App Development
Mobile App Development for NZ Businesses
We build native iOS and Android apps for New Zealand businesses — real apps in the App Store and Play Store, not a website wrapped in a shell. Built in Kotlin Multiplatform and Swift, by the person you'll be talking to.
The kind of apps we build
Most businesses don't need an app. The ones that do usually have a specific reason: field staff entering data with no signal, customers who need something in their pocket rather than a browser tab, or a workflow currently living in a shared spreadsheet and three text threads.
AgriSense NZ is our own product — a farm management app built for Kiwi farmers, designed around the reality that the paddock is where the work happens and the office is where it gets forgotten. We wrote up how we built AgriSense NZ, and that build is a fair picture of how we approach client apps too.
Native, not wrapped
We build with Kotlin Multiplatform for shared business logic and native UI on each platform, or straight Swift where a project is iOS-only. The practical difference: it feels like an app, it works offline, and it uses the camera and GPS properly.
It also doesn't get rejected by App Store review for being a website in disguise, which is where a lot of cheap cross-platform work ends up.
Offline first, because rural New Zealand
If your staff are on farms, in the bush, or anywhere south of a cell tower, the app has to keep working with no connection and sync cleanly when it comes back. We design for that from the start rather than bolting it on once the gaps show up in testing.
App store submission included
Getting an app approved is its own job — store listings, screenshots, privacy declarations and review responses. We handle submission for both stores and write the listing copy as part of the work, because an app nobody can find is the same problem as a website nobody can find.
Being findable is the same discipline either way — the digital marketing work that gets a website in front of people applies to a store listing too.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to develop an app in New Zealand?
- App projects vary far more than websites — a focused single-purpose app is a fraction of the cost of something with user accounts, payments and a backend. We scope and quote per project. Talk to us with the problem rather than a feature list and we'll tell you what it actually needs.
- Do I need separate iOS and Android apps?
- Not usually. We use Kotlin Multiplatform so the business logic is written once and shared, with native interfaces on each platform. You get two proper apps without paying to build the same thing twice.
- How long does an app take to build?
- Typically two to four months for a first release, plus one to two weeks for App Store and Play Store review. We'd rather ship a smaller first version that works than spend six months building features nobody has used yet.
- Will the app work without internet?
- It can, and for most New Zealand field work it should. Offline-first with background sync is standard in how we build, not an extra.
- Can you take over an existing app?
- Sometimes. It depends entirely on how it was built and whether the code is in a state anyone can safely work in. Send us the repository and we'll give you an honest read before you commit to anything.
Got a problem that might need an app?
Bring us the problem rather than a feature list. We'll tell you what it actually needs — including when the honest answer is that it doesn't need an app at all.