What Is The Maintenance Cost Of A Mobile Application?

It's incredibly rewarding to see that your app goes live after months of design and software development.

It doesn't, though, mean the mission is over, and now you can sit back and unwind with your friends.

You enter the next phase in the software development cycle: mobile app maintenances as soon as the device is available to its customers.

This also ensures that you need to keep the software up-to-date, stable and appealing not only to consumers.

Why does that matter? Be vigilant about the upkeep of software paying off in the long run–an improvement of just five per cent to your user retention rate has shown that company profits vary from 25% to 95%.

Yeah, how can you plan and forecast the annual costs in advance?

In this post, we will talk about the key factors that influence the budget for device maintenance.

We will also provide you with a complete list of services to ensure that your app is taken into account at all perspectives.


How To Measure Mobile App Maintenance?

While illustrations of cost breakdowns in app development may be available online, they can lead to more uncertainty than advice. Your software can, after all, be designed in a totally different way–even if it looks like your app.

Any places that can have a significant impact on your costs include Google Play as well as the App Store, as well as a native or cross-platform option. In this article, we address these two topics in depth.

It really is, safe to say that you can expect the annual average cost of maintenance at 15-20%, or you can find out more about pre-launch costs, in our specific report, on the overall development costs incurred on releasing the program.

In order to further limit this range, you must take into consideration the three key factors.


1. Software complication

The bigger your maintenance costs, the more functionalities and panels your app has.

Have you chosen to create your mobile application with a framework that is ready for use, or have you designed it from scratch to construct specific software?

The innovation you have selected is also important to develop your mobile app.

You should expect updates to be much more costly than when using a cross-platform solution such as React Native if you've built two native applications (single for iOS and Android).

The number of 3rd-party integrations is another factor to be considered. If you have a closely linked app to external services like payment channels, social networks, or accounting systems, you can expect higher prices.


2. The place of your design & development team

Do you develop the product internally or with an agency? Where really is the foundation of your development team?

Do you want to keep working with them or do you want to avoid confronting app maintenance from another country?

Developing tech costs vary widely across the globe. The US has the highest rates (from $50-$100 an hour). In Germany, Switzerland's best rates are calculated (from $50 to $300 an hour), whereas Western and central Europe's lowest rates are from $25 to $56, with the highest value for money.

In addition, developers in some countries surpass others (the top 3 being China, Russia and Poland).


3. Application layout

In order to maintain lower maintenance expenses in the early stages of research and development, it is essential that you work with experienced professional designers.

If your software is incorrectly or incoherently built, it will torment you and create significant costs during upkeep.

But, this can be resolved if you come through layout-related problems in the post-MVP phase. Employ an established dev team who understand how to use outdated code and design so that during upkeep they can gradually enhance the product.


What does mobile application maintenance cover?

Several services are available-from infrastructure development, practical and less apparent areas such as marketing and recruiting of a tech support department.


Design and development maintenance

As mentioned before you will quickly notice areas which need improvement once you have launched your app on the market–both in terms of aesthetics or efficiencies. Many possible solutions are also generated from customer feedback as well.


Development maintenance

You should anticipate your teams to work on a combination of the following in the acute phase:

1. Bug corrections,

2. Interface refinements, third party compliance research (e.g. modification of technology to changes of your payment service),

3. New features (remember to list functionality requests from "important" and "trivial" to guarantee that you don't waste the maintenance budget on things that aren't essential).


Design maintenance

When it starts to feel worthless and looks obsolete your users won't use your app–they might just go for another competing service. Furthermore, as the device expands, you will have to be careful to maintain a smooth UI and UX.

You may need to engage in usability testing (e.g. by conducting daily surveys among consumers or by arranging focus groups) or reach out to an established external advisor for a UX analysis to ensure that.

When you implement a lot of new functionality in a short timeframe, this is important.

As time passes on you'll possibly also need to update the whole product to stay relevant to your consumers. Although it is not an ongoing expenditure, it is important to keep in mind, though.


Safety and security of the App

Ensuring the app stays safe is likely the single most significant expense of maintenance for which you should prepare.

There are two fields which should be considered:

1. Continuous optimisation of security,

2. Regulatory adjustments placed.


To ensure that you do not risk confidential information about your customers, your designers will need to monitor any confidentiality improvements or modifications of your third-party integrations. Abandoning any unresolved notifications could lead to a breach of security.

Similarly, legislative changes, such as GDPR, need to be kept in mind, which always disrupt the way data is stored and secured internationally. Hence, maintaining a security budget for incidents that can't easily be forecast is prudent.


Infrastructure resources

just as the technology and software framework will need to be updated, you will also need to mention all infrastructure facilities, such as third-party charges, and human activity.

Considering certain facilities, such as storage, network management or software servicing. If you are still designing your device, here's an overview of what the expenses sound like at Firebase–a popular mobile app infrastructure solution.

As for the group, they'll be responsible for managing any improvements which need to be made to the administration boards of your services. You will also need to keep track of your performance metrics, including tracking the efficiency of servers.

Note, however, that an infrastructure development project does not include only the receipts you send to outside businesses. It can also affect how many hours the creators invest every month on your device.


App Analytics

It is critical that you monitor and analyze the interaction between your users and your app. For example, if you see how much time your app spends or when it is discontinued, you'll know if any problems need to be fixed.

You will either need to use one or more analytical tools depending on your query.

Our dedicated article on the implementation of mobile app analysis discusses more this topic.

Now let us look into the kinds of services sometimes left out in the maintenance plans for mobile apps.


Marketing Services

You may also have to add more customers when the device is live on Google Play and/or the App Store.

Through App Optimization (AS O) and many other better for your niche marketing efforts, you will maximize your app's organic scope. This can include maintaining a forum, distributing updates, or engaging in paid ads, aimed at potential users via Twitter or social networks.

Basically, to assess the app's competitive position, you need to create a budget.


Administrative and Customer care Services

When consumers continue to come to your site, you're going to be the one to manage their accounts. This could mean you'll want someone in your Content Management System (CMS) for organizing info.

Most specifically, you'll need someone in charge of interacting with your clients. If it's a small customer base, you're probably not going need a large team–that being said, ensure you have the resources to scale if needed.

In the end, you'll leave your customers wanting to come back for more by ensuring your product will always be at its best.