Insights · 6 min read
What app maintenance actually involves (and what it costs)
By Austin Hunter ·
Launch day feels like the finish line, but an app is more like a car than a building: it needs regular service or it stops running. We maintain our own apps in the App Store and Google Play (one has been there since 2017), so this is the list we work through ourselves every year.
The yearly store requirements
Google Play requires apps to target a recent Android version every year; apps that fall behind can't publish updates and become harder to find. Apple requires new builds to use a recent SDK. Neither deadline is optional, and both usually mean updating libraries, fixing whatever the update breaks, testing on new devices, and resubmitting through review.
Security and dependency updates
Every app is built on dozens of open-source libraries and services. They release security fixes constantly. Keeping up means updating on a schedule, testing before release, and reacting quickly when a serious vulnerability lands. The same goes for WordPress sites, where plugins are the most common way in for attackers.
Monitoring and fixes
- Crash reporting and uptime alerts, so problems are caught before customers report them.
- Backups that are actually tested.
- Store console upkeep: policy changes, data-safety forms, developer-account notices that arrive with deadlines.
- Small bugs that appear as new phones and OS versions ship.
Small improvements
Most apps also need a steady trickle of small changes: wording, a new field, a report, an integration that changed its API. Budgeting a few hours a month for this keeps the app useful instead of slowly falling behind.
What it costs
Costs scale with how complex the app is and how often it changes. Hosting for a simple site starts around $40 a month with us. Apps are usually best on a monthly plan with a set number of included hours, sized to the app after a short review, rather than paying for emergencies one at a time. Store fees are separate: $99 a year for Apple and a one-time $25 for Google Play.
Signs your app needs attention now
- You've received a Google Play "target API level" or Apple SDK notice.
- The original developer is gone and nobody has the accounts or the code.
- Reviews mention crashes on newer phones.
- The app hasn't had an update in over a year.
We can take it over
If someone else built your app and it needs a home, we start with a short review of the code, accounts and hosting, tell you what we found, and then put it on a plan.