How to Get a Branded Event App (Without the Price Tag)
Everything you need to know about getting a professional mobile app for your festival, expo, or trade show.
Common Ground
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According to Statista, mobile event app usage grew by 38% between 2023 and 2025, with festivals and expos leading adoption. Better yet — organisers who use a branded app report stronger sponsor revenue and higher year-on-year ticket retention. The numbers add up.
That brings the question: how do I get a branded event app?
What is a branded event app?
A branded event app is a custom iOS and Android application listed on the App Store under your event name — not inside a shared platform like Guidebook or Yapp. Attendees search for your festival or expo and download your app. Your name. Your brand. Your channel.
What does it include?
A good event app covers everything your attendees need on the day:
Full schedule with day and stage filters
Site map with offline access
Sponsor and exhibitor directory
Live updates and announcements
Push notifications direct to the lock screen
Organiser analytics dashboard
Offline access is non-negotiable. Festival sites have poor signal. An app that only works on WiFi is worse than a paper programme.
How much does it cost?
A professionally built native event app starts at only £167 per month. That includes the full build, custom branding, and App Store submission. Annual maintenance to keep the listing live runs around £799 per year.
Push notification campaigns — lineup drops, ticket launches, day-of updates — all free.
How to get started — 3 simple steps
Brief and brand — share your event details, logo, and colour palette
Build and submit — your app is built, tested, and submitted to the App Store's Test Flight.
Go live and grow — promote downloads, run push campaigns, and build your install base year on year
Why bother?
Your app install base compounds. Every attendee who downloads it this year is reachable next year — before they've bought a ticket, before they've seen a single announcement. For a 5,000-ticket event with 40% app adoption, that's 2,000 people you can reach directly on day one of your next sale. For free.
The baseline is this: a branded event app is not a logistics tool. It is a marketing channel. Treat it like one.
