns the store listing, the member list and the payment account. The answer should be you, for all three.

What a creator’s fitness app actually needs

Most of the cost in a custom quote comes from features creators don’t need on day one. A program-led fitness app needs:

1. Accounts that work everywhere. Members should sign in with the same account on your website and in the app.
2. Programs that run day by day. A start date, a schedule, and today’s session on the home screen.
3. Video that plays well on a phone, with offline downloads for the gym. The Sculpt Society’s app, for example, lets members download classes to watch offline.
4. A searchable workout library, filtered by length, equipment and focus.
5. Challenges with a fixed start date, so everyone trains together.
6. Simple progress tracking: sessions completed, streaks, a calendar.
7. Push notifications for reminders and launches.
8. Subscriptions and one-off passes, handled in a way that suits the app store rules.
9. Recipes or meal plans, if nutrition is part of what you sell.

What can wait: AI coaching, camera form correction, wearable integrations and a social feed. These are where the high-end budgets go, and few members join for them.

Where members pay

If you sell subscriptions inside an iOS app, Apple’s guideline 3.1.1 requires in-app purchase, and Apple takes a commission. Many creators sell on their website and let members sign in to the app instead. The rules and the maths are in app store fees vs web checkout.

Realistic timelines

Step	Custom build	Builder or partner
Plan, design and build	3 to 11 months	2 to 6 weeks, mostly content
Load programs and videos	Weeks	Weeks
Google Play closed test (new personal accounts)	14 days	14 days
App Store review	Usually under 48 hours	Usually under 48 hours

Two store rules catch first-timers. Google requires new personal developer accounts to run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days in a row before an app can go to production; organisation accounts are exempt, so register as a business if you can. Apple says it reviews 90% of submissions in less than 48 hours, but a rejection restarts the clock, so build in a week of slack.

The real constraint on any route is content. Filming, editing and structuring your first two programs takes longer than the software for most creators.

Which route to choose

• Choose custom if you’ve outgrown every platform, have funding, and want features nobody else offers.
• Choose a builder if you’re comfortable setting it up yourself and happy with a monthly fee that starts before your first sale.
• Choose a partner if you’d rather spend your time on programs and your audience, and want someone else to design, build and maintain it.

Whichever you pick, launch your website and membership first. It works on every phone, it proves people will pay, and the app becomes an upgrade for members you already have. Our membership revenue calculator shows what a given audience is likely to bring in.

Where Voyage fits

Launch with Voyage is the partner route. We build your website and membership on the Voyage membership platform with no monthly fee and no setup fee, taking a revenue share from 10% of sales, agreed before launch. Members pay into your own Stripe account and the member list is yours. A native iOS and Android app under your own developer accounts is an add-on, quoted on a call, and members sign in to it with the account they made on your website. See how your own app works.