YourCart vs hiring an app agency

What a custom app actually costs

The upfront quote is only the start. A bespoke app is a piece of software you now own — and software has to be kept alive.

The maintenance line is the one that catches people out. A custom app isn't "done" when it ships — every time Apple or Google changes something, a phone OS updates, or a library needs patching, someone has to be paid to fix it. That's the interest on the upfront cost, and it runs for as long as the app lives.

Why we built YourCart at all

This is the exact problem YourCart was built to solve. Small UK shops kept wanting a mobile app — a home-screen icon, a push when new stock lands, one-tap reorder for regulars — and kept hearing the same two answers: £20,000 from an agency, or a heavy monthly bill to a Shopify add-on. Charging a neighbourhood shop ten times more for an app than for a storefront felt absurd. So the app got built once, properly, and the cost got spread across everyone who uses it — which is what keeps it at £49/month instead of £20,000.

Where an agency genuinely wins

A custom build is the right call for some shops. If this is you, hire the agency — a platform can't give you this.

• Requirements no platform supports. A truly bespoke feature — a custom booking engine, a hardware integration, an unusual fulfilment flow — is exactly what an agency is for.
• You want to own the source code outright. With a custom build the codebase is an asset on your books, to extend or sell however you like.
• You have the budget and someone to own it. If £20,000 upfront plus an ongoing retainer is comfortable, and you have (or can hire) someone to manage the relationship, the control is worth it.

Where YourCart wins

• One flat price, updates included. £49/month covers the branded iPhone app, Android app, and web store — and new versions ship as part of the plan. No per-fix invoices when the OS changes.
• We build and submit the apps for you. The App Store and Play Store paperwork, the build pipeline, the resubmissions — that's ours to run, not a line on your retainer.
• You still keep your identity. Your name, logo, and icon on every customer's home screen; you're the publisher of record on the App Store under your own Apple account; your data, domain, customers, and Stripe relationship stay yours.
• No project risk. There's no six-month build to go over budget or arrive late — your web store is live the same week, your Android app within about 7 days, your iPhone app in around 28.

The honest trade: you don't get bespoke, one-off features an agency would custom-build, and the deeper platform infrastructure is YourCart-operated rather than code you own. You're choosing a maintained product over a custom asset — for most independent shops, that's the better deal.

But you keep what matters most: your brand, your customer relationships, and your data are yours — and you can export your product catalogue and customer list any time. You're trading a custom codebase you'd have to maintain for a maintained product that leaves the things you actually built on with you.