How Much Does the App Maintenance Cost and Why Do You Need it?

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The mobile app development doesn’t finish when the product is released on the market. Every successful software has to stay up to date to be sought-after and profitable. As a result, the application requires regular maintenance and updating to deliver an incredible user experience and attract new customers to your business.

In this post, we’ll find out more in detail which services are included in the app support and what their costs are.

What Is App Maintenance?

App maintenance refers to a process of systematic fixing, enhancing, updating, and progressing the existing application to maximize its efficiency and achieve smooth and seamless work. It allows keeping up with the latest market trends as well as the audience’s requirements. Thus, every successful company uses mobile app maintenance to stand out from the crowd of competitors.

Ordinarily, this service comprises fixing bugs and modifying the codebase to satisfy users with excellent and productive work of the software. Generally, there are the five main app maintenance types:

  • Emergency maintenance. This type implies unexpected issues requiring instant fixing.
  • Perfective maintenance. Its main aim is to meet dynamic consumers’ requirements by implementing new features depending on the software’s niche.
  • Adaptive maintenance. This maintenance approach involves permanent track of in-app modifications and updates to keep it sought-after.
  • Preventive maintenance. This type is applied in order to enhance the maintainability ratio through maintenance with the help of code optimization, restructuration, and documentation upgrading. Such actions efficiently decrease the possibility of further bugs.
  • Corrective maintenance. This model involves improvements and flaws fixing in the software’s functionality as well as its UI/UX design.

Lots of digital products created as MVP (Minimum Viable Products) models allowing cutting down both app development price and costs of maintaining an app and time-to-market have all five maintenance types applied. New features and functionality updates are implemented after the app launching, which enables building a suitable maintenance strategy suitable for the budget. 

Let’s consider the four main aims and actions of app maintenance to conclude the types mentioned above:

  • New features implementation. Your clients will be delivered with an enhanced experience and expanded functionality opportunities with each update.
  • Interface upgrades. UI/UX design trends replace each other at high speed. Thus, to keep up with them, the interface has to be regularly updated.
  • Performance tracking. Low-speed processing and drawdowns decrease the software’s quality and efficiency. To prevent this, the product’s speed, download times, and other productiveness indicators should be constantly monitored and improved.
  • Maintenance schedule. A properly-built support strategy with defined deadlines and requirements allows detecting and getting rid of all bugs and performance flaws quickly and efficiently.

Significance of App Maintenance

Here’s the list of main benefits you may receive from the mobile app maintenance services:

Reducing the Number of Uninstalls

The reason for the software removal may comprise low operation speed, bugs, and other performance issues. Besides, in case the application’s functionality is not relevant for users, it also won’t be in demand.

The opportunities of app maintenance services efficiently help you fix bugs, enhance the software’s work, and meet users’ needs. As a result, the churn of users from the application will be minimal.

Deliver Better User Experience to Customers 

The product updates built according to the audience’s recommendations and suggestions will make the app sought-after and attractive for new users. Furthermore, in case you apply the latest market trends to the solutions for the users’ requirements and feedback, your product will definitely come in handy for a huge audience. For this, you should track and analyze the comments users share concerning your application.

Higher Competitiveness 

Providing users with the new portion of efficient solutions and opportunities is key to staying competitive. Due to the fact that the global market consists of more than 4 million applications, your product should have excellent quality to be attractive in the clients’ eyes.

Mentioning real-life examples, many large-scale companies have already enhanced their mobile applications with maintenance services. You can find some bright examples in the following list:

  • Facebook. Beginning as a Harvard’s University social media solution, the app had narrow functionality. Students were allowed to register with the university’s email, add friends to the list, and fill in their personal info. Modern Facebook is among the list of top social media applications worldwide.
  • Uber. Released for New York and Paris in 2011, Uber had plainer features. Yet, regular updating with more sophisticated functionality resulted in global demand and popularity of this taxi application.
  • Instagram. Launched in 2011, Instagram had a different concept for users, which was sharing their location data using geotagged photos and a basic image editor. Nevertheless, the modern version’s extended features comprise photo and video content uploading and editing, chat, live streams, and more.

Primary Elements of Application Maintenance 

It’s high time to mention the app maintenance services’ integral parts and their use.

Development Maintenance

This category involves the list of the actions aimed at an app enhancement:

  • Bug fixing. The software may comprise the bugs left even after automated or manual tests.
  • Optimization of the code. Its aim is to achieve great performance by restructuring the code.
  • Working with compatibility. Compatibility extends the number of gadgets supported by the application.
  • Functionality implementation. The freshly implemented features set attracts the clients’ attention and engages them to try the newest software version.

UI/UX Maintenance

A stylish, user-friendly, and up-to-date interface is a must to make your app stay in demand. The new UI/UX design trends appear annually, so you should apply some of them to your product. 

Apart from this, if your business needs rebranding, the app updating will allow you to implement an actual design.

Security Maintenance

Every top-class software guarantees powerful private data protection. In terms of app maintenance, there are two safety upgrading types:

  • Continuous security improvements. They comprise upgrades with vulnerability patches and precautionary hacking and safety break methods.
  • Improving security due to legislative changes. Extra security upgrades for compliance with new legislation. (for instance, your application is launched in a new region requiring specific safety guidelines).

The best ways to maximize personal data protection are regularly tracking privacy changes, upgrades of third-party services integrated into the app, and changes in worldwide legislation.

