How much does a website or an app cost in Equatorial Guinea?

The short answer

It depends. We know that’s the answer nobody wants to hear. But between a page to make your business known and a platform where hundreds of people buy, sell and message each other, the work can go from a few weeks to several months. And the price follows the work.

What’s useful is knowing what it depends on. With that you can work out whether your idea is small, medium or large, and compare quotes knowing what you’re comparing.

First: what kind of project do you have?

From least to most work:

• Information website. A few pages to present your business: who you are, what you offer and how to contact you. It’s the quickest to build.
• Website with a dashboard. The same, but your team can publish news, change prices or upload photos without depending on a developer.
• Catalogue or online store. Products, categories, photos and a way to place orders. This is where how you take payment starts to matter.
• Platform with user accounts. Accounts, profiles, different roles (customer, seller, administrator) and messaging between users. A marketplace, a job board or a booking system fall into this category.
• Mobile app. For Android, or for Android and iPhone at the same time from a single codebase. It almost always also needs a server and an admin dashboard behind it.
• Internal management system. The software your team uses every day: students and grades at a school, sales and the till in a shop, inventory in a warehouse.

As a guide to timelines, at BKLN a website takes 2 to 12 weeks depending on scope, and a mobile app 4 to 16. The range is wide because within each type there are very different projects.

What drives the price most

Within the same type of project, these are the questions that push the quote up or down:

• How many screens and flows? A contact form is not the same as a purchase process with a cart, payment and order tracking.
• How many types of user? Each role has its own screens and permissions. A portal with companies, candidates and administrators is almost like building three applications.
• Do you need to take payments within the platform? Payments add work, testing and responsibility.
• Does it connect to other services? WhatsApp, SMS, maps, email or the accounting software you already use. Each connection is one more piece to build and maintain.
• Custom or adapted design? A design made to measure for your brand takes longer than starting from an existing base.
• Does it have to work without internet? An app that stores data on the phone and syncs it when the connection returns is more complex than one that is always online.

What changes when you build for Equatorial Guinea

There are decisions that hardly come up in other markets but do here:

• Taking payment without cards. Many people don’t pay by bank card. A common solution is for the customer to pay by bank transfer, in cash or by mobile payment, and for someone to activate the service from an admin dashboard. It’s simpler than integrating a payment gateway, but it has to be designed properly from the start.
• Unreliable connections. If your users connect on mobile data and coverage comes and goes, the website has to be lightweight and the app has to know how to wait. Preparing for this costs a little more; not doing it costs you customers.
• Mobile first. Most of your customers will see you on an Android phone, not on a computer. The design has to be thought out for that screen first.
• Languages. If you also sell in Cameroon or Gabon, French isn’t optional. Translating a finished platform costs more than preparing it for several languages from the outset.
• Support close at hand. Installing a system in a school or an office and training staff in person is also work, and the quote should say so.

The costs that don’t appear in the first quote

Development isn’t the only expense. Always ask about these:

• Domain and hosting. They are paid every year. They are small for an information website and grow with traffic and the number of users.
• Third-party services. Sending SMS, using the WhatsApp Business API or an artificial intelligence model has a usage cost paid by the project owner.
• Publishing on Google Play. Google charges a developer registration fee, and the app has to comply with its rules to be approved.
• Maintenance. Fixing bugs, updating components and adapting the app to new versions of Android. Software without maintenance deteriorates even if nobody touches it.
• Training. If your team doesn’t know how to use the tool, they won’t use it.

How to spend less without ending up with a poor product

• Start with the essentials. A first version with only what you need to operate (often called an MVP) lets you launch sooner and spend less. The rest is added once you know what your users ask for.
• You may not need an app. A well-built mobile website opens without installing anything and sometimes covers the same needs for much less.
• Make use of what already exists. If a ready-made product covers most of what you’re looking for, adapting it usually works out better than building from scratch.
• Decide before you start. Mid-project changes are what drives costs up the most. Spending a few days defining the scope properly saves weeks later.

What a good quote should include

Before signing, check that you have in writing:

1. The scope: which screens and features are included and, just as important, which aren’t.
2. Timelines by phase, with deliveries you can see and test.
3. Payments by milestone, tied to those deliveries.
4. Who owns the code at the end. It should be you.
5. Post-launch support: how long it lasts and what it covers.
6. Recurring costs: hosting, external services and maintenance.

Warning signs

Be wary if you’re given a fixed price without being asked anything about your business, if nothing is in writing, if the code and the accounts stay in the provider’s name, or if you aren’t given any documentation. Cheap turns out expensive when the project has to be redone.

And in your case?

Tell us what you want to build, for whom and by when. We’ll reply with an estimate of scope, technology and budget, with no commitment.