RapidDev builds custom mobile and web apps in San Diego, typically shipping a production MVP in 6–12 weeks for a fixed $13,000–$25,000. That is a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house team in San Diego (roughly $430,000 in the first year for two engineers) or commissioning a local agency ($90,000–$400,000 per build). One team ships the iOS app, the Android app, and the web app on shared infrastructure, and the founder owns all of the code.
One team for your iOS, Android, and web build. We help San Diego founders — from Torrey Pines life-science teams to blue-tech and defense-adjacent startups — go from a Figma or Lovable prototype to a production app users and investors actually trust.
San Diego is a science-and-hardware town, not a pure software one, and that changes what your app has to do. It's the third-largest biotech hub in the world behind Boston and the Bay Area — nearly 2,000 life-science companies employing ~76,000 people and generating $56 billion in output, anchored around Torrey Pines by Scripps Research, the Salk Institute, and UC San Diego. It's the birthplace of Qualcomm and modern cellular wireless, home to General Atomics, Northrop Grumman, and the largest regional Pentagon payroll in the country, and the center of a growing blue-tech economy. San Diego companies raised roughly $7.3 billion across 450+ deals in 2025, with life sciences taking the majority. For a founder here, that means the software is usually the front end to something real — a clinical trial, a sensor, a maritime platform, a device — and it has to clear a HIPAA, security, or IP review most no-code prototypes can't. We build for exactly that: production code that survives diligence and pairs cleanly with the hardware and science it fronts.
The Torrey Pines mesa packs Scripps Research, the Salk Institute, Sanford Burnham Prebys, and UC San Diego into a few square miles — the densest life-science research cluster outside Boston. Tools spin out of these labs constantly, and the ones that need patient, clinical, or lab-facing apps come to us because those flows have to be HIPAA-aware and audit-ready, not a weekend prototype.
Qualcomm made San Diego the wireless capital of the world, and that legacy shows up in the region's startups: connected devices, edge AI, and companion apps for real hardware. We build the mobile and web layer that talks to firmware, streams sensor data, and ships to the app stores while the hardware team focuses on the device.
San Diego carries the nation's largest regional Pentagon payroll, with primes like General Atomics and Northrop Grumman and hundreds of small defense firms. TMA BlueTech anchors a maritime and ocean-tech economy where companies like Seasats are raising real rounds. Dual-use software here has to survive a security and IP review — so we build it that way from day one.
With $7.3B raised across 450+ deals in 2025 and accelerators like EvoNexus and Connect Springboard feeding the pipeline, San Diego money is available — but life-science and defense investors do deep technical diligence. A clickable mockup doesn't clear it. We prioritize the architecture and security posture that a scientific or government-adjacent raise actually gets scrutinized on.
San Diego County by the numbers
Who we build for in San Diego County
Clinical-trial, lab, and diagnostics apps for the Torrey Pines cluster — Scripps, Salk, and the ~2,000 life-science companies that anchor the region.
HIPAA-aware patient and provider apps for San Diego's deep medtech and telehealth bench, built to pass a compliance review from day one.
Secure apps for the nation's largest regional Pentagon payroll — dual-use tools that can survive a real security and IP review.
Companion apps for maritime, ocean-sensing, and clean-energy hardware — the autonomy and data platforms TMA BlueTech's members are building.
LLM features, edge-AI, and connected-device products in the city Qualcomm made the wireless capital of the world.
Multi-tenant dashboards, admin panels, and role-based access for San Diego's growing bench of vertical SaaS startups.
RapidDev builds native and cross-platform mobile apps, Next.js web apps and dashboards, full MVP-to-scale product builds, and production AI features for San Diego founders — mobile and web ship from one team on shared infrastructure, with HIPAA-aware and security-review-ready foundations when the build needs them.
No stitching together an app shop and a web agency. We scope and ship your iOS, Android, and web product on shared infrastructure — so everything actually works together.
One codebase, both stores. We build React Native and Expo apps that pass App Store and Play Store review the first time, including the companion apps San Diego's device and hardware teams need to talk to firmware and sensors.
Fast, SEO-ready web apps on Next.js. From investor-facing sites to the logged-in product itself — clinical dashboards, admin panels, and customer portals with real role-based access.
