A custom telehealth app costs roughly $120,000 to $450,000 to build on published figures, and a ready-made video visit tool costs about $29 per provider a month if you do not need your own product. One Gigabit client paid $124,000 over 5 months for a HIPAA-compliant platform with a patient mobile app, a provider dashboard and three EHR integrations, then $5,500 a month to maintain it. Two development firms that publish ranges put a custom build at $150,000 to $300,000 and up (ScienceSoft) and $150,000 to $450,000 (Topflight Apps). All prices here were read on 10 November 2026. The build is the large number; video minutes, hosting and app store fees are small, and EHR integration and compliance work are what move the total.
Telehealth app development cost by scope
| Scope | What it covers | Published cost | Whose figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ready-made video tool | Video visits, virtual waiting room, clinic settings, BAA included | $29 per user a month, billed annually; a free version exists | Doxy.me Premium plan |
| Basic custom app | Web app, scheduling, video, messaging, file sharing, manual vitals, payments | From $150,000 | ScienceSoft |
| Standard custom app | Adds a mobile app, a virtual waiting room with questionnaires, e-prescribing | From $200,000 | ScienceSoft |
| Advanced custom app | Adds device-based tracking, alerts, AI chatbots, insurance verification | From $300,000 | ScienceSoft |
| Simple platform | Not itemized | $150,000 to $200,000 | Topflight Apps |
| More robust solution | Not itemized | $300,000 to $450,000 | Topflight Apps |
| One real build | Patient mobile app, provider dashboard, three EHR integrations, HIPAA infrastructure | $124,000 over 5 months, then $5,500 a month | Gigabit case study |
Read the table with three cautions. ScienceSoft and Topflight sell telehealth development, so both have an interest in the number. ScienceSoft's page carries no publish date. Topflight's page, dated 2 December 2025, is not consistent with itself: its feature table totals $110,000 to $230,000 and up, and another section says $250,000 to $400,000 for a feature-rich app. Treat all of these as starting points for a conversation, not quotes.
For a wider reference, Clutch's pricing data, updated 21 September 2026, puts the typical reviewed software project at $10,000 to $49,999 and the average at $132,480 over about 13 months. Clutch has no healthcare breakdown, so that average mixes simple projects with regulated ones.
What one telehealth build actually cost
Our published case is a physician-founded chronic disease management company that ran its pilot on Zoom, spreadsheets and phone calls. The budget ceiling was $130,000 and the deadline was fixed at 5 months by a health system contract. The telehealth platform came in at $124,000 across four phases and launched a week early.
| Month | Work | Why it cost what it did |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Two weeks of clinical workflow mapping, then HIPAA-ready AWS infrastructure before any application code | Private-subnet network, encrypted database and storage, audit logging, field-level PHI encryption, role-based access, 15-minute session timeouts, MFA for providers |
| 2 to 3 | React Native patient app and provider dashboard | Vitals logging, secure messaging and video visits for patients; risk panels, vitals trends and alert thresholds for providers |
| 4 | EHR integration with Epic, Cerner and athenahealth through SMART on FHIR | Each EHR implements FHIR R4 differently, so a normalization layer maps all three to one data model |
| 5 | Testing, security assessment and compliance documentation | Alert thresholds verified against 500 synthetic patient datasets; a third-party assessment with two medium findings fixed before launch |
Within 90 days the platform went from 20 pilot patients to 1,200, and each care coordinator could handle 180 patients where the manual pilot allowed 50. Maintenance and support continued at $5,500 a month. That is one engagement, not a price list. A smaller healthcare job, a unified intake flow with EHR integration across 14 locations, took 12 weeks; its price is not published, so we do not quote one.
What moves the price
Seven decisions explain most of the gap between the low and high figures above.
- Platforms. Web only, or web plus iOS and Android. ScienceSoft's basic tier is a web interface; mobile arrives in its second tier.
- User types. Patients and providers are the minimum. Care coordinators, clinic admins, family members and payers each add screens, permissions and tests.
- Video. Renting a video SDK by the minute is cheap. Building your own media stack is not, and few products need to.
