You've just shipped your app to the App Store or Google Play, and the next question is your app maintenance cost once it's live in front of real users. Short answer: 15% to 25% of your development cost every year, plus the stores' fixed fees — and that range shifts quite a bit depending on where and who you hire. Here's what maintenance covers, what drives the price, what it costs in each market, and what happens if you skip it.
What "maintaining" an app actually means
App maintenance is everything that happens after launch to keep it running, secure, and compatible with operating systems that keep changing underneath it. It isn't an optional extra — it's the part of the project that outlasts the build itself.
That covers:
- Compatibility with new iOS and Android releases, which ship every year.
- Bug fixes that only surface under real-world use, not in testing.
- Security patches, especially if the app handles payments or personal data.
- Hosting and backend infrastructure, if the app relies on a server.
- Compliance with each store's rules, which change more often than most people expect.
- Monitoring: finding out something's broken before a user tells you in a one-star review.
Key idea: development has a delivery date. Maintenance doesn't — it lasts for as long as the app stays live.
Why it isn't optional
Because an app doesn't live in isolation — it runs inside an operating system that Apple and Google update without asking. Every new iOS or Android release can break something that worked fine yesterday, and both stores require apps to be rebuilt against newer OS targets to keep accepting updates at all.
On top of that, both stores charge a developer fee just to keep publishing. Skip it, and the app disappears from the store, regardless of how well everything else is maintained. That's a fixed cost that exists no matter how much ongoing support you buy.
What drives the price of app maintenance
There's no single number, because it depends on decisions made earlier, during development:
- Native or cross-platform. A native app is two codebases to maintain, often with two separate teams. Cross-platform is one. If you're still deciding, we cover it in native or cross-platform app: how to choose.
- Whether it depends on its own backend. An app that lives entirely on the phone costs less to maintain than one syncing data with a server, because that pulls in hosting, a database, and server-side security.
- The level of support you buy. "Someone answers when something breaks" is a different product from a plan with active monitoring and reserved hours every month.
- How much the business keeps changing. An app that just needs to keep working costs less than one that also ships new features every quarter.
- Who does the work. A freelancer, an agency, and an in-house team all have different cost structures, and it shows in the final price.
What app maintenance costs, market by market
The part that doesn't change by country: industry benchmarks put annual maintenance at 15% to 25% of what the app cost to build, with the first year usually the priciest because that's when real-world bugs show up. What does change by region is agency and freelance pricing, along with what the stores charge in each currency:
| Item | Spain / EU | UK & Ireland | US / Canada |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency maintenance retainer (monthly) | €500–2,000 | £500–5,000+ | $500–4,000 |
| Annual developer fee (Apple) | €99/year | £79/year | $99/year |
On top of that, Google Play charges a one-time fee (around $25, or the equivalent in your currency) when you open a developer account — not an annual one.
Key idea: that range is wide on purpose. A simple app with no backend can sit at the low end; an app with syncing, payments or heavy traffic lands at the high end, where the price starts to look more like a dedicated developer than a one-off service.
What happens when an app isn't maintained
It shows up later than you'd think, which is exactly why it gets neglected. The usual sequence:
- It stops shipping new system features first, and starts looking dated next to competitors.
- Then bugs start appearing with new iOS or Android releases nobody tested in time.
- The stores stop accepting updates once the minimum OS target falls too far behind, and by then the app can't even be updated without rewriting parts of it.
- Users leave, and they say so in reviews — right where everyone else sees it before downloading.
Reviving an abandoned app almost always costs more than maintaining it from day one, because you're catching up on several OS versions at once instead of one at a time.
What a solid maintenance plan includes
- Regular compatibility checks against every new iOS and Android release, before it reaches your users.
- Active monitoring for errors and crashes, so you find out before your users do.
- An agreed response window for critical failures, not "whenever we get to it."
- Backend backups, if the app relies on a server.
- A regular report of what's been touched and what's still pending.
By business stage
There's no single "right" plan — it depends on where your business actually is.
- Just launched and still validating? Reactive maintenance is enough: someone who responds when something breaks and applies the mandatory OS updates. You don't need more until you have real users depending on the app daily.
- Already generating revenue through the app, with users on it every day? A monthly retainer with active monitoring ends up cheaper than firefighting: every hour of downtime with real users costs more than the price gap between the two plans.
How we approach it at Cruslar
When we hand over an app, the maintenance conversation starts the day we deliver it, not months later after something's already broken. We spell out which OS versions the plan covers, how often compatibility gets reviewed, and what happens if a critical bug shows up on a weekend.
We'd rather be upfront about scope from the start: a reactive plan doesn't include new features, and a client who only needs that shouldn't overpay for a full retainer. It's the same by-stage thinking we apply when helping clients choose native or cross-platform at the start of a project, and it carries through every mobile app project we deliver.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to update an app even if nothing changes for the user?
In practice, yes. Apple and Google require apps to be built against recent OS targets to keep accepting updates, so the app needs work even when nothing visible changes for the user.
What happens if I stop paying the developer fee?
The app gets pulled from the store. Apple also deletes the account and everything tied to it if the fee goes unpaid for long enough, so it isn't something you can put off without consequences.
Does maintenance cost the same in year one as in later years?
No. Year one is usually the most expensive, because that's when bugs that only show up under real use surface — not in internal testing. After that, if the app is stable, the cost tends to drop.
Can I maintain the app myself if I have the technical skills?
Yes, if you have the time and the right skill set. What doesn't change is the work itself: someone has to check compatibility, fix bugs, and track each platform's updates — whether that's you, a freelancer, or an agency.
Does a native app cost the same to maintain as a cross-platform one?
No. Native means two codebases, so maintenance roughly doubles at the base level. It's one of the reasons cross-platform ends up cheaper long-term, not just at launch.
Let's talk about your app
If you already have an app live and aren't sure which maintenance plan fits, tell us how your users actually use it and we'll tell you what level you really need — not more than that. Get in touch.