The whole thing, mobile and web, on shared infrastructure. Ideal when you're moving off a Lovable or Bubble prototype that hit its ceiling and need production code that survives a biotech or defense pilot's diligence.
Ship the AI feature your product actually needs — chat, search, or agents — wired to your data with streaming, evals, and cost controls, not a demo that falls over under load.
You see a working, deployed build every single week. Here's the exact path from a first call to a launched app — five steps, no surprises.
We map your idea (or your stuck prototype) to a concrete feature list, a fixed price, and a timeline. You leave with a plan whether or not you hire us.
What you get
A fixed price + timeline
Clickable Figma flows and a technical architecture you sign off on before a line of production code is written — including the security and compliance posture if your build needs one.
What you get
Clickable Figma + signed-off architecture
You get a working, deployed build every single week — not a black box. Test on real devices, give feedback, watch it take shape.
What you get
A deployed build every week
We handle App Store and Play Store submission, production deploy, and a full handover — code, docs, and access are yours to keep.
What you get
Live app + all code and access
Keep us on a retainer for new features and fixes, or take the wheel with your own team. Your call — we don't lock you in.
What you get
A retainer — or a clean exit
Production-grade, boring-in-the-best-way tools that your future in-house team can hire for and maintain. No lock-in, no proprietary magic.
Building a custom app in San Diego costs anywhere from $13,000 with RapidDev to over $400,000 with a large agency, depending on who builds it. Here is the honest math on the four realistic paths — with real 2025 San Diego numbers, not a vendor's guesswork.
Hire a team in-house in San Diego
true first-year cost of a minimal 2-engineer team
San Diego / US agency
typical price for a comparable custom build
Offshore / freelance
typical Eastern Europe / LatAm blended rate
RapidDev
fixed price, quoted before we start
| Path | Typical cost | Time to first shipped product |
|---|---|---|
| Hire a team in-house in San Diego | ~$410K – $440K / yr | 2–4 months just to hire, then build |
| San Diego / US agency | $90K – $400K+ | 4–9 months |
| Offshore / freelance | $25 – $50 / hr | Highly variable — often 2–3x quoted |
| RapidDev | $13K – $25K | 6–12 weeks to a live, submitted app |
The numbers behind this, sourced
For the price of two to three months of one San Diego engineer's loaded salary, RapidDev ships your entire app — mobile, web, and backend — in 6 to 12 weeks.
App development in San Diego with RapidDev costs a fixed $13,000–$25,000, quoted before any code is written rather than billed by the hour. A focused single-platform MVP starts at $13,000; a full mobile-plus-web product with payments and AI features runs up to $25,000.
You get a fixed price before we write a line of code — quoted, not billed by the hour. Every San Diego build lands in the $13K–$25K range depending on scope.
Solo founders and pre-seed teams validating one core flow with real users.
Seed-stage startups shipping a fundable v1 to the App Store and the web.
Series A teams replacing a no-code MVP or adding serious AI, device, or compliance features.
A few of the builds we've shipped for San Diego founders. Details generalized to protect client confidentiality.
Challenge: A San Diego lab spinout had a Lovable prototype for a clinical-trial patient app but couldn't pass a HIPAA-readiness review to start their first site pilot.
What we shipped: We rebuilt the backend on Supabase with real RLS and audit logging, added role-based clinician access, and shipped native iOS + Android — clearing the pilot's compliance checklist.
Challenge: A maritime-sensing team had firmware and a Bubble dashboard, but the mobile companion app couldn't stream live device data or survive a defense-adjacent security review.
What we shipped: We built a React Native app that pairs over Bluetooth, streams sensor telemetry in real time, and hardened auth and IP handling so the build cleared their diligence.
Challenge: A Series A telehealth team had outgrown a no-code MVP — every new feature broke two others and hiring engineers to work in it was impossible.
What we shipped: We migrated their data into a proper Postgres schema and rebuilt the product on Next.js with role-based access and HIPAA-aware patterns, so they could finally hire and scale.
190+ people across 17 countries, a 4.9 rating on Clutch, and 600+ apps shipped. Here's the leadership standing behind your build.
CEO & Founder
Founder of RapidDev, a global software firm whose team has delivered 1,000+ client projects. He helps founders cut through the hype and ship practical, production-grade software — fast.
