Mobile app development in Dublin, from first idea to both app stores
An app earns its place on a phone when people open it without being reminded: to book, to check something, to pay or to hear from you. That is what we design for. We find out who will use the app and what they need from it on a busy day, prove the idea in a prototype, then build the apps, the back end and the admin your team runs it from.
ESMA International Network’s iOS and Android apps are live on the App Store and Google Play, on the same platform as its website and member dashboard, for more than 200 member companies in 62 countries. Guests browse the member directory and events without an account, members sign in for everything else, and ESMA’s staff can message every member, or one event’s attendees, from the admin that also runs the website. Loco Digital designed and built ESMA’s website, member dashboard and apps in 2026.
Each app is scoped, designed and built under our app and platform development service, with Mark and Adam accountable for it from the first call.
What comes with a mobile app from Loco
- A prototype on your phone first. You tap through the main journeys on your own phone before production code is written, while a change still costs minutes rather than weeks. Research and usability testing come from our UX design work in Dublin.
- One back end behind everything. The apps, the website and the admin read from one platform, so a member, a booking or an order exists once and appears everywhere. ESMA’s site, dashboard and both apps run on one custom Laravel application with one design system.
- An admin your team runs. Content, users, bookings and messages are managed in one place, without waiting for a developer.
- Integrations checked before quoting. CRMs, payment providers, accounts packages and booking tools connect through their documented APIs. Linking an app to HubSpot, Salesforce or Dynamics is covered in CRM integration in Ireland.
- Analytics from the first release. Sign-ups, bookings, purchases and the other events that matter are tracked from launch day, so you can see what people do in the app and decide what to build next on evidence.
- A store-ready launch. Store listings, screenshots, privacy declarations and review notes for both stores, prepared alongside the build. A short app preview or launch video can be made with our motion graphics partners.
Choosing native, web app or PWA for mobile app development in Dublin
The right kind of app depends on where it will be used and what it needs from the device. We make the call with you in the consult, before anything is quoted.
iOS and Android apps. Choose these when the app lives on someone’s phone and gets opened often, when it needs push notifications, offline use, the camera, location or Face ID, or when customers expect to find you in the App Store and Google Play.
One codebase or two. Cross-platform frameworks such as React Native and Flutter ship one codebase to both stores, which usually brings down the cost of an iOS and Android pair. A separate build for each platform still makes sense when an app leans hard on one platform’s hardware or newest features.
A web app. Choose one when the work happens at a desk or in a browser, when people arrive from a link or an email, or when one build has to run on every device with nothing to install.
A progressive web app (PWA). It installs to the home screen and works offline up to a point, with no app store review. It suits content and utility products, and falls short on deep device features and store discovery. The trade-offs are set out in our guide to progressive web apps.
No-code tools are fine for testing an idea. Once paying users and live data arrive, we build it in code.
Web application development in Dublin and Ireland
Not every app belongs in a store. A web app runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install, and every user gets the same version the day it ships. Most of the web application development we do in Dublin is the system behind a business: a booking engine, a customer portal, a member area or an internal tool that replaces a spreadsheet and a shared inbox. If a subscription tool might do the job, online booking systems in Ireland compares renting with building.
Membership and application portals. IPAV, which represents licensed auctioneers, valuers and estate agents in Ireland, takes membership applications online at members.ipav.ie: thirteen numbered steps, licence and qualification files uploaded inside the form, and the application fee paid by Stripe. Members sign in to their own accounts, and the public directory of more than 1,500 members stays synchronised with the Institute’s CRM. Loco Digital designed and built the platform, which went live in July 2026.
Booking engines. The ERP HEADtoHEAD booking engine is a four-step web app on WooCommerce and Stripe. Group rates apply automatically, each delegate gets a named record and a day selection, and Dublin bookings are invoiced by the Irish company in euro with Irish VAT. The engine is set up to bill each event from its own company, in its own currency. Loco Digital designed the ERP HEADtoHEAD site and built its booking engine for Lumenia Consulting in 2026.
Dashboards and internal tools. ESMA’s member dashboard shows each member, month by month, where the clicks on their profile come from, with the members-only document library behind the same login. For screens your own staff use all day, our custom software and internal tools service covers the build, and custom software development in Ireland explains when building beats buying.
A marketing site with no application behind it is a job for our web design team in Dublin.
How a mobile app project runs
Every app project runs in four stages, consult, design, build and launch, and the plan you approve at the end of the consult puts a date on each milestone.
- Consult. One to three weeks with the people who will use the app and the people who will run it. It ends in a scoped plan with a fixed price for the build, and it tells you plainly if a web app, an off-the-shelf tool or no app at all would serve you better.
- Design. Research, user journeys, then a clickable prototype you test on your own phone. The design system covers every screen state, including errors, empty lists and loading.
- Build. The apps and the back end ship in working stages. You install test releases on your own phone through TestFlight and Google Play’s internal testing as they land, so feedback happens on real devices rather than in screenshots.
- Launch. Store listings, privacy declarations and review notes go in with the final build, and we stay close to crash reports and store reviews in the weeks after release.
Security, sign-in and where your data lives
Roles and permissions come first, so a member, an administrator and a board reviewer each see only what they should. Sign-in uses established standards: OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, single sign-on with Microsoft or Google accounts where your staff already have them, and passkeys or Face ID and fingerprint sign-in on the phone. Sensitive actions are logged, secrets are kept out of the code, and dependencies are kept up to date.
Where data residency matters under GDPR, we host in EU data-centre regions and name the location in the plan. iOS and Android builds are tested on physical phones before store review, and a back end that expects spikes, such as a ticket release or an event day, is load-tested before launch.
App store launch, support and upkeep
Both stores review every release, and they reject apps for missing privacy details or unclear review notes as readily as for bugs. So the listings, screenshots, privacy declarations and review notes are prepared while the app is built, and we handle the submission to the App Store and Google Play.
After launch, Apple and Google change their rules and release new operating systems every year, so an app needs someone watching it. A monthly retainer gives you a senior contact who knows the build, covering updates for new iOS and Android versions, fixes, hosting and new features. Retainers start at €2,000 a month, and response times are agreed in writing before one starts.
What mobile app development costs in Dublin
If you are comparing app developers in Dublin and across Ireland, four things move the price most:
- Platforms. An iOS and Android pair is two apps on one back end, and a web app is one build.
- Workflow depth. A read-only app costs least. Payments, bookings, approvals, multilingual content and per-user analytics are where the engineering hours go.
- Integrations. Every system the app must talk to, such as a CRM, a payment provider, an accounts package or an identity provider, is checked and quoted before we commit.
- What exists already. A tidy back end or design system lowers the price. An inherited codebase that needs an audit can raise it.
Projects start from €10,000 ex VAT. The price is fixed before design starts and changes only if the scope does. The Grow Digital Voucher does not fund custom app development, as our Grow Digital Voucher guide explains.
