How Much Does It Cost to Create an App Like Apollo 24/7?
Building an app like Apollo 24/7 is a serious undertaking — it’s not just a mobile interface but an entire healthcare ecosystem that links patients, doctors, pharmacies, labs, and insurance flows. The cost depends on scope, regulatory needs, integrations, and the maturity of features you want on day one. Whether you’re aiming for a basic telemedicine and pharmacy ordering experience, or a full-featured digital health platform with EHR, lab integrations, appointment systems, AI triage, and insurance claims, the choices you make early will shape timelines, budgets, and operational complexity. This article walks through the product components, technology stack, development pathways, realistic cost bands in USD, timeline expectations, and the roles of partner firms — from a healthcare app development company to a software maintenance company — that will help you take an Apollo-like product from concept to clinic-ready.
What “an app like Apollo 24/7” means in product terms
When people say “an app like Apollo 24/7,” they often mean a combined set of services: teleconsultations, online pharmacy, lab test booking and reports, doctor search and appointment booking, health records, reminders, and health content. For some businesses, the priority is telemedicine; for others, it’s pharmacy delivery or enterprise integrations with hospitals and clinics. Each module introduces its own costs and complexity. Telemedicine requires video infrastructure and scheduling logic, pharmacy ordering needs inventory and compliance workflows, and EHR-style records demand secure storage and audit trails. Partnering with a healthcare software development company in India or elsewhere lets you scope this product realistically: you’ll identify what must be perfect on day one (e.g., secure video, prescription workflows) and what can be phased into later releases (e.g., insurance adjudication or advanced AI diagnostics).
Core features and how they affect cost
A minimum viable Apollo-style product includes patient profiles, doctor search, appointment booking, video/voice consultations, e-prescriptions, basic pharmacy ordering, and a simple admin panel for doctors and operations. Adding features like lab integrations, home sample collection, medicine substitution logic, insurance processing, advanced EHR modules, AI symptom checkers, or multi-hospital integrations increases both development effort and ongoing compliance obligations. Even UI polish and localization for multiple Indian languages add time. The cost per feature scales: a polished, secure video consultation flow with waiting rooms, recording restrictions, and high availability costs more than a basic chat consultation. A healthcare app development company will typically break down these features into prioritized sprints so you can see the trade-off between value and cost before committing to the full product.
Technology architecture and cost drivers
Technical choices are major cost drivers. Native apps (Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android) produce the best device experience but require parallel engineering teams, increasing costs. Cross-platform frameworks (like Flutter or React Native) can reduce mobile costs but may need additional native modules for video, background services, or device integrations. On the backend, microservices support modularity and scaling but raise initial architecture and DevOps costs; monolithic architectures are cheaper up front but become expensive when scaling. Components that typically raise costs include video infrastructure (WebRTC, media servers), secure storage for health data (encrypted databases and key management), compliance tooling (audit logs, consent management), and integrations with labs, pharmacies, and insurance providers. Engaging a full stack development company helps you design an architecture that balances budget and future scalability.
Regulatory compliance, privacy and security — budget essentials
Healthcare apps must prioritize patient safety and data privacy. This means encryption in transit and at rest, secure authentication (including multi-factor for clinicians), careful consent capture, and robust audit trails. If you plan to operate in multiple geographies, you must account for HIPAA, GDPR, or local health data regulations in India. Security audits, penetration testing, and legal compliance reviews are indispensable and non-negotiable, and they add to initial and recurring costs. A healthcare software development company in India will cost-effectively implement region-appropriate compliance measures, but you should still budget for independent security audits, legal consultations, and ongoing compliance monitoring handled by a software maintenance company once the app is live.
Integrations: labs, pharmacies, insurance and why they raise costs
Integration work is where budgets often increase unpredictably. Each lab or pharmacy partner may have its own API, data format, and operational quirks — some may only accept orders via secure SFTP, others via REST APIs, and many will require certificate-based authentication or batch reconciliation. Insurance integrations for claims and authorizations involve complex workflows and regulatory data exchange formats. Building robust connectors, reconciliation processes, and error handling for these integrations requires experienced engineering time and strong QA. A mobile app development company or an experienced healthcare software development company generally estimates integration work separately and often recommends phasing integrations to control risk and cost.
