When an aesthetics clinic owner writes to me to talk about an app, the first 3-4 questions are always the same. I’ve heard them so many times that I have them written down in a document. In this post I answer them all, with data, with what it really costs, and with what I’m doing right now on the Westside Wellness app (which is the real case I have in development, under NDA, with names changed to protect confidentiality).
This is not a “complete guide” post. It’s a post with honest answers to the questions a real clinic owner asks before spending €3,000 or more on a custom app.
1. “How much does an app really cost for my clinic?”
It depends. And when they ask me this, I always say the same: “depends on what you want it to do, not what technology you use”. The technology (React Native, Flutter, native) is an implementation detail. What drives the price is the functional scope.
Real ranges I work with in 2026, agreed by sprint:
| Functionality | Price | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| MVP with agenda + patient file + notifications | $1,800-3,000 | 1-2 months |
| + Encrypted clinical history + full GDPR | +$1,000-1,500 | +1 sprint |
| + Real-time revenue statistics | +$800-1,200 | +1 sprint |
| + Patient chat | +$1,000-1,800 | +1 sprint |
| + Online bookings from web | +$800-1,200 | +1 sprint |
| + POS integration | +$600-1,200 | +1 sprint |
| + Multi-location | +$1,200-2,500 | +1 sprint |
For a medium-sized clinic (3-5 practitioners), the realistic total cost is between $4,500 and $8,000. A large clinic with multi-location, integrated POS, and all the above can rise to $12,000-18,000.
With an agency, multiply that by 2-3. And on top, the model is “all at once”, without the option to validate sprint by sprint.
2. “Why don’t I use a SaaS like Clinic Cloud or Doctoralia Pro?”
Platforms like Clinic Cloud, Doctoralia Pro, Pablor, or Clínikator promise “all in one” for clinics. I’ve seen dozens of them in use. The problems owners report to me are always the same:
- High monthly price ($60-250/month/clinic), infinite over time. A custom app pays for itself in 1-2 years and then is yours.
- Rigid: they don’t adapt to your flow, you adapt to their software.
- Data on their servers: if you close the account, they raise the price, or they change the conditions, you lose everything or migrate with pain.
- Features you don’t need (and that you pay for). Many include telemedicine modules, billing, marketing… that you don’t use.
- Slow support or via tickets that take days.
- No brand personalisation: the client sees the platform’s logo, not yours.
For a large clinic with 10+ practitioners and several locations, a SaaS can make sense (it’s cheaper to start). For a medium or small clinic, a custom app is a better investment over 2-3 years.
3. “How long does it take to be ready?”
It depends on scope, and I always break it into sprints so you start using the app as soon as possible:
- Functional MVP (agenda + patient file + login + notifications): 1-2 months. This is what I put in production on day 1.
- + Full GDPR + encrypted clinical history: +1 sprint (2-3 more weeks).
- + Statistics + chat + online bookings: +1-2 sprints.
- + POS + multi-location: +1-2 sprints.
The sprint is the unit of work. At the end of each sprint, you have an app working in production that your team can already use. And you pay only if you’re happy with the sprint result. If it doesn’t convince you, we don’t continue.
I work this way with all my clients because it’s the only honest way for both parties to be comfortable: I don’t charge for hours you don’t see, you don’t pay for something that doesn’t work.
4. “What technologies do you use? React Native, Flutter, native?”
Always React Native, unless the client has a very specific reason to ask for something else. Why:
- One code for iOS and Android: half the cost and half the time of two separate native apps.
- Almost native performance for 95% of use cases (agendas, forms, chat, notifications).
- Mature ecosystem: it has 10 years, thousands of libraries, and the community keeps it active.
- If tomorrow you need web, part of the code can be reused with regular React or Next.js.
Flutter I’ve evaluated. It’s technically excellent, but for clinics the bottleneck is never the UI, it’s the integration with backend, GDPR, and notifications. React Native wins there by ecosystem.
Pure native app (Swift + Kotlin)? Only if the client has a very specific case (games, heavy image processing, AR). For a clinic, it doesn’t compensate to pay double.
5. “What about GDPR? I’m scared of being fined”
Justified fear. An aesthetics clinic handles health data, which is a special category under GDPR. If you do it wrong, the fine can be up to 4% of annual revenue or €20 million, whichever is higher.
That’s why I use Supabase as backend, because it already complies with GDPR and has the security infrastructure done:
- Encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and at rest (PostgreSQL encrypted on disk).
- Servers in the EU (Ireland or Frankfurt). Data never leaves Europe.
- JWT authentication with optional 2FA.
- Audit logs to know who accessed what.
- Automatic encrypted backups.
What you need to have in the app to comply with GDPR:
- Explicit patient consent for the processing of their data (checkbox before registering, not assumed by default).
- Right of access, rectification, deletion and portability. This is implemented with a panel where the patient sees and downloads their data.
- Record of processing activities (GDPR art. 30): an internal document describing what data you store, why, for how long, and who accesses it.
