If you develop and launch your own mobile application, the question that arises sooner or later is how much it costs to maintain it. Many fledgling developers and entrepreneurs think that if all the intricacies are considered during the development process, maintenance is optional.
However, this is not at all true. A recent study reports that by 2025, the number of smartphone users in the US is predicted to surge to 311 million, presenting an enormous opportunity for app developers. This is why it is essential to maintain a good application performance at all times to survive in the competitive market.
In this article, we will explain how much it costs to maintain an application from different perspectives. We will break down the main consequences that may arise from not maintaining the app properly, the types of maintenance tools and services, the best practices for efficient application maintenance, and a detailed price breakdown.
What is the Negative Impact of Not Maintaining an App?
If you don’t consider app maintenance costs on time, you might fail to perform maintenance regularly. This can lead to drawbacks and issues in your product’s overall performance, which you want to avoid at all costs. Not maintaining your app on time can lead to challenges such as frequent uninstalls, poor user experience, decreased competitive edge, fragile security, and even a reduction of ROI. Here are more details on why these impacts are dangerous and how they can influence app maintenance costs.
Higher Uninstall Rate
A study revealed over 71% of users uninstall apps due to intrusive notifications. This is far from the only reason customers can be dissatisfied with your product and decide to uninstall it after even a short interaction. Suppose the problems with usability can be detected in the first five minutes of interacting with the app. In that case, the user will likely drop it before making a proper acquaintance. Testing such aspects as UI/UX, responsiveness, and scalability is vital and must be performed early, preferably before the app goes live.
Decreased User Experience
Even if your app goes live without any visible hindrances to its performance, it doesn’t mean that further maintenance is unnecessary. If you don’t maintain the product regularly and detect and fix bugs on time, it will worsen the user experience. The features will be outdated, the performance will be slower, and potential bugs will frustrate users, spoiling their overall impression of the product. Besides, if your application is not optimized for the latest versions of different operating systems, it is likely to crash or behave unexpectedly. This, in turn, will further alienate the users.
Finally, the lack of regular updates and improvements can make your app look obsolete compared to its more modern competitors on the market. This is why it’s crucial to keep track of the current market trends and tailor your application’s features accordingly. If the user experience is unfavorable, you will look at lower ratings and user reviews on app stores, pushing new potential customers away from downloading your product.
Lower Competitiveness
The international tech market is developing at an unprecedented speed. Mobile apps are projected to generate well over 613 billion US dollars in revenues in 2025, with mobile games making up the most significant revenue share among all app categories. This proves how essential it is to keep up with trends and innovations in the global sector so that your app doesn’t fall behind compared to its competitors.
If you don’t update your product regularly, it will lose relevance in the marketplace. Users will talk about it and share it less, eventually decreasing its popularity. As a result, it will take a considerable effort to keep the app visible, especially on a global scale. Whenever you miss a maintenance cycle, it widens the gap between your product and competitors.
Higher Risk of Security Breaches
Security is enough of a concern even with regular app updates, but outdated applications are prime targets for hackers and fraudsters. If your code is vulnerable and imperfect, it quickly exposes user data to breaches. This will cause substantial financial and reputation damage to your product and brand. Once you lose user trust, it’s nearly impossible to rebuild. Ask yourself: are you ready to risk your reputation to reduce the app maintenance cost?
Eventual Reduction of ROI
The importance of how much it costs to maintain an app tends to fade as soon as you realize that the lack of proper troubleshooting is what is dragging your product to the very bottom. At that point, you may regret not allocating an appropriate maintenance budget before the issues become critical.
Application Maintenance: Best Practices
If you’re asking yourself how much it costs to maintain an app, you’re likely already thinking about how to approach the maintenance process in the best and most efficient way. Luckily, some hacks and strategies can help you get the most out of your troubleshooting procedure while simultaneously saving costs.
Prioritize Maintenance Along with Development
If you start considering how much does app maintenance cost as an afterthought, you are likely already late. The surefire way to avoid unexpected losses in your app’s performance and reputation is to allocate resources simultaneously for development and post-launch maintenance. It must be done right from the beginning, considering the yearly app maintenance cost. Suppose you integrate maintenance into your project early on. In that case, you will ensure smooth operations and maintain a good user experience in the future, freeing yourself of possible costly fixes and software updates.
