Skip to content

Do you maintain apps after launch?

Short answer

Yes, and for mobile it is not optional. iOS and Android ship major versions annually with deprecations and new store requirements, so an app left untouched degrades and eventually stops being accepted for update. Budget roughly 15 to 20 percent of the original build cost per year for maintenance.

Why mobile specifically needs this

A web app you stop touching keeps working. A mobile app does not, because the platform moves underneath it: every September brings a new iOS version, APIs get deprecated, and Apple periodically raises the minimum SDK required to ship an update at all.

Miss enough of those cycles and shipping even a one-line fix becomes a migration project first.

What maintenance covers

  • OS version compatibility and SDK upgrades
  • Store policy changes, which arrive with deadlines
  • Dependency and security updates
  • Crash monitoring and the fixes that follow from it

What it costs

15-20% of the initial build per year is the usual planning figure, lower for a simple app and higher for one with a large integration surface.

The alternative is not zero cost — it is deferred cost, and deferred platform work compounds. A two-year gap is materially more expensive than two annual passes.

Last reviewed

Related service:Mobile app development for iOS and Android

Related questions

Tell us what you are building

Send us the scope and we will come back with an honest assessment: what it takes, roughly what it costs, and whether we are the right people for it.

Start the conversationSee what we have shipped