Skip to content
  • Our data is copyright protected — copying without permission is prohibited
  • We handle no money, ever
  • No business is promoted for payment
  • Tell us if something is wrong — we check and fix it
AyRojgar

App development service

Building mobile apps to order. The capital is a computer, internet and electricity, plus a one-time USD 25 on Google Play and USD 99 a year on Apple. The cash incentive is 2.50 percent for an individual and 6 percent for a firm.

  • Last reviewed: 21 September 2026
  • Version 1
App development service

App development service

Starting capital
৳63,000 – ৳1,65,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 8 people
First sale
180 – 270 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
8 – 33 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Online · Hard

About the business

Building mobile apps, for Android, for iPhone, or for both at once. In Bangladesh it runs three ways. One is a single developer or a pair taking foreign client work off a marketplace. Two is a small team building apps for local companies: delivery, schools, clinics, small banks. Three is building your own app, putting it on the store and hoping advertising or subscriptions pay. The third is by far the least certain. The capital is a good computer, electricity and internet, and nothing else: no shop, no stock. Broadband is Tk 500 a month for 30 Mbps and Tk 1,000 for 100 Mbps under the BTRC-approved packages, and electricity averages Tk 10.63 a unit. Only the store fees sit outside that: a Google Play developer account is a one-time USD 25, about Tk 3,070, and the Apple Developer Program is USD 99 per membership year, about Tk 12,160. Building for iPhone also needs a Mac, and that is the single largest one-time cost in this trade. Most of the money arrives in dollars. Under Bangladesh Bank's FEPD-1 Circular 22 of 22 July 2026 no EXP form applies, inward remittances up to USD 20,000 are credited without Form-C, online gateways are capped at USD 10,000 per transaction, and up to 50 percent of net ICT earnings may be kept in foreign currency, which is what pays for servers, domain and hosting fees and software registration. The cash incentive is 6 percent for a firm and 2.50 percent for an individual freelancer, not 4 percent. The honest part: the skill takes time to build and the first year pays close to nothing.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳832 – ৳21,013Editorial estimate
Selling price৳9,700 – ৳2,00,000 / unitDisputed
Variable cost৳832 – ৳2,500 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin72% – 94%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue180 – 270 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time8 – 33 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle3 – 10 daysPractitioner verified
Waste / loss30% – 40%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity1 – 8Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A computer, an IPS or UPS, and a broadband line. Under the BTRC-approved packages from 27 April 2026, 30 Mbps is Tk 500 a month, 100 Mbps Tk 1,000 and 250 Mbps Tk 3,000, at the same rate nationwide. The weighted average retail electricity tariff has been Tk 10.63 a unit since June 2026.Equipment
  • Store accounts: Google Play Console developer registration is a one-time US$25, about Tk 3,070 at the 20 September 2026 rate; the Apple Developer Program is USD 99 per membership year, about Tk 12,160, payable every year. Building and submitting an iOS app needs a Mac.Equipment
  • Working alone needs no licence. Opening an office or agency in your own name, or contracting with local companies, needs a trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad, currently valid one year. Dhaka South City Corporation said on 16 August 2026 it will move to five-year renewal, and Tk 3,000 of the renewal goes to the NBR.Licence
  • Real command of one stack, Kotlin, Swift or Flutter, plus writing APIs, databases, version control and getting a submission past the store rules. Understanding and writing a client's requirements in English is part of the skill.Skill
  • An account with an Authorised Dealer bank. Under Bangladesh Bank FEPD-1 Circular 22 of 22 July 2026 no EXP form applies to service exports over the internet; inward remittances up to USD 20,000 are credited without Form-C and anything above needs the online Form-C (ICT); OPGSP repatriation is capped at USD 10,000 per transaction; up to 50 percent of net ICT service earnings may be held in foreign currency in an ERQ account (30 percent for other services) and the rest must be converted to taka. Dual-currency freelancer cards and MFS wallets are also allowed.Supplier
  • To claim the cash incentive the money has to come home. The circular of 5 July 2026 sets the FY2026-27 rate at 6 percent for firms exporting software and ITES and 2.50 percent for individual freelancers. The same rates applied through both halves of FY2025-26. Many write-ups still say 4 percent; that is out of date.Supplier

How the work is done

  1. 1Get a decent computer and broadband. Building for iPhone means a Mac, and that is the largest single one-time cost.
  2. 2Pick one stack and get good at it: Kotlin for Android, Swift for iPhone, or Flutter for both. Two or three half-learned stacks are worth nothing.
  3. 3Build two complete apps yourself and publish them. A store link is the only proof a client accepts.
  4. 4Open a Google Play developer account, a one-time USD 25 or about Tk 3,070. For iPhone the Apple Developer Program is USD 99 per membership year, about Tk 12,160.
  5. 5Open an Authorised Dealer account and an ERQ account. Up to 50 percent of net ICT earnings can stay in dollars, and those dollars pay for servers, hosting and Apple's annual fee.
  6. 6Take the first jobs on a marketplace but talk to local companies too: delivery, schools, clinics. Local work pays in taka and pays late.
  7. 7Price in stages: advance, midpoint and handover. Bill everything at the end and change requests will eat months.
  8. 8Keep every contract, email and platform statement; the bank credits the money against that electronic evidence.
  9. 9Bring the money home and claim the cash incentive through the bank: 2.50 percent as an individual, 6 percent as a firm.
  10. 10Sign a separate monthly maintenance contract after handover. When Android or iOS rules change, an app that is not updated gets pulled from the store.
  11. 11Take a trade licence before growing the team. Larger local companies and public bodies will not contract without one, and as a firm the incentive rate is 6 percent.
  12. 12Chase AI-adjacent work. Demand for machine-learning programming is up 24 percent and AI chatbot building has nearly tripled, while ordinary coding jobs have fallen.