Consider Scalability in Advance
The scalability of your product will become increasingly important as the app’s user base grows. You must think of scalability already at the development stage and consider how your application will deal with evolving data loads in the future. Search for solutions like flexible architectures and frameworks that handle data correctly and don’t overwhelm the system simultaneously. Allocate part of your app maintenance cost to create a design that focuses on scalability. In this way, you will make sure that the application meets your business needs and the expected number of users and avoid costly rework at the same time.
Maintain Proper Communication with the Team
Effective app maintenance is not one person’s concern; the entire team must have a say in it. As you plan out the yearly app maintenance cost, think about establishing clear and regular communications between developers, testers, and support teams. If your team works in synergy, they can detect and solve potential issues faster. The ability to react promptly is a huge factor that can decrease an app’s maintenance cost, as you will avoid major problems with performance in the long run.
Benefit from Analytics
Analytics tools are indispensable when maintaining a mobile app for any OS. Thanks to them, you can benefit from metrics such as crash reports, user retention, and feature usage, which will point out areas of your application that need improvement. This is a huge advantage to use before performing app maintenance. Consider using such tools as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Flurry Analytics, Amplitude, New Relic, Data.ai, Sentry, Hotjar, AppsFlyer, UXCam, and others.
Detect and Fix Issues on Time
You can significantly decrease the maintenance cost of an app if you detect and fix potential bugs and other performance issues on time. In this way, even if your product has minor problems and you fix them on time, you will prevent them from escalating into major, and thus, more costly disruptions. Establish regular testing, monitoring, and software updates to achieve this consistency. This way, you will ensure your app stays reliable and secure, maintaining users’ trust.
Customers tend to build their trust in an app the fewer glitches and interruptions they experience during usage. On the other hand, delayed fixes can lead to poor online reviews and reduced overall app usage. Should that happen, you will likely stop caring how much app maintenance costs and think of how to lure your customers back onto the app instead.
Use Schedules for Maintenance
App maintenance can be chaotic and complex, especially for developers with little to no experience. Therefore, creating a schedule in advance and improving your app wisely and structurally is essential. Consistency is key, even when your app is not experiencing bugs or downtime.
Once you work out the schedule, communicate it to your team and users to properly manage expectations and reduce possible inconveniences for both sides. An apparent bug fixes and updates timeline will help your app run smoothly and keep your users engaged.
App Maintenance Classification
How much does it cost to maintain an app? To answer this question correctly, it’s also vital to consider the type of maintenance your product requires. Each is a unique service in its own right, and you must consider the costs of every step of the process before building your final budget. Here is a detailed breakdown of each maintenance type your application might need.
Emergency Maintenance
Before asking how much app maintenance costs, you must realize that some types of maintenance are more complex (and, thus, more costly) than others. Emergency maintenance means immediate fixes that you might need to address critical issues that disrupt the performance of your application or even endanger user privacy and security. Such situations tend to arise unexpectedly, and your team must be ready to solve the issue promptly. Therefore, emergency maintenance’s primary goal is to restore your app’s operability as fast as possible while reducing user frustration.
Adaptive Maintenance
Adaptive maintenance is unavoidable when you want your app to remain compatible with changing and evolving devices, technologies, OS versions, user needs, and global market trends. For example, when Android or iOS releases an OS update, your app might need specific fixes and adjustments to function correctly in the new environment. Adaptive maintenance aims to keep your app relevant and operational regardless of the conditions in which it grows. Finally, it will help maintain your application’s competitiveness in the crowded market.
Preventive Maintenance
The best way to solve app performance issues is to prevent them. Therefore, experienced developers resort to preventive maintenance. It helps an app avoid future issues: developers improve code quality and fix possible inconsistencies, optimize performance, and address existing vulnerabilities in the software. By performing preventive troubleshooting, you anticipate and solve problems before they occur. The purpose is to ensure the application remains reliable and efficient over time. Preventive maintenance must be scheduled and happen with the consent of both the development team and the users.
Corrective Maintenance
Many issues can occur after the app is launched, such as bugs, glitches, lags, and other inconsistencies in your applications’ performance that you failed to detect during the testing and beta phases. To perform corrective maintenance properly, begin by analyzing user feedback and using monitoring tools that can highlight the problems you are looking for. Corrective maintenance will prevent user experience from reducing and help your app meet customer expectations post-launch.
Perfective Maintenance
When you calculate the cost of developing and maintaining an app for your particular project, you must not forget about perfective maintenance. Even though it is last in the hierarchy, it’s no less important than other types of mobile application troubleshooting. Perfective maintenance involves enhancing an app by adding new features, improving existing ones, or optimizing its performance based on user feedback and market trends. It is essential because it keeps the app relevant, competitive, and aligned with evolving user needs.
