An NFC device is the simplest hardware an app can have: the phone powers the tag and reads it, so the object needs no battery, no charging and no pairing. The engineering is in two places: the object your users hold, and making a tap land in your app rather than a browser. This page covers both, and when you do not need a custom device at all.
Do you need a device, or just a printed NFC tag?
If a sticker, card or keychain is enough, buy one. Tagstand sells stickers, hard tags, tokens, keychains, wristbands and cards, some from a single unit, and can set each tag to open a web address or call a webhook. That is the cheapest way to learn whether your users tap at all.
A custom device makes sense when the object is part of the product: its material, shape, weight and feel, where the tag sits inside it, and the box it comes in. It also makes sense when the tag has to live inside something else you are making.
What makes a tag open your app on iPhone?
For an iPhone to hand a tapped tag to your app without the app open, the first record on the tag must be a Universal Link for your domain. A custom scheme such as myapp:// never triggers it, and a link in the second or third record is ignored. It works on iPhone XS and newer, once the phone has been unlocked after a restart, and the user taps a system notification before your app opens. When any of this is wrong, the tag opens Safari with no error. Details in NFCore's guide.
And on Android?
Android can open your app straight from the tag when the app declares an NFC intent filter for the tag's data. Writing the same Universal Link to the tag lets one object work on both platforms, with your website as the fallback for people who do not have the app yet.
What changes when the object is yours?
The NFC chip is the cheap part. The choices that shape the cost are the object's material (metal interferes with NFC, which is why on-metal tags exist), its shape and where the tag sits, how it is printed or engraved with your brand, and the packaging. These are the questions Anvol asks first.
What does the maker need from you?
What a tap should do in your app, and the link it should carry. What the object is: a sentence, a sketch or a photo of something close. Roughly how many you want. Your logo and brand files. Anvol replies with the version it would build first, the choices that drive the cost, and the one question it needs answered before it can cost it. Talking to Anvol and getting a cost is free.
Samples, minimums and what you get back
A first round can be a single sample. It ends with the physical sample and the files behind it: enclosure 3D model (STEP), test report, photos and video, and a schematic where there is a circuit. A 30% deposit starts a round; the balance is due after you approve the sample. A small batch of tens to hundreds follows, each unit tested before it is boxed.
Who owns it?
Anvol is a product, not a shareholder: you own what you make. For a build you pay for, the rights are set out in your project agreement. Your app, your domain and your users stay yours.
Other devices for your app: a smart button, an e-ink display, or start with which kind your app needs. A cost is not a guaranteed final price or delivery date, and nothing is charged or started without your approval. How Anvol works · More answers.
Reviewed September 29, 2026. Talk to Anvol