- EHR integration. One EHR is a project. Three are three projects plus a layer that reconciles them, as the case above shows.
- Prescribing and payments. E-prescribing, insurance eligibility and card payments each bring a vendor, a contract and edge cases.
- Devices and remote monitoring. Readings from glucose meters or blood pressure cuffs add integration and alerting work.
- Compliance evidence. Encryption, access control and audit logs are engineering. So are the documents that prove them to a health system's security reviewer.
Published line items give a sense of scale. They come from the two vendors above, so the same caution applies.
| Line item | Published figure | Whose figure |
|---|---|---|
| Video conferencing | $20,000 to $40,000 | Topflight Apps |
| EHR integration | $15,000 to $30,000 | Topflight Apps |
| HIPAA compliance work | $20,000 to $50,000 | Topflight Apps |
| Prescription management | $15,000 to $25,000 | Topflight Apps |
| Appointment scheduling | $12,000 to $25,000 | Topflight Apps |
| Medical device integration | May cost an additional $50,000 | ScienceSoft |
| AI chatbots | Around $30,000 to $70,000 | ScienceSoft |
Hours times rate: example arithmetic
Every quote is hours times a rate. The hours below are examples we chose to show the arithmetic. They are not benchmarks, and a real product can land outside them. The rates are Clutch's hourly bands for software agencies.
| Example | Example hours | At $25 to $49 | At $50 to $99 | At $100 to $149 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web-only first version, one EHR | 1,600 | $40,000 to $78,400 | $80,000 to $158,400 | $160,000 to $238,400 |
| Web and mobile, three EHRs | 3,000 | $75,000 to $147,000 | $150,000 to $297,000 | $300,000 to $447,000 |
On Clutch, US agencies sit in the $50 to $99 band, Canadian and Australian agencies in the $100 to $149 band, and agencies in India, Ukraine and the Philippines in the $25 to $49 band. A lower rate can still cost more if the team has never passed a health system's security review. Compare quotes on scope and on evidence of regulated work, not on rate alone. How much custom software costs goes deeper on rates.
What a telehealth app costs to run
Running costs are smaller than most first budgets assume, apart from the people. These are list prices from each vendor's own page. They are examples of common parts, not a recommendation for your stack.
| Line | List price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Twilio Video | $0.004 per participant per minute for group rooms; recordings $0.004 per participant per minute | Listed as HIPAA eligible; volume pricing through sales |
| Daily | 10,000 free minutes a month, then $0.004 per participant minute | HIPAA and BAA add-on $500 a month; cloud recording $0.01349 per recorded minute |
| Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction | For copays and self-pay visits |
| Apple Developer Program | $99 per membership year | Needed to publish an iPhone app |
| Google Play | $25 one-time registration | Needed to publish an Android app |
| Cloud hosting | Usage-based; no single list price | AWS offers a business associate addendum; PHI belongs only in its HIPAA-eligible services |
| Maintenance and support | $5,500 a month in our published case | Fixes, updates, monitoring and small changes |
A worked example. Take 1,000 video visits a month, 20 minutes each, with two participants. That is 40,000 participant minutes. On Twilio Video's list price it is 40,000 × $0.004 = $160 a month. On Daily it is 30,000 billable minutes × $0.004 = $120, plus the $500 HIPAA add-on: $620 a month. If those 1,000 visits each take a $50 card payment, Stripe's fees are 2.9% of $50,000 ($1,450) plus 1,000 × 30¢ ($300): $1,750 a month. The visit volume, length and price are examples; put in your own.
Two lines have no public price. We found no published price list for EHR integration platforms or for e-prescribing networks that we would quote, so ask each vendor for a written figure. And every one of the ten projects on our project costs page kept a monthly cost after launch. Products that kept a development team paid $5,500 to $8,500 a month.
