What a small business app costs in San Antonio in 2026

Branded ordering apps rent for $229 to $499 a month. A custom app starts at $25,000. Here is what each price buys and where a small business should land.

There are three ways to get an app for your business, and they sit at very different prices. Here is each one, with the number.

Rent a template by the month

The big ordering platforms rent you a branded app. ChowNow lists plans from $229 to $409 a month. Owner.com is listed at $499 a month. You pay Apple $99 a year for the developer account on top.

You get ordering and not much else. Every restaurant on the platform gets the same layout, and you cannot change how it works. If you only need online ordering, that is a fair deal.

Pay us for a small custom app

We built two app plans for single-location businesses, and the website comes with both.

Kin App is $199 a month plus $1,500 setup. Your brand, your menu or catalog, a loyalty card, and push notifications you send yourself.
Kin App Pro is $399 a month plus $3,500 setup. Everything in Kin App, plus ordering ahead with payment in the app, events with tickets, live stock from your register where it shares counts, and two promo notifications a month that we write.

Both have a 12 month minimum. After that you can cancel any time and we hand over your data. The app sits on your own Apple account, so it stays yours.

Pay for a fully custom app

Several locations, staff tools, a merch store, ticketing, your own design on every screen. That is a custom build, and it starts at $25,000. Half is due to start and half when the app is live on the App Store. Care is $450 a month, with the first three months included.

Our custom quotes so far land between $25,000 and $45,000, depending on how many locations and staff tools are in the app.

Which one a small business needs

Ask what a customer does in the app.

If they look up your hours and collect stamps, you need Kin App. If they order, pay and pick up, or buy a ticket, you need Kin App Pro. If they check stock at one of five stores while a staff member scans in new inventory in the back, you need a custom build.

Most small businesses do not need the third one. We will tell you that on the call, and we will point you to the cheaper plan if it fits.

What the monthly price covers

Apple releases a new version of iOS every September, and apps that are not updated start to break. The monthly price covers that, plus hosting, bug fixes and two edit requests a month. An app with nobody looking after it stops working inside a year or two.

If you want to see what a finished app looks like, the five demos on our apps page show ordering, live stock across stores, a staff inventory tool, a coach and parent view, and a training and nutrition app.