Seasons

  1. JanNormal
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecNormal
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitChattogram · The second city, with a dense base of export-facing companies and enough bank foreign exchange branches to settle in.
  • Strong fitDhaka · Most Authorised Dealer bank branches, freelancer cards and ERQ accounts are opened here, and local client and agency work is Dhaka-centred. The government's new Tk 683 crore training project runs through 13 metropolitan cities.
  • PossibleBogura · The trading hub of the north, with broadband and bank branches in place and rent a fraction of Dhaka's.
  • PossibleCumilla · Close to Dhaka, with many expatriate families and banks used to handling foreign currency.
  • PossibleGazipur · On Dhaka's edge, with lower rent and the ability to hold on to Dhaka agency work.
  • PossibleKhulna · Line costs the same as Dhaka under one country, one rate, and living costs less, so the same income goes further.
  • PossibleMymensingh · A supply of university and college students. Internet costs the same, but local clients are few, so work has to come off the marketplaces.
  • PossibleRajshahi · A university city with a supply of young people who write English, and the same nationwide internet price.
  • PossibleRangpur · Internet costs the same under one country, one rate, but load-shedding is worse, so a night shift is hard without an IPS.
  • PossibleSylhet · Expatriate links make foreign clients easier to reach, and broadband costs the same as in Dhaka: 30 Mbps at Tk 500 under BTRC's one country, one rate policy.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDemand: AI has eaten exactly this kind of work first. A 2025 Management Science study found writing and coding job postings down 21 percent within eight months of ChatGPT's arrival and visual design down 17 percent, with demand for writing and translation down 20 to 50 percent. Freelancers told The Daily Star on 20 September 2026 that income fell by up to 80 percent at first; Yousuf Tushar, twenty years in the trade, is down about half, and Kazi Mamun, fourteen years in, is down about 25 percent. For app work that means plain CRUD builds and template jobs are drying up, while the work that is growing is wiring AI into products.
  • HighOther: Training is not income. The government's new Tk 683 crore project targets only 60-70 percent of trainees entering income-generating work, with income expected 3 to 6 months after a three-month course ends. A Tk 47.5 crore pilot in 16 districts in 2022 claimed 64 percent secured freelance work, but there is no independent verification. For almost everyone the first year is a year of nearly no income. App development takes even longer to learn, because a working app takes months to stand up.
  • HighCompliance: Leaving earnings abroad is now plainly unlawful. Paragraph 9 of FEPD-1 Circular 22 says retention of export proceeds abroad in any form, including foreign accounts, assets or virtual assets, violates the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947. Yet The Financial Express reported on 2 May 2025 that 50 to 70 percent of the earnings of freelancers making over USD 800 a month never comes home. Nothing that stays out there earns the 2.50 percent incentive either.
  • HighDependency: A business standing on one client can end overnight. Emrazina Islam, freelancing since 2011, told The Daily Star she had served one company since 2012 with up to 15 people on it, and after AI came the whole business was gone. Store rules are the same kind of dependency: when Android or iOS policy changes, an app that is not updated gets pulled.
  • MediumDemand: Nobody agrees on the size of the market, and planning on the big number is planning on air. Prothom Alo reported on 16 July 2024 that the state minister put ICT exports at USD 2 billion, the BASIS president at USD 1.5 billion, and former BASIS president Fahim Mashrur at under USD 1 billion. Freelancer earnings are USD 200-250 million by BASIS's count and USD 300 million by BFDS's. On numbers: 600,000-700,000 registered on platforms, but roughly 150,000 real ones.

Sources

What changed

No corrections have been published yet.

Questions and answers

No questions yet. Be the first to ask.

Similar businesses

Digital & B2B services

Video editing service

Editing product videos and content for others. The customers already exist - 200,000 online merchants on Pathao and 300,000 on Steadfast; the main capital item is one editing computer.

Capital
৳62k – ৳2.5 lakh
People
1 – 6
First income
90 – 365 days
Editorial estimate
Digital & B2B services

Software and app reselling

Installing point-of-sale and accounting software in small shops. The competition is free apps - TallyKhata alone has about 4.7 million registered traders - so the income comes from hardware and service.

Capital
৳60k – ৳2.5 lakh
People
1 – 6
First income
7 – 60 days
Editorial estimate
Digital & B2B services

Freelancing agency

A small team taking foreign client work and routing the money home legally. Income tax and VAT are both waived and legal-channel earnings carry a 2.5 per cent cash incentive - but the first year pays close to nothing.

Capital
৳60k – ৳4 lakh
People
1 – 10
First income
90 – 365 days
Editorial estimate
Digital & B2B services

Mobile financial services agent

Agent commission is about Tk 4 per Tk 1,000 moved. Earning Tk 30,000 a month means pushing roughly Tk 73 lakh a month across the counter.

Capital
৳50k – ৳3.5 lakh
People
1 – 2
First income
15 – 45 days
Editorial estimate