Costs & pricing

AuctionWorx Mobile App Cost: Total Ownership Explained

September 25, 2026 · 6 min read

The AuctionWorx Mobile app starts at $1,799. That’s the headline price, and it covers a lot. But if you’re serious about running an app for your auction house, there are other costs beyond the initial deployment. Understanding the full picture helps you make a realistic budget.

The base deployment cost

The plans for AuctionWorx Mobile are one-time purchases with no hidden charges. You pay once and the app is deployed to your iOS and Android accounts.

The Buyer plan is $1,799. Your app includes browsing listings or lots, placing bids, receiving outbid notifications, and accessing account information. Sellers can’t create listings; only you can manage the inventory.

The Buyer + Seller plan is $2,299. In addition to buyer functionality, sellers can create and edit listings or lots. Sellers can upload photos, write descriptions, manage drafts, and access their sales reports.

The Buyer + Seller Pro plan is $2,699. This adds AI title and description generation for sellers, advanced search filters, swipe-based navigation through lots, and multi-language support for your app interface.

You pick the plan once during deployment. Changing plans later is a modification quoted separately. See the pricing page and feature list for the full breakdown of what each tier includes.

Developer accounts: the first year

Both Apple and Google require developer accounts to publish an app.

Apple’s developer program costs $99 per year. This is mandatory to publish on the App Store. You’ll pay it every year for as long as the app is live.

Google Play requires a one-time account setup fee of $25. After that, there’s no annual fee, though you can opt into paid features like advanced analytics.

First-year cost for both accounts is roughly $125.

OS updates: the mandatory expense

Apple and Google issue new OS versions every year. To stay on the app stores, your app must be compatible with the latest OS versions. This is non-negotiable.

An OS compatibility update typically costs $500-$1,000. Depending on how busy the development schedule is, this might happen every 1-2 years.

In a typical five-year period, you’d budget for 2-3 OS updates at $500-$1,000 each, totaling $1,000-$3,000.

This cost doesn’t depend on whether you chose the $1,799 or $2,699 plan. It’s the price of staying current on the platforms.

Version migrations and minor updates

AuctionWorx itself is updated periodically. The software running your website and auctions gets new features, security patches, and bug fixes. When a major new version of AuctionWorx launches, your app needs to be migrated to match.

A minor AuctionWorx version update, roughly every 1-2 years, includes a corresponding app migration. The cost is approximately $300 and covers both the website and app changes needed to stay in sync.

This is optional, not mandatory, but recommended. If you skip it, your app and website eventually diverge in functionality. See our upgrade guide for what a migration actually involves.

Third-party services

Push notifications in the app use OneSignal. For most operations, the free tier works fine. If you’re sending notifications to thousands of bidders daily, you might need a paid plan.

AI title and description generation (available in the Pro plan) is a separate subscription. The cost depends on how many AI-generated titles and descriptions you create per month.

Barcode lookup integration, if you use it to quickly add items to listings, might have a service cost.

These are optional and customer-specific, so there’s no universal cost. They only apply if you use those features.

First year total: realistic budget

Initial deployment: $1,799-$2,699 Apple developer account (year one): $99 Google Play account: $25 Possible first-year total: $1,923-$2,823

If you also need an OS update in the first year (less common but possible): add $500-$1,000.

Realistic first-year cost range: $1,900-$2,900, assuming no major OS update right away.

Ongoing costs per year

Apple developer account: $99 per year Google Play account: $0 per year (one-time $25) Minor AuctionWorx version migration: $300 every 1-2 years, so roughly $150-$300 per year OS compatibility update: $500-$1,000 every 1-2 years, so roughly $250-$500 per year Optional services (push, AI, barcode): $0-$500 per year depending on features used

Realistic ongoing cost per year: $400-$1,000 (higher in years with an OS update, lower in years without).

Cost per sale

If your app generates extra bids or sales because customers can bid on their phones, the question becomes: what’s the ROI?

A customer who bids once per week through your app might place 50 bids per year. If the average bid increments your commission by a small amount, and you have hundreds of active app users, the math works quickly.

For many auction houses, the app pays for itself in the first season.

Free support and documentation

You get 30 days of support after deployment, focused on bug fixes. This covers you through the initial launch and early adoption period.

The developer provides documentation on how to configure the app, update your branding, and manage app settings. You’re not left figuring it out alone.

No annual subscription, no per-bid fees

There’s no monthly subscription. You don’t pay per bid, per listing, or per user. The one-time cost is just that: one time.

That’s different from a platform like HiBid or LiveAuctioneers, where you pay a percentage of every sale. With a branded app, you own the listing on the app store, you keep the revenue, and the customer relationship belongs to you.

Ownership and what you keep

After deployment, you own your app listing on both the App Store and Google Play. You can change your branding, your app name, your description, and your screenshots without approval from the developer.

You have a worldwide self-use license. This means you can run your auctions through the app, and your team can use it. You can’t sell the app itself as a separate product, and you can’t transfer the license to a different developer. But you can continue using it indefinitely.

Is it worth it?

The answer depends on your customer base and how much they value mobile bidding.

If you have hundreds of active bidders who check on bids daily, an app that sends them outbid notifications can easily be worth more than $2,000 in extra engagement. A bidder who gets a push notification the moment they’re outbid is more likely to raise their bid than one who finds out by checking the website later.

If your app also reaches customers who wouldn’t bother visiting your website but will tap an app icon on their phone, the value goes up further. Those are bids you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

If you have a small customer base with occasional bidders who are happy on the website, an app might be a longer-term investment. You might not see a return in year one. But if you’re planning to grow your bidder base, an app built now positions you for that growth.

You’ll own the app listing for years, so the cost amortizes across multiple seasons. After five years, a $2,000 investment works out to $400 per year, with no revenue share eating into every bid.

Try the AuctionWorx Mobile demo and see how your customers would use it. If the engagement looks strong, the investment makes sense.