- Data processor identified in the privacy policy.
- Breach notification within 72 hours if an incident occurs.
- DPIA (Impact Assessment) if the app processes data on a large scale (large clinics).
My recommendation: don’t improvise GDPR. Use a backend that already complies (Supabase, Firebase with EU configuration) and a lawyer who reviews the privacy policy before launching.
6. “Can I integrate it with the software I already have?”
Yes, if your current software has an open API. Most modern ones (Clinic Cloud, Doctoralia Pro, etc.) have a documented REST API. In 1 sprint (2-3 weeks) we connect the app to your system and the data flows in both directions.
If your software doesn’t have an API, we have two options:
- We evaluate rewriting the critical parts (sometimes it’s cheaper than maintaining an infinite SaaS payment).
- We build the custom app ignoring the old software, which ends up retiring.
On the first call I tell you which of the two options makes sense depending on the case.
7. “What about maintenance? How much does it cost per year?”
For a medium-sized app (the Westside Wellness case as reference):
- Supabase backend: $30-120/month depending on the plan (Pro or Team).
- Apple Developer Account: $99 USD/year.
- Google Play Console: $25 USD one-time (for life).
- Evolutionary maintenance (changes, improvements, bugs): from $30/month with a 2.5h pack, or $60/month with 5h.
Realistic annual total: $900-1,800 for a medium app in production. Vs SaaS: $700-2,900/year. The custom app pays for itself in 1-2 years and then is cheaper. And it’s yours, not the provider’s.
8. “What if they steal my idea or my data?”
They ask me this quite a bit, especially clinics with proprietary treatments.
- The idea: your app is yours, the code is yours, I deliver it. The repo on GitHub is yours, with your credentials. If tomorrow you change developer, you take it and they keep working.
- The data: it’s in your Supabase instance, with your account. If I leave, you maintain total control. Nothing stays on my server.
- Access to code: I deploy with Vercel or similar, where you have the main account. I access as a collaborator, but you’re the owner.
It’s not like in an agency, where the code stays on their servers and you depend on them forever. Here it’s the other way around: you have control of everything, and I’m a collaborator who helps you maintain it.
9. “Do I need an app or is a website enough?”
Legitimate question. Depends on your case:
- Your team uses the clinic from mobile or tablet daily (reception, consultations, rooms) → native app or PWA, absolutely.
- Your clients are the ones who interact most with the clinic (book, see history, receive reminders) → app for clients + web for acquisition.
- You only need internal management and the web already covers you → you probably don’t need an app, just improve the website.
The web never replaces the app for intensive internal use. Trying to manage a clinic from the mobile browser is frustrating and inefficient. The app is for your team, the web is for attracting clients.
10. “What if I want push notifications to my clients?”
Yes, I implement it from sprint 2 (it’s part of the “advanced features”). Push notifications are the feature that has the most impact on no-shows:
- 24h before the appointment: standard reminder.
- 2h before the appointment: short reminder to confirm.
- After the appointment: “thank you, how was it?” message to ask for a review.
In clinics that have implemented this flow, no-shows drop 30-40%. That, for a medium clinic with 20 appointments/day, is 6-8 more appointments per day that aren’t lost. At an $80 average ticket, that’s $480-640/day that don’t evaporate.
11. “How long does it take to have a working MVP in production?”
For a medium-sized clinic: 4-6 weeks from the first sprint. I break it down like this:
- Week 1-2: project setup, Supabase, authentication, first screen.
- Week 3-4: agenda, patient file, functional login.
- Week 5-6: push notifications, polish, deploy to App Store and Google Play.
At the end of week 6, your team already has the app on mobile and is starting to use it in production. It’s not a demo. It’s the real app, with real data, in the real stores.
The real case: Westside Wellness (an aesthetics clinic in Austin, Texas)
The app I’m programming for Westside Wellness (aesthetics medicine with advanced treatments: Blumed blue laser, endolaser, etc.) includes exactly the functionalities I described above:
- Appointment management with visual calendar: day, week, month. By treatment, practitioner, room.
- Online bookings from the web in real time.
- Real-time revenue statistics by day, week, month, treatment, practitioner.
- Direct chat with patients encrypted, integrated into the app.
- Patient management and clinical history encrypted and GDPR compliant.
- Push notifications 24h and 2h before each appointment.
Stack: React Native + Supabase + TypeScript.
Work model: short sprints (1-2 weeks), price fixed per sprint, payment only if the client is happy at the end of each sprint. Total estimated $4,500-7,000 when finished.
For more details on the case (with screenshots when it’s further along), write to me and I’ll send you the NDA-protected version that I can share with interested clients.
If you want to talk about your case
If you have an aesthetics clinic and you’re evaluating an app, write to me at landinowebs@gmail.com or via WhatsApp and I’ll send you a fixed written quote in 24-48h with a first MVP sprint. Before asking for anything, I prepare a mockup of the main screens so you see the direction without paying a cent.