Build, buy or both
Not every organization needs its own telehealth product.
| Your situation | Sensible route |
|---|---|
| A practice that needs video visits and nothing else | A ready-made tool with a BAA. Check first whether your EHR already includes video visits |
| A group that wants its own intake, booking and reminders around visits | Buy the video tool, build the parts that connect to your EHR |
| A company whose product is the care model | A custom build, because the workflow is what you sell |
| A custom build on a tight budget | Web first, one EHR, a rented video SDK, and mobile in a second phase |
The case above is the third row. The founder's care model depended on daily vitals logging, alert thresholds and coordinator workflows, and a health system contract required a live platform by a fixed date.
What compliance asks for, in plain terms
This is a summary of the agencies' own pages, not legal advice. Budget for a healthcare attorney's review as well.
- HIPAA applies in full. HHS's HIPAA and telehealth page records that the enforcement discretion granted during the COVID-19 emergency expired on 11 May 2023, with a transition period that ended on 9 August 2023. A telehealth product for a provider has to meet the HIPAA Rules.
- Your developer and your vendors are business associates. HHS's business associate guidance lists a health app developer that contracts with a covered entity, and a cloud provider that stores electronic PHI, as examples. Each needs a business associate agreement before patient data moves, and each must sign one with its own subcontractors. That covers video, hosting, messaging and any AI model.
- Safeguards come from a risk analysis. The Security Rule requires administrative, physical and technical safeguards, including access control, audit controls, authentication and transmission security. It does not prescribe specific products.
- Nobody can sell you a HIPAA certificate. AWS states that there is no HIPAA certification for a cloud service provider. Ask vendors for the BAA and for how they operate, not for a badge.
- Medicare rules affect demand, not build cost. HHS's telehealth policy page, last updated 5 February 2026, says many Medicare telehealth flexibilities run through 31 December 2027.
- Prescribing rules can change your scope. The same site's prescribing page, last updated 5 January 2026, says the DEA's telemedicine flexibilities for controlled medications were extended through 31 December 2026. If your product prescribes controlled substances, check the current rule before you scope that feature.
If the app will diagnose or recommend treatment, it may be a regulated medical device; FDA's guidance on clinical decision support software, final as of January 2026, is the place to start. That is a different project with a regulatory pathway, and we do not build it. Our guide to HIPAA compliant AI covers the questions to ask if you add AI features later.
How to lower the cost without lowering safety
- Map the clinical workflow first. Two weeks watching coordinators work surfaced requirements in our case that nobody had written down. Finding them in month four costs more.
- Stand up the infrastructure before the code. Encryption, logging and access control are cheaper to build in than to add.
- Rent the video. At $0.004 a participant minute, a video SDK is rarely worth replacing.
- Start with one EHR. Add the second when a contract requires it.
- Test on synthetic data. It keeps PHI out of development and makes edge cases repeatable.
- Hold AI features for phase two. Get visits, messaging and the record working, then add an intake or front-desk agent on a system that already logs every action.
- Get the monthly line in writing. Ask every vendor what the system costs to run in month thirteen and who is running it.
What Gigabit charges
We quote a telehealth build as a fixed price in writing after scoping, because one public number would mislead you. The reference points are published. The telehealth platform above cost $124,000. On what ten client projects cost, four first products for funded startups cost $48,000, $72,000, $118,000 and $124,000, and regulated data and payment handling are what moved the price. Current prices for the work around a build are on our pricing page:
- Prototype Production Review, $2,500 fixed, 5 business days: a senior review of an app built with Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Cursor or Claude Code, credited in full to a build started within 60 days.
- Embedded AI Teams, $3,000–$7,500 per engineer per month: engineers in your team after launch, with a 2–4 week trial and no lock-in.
- Gigabit Agents, from $8,000 flat per agent: an intake or front-desk agent added to a platform that is already live.
- AI Security Assessment, from $12,000 fixed: testing an AI feature before a health system reviews it.
Start with one page: who uses the app, what a visit looks like from booking to follow-up, which EHRs it must reach and who will review its security. Ask every vendor for a fixed price on that page and a list of what it leaves out. Healthcare app development describes how our builds run, EHR integration covers the connection work, and our healthcare page lists the compliance practices in place. For a product with subscriptions and tenants, see what a SaaS product costs.