Additional Maintenance Costs

Apart from the primary app maintenance services, there are more extra aspects worth mentioning:

Hosting

This additional service’s price varies according to the format and the amount of storage space your solution requires. The more complex the application is, the more potent the server has to be to maintain a smooth operation. The server renting service costs approximately $70 to $300 per month.

Analytics

This service is integral to track the main app’s indicators, detect its weak spots and drawbacks to enhance the product. The metrics it provides are the number of downloads, the average time spent, bounce rate, user behavior characteristics, and many others. 

The analytics cost is highly variable; the more features you want to analyze, the higher the product support’s price. Some of them don’t require any fees at all, while the subscription of others requires $80 and more. 

Third-Party Integrations

Extra services integrated into your app’s functionality also require additional expenses. To illustrate, a full-fledged commercial software has to comprise a payment gateway, which is possible with Braintree solutions. Thus, you should be aware that such systems charge 2.59% + $.49 per transaction. 

Mentioning another instance, if your software requires map integration, Google Map API is a great solution for this. This service’s costs require $0.50 per 1000 additional requests.

Customer Support

An excellent support center helps users cope with their issues, questions and provides solutions. The investment in it is quite reasonable, as it increases user satisfaction. The support center’s costs vary depending on whether you want to implement a chatbot (which requires a one-time investment) into your application or involve a team of assistants (who have to be provided with the salary, sick leaves, and special hardware) to support the customers.

Cost Optimization Tips

Here are some hints for you on how to cut down costs and maximize the support’s efficiency:

Ensure App Scalability

There are specific difficulties in improving monolithic software. It is more costly in terms of maintenance and updating as well. Thus, your software should be scalable to ensure more flexibility in support. The application will be much easier to update and implement new features with such characteristics as the client base increases.

Choose App Platform Properly

The platform you develop software for should be selected according to the target audience. A native application is created for the single OS, and a cross-platform one is created with a single codebase applied for iOS as well as Android. Another option is a progressive web app accessible on both platforms, as it works via the browser.

Yet, the first option has extended opportunities and functions as it is provided with the native device’s features and capabilities. Their flawless performance, custom design, and other advantages are highly attractive for users, but in case you want to cover both platforms and expand the client base, the cost of the app creation doubles.

The functionality of PWAs is plainer and more bounded. Yet, its cost is decreased, and it is available on all devices and OSs. And you have to maintain one web app, not two separate products for each platform. This fact significantly cuts down maintenance costs. 

Talking about cross platform mobile app development services, the Flutter technology they are built with also allows supporting the applications for two OSs like a single one.

Think About Development Team and its Location

The location and the chosen development team also impact the app maintenance price. By observing the modern market of software development services, it may be concluded that outsourcing IT companies are excellent for application maintenance, and here are the reasons for it:

  • No need to search, conduct interviews, and check the competence of potential employees
  • The choice of the partner is not limited to your region, you can pick any vendor across the world, and the market is full of brilliant offers
  • This option is cost-efficient, as you are charged exceptionally for services provided (with no need to pay salaries, sick leaves, rent, and purchase necessary hardware, which is an obligatory condition of in-house teams)
  • Outsourcing companies offer a row of flexible cooperation models suitable for each project

A great IT hub with a huge talent pool is Central and Eastern Europe, specifically Estonia. This country has a thriving tech ecosystem, a highly skilled workforce, and a supportive environment for startups and innovation. Estonia is also renowned for its advanced digital infrastructure and e-residency program, which attract international businesses and entrepreneurs. Its favorable business climate and strong focus on technology make it a top destination for IT and software development.

Don’t Be Jack of All Trades

Last but not least, we highly recommend implementing only relevant and useful features that your client base will use. If you attempt to integrate all existing functions that are completely unnecessary, it will result in nothing but financial losses. Furthermore, analysis shows that 45% of features are never used, so you should consider the product’s functionality upgrade thoroughly. 

Cost of Mobile App Maintenance 

The app maintenance services’ costs are the main topic considered in this article, so let’s see what the price consists of. The beginning stage of cooperation with the outsourced developer is analyzing and generally assessing the software, which is completed by DevOps experts. This service consists of:

  • Verifying system logs for application-level failure entries
  • Testing server subsystems usage (CPU, RAM, I/O, network)
  • Assessing performance spikes (if any)
  • Verifying backup process
  • Assessing safety logs and current firewall settings
  • Detecting OS patches or software updates
  • Applying OS patches (optional)

Such operations are not one-time ones, so the services investments will also be recurring. They commonly take 10 hours monthly, and to calculate their costs, you should multiply the hours spent on their fulfillment by the developers’ hourly rates. For example, specialists in Eastern Europe charge $25-$100 for the services described above, approximately $250-$1000 for the whole process. This region’s hourly rates are lower than in North America with a $100-$150 hourly rate and Western Europe, where specialists charge $50-$200 for the same amount of time. Yet, the performance quality remains perfect.

The next phase involves updates, bug fixes, performance improvements, patches, and new features. Their cost depends on the scope of work, so it should be calculated individually.

Summarize 

App maintenance is an essential process bringing in many benefits and expanding your business. This process requires a credible and experienced partner who will explore your project during the discovery phase, define your requirements, estimate the service’s costs. After that, developers provide excellent app maintenance, upgrade, and new features implementation. Thus, your product will stay up-to-date, demanded, and attractive for the new clients.