Product discovery sprint
Two weeks. User interviews, clickable prototype, technical plan and a real build estimate you can budget from.
Building apps since 2014
An app in the store, not a prototype in a folder
We take products from a sketch to a shipped iOS and Android release, including the store review fights nobody warns you about. Fixed price phases so you always know the next number.
78apps shipped
11 yrsin business
14engineers and designers
100%of builds reach the store
How we work
Fixed price phases from idea to store listing
Each phase is quoted flat, and you own all code and design files from day one.
MVP build, one platform
Ten to fourteen weeks to a submitted, reviewable app with analytics and crash reporting in place.
iOS and Android build
Both platforms shipped together, native or React Native depending on what your product actually needs.
Backend and API development
The server side your app needs, built to hand over cleanly to your own team later.
App Store and Play submission
Listings, screenshots, privacy declarations and we handle rejections and resubmission at no extra charge.
Ongoing maintenance retainer
OS version updates, dependency upgrades, crash triage and a monthly release train.
About Northlight
Fourteen people, no offshore hand off, no account managers
Northlight has been building mobile since 2014 and has deliberately stayed small. The engineers who scope your project are the ones who write it, and you talk to them directly in a shared channel. We take on roughly eight new builds a year, which is why we sometimes say no to good projects.
•You own the code, the repository and the design files from the first commit
•Weekly builds on your device from week two, not a demo at the end
•Every app we have started has reached the App Store
Reviews
What founders and product leads say
“We had been burned by an agency that delivered a repo nobody could build. Northlight had something on my phone in week two and it never stopped improving.”
Alex W., Founder, logistics startup
“Apple rejected us twice over health data disclosures. They handled the entire back and forth and we shipped nine days later.”
Dr. Sanjay P., Clinical product lead
“The discovery sprint saved us from building the wrong thing. The estimate at the end was within four percent of the final invoice.”
Bethany K., VP Product, consumer brand
FAQ
Cost, timeline and ownership
Why start with a paid discovery sprint?
Because a build estimate written from a one page brief is a guess, and guesses become change orders. Two weeks of interviews, a clickable prototype and a technical plan gets the estimate within a few percent. If you take the plan and build elsewhere, that is fine, you own it outright.
Native or cross platform?
It depends on the product, and we will tell you honestly. Apps that lean on camera, Bluetooth, background location or heavy animation usually go native. Content and forms driven products often ship faster and cheaper on React Native with no user visible difference. We do not have a house preference to defend.
Who owns the code and what happens if we part ways?
You own everything from the first commit, in your own repository under your organization, with your own Apple and Google developer accounts. There are no license fees, no escrow and no proprietary framework you would have to keep paying us for. Handover to an in house team is a documented process we run several times a year.
What does maintenance actually cover?
Apple and Google ship OS updates every year that break things, and dependencies go stale faster than most teams expect. The retainer covers keeping the app compiling and passing review, triaging crashes, and a monthly release. Building new features is quoted separately so you are never paying a retainer for work that did not happen.
Contact
Tell us what you are building
Send a paragraph about the product and the deadline and we will tell you within two days whether we are the right shop and roughly what it costs.
Phone(207) 555-0184
Address142 Free St, Floor 3, Portland, Maine
HoursMon to Fri 8:30am to 6pm ET
AreaClients across North America and Europe, remote first