Guide

Municipal app cost, timeline, and procurement checklist

Clerks and CAOs get asked for a town app in open meeting. Then the quotes come back like a capital project: a long statement of work, a setup fee, an implementation fee, sometimes a charge per resident, and a timeline measured in seasons.

This page is the published version of what a municipal mobile app can cost, what should be in it, how long a launch actually takes, and the questions council and staff should ask any vendor before they vote. It is written so a staff report or agenda PDF can cite it.

I run LocalGovy. We build all-in-one mobile apps that provide hubs of relevant information for the residents of small to mid-size municipalities. The numbers below are our published rates, not a custom quote. Other vendors will have other numbers. The checklist is for all of them.

What it costs

These are LocalGovy’s published municipal rates. They are also on the pricing page (https://localgovy.com/pricing/) and the municipal page (https://localgovy.com/municipal/).

Municipal mobile app (iOS and Android): $75 per month
Town bundle: the same app plus one public website: $150 per month
Extra apps or sites, or a city-scale build: Quoted. The $75 and $150 plans stay the published rates.
Billing: Annually. The figures above are monthly rates.
First month: Free
Setup / build / implementation fee: $0
Per-resident fee: $0
Pay before launch: Nothing. You pay when the product is live.
Rate lock: Optional. Not mandatory. If you choose, the published municipal rate can be locked in for up to five years
Contracts: No lock-in is mandatory. Pause or end at any time. Optional rate-lock contract up to five years if you choose.

The website is not sold on its own. The $150 plan is the app plus one public site. That site can be the main town site, a tourism site, or a BIA site. A second site is quoted.

Retail, faith, and union products are separate (retail from $100 a month; faith and unions from $150 a month). Towns are $75 for the app. Do not mix those lines in a staff report.

I price it this way on purpose. A custom municipal app has traditionally meant a quote in the tens of thousands, a long timeline, and a developer you have to call every time a rink schedule changes. For a town of a few thousand people, that has never been realistic. The lowest price for municipal mobile apps in all of Canada is the point, not a slogan we tacked on later.

If a vendor will not put the all-in number on a public page, that is already information.

What you get

A municipal mobile app is not a Facebook page with a logo on it. Residents should have easy access to local news, events, a Yelp-like business directory, local high school games, and a chatbot that answers questions using easy-to-understand information pulled from official town sources.

On LocalGovy’s municipal app, that means:

A branded iOS and Android app, customized for the municipality: name, colours, departments, real information
Town news and alerts
Events residents will actually see
School updates, including local high school games, in the same place as everything else
A categorized, searchable business directory
An AI assistant trained with verified town information
An administrative dashboard staff can run without a developer
Staff training
Ongoing maintenance

We maintain and automatically update content 24/7. Staff do not have to become full-time publishers. They still have the last say: post, edit, or delete any content at any time. You do not need an IT department. You do not need extra staff.

The app, and the site if you have one, runs on Canadian servers.

If you take the town bundle, the same content system feeds the public website. A post in the dashboard can appear in the app and on the site without a second workflow. People who never install the app still get the information in a browser.

The app's main value is convenience at scale. A website is where you send someone who already went looking. An app is where the town shows up on the device they already open all day.

Timeline

This is the published sequence. It is not a six-month implementation plan.

Book a demo. Send the municipality’s name, the current website, and any notes. Four fields. Under a minute. https://localgovy.com/demo/
Branded demo in 48 hours. A working sample in the town’s name and colours, loaded with real departments and content, not placeholder copy. There is no cost and no commitment to look at it.
You tell us what to change. What you liked. What is missing. What council will ask.
Typical full launch about two weeks after the demo. We finish it and ship it, ready for residents. Nothing to pay until it is live.

Bring the demo to council on a phone. Let them tap through it. That is a better conversation than a slide deck.

If you need more than one app or site, say so at the demo. Extra work is quoted. The $75 and $150 plans do not move.

Procurement checklist

Ask every vendor these questions. Not just us. Put the answers in the staff report. If a vendor cannot answer in writing, that is the answer.

Cost

What is the all-in monthly (or annual) rate, in Canadian dollars, for iOS and Android?
Is there a setup fee, a build fee, an implementation fee, or a per-resident fee? If yes, how much, and when is it invoiced?
Do we pay anything before residents can use the product?
Is the first month free? How is that invoiced?
Can the rate be locked, and for how long?
What happens if we pause or end the service? Is there a termination fee or a minimum term?

Product

What do residents actually open on day one: news, events, school updates, a business directory, alerts, a way to ask a question against official town sources?
Is this a branded app in our name and colours, loaded with our real departments, or a generic shell?
Is a public website included, optional, or sold only as a bundle? Can we buy a website with no app?
Where are the servers? For a Canadian municipality, is the municipal stack hosted in Canada?

Staff load

Do we need an IT department, a developer, or extra communications staff to keep this current after launch?
Who maintains content day to day? If the vendor maintains it, do staff still have the last say to post, edit, or delete?
Is there an administrative dashboard a clerk can use without writing code? Is training included?

Process

Can we see a working sample in our municipality’s name before we commit, and how long does that take?
What is the typical time from a yes to a public launch?
Are there contracts we cannot leave, and what does “billed annually” actually bind us to?

Those sixteen questions are vendor-agnostic. A council that asks them of two or three firms will get a cleaner comparison than a beauty contest of mockups.

LocalGovy’s published answers

These are the answers on our public pages, restated so a PDF can quote them.

$75 per month for the iOS and Android app. $150 per month for the app plus one public website.
No. No setup fee, no build fee, no implementation fee, no per-resident fee.
No. Nothing to pay until the product is live. The branded sample is free to look at.
Yes. First month free. Invoiced annually. The published figures are monthly rates.
Not mandatory. If you choose, the published municipal rate can be locked in for up to five years.
No lock-in is required. You can pause or end at any time. If you choose a rate lock, it can be up to five years.
Town news and alerts, events, school updates, a searchable business directory, and an AI assistant trained with verified town information.
Customized for the municipality. Real departments, services, and content before anything goes to residents.
Website comes with the app in the $150 plan. You cannot buy the website alone. The $75 plan is the app only.
Canadian servers for the municipal stack.
No. You do not need an IT department. You do not need extra staff.
LocalGovy maintains content 24/7. Staff have the last say in the administrative dashboard: post, edit, or delete any content at any time.
Yes. Dashboard plus staff training. Built for people who already run a town.
Yes. A fully functional branded demo within 48 hours of booking.
Typical full launch is about two weeks after the demo.
Billed annually, first month free, lock-in contract not mandatory but up to 5 years, pause or end at any time.

Full product copy lives on https://localgovy.com/municipal/. The app-only view is https://localgovy.com/municipal/mobile/. Rates are on https://localgovy.com/pricing/.

How to use this in a staff report

Cite this page: https://localgovy.com/guides/municipal-app-cost-timeline-procurement/

If you want the working sample in your name before the next council date, book the 48-hour demo at https://localgovy.com/demo/, or email noah@localgovy.com.

Best,
Noah Khan
Founder, LocalGovy
https://localgovy.com
noah@localgovy.com