How Much Does App Maintenance Cost? The Hidden Line Item Everyone Forgets
Straight to the point: app maintenance and operations typically cost 15–25% of the original development price per year at agencies. For an app that cost CZK 800,000 to build, budget CZK 120,000–200,000 every single year — forever. It's the line item few vendors mention out loud when selling development, yet it decides whether your app feeds your business three years from now or drains it.
In this article we'll break down what maintenance really includes, what happens when you skip it, and how to evaluate it when choosing a vendor.
Why an app needs maintenance at all
A common assumption: "The app is finished, it works, what could possibly break?" But apps don't run in a vacuum. They run on operating systems that change every year, talk to third-party APIs that get versioned and shut down, and stand on libraries where security holes are found regularly.
An app without maintenance isn't a car parked safely in a garage. It's a car parked on a highway — everything around it is moving, and the crash is a matter of time.
What maintenance includes
| Item | What it means | How often |
|---|---|---|
| OS and SDK updates | Adapting to new iOS and Android versions | 1–2 major per year, minor continuously |
| Security patches | Updating libraries and frameworks with known vulnerabilities | continuously |
| Hosting and infrastructure | Servers, databases, backups, SSL certificates | monthly |
| Monitoring | Watching errors, outages and performance | 24/7 |
| Store fees | Apple Developer Program 99 USD/year, Google Play 25 USD one-time | yearly |
| API compatibility | Changes in payment gateways, maps, Google/Apple sign-in | several times a year |
| Small fixes | Bugs that only surface in production on specific devices | continuously |
Individually these are small things. Together they're the reason serious agencies charge a monthly management fee — and why the "one-time" development price is never final.
What happens without maintenance: three real scenarios
Scenario 1: A major OS update. Apple ships a new major iOS version and changes permission behaviour or removes an old API. An app nobody has updated in a year starts crashing on launch. The App Store rating drops from 4.6 to 2.1 within two weeks — and the "broken, don't install" reviews stay there even after the fix.
Scenario 2: Removal from the store. Apple and Google regularly purge their stores of apps built with outdated SDKs. An e-mail with a deadline arrives, nobody reads it, and the app disappears from search. New customers simply can't download it.
Scenario 3: A security hole. A vulnerability is found in a library your app uses. Without monitoring and patching, you find out when someone exfiltrates your customer data — and with GDPR that's a millions-of-crowns problem, not a minor incident. We wrote more about the fallout in security holes left by previous vendors.
How agencies charge for maintenance
Common models:
- Hourly, on demand — you pay only when something happens. Sounds attractive, but in practice preventive maintenance never gets done and you end up paying for firefighting, which costs several times more.
- Monthly retainer — a fixed block of hours (e.g. 10 h/month for CZK 15,000–25,000). Predictable, but hours expire unused or run out.
- SLA contract — guaranteed response times, typically for larger companies, from CZK 30,000 per month upwards.
All three models share one thing: maintenance is on top of the development price you already paid.
Why a subscription includes maintenance
The monthly subscription model flips that equation. You don't pay separately for development and maintenance — you pay one monthly fee that covers development, hosting, monitoring, OS updates, security patches and continuous improvements. Our incentive matches yours: we want the app running smoothly, because running it is our job, not an opportunity to invoice extra work.
In practice that means:
- no surprise invoices for "a necessary update because of the new iOS",
- fixes deployed in days, not "when we have capacity",
- the cost is a tax-deductible operating expense, not a depreciated investment.
You'll find the complete overview of what the subscription covers in our pricing and on the how it works page.
Checklist: what to ask your vendor
Before signing off app development, demand clear answers to these seven questions:
- How much will operations and maintenance cost per year after handover?
- What exactly does the maintenance fee include — and what counts as extra work?
- How fast do you react to a critical production bug?
- Who watches iOS/Android SDK updates and store deadlines?
- Who pays for and manages hosting, domains and certificates?
- What happens if we end the cooperation — who owns the code?
- Is monitoring included, or will I learn about outages from my customers?
If the vendor answers evasively, assume maintenance is either not handled at all — or that you'll pay dearly for it later.
Summary
An app isn't a one-time purchase; it's a running service. When budgeting, either add 15–25% of the development price per year, or choose a model where operations are part of the price from day one.
Want to know what your project would cost including operations? Get a number in two minutes with our configurator, or book a consultation — we'll go through your plans and give you honest figures, including the ones that usually go unmentioned.