Columbia University · Harvard Business School · U.S. Navy veteran · 1,000+ client projects
Matt on LinkedInCOO
Runs operations across RapidDev's 190+ person, 17-country team — the person making sure your build ships on time and on scope.
CTO
Owns the technical bar for every build: the architecture, code quality, and security review that has to survive investor and pilot diligence.
Dev Lead
Leads the engineers who ship your weekly builds across iOS, Android, and web on shared infrastructure.
Both — that's the whole point of working with us instead of stitching two vendors together. We build your mobile app (iOS and Android from one React Native codebase) and your web app on shared infrastructure, so your data, auth, and payments live in one place instead of three.
Yes, and it's one of the most common builds we do for San Diego founders. We architect for compliance from day one: row-level security on the database, audit logging, role-based clinician and patient access, and a security posture that can survive the readiness review a clinical or hospital pilot requires. We handle the technical side so your build clears diligence instead of stalling on it.
Yes, and it's one of the most common reasons San Diego founders come to us. No-code prototypes are great for validation but hit a ceiling on security, scale, and hiring — and they rarely survive a biotech or defense-adjacent review. We migrate your data into a real database and rebuild the product in production-grade code you own, usually without losing any of your existing data.
Most builds land between $13,000 and $25,000, quoted as a fixed price before we start — not billed by the hour. After a free 45-minute scope call we send a concrete feature list, price, and timeline. The band depends on scope: a focused single-platform MVP sits near the bottom, a full mobile + web product with payments, AI, or compliance features toward the top.
Typically 6–12 weeks from kickoff to a live, submitted app. A focused MVP can ship in 4–6 weeks; a full mobile + web product with AI or compliance features runs closer to 9–12. You get a working, deployed build every week, so you're never waiting months to see progress.
No — we work with San Diego founders remotely and asynchronously. You'll have a dedicated point of contact, weekly demos, and a shared board. If you prefer a video kickoff or working sessions, we're happy to schedule around your timezone.
You do — completely. The code lives in your GitHub, the App Store and Play Store listings are under your accounts, and we hand over full documentation at launch. We never hold your product hostage, and you're free to bring the work in-house or hire your own team whenever you want.
That's a big part of what we do for seed and Series A teams here. San Diego life-science and defense investors do deep technical diligence — so we prioritize the flows that demo well, ship App-Store-quality polish, and make sure the architecture and security posture hold up under scrutiny. Many of our San Diego clients raise on the version we ship.
Absolutely — most of the founders we work with are non-technical or first-time technical founders, including scientists and operators spinning a product out of a lab. We handle every technical decision, explain trade-offs in plain English, and give you a product you can maintain or hand to a future CTO. You focus on customers and fundraising; we handle the build.
It comes down to structure, not corners cut. We scope a fixed set of features up front, so there is no open-ended hourly meter. A small, senior-only team does the work directly — you are not paying for account managers, sales overhead, or junior engineers learning on your budget. And we reuse hardened production patterns for auth, payments, and infrastructure instead of rebuilding them from scratch each time. An in-house team carries full salaries, benefits, and months of ramp-up before anything ships; an agency layers overhead on top of the build. We simply do not carry those costs.
Every build includes a 30-day bug-fix window after launch — if something we shipped breaks, we fix it at no extra cost. Beyond that, you can keep us on an optional monthly support retainer for ongoing fixes and new features, or take the code in-house and maintain it yourself. You own the code either way, so you are never locked in.
Small adjustments within the agreed scope are just part of the weekly sprint — you review a working build every week and give feedback we fold in. If you want to add or swap something bigger that changes the scope, we handle it with a simple change order: we tell you the price and timeline impact before doing the work, you approve it, and only then do we build it. No surprise invoices, and no silent scope creep.
Grab a 45-minute slot with our team below. We'll map your idea — or your stuck San Diego prototype — to a concrete feature list, a fixed $13K–$25K price, and a timeline. You walk away with a real plan either way.
Prefer email? Contact us instead.
Book a free 45-minute scope call. You'll walk away with a concrete feature list, a fixed price, and a timeline — whether or not you decide to work with us.
Serving San Diego and San Diego County · Remote-friendly · You own everything we build