What is the Cost of Maintaining an App?
When you ask yourself how much app maintenance costs, remember that the final price and the budget you must prepare for depend on various factors. These include the services within the maintenance process, the type of maintenance you are planning to perform, and your application’s individual characteristics.
Indeed, app maintenance costs depend heavily on the app size, the number of users, the existing bugs and downsides in performance, and even the functionality of extra services included in the application. In the table below, you will find a detailed description and approximate costs for every maintenance category so that you can finally answer the question of how much app maintenance costs.
| Category | Description | Typical Cost Range | Factors Influencing Cost |
| Hosting Costs | Server and database costs for running the app and storing user data. | $20–$5,000/month | App size, user base, hosting provider, bandwidth usage. |
| Bug Fixes | Identifying and resolving issues post-launch. | $500–$5,000+ per month | The complexity of bugs, frequency of updates, and development team. |
| Updates & Upgrades | Adding features or updating for new OS versions. | $1,000–$10,000+ per update | Feature complexity, platform changes, frequency of updates. |
| Third-Party Services | Fees for APIs, payment gateways, analytics tools, etc. | $50–$1,000+ per month | Number of integrations, service provider fees. |
| Security | Ensuring app security and compliance with regulations. | $500–$5,000/year | Security testing, compliance standards, and monitoring tools. |
| Customer Support | Handling user issues, reviews, and feedback. | $500–$2,500/month | The volume of queries, team size, and automation tools. |
| Marketing & Analytics | Costs for retaining users and monitoring app performance. | $1,000–$20,000/month | Campaign scale, data tools, marketing channels. |
| Platform Licensing Fees | Costs for distributing on app stores. | 15–30% of revenue (e.g., App Store, Google Play fees) | Platform rules, app revenue. |
| Monitoring & Analytics | Tools for tracking app performance and user behavior. | $100–$1,000/month | Tool type, monitoring frequency, app complexity. |
| Scaling Costs | Expenses for accommodating user growth. | $1,000–$50,000+ per upgrade | Infrastructure needs, growth rate, user load.
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As you can see, the question of how much does it cost to maintain an app cannot be answered without considering multiple intricacies. Before you start planning out the budget, write down the features of your product that you need to test and issues that require solving. Then, compare the approximate prices of each as stated by the market to estimate the overall cost. Remember to consider also such factors as the marketing of your app or the integration of third-party APIs and services for enhanced functionality.
What Aspects are at the Core of App Maintenance Price?
How much does it cost to maintain an app when considering all the steps and aspects of this procedure? Troubleshooting, mainly when performed regularly, is an intricate procedure with multiple simultaneous processes to be considered. On the list below, you will find a breakdown of aspects that influence the question of how much does it cost for app maintenance the most, regardless of your product’s nature and type.
Bug Fixes and Updating
The most costly part of the maintenance process is bug detection and fixes. Some performance issues are harder to detect than others, and they require more time and tools to solve. Consequently, the developer must allocate a higher budget for them. Besides, even with proper maintenance, some bugs repeat themselves, especially with the launch of regular updates.
Hosting
Hosting is the next crucial factor of app maintenance that influences its price. Developers need hosting to maintain an app’s backend infrastructure, including servers, databases, and APIs. The cost itself will vary based on the app’s traffic, data storage needs, and your chosen hosting provider. Cloud-based services like Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure are the most plausible and cost-effective options.
Analytics Tools
Tools like Google Analytics for Firebase, Mixpanel, or Amplitude help you track user behavior, engagement, and other crucial metrics. However, most of them require subscription fees, which can differ based on the app’s size and scale and the volumes of data processed. If you neglect integrating proper analytics tools on time, you risk missing critical issues with your app’s performance, which will lead to higher maintenance costs in the long run.
Your Development Team
Another huge factor that influences the troubleshooting cost of your application is the team you choose to build. The overall expenses depend on the level of expertise, location, and employment type (in-house, freelance, or outsourced) of your development team. In the table below, you will find a more detailed breakdown.
| Team Type | Cost Range | Advantages | Disadvantages | Influence on Maintenance Costs |
| In-House Team | $80,000–$150,000/year per developer | – Full control over the development and maintenance process.
– Easier communication and collaboration. – Deep understanding of the app’s architecture. |
– High upfront costs for salaries, benefits, and infrastructure.