Team composition and hourly rates: who builds the app and what they cost
The team that builds an Apollo-like app typically includes product management and UX, mobile engineers (iOS and Android or cross-platform specialists), backend engineers, DevOps, QA engineers, security specialists, data engineers (if you plan analytics or AI), and project management. Engagement models vary: hiring an in-house team, partnering with an offshore healthcare app development company, or using a hybrid model where a full stack development company leads architecture while local teams handle product and compliance. Hourly rates differ by region: experienced healthcare-focused teams in India are generally more affordable than comparable talent in North America or Western Europe, making India a popular destination for building healthcare platforms. For a robust, secure product, expect to engage senior engineers and domain specialists rather than junior-only teams.
Realistic cost (MVP to enterprise)
Below are realistic cost bands for building an app like Apollo 24/7, presented in USD and covering development, basic infrastructure, and a short pilot marketing budget. These are ballpark ranges; exact quotes require a detailed requirements document. All figures assume a professional-grade product with security and compliance work factored in.
A lean MVP focused on teleconsultation and basic pharmacy ordering: $40,000 – $90,000. This includes simple mobile apps (cross-platform), backend services for accounts and appointments, basic video integration, a lightweight pharmacy ordering flow, and essential security. It’s suitable for market validation and limited pilots.
A mid-level product with lab integrations, multi-language support, improved UI/UX, and more polished ops tooling: $90,000 – $250,000. This band includes multiple integrations, admin dashboards, stronger analytics, enhanced QA and security testing, and better scalability planning. This is typical for startups targeting city-wide rollouts.
A fully-featured platform with EHR capabilities, insurance integrations, advanced AI triage, nationwide pharmacy and lab integrations, and enterprise-grade uptime: $250,000 – $700,000+. This tier supports multi-geography deployments, hospital partnerships, and regulatory compliance across regions. It also budgets for significant Ops and marketing spend.
Enterprise or national-scale builds involving hospital EMR integrations, complex claims processing, device integrations for remote monitoring, and extensive legal and security audits: $700,000 – $2M+. Large healthcare networks or ventures aiming to replicate a national player should prepare for this scale, which includes long-term maintenance, high-availability infrastructure, and large operations teams.
Timeline expectations and phased delivery approach
Time is money in product delivery. A lean MVP can be built in 3–6 months with a focused team and a narrow scope. A mid-level product typically requires 6–12 months, primarily because integrations and regulatory checks take time. A full-featured platform often needs 12–24 months plus iterative improvements after launch. Phased delivery is the smart approach: validate teleconsultation and basic pharmacy flows in a pilot city, then add labs, e-prescriptions, enterprise integrations, and AI-driven features. Working with a full stack development company and a healthcare app development company helps you prioritize features into sprints, manage dependencies between teams, and deploy safely without compromising quality.
Post-launch costs: maintenance, support and scaling
Building the product is just the start. Post-launch expenses include cloud hosting and CDN costs that scale with users, monitoring and observability, support staff for clinicians and patients, and ongoing security patching. A professional software maintenance company typically offers SLA-based services for uptime, backups, security patches, and incident management; budget 10–20% of initial development costs annually for ongoing maintenance as a baseline, with higher percentages for mission-critical enterprise deployments. Growth-driven costs such as marketing, partnerships with hospitals and pharmacies, and additional feature development should also be anticipated. Dinoustech can help structure maintenance contracts and advise on cost-effective DevOps practices to keep operational expenses predictable while scaling.
How to choose partners: agencies, vendors, and what to ask
Choosing the right partner drastically affects cost efficiency and time-to-market. Look for a healthcare app development company that can demonstrate prior work in telemedicine, EHR, or regulated services, and ask for references related to security, integrations, and uptime. A healthcare software development company in India may offer competitive pricing and a deep talent pool; a full stack development company provides end-to-end technical coherence; a mobile app development company ensures a polished client experience; and an affordable web design company can help with early landing pages and marketing funnels. Also verify that prospective partners have processes for compliance, penetration testing, and incident response. Finally, prefer vendors who offer post-launch software maintenance company services or clear handover processes to ensure continuity.
Recommendations and steps to get started
Start with a clear product definition and prioritize features that prove user value quickly: teleconsultations, secure prescriptions, and basic pharmacy fulfillment are strong first bets. Commission a technical requirements document from a trusted partner so you can get accurate estimates. Run a pilot in a limited geography to validate operational assumptions like courier turnaround and lab pickup logistics. Budget for legal and compliance reviews early; fixing privacy or security gaps late is far more expensive. Consider partnering with Dinoustech or similar teams that combine domain knowledge and delivery experience — they can help refine the MVP, estimate costs accurately, and plan a realistic roadmap that includes a software maintenance company for long-term support.