The honest answer has two very different halves. Owning the platform now takes minutes: about ten from paying to a branded control panel on your own domain, with no server, no GitHub account and no Mac. Getting the first client app into the App Store and Google Play still takes two to three weeks, and almost none of that time is yours to compress.
Here is the whole timeline, step by step, with the numbers we actually see and the rules Apple and Google publish. Where something depends on a decision you have not made yet, it says so.
Minute one: the licence
You pay by card on our site, Stripe handles the payment, and the licence key arrives by e-mail about a minute later. It also stays in My purchases, together with the download and the installation request, so there is nothing to lose. The licence is $25, once, for one domain, and it includes lifetime updates and 1,000 AI credits to try the assistant with.
Minutes two to ten: the platform on your domain
This is the step that changed in November 2026, and it is where you choose how you want to run the business.
- On Flangapp hosting. You type your domain at checkout, we set the platform up on it and e-mail you the DNS records. You add them at your registrar, and the panel is live within five to ten minutes, most of which is the registrar publishing the records. The first three months of hosting are free, then it is $4.90 a month.
- On your server, installed by us. $50 instead of $25. You send the server access from My purchases and we install it within one business day.
- On your server, installed by you. The setup wizard walks you through it. You need PHP 8.2, MySQL, cron and two subdomains with SSL; how long it takes depends mostly on how comfortable you are in a hosting control panel.
Builds no longer add a step either. Since version 4.6.0 apps are built on our build servers with nothing more than the activated licence: every licence includes 30 free build minutes, and after that build time is paid from the same AI credits as the assistant. Connecting your own Codemagic or GitHub account is optional.
The first evening: your brand and your prices
Logo, colours, the name your clients will see, the plans you sell and the payment providers you accept (Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Paystack or cash). The built-in landing page that sells your service comes with the panel, so you do not need a separate website to start.
The software part of this takes an evening. The decisions take longer: what you charge for the setup, what the monthly fee covers, whose store accounts the apps go under. If those are still open, settle them now rather than in front of the first client. What to charge covers the first two.
The same day: a demo app you can hold
Take a real website in the niche you want to sell into, describe the app in the chat, and the assistant sets it up while you watch it running on an Android device or an iOS simulator. Build it and put it on your own phone. A demo app with plausible branding is the best sales tool you will have, and it costs you an afternoon.
Days to weeks: the stores, which are the real timeline
Everything above is under your control. From here on, Apple and Google set the pace.
The client's Apple account. Apps built from a template have to be published from the client's own Apple Developer Program membership, $99 a year; that is App Review guideline 4.2.6, and here is how it works in practice. An individual can enrol quickly. A company first needs a D-U-N-S number, and between getting one and Apple approving the enrolment, a week or two is normal.
App Review. Apple's own pages say most apps are reviewed within a day or two. A rejection restarts the wait, so the first submission is worth getting right. The common reasons apps like these get rejected are in our guideline 4.2 write-up.
Google Play. A personal developer account created after 13 November 2023 has to run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 days in a row before it can publish to production. Those fourteen days cannot be shortened and cannot start before the account exists.
The whole thing in one table
| Step | Typical time | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Licence key | About a minute | Nothing, it is automatic |
| Platform live on Flangapp hosting | 5–10 minutes | Your registrar publishing the DNS records |
| Or installed on your server by us | Within one business day | Sending the server access |
| Brand, plans and prices | An evening | Decisions, not software |
| First demo app | The same day | Having a real website to start from |
| Client's Apple account | Days to two weeks | Individual or company (D-U-N-S) |
| App Review | Usually a day or two | Getting it right the first time |
| Google Play, new personal account | 14 days of closed testing, then review | Google's rule, fixed |
How to make it shorter
- Start the client's store accounts on day one. They are the longest items on the list and the only ones that run on someone else's clock. Ask for them at the first meeting, not after the app is ready.
- Put the fourteen days in the quote. A client who hears about Google's closed test up front treats it as a process. One who finds out in week three thinks you missed a date.
- Have a first client in mind before you buy anything. The platform is ten minutes away whenever you want it. A business whose name you can say out loud is the part that takes real time, and one question tells you whether it is worth chasing.
So: you can own the platform before your coffee goes cold, and the first client app is in the stores two to three weeks later, almost all of it spent waiting on Apple and Google. What it costs along the way is in what it actually costs to start, and the plans are on the pricing page.