– Limited flexibility to scale team size quickly. – May lack specialized skills for specific tasks. |
– Higher fixed costs but predictable over time.
– Best for long-term projects with continuous maintenance needs. – Cost-effective for apps requiring frequent updates or complex fixes. |
| Freelancers | $25–$150/hour | – Flexible and cost-effective for smaller tasks.
– Access to a vast pool of specialized talent. – No long-term commitment is required. |
– Reliability can vary (deadlines and quality).
– Communication and availability challenges. – Risk of losing app knowledge if freelancer moves on. |
– Suitable for occasional maintenance tasks.
– Lower upfront costs but potentially higher for urgent fixes. – Best for apps with minimal or infrequent updates. |
| Outsourced Team | $30,000–$80,000/year per developer | – Access to a broader range of skills and expertise.
– Scalable resources based on project needs. – Lower costs compared to in-house teams in many regions. |
– Time zone differences and communication barriers.
– Quality may vary based on the agency. – Risk of losing control over proprietary code or data. |
– Cost-effective for larger-scale maintenance or diverse requirements.
– Can incur additional costs for managing coordination and oversight. – Ideal for scaling quickly without a long-term commitment.
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Updates to UI/UX
Another factor contributing to the question of how much it costs to maintain an application is how intricate its UI/UX design is. Design is the face of your app, and you must build and maintain it properly, especially when integrating updates. If you want to retain users and go hand-in-hand with the latest market trends, you must refresh the design of your application regularly. This, in turn, will require a higher maintenance budget, especially if you plan to hire new designers for your development team.
Recommendations on Lowering App Maintenance Price
The cost of app maintenance is high, but luckily, it’s not always definitive. There are plenty of practices you can use to decrease the budget spent on maintenance. If you are prepared in advance and have a strong strategy at hand, the dilemma of how much it costs to maintain an app will bother you less. Consider the recommendations below, reviewed and checked on in practice by our experts.
Build a Cross-Platform App
Creating a cross-platform app allows you to use one codebase for iOS and Android, saving time and money. Instead of maintaining separate apps for each platform, updates, and fixes can be done once. Tools like Flutter or React Native make building apps that work well on multiple platforms easier. This approach reduces long-term maintenance costs and accelerates development.
Create an MVP First
How much does it cost to maintain an application? If you consider building an MVP first, you can significantly reduce the overall costs. It allows you to test your idea with users and improve based on feedback. By starting small, you avoid spending money on features that users may not need. This approach keeps maintenance more straightforward and less expensive in the early stages.
Think of How You Can Use Agile Development Methodology
Agile development breaks the project into small, manageable tasks and focuses on regular updates. This method helps identify and address problems early, reducing expensive last-minute changes. Teams using Agile can adapt quickly to user feedback, improving the app step by step. It also ensures that maintenance needs are addressed consistently, avoiding big surprises later.
Find a Reliable Partner
An experienced and qualified partner in the sphere can not only help you answer the question of how much does app maintenance cost but also break down the cost for your specific project in all details. Suppose you collaborate with an app development firm and present them with your app idea or even a ready-made product. In that case, local experts will analyze each aspect of it and identify the proper course of maintenance, along with its estimated price on each step, so that you have budget expectations in place before moving on to improving your application.
A-listware: An Experienced Tech Partner for App Development and Maintenance
If you are still scared to ask yourself how much does it cost to maintain an app, consider consulting an expert. At A-listware, we provide professional consulting services and outsourced teams to perform top-notch application maintenance services for all products. Contact us with your project plan or the existing application, and we will curate the best course of action for proper, steady, and all-encompassing app troubleshooting.
FAQs
How much does it cost to maintain an application?
App maintenance costs can range from 15% to 20% of the initial development cost annually, depending on the app’s complexity and size.
What factors influence the cost of app maintenance?
Key factors include bug fixes, hosting fees, analytics tools, team costs, and updates for UI/UX or compatibility with new technologies.
Is it possible to reduce the cost of app troubleshooting?
Yes, regular testing, proactive monitoring, and preventive maintenance can reduce the need for expensive fixes.
How much does it cost to maintain an app per year?
Depending on the app’s scale and functionality, maintenance can cost between $5,000 and $500,000 per year.
How can I build a proper team of developers for application maintenance?
Hire skilled developers with experience in your app’s platform, and consider using outsourced talents to balance quality and cost. Consult A-listware so we can build a proficient maintenance team according to all your project requirements.
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