Mobile apps are becoming a key component of business operations for almost every company, no matter how big or small. If you have already launched your app and are now thinking about maintenance and support services, you should know that you have several options available in the market for the cost to maintain an app.
Several vendors offer maintenance and support services for mobile apps. Some third-party vendors offer custom solutions for mobile app maintenance services.
Mobile app maintenance is more than just fixing bugs and glitches. It’s about keeping your app fresh and up to date with new features, updates, and even general usage trends.
To achieve this, app owners need their developers to constantly work on it and update it once in a while. However, the cost of mobile app maintenance can be tricky. You see, most people overlook the importance of after-sales and maintenance services.
This article will discuss some of the factors that determine the cost to maintain an app for mobile, so that you know exactly how much you should spend on it.
Bug fixing
First, let’s go over what happens when you find a bug or a glitch in your app. You report the issue to your developer, and the developer resolves the issue.
Your development team can charge you for bug fixing in two different ways:
- Time & Material
- Fixed cost
You should negotiate the pricing terms and the cost of bug fixing before you hire a team to build the app. It is also smarter to get multiple bugs fixed at one time instead of doing each item one by one.
Doing multiple items together takes less time and costs more. If you find a bug, which is not a very high priority, you can wait for more bugs to be identified and then get all of them resolved together.
Also Read: How Much Does a React Native App Cost to Develop?
Enhancements
Many times, you continuously need to enhance your application based upon the feedback from the customers or to win over your competitor. You want to add new features to keep your app’s users engaged.
You should thoroughly research the details of the features and get some estimates from your development team. This may require not only updating the mobile apps, but also create new designs and update the backend server. Make sure that these new points do not affect your existing application.
Keep up with the latest Android or iOS Updates
Now that your app is out in the market, you want to keep it up to date with the latest versions of Android and iOS so that it runs smoothly and error-free. As an app owner, you may think that you need to update your app every month.
But that is not true in the case of apps. Apple and Google typically do OS updates twice a year, mostly these updates are backward compatible. In 90% of the cases, your app will not be affected by these updates.
Apple and Google will release the upcoming OS updates to the developers to test the app. You can test your app for upcoming updates in the development environment. If your app is not affecting, don’t worry, you don’t have to update the app.
App Store Fees
This fee is paid to the Apple App store and Google Play store to maintain the app. To make your app available for download in front of a global audience, you need to publish the app in different app stores.
The fees are not very high. It is $99/year for Apple and a $25 one-time fee for Google.
According to Statista, App stores take a 30% commission on app revenues from in-app purchases, subscriptions, and paid app downloads. That is how app stores generate revenue.
Backend Hosting Fees
It is important to consider the cost of backend hosting maintenance. What is hosting maintenance?
Your app requires a database running on a backend server. This backend server can be hosted at AWS, Azure, Google Backend, Godaddy or any other hosting service provider.
You will have to pay a hosting fees to the service provider that you choose, The hosting maintenance cost will vary depending on the following:
– How much capacity your server has
– How secure the server is
– The location of the server
– The type of hosting (cloud hosting, dedicated hosting, and so on).
Development team location
The cost to maintain an app for mobile can vary depending on your app development team’s location. For instance, if the app development team is from India, or an Asian country, the app maintenance cost will be lower.
On the other hand, if the development team is from countries like the USA, UK, or Australia, then maintenance costs will be higher.
Customer support
Last but not least, you also need to factor customer support into the cost of mobile app maintenance. Customer support can be tricky, especially when you have more users and ask questions and report issues. That will quickly consume your budget.
Hence, it’s important to consider the cost of customer support when calculating the cost to maintain an app for mobile.
Conclusion
As you can see, many factors determine the cost to maintain an app. If you’re serious about keeping your app updated and secure from bugs and glitches, then you must have a budget for maintenance. Now that you know what goes into the cost of mobile app maintenance, you can better prepare for it and prevent overspending.
