Today, many companies are moving towards mobile apps for marketing and business, as it is more convenient. Therefore, in case you have ventured into app development, you have already created the perfect foundation for a digitally active business. However, creating an app-driven system comes with a lot of costs.
In this article, we will see how the maintenance of a mobile application is essential for its continuous development. This happens because it does not end its cycle after being programmed, but why is it so important? What is the maintenance of an app based on? Read on:
- What does app maintenance consist of?
- Why is the maintenance of a mobile application important?
- What aspects are important to cover with the maintenance cost of an application?
- How much does the maintenance of an application cost?
- What areas are covered by application development and maintenance costs?
- What can be done to reduce costs?
- How do we know what kind of maintenance our app needs?
- What can we recommend at Connect Tech?
1. What does app maintenance consist of?
The maintenance of a mobile application relies on continuous development work after its launch to the market. It requires a minimum viable product that, after