When you start software or app development, budgeting is fundamental not only for initial planning but also for ongoing operational maintenance. As the development process progress, the complexities may arise, potentially leading to app crashes that jeopardize your brand's reputation and customer loyalty.
Failure to actively engage users may prompt them to seek alternatives with superior services, underscoring the importance of continual app enhancements. Therefore, prioritizing regular app upgrades, bug fixes, and adjustments is essential for sustained customer satisfaction and retention. These activities collectively constitute app maintenance, ensuring that your app remains competitive and functional in an ever-evolving market landscape.
As the world becomes more digital, mobile apps have become a powerful entity for business profitability, and so more companies have started realizing this potential.
If you are a business owner, you probably know that developing an app is not enough. There is cut-throat competition, which can leave you behind in the market. Recently, Google removed 900,000 abandoned apps from the Play Store, as they were not maintained.
This is why app maintenance is important for businesses. But how much does it cost to maintain an app, can be a prime question for many people and this is what we will discuss in this article.
Mobile App Maintenance is basically a continuous process, which involves updation, upgradation, and adjustment in the app. Any app requires regular bug fixes, optimization, and upgrades. It is also important to prevent UX and UI errors, which can lead to customer dissatisfaction. You also need to incorporate feedback implementations from customers.
Your app should always be relevant to the present situation. Just take yourself for an example, If you see any app in the Play Store or App Store, which has been updated a few years back, would you consider it trustworthy, or if an app has been updated just few weeks?
Moreover, you constantly need to update apps, to meet your audience’s ever-changing needs.
Here are the reasons why maintenance is important.
Bugs are a constant problem in the software and application arena. So, it is crucial for you to constantly check and repair the same. If your user’s devices are spoiled due to the presence of bugs, then they will never ever download your app again.
When you regularly maintain and upgrade your app, then Google and Apple favours it and list it amongst the top apps in the store. It also shows that you are committed to the uninterrupted performance of the app.
Apps are more prone to attacks by mobile hackers, as many users share their personal details while registering on the app. Therefore, you must keep the app secure, so that your user’s data is safe and secure.
If your app is regularly maintained, along with updated features, its longevity in the market increases. However, if the app is outdated, it is quickly rejected.
You need to continuously maintain the app to improve your user experience. If you regularly update the app, it would mean that you care for your customers and their experience. Moreover, constant improvements give a positive vibe. It will also generate a good ROI in the times to come.
Every operating system needs updates and additional features to close any security lapses. iOS and Android also regularly upgrade their versions, to contribute to a better audience experience. If you do not update your app according to the most recent OS, there will be performance and compatibility issues. This can cause suffering to the audience.
Your software library updates ensure that the app performs at its peak. The creation of graphics, textual communication, and miscellaneous tasks are greatly influenced by these libraries. You must do it regularly to maintain the app’s reviews in the market.
A number of factors impact the price of mobile app maintenance. There are different segments of app maintenance, which cost different. We have compiled a few for you here.
All OS versions undergo updates in their features time and again. So, developers need to implement related changes in the app, operating on a certain device. If you tend to ignore the requirements laid down by the app platform, your app may be considered obsolete. Thus, it is very important to test your apps from time to time, on updated versions of the OS.
If you update apps, your end consumers will be impressed. Technology upgrades also lead to improved performance. Some of the tools that you can integrate with the apps are AR, VR, AI, and ML.
You may have utilized the services of various third-party technologies while creating your app. Each one of these adds a cost to the final product. Moreover, it also adds up to the cost of the monthly maintenance charges. Versions upgrades for the third-party technology or tool also cost money, so you need to take this into consideration as well.
If you have an E-Commerce app, then it must have push notifications embedded. It is really necessary for apps, to constantly inform the audience or your target market, about sales, cart abandonments, and new arrivals. This acts as an engagement tool as well. These advanced push notification features also add up to the cost.
As businesses are dynamic today, you need to publish fresh content every week or month. The things that require frequent consideration are the graphics-related banners, images, written content, and videos. Moreover, you also need to personalize the content from time to time. A mobile app maintenance team is recruited to facilitate complex changes, which again adds up to the cost.
Having constant data backup facilities for your app is necessary so that you do not lose all the data if the app crashes. You must schedule regular app maintenance, either manually or automatically. This also impacts the maintenance costs of the app.
If your app crashes constantly, then no one will download or use it. Thus, you can never afford to keep the app bugs unaddressed. It can lead to losses and more expenses in the long run. You must take remedial measures, to keep such issues at bay. Customer feedback is also important in this respect.
This tool is not avoidable if you want to exist in the competitive digital world. It involves the measurement of app performance quantitatively and also accomplishes user engagement goals. Retention, in-app purchases, and percentage of daily users are data metrics that you require, which substantially increases the cost of app maintenance.
There are several different segments of app maintenance, for which you need to keep money aside. App maintenance costs can quickly become huge, and cause you stress if you are not aware of the situation. You can calculate the costs easily if you keep the below segments in mind.
According to location, app maintenance costs differ too. In India, it is the lowest, at around $25-50, whereas in North America, it can go up to $150.
Any app owner today must keep aside $250 -$500 for the monthly maintenance so that the app runs perfectly. You can expect to spend about $20,000 annually to manage your app if the cost to build it is around $100,000.
So, through this blog, you must have already got the answer to that burning question. The app maintenance costs depend on so many factors, that you cannot limit yourself to one or two. This is a necessity today, if you want to steer ahead in the dynamic digital business arena.
.webp)
.webp)
Build Better Products with On-Demand Tech Teams
Bengaluru, India
3rd floor, 17, Palace Rd,
High Grounds, Vasanth Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka - 560052
Take your project to the next level with experienced app developers
