iPhone App Development in London

Why iPhone first, and when it is the wrong call

For most UK consumer products, iPhone first is the right sequence. iOS users spend more in-app, update their operating system far faster, and sit on a much narrower device matrix, which means QA costs less and the first release ships sooner. If your audience is a British consumer market, an iPhone-only launch usually reaches the majority of the people who will pay you.

It is the wrong call when your users skew internationally towards Android, when you are building an internal tool for a workforce on mixed handsets, or when a delayed Android release would cost you a contract. We will tell you which of those applies at Blueprint rather than three months in. Where both platforms are genuinely needed from day one, React Native usually beats maintaining two native codebases on a first-version budget.

Native iOS, done by people who have shipped it

Digiruu is a small, senior team working from 86-90 Paul Street in Shoreditch, EC2A 4NE. We have been building for iOS since 2016, we hold 30+ verified reviews on Clutch averaging 4.9, and our own app Subconsciously won Best Social/Lifestyle App at the Best Mobile App Awards 2023. The engineers who scope your iPhone app are the ones who write it.

Design and engineering sit in the same studio, which matters more on iOS than almost anywhere else: Apple’s guidelines are specific enough that an interface drawn without an engineer in the room tends to get redrawn. Our app design agency in London page covers the design side on its own, and if you already have an iPhone app where the interface rather than the code is the problem, app redesign is a shorter and cheaper route than a rebuild.

iOS work we have shipped

Epowar is a personal safety app for iPhone and Apple Watch that uses heart rate and motion data to work out when something has gone wrong. It is the kind of build where watchOS is not a nice-to-have bolted on at the end but the actual product surface, and where background processing and battery behaviour decide whether the app is trusted.

ByErim was built in four weeks and reached the top 100 of the entire App Store, ahead of Missguided, Co-Op and Ikea. A useful reminder that App Store placement rewards a focused, well-executed first release rather than a long feature list.

Amore Pizzeria has taken 50,000+ orders, with an Apple Pay checkout that completes in seven seconds. Apple Pay implemented well removes the single biggest drop-off point in mobile ordering, and it is worth getting right rather than getting done.

More of the work sits on our apps page.

iPhone app development pricing

• Blueprint, £12,000 fixed. Discovery, requirements and the iOS technical plan, covering device and OS support, integrations and anything App Store review is likely to question.
• Pro, £30,000 fixed. Blueprint plus the complete iOS interface designed and prototyped to Apple’s guidelines.
• Max, from £75,000. Blueprint, design and the full iPhone build through to App Store launch.

An Apple Watch companion, a heavily custom backend or a regulated integration moves that number. We will say so before you commit rather than after.

Frequently asked questions

Do you build in Swift or React Native?

Both, and it is a Blueprint decision rather than a house preference. Swift and SwiftUI for anything leaning on device hardware, background processing, watchOS or high-frame-rate interface work. React Native when iPhone and Android need to ship together and the app is largely screens, data and payments.

How long does Apple’s App Store review take?

Usually 24 to 48 hours for a straightforward app, and longer for anything touching health data, payments outside Apple’s own system, or account deletion requirements. Rejections are normal and mostly procedural. We write the submission, respond to Apple and resubmit as part of the build.

Can you add an Apple Watch app to an existing iPhone app?

Yes, provided the iPhone app is in reasonable shape underneath. Epowar’s watch app reads heart rate and motion continuously, which is a genuinely different engineering problem from mirroring a phone screen onto a wrist. We will scope it honestly rather than ship a watch app nobody opens twice.

What about iPad?

An iPhone app will run on iPad, but running is not the same as belonging. If iPad matters to your users we design the larger layouts properly as part of the same build. If it does not, we leave it out and tell you why.

Who owns the App Store listing and the developer account?

You do. We publish under your organisation’s Apple Developer account, and if you do not have one we set it up in your name. Nothing about your app lives inside an account we control.

Will my app keep working after the next iOS release?

Not automatically. Apple ships a major iOS version every September and deprecates APIs on its own schedule, so an app left alone for two years will eventually break in ways your users report as one-star reviews. Ongoing maintenance exists for exactly this.

Start your iPhone app

Bring us the idea, or the app you already have. We will tell you what native iOS actually costs, what belongs in version one, and how quickly it can realistically be in the App Store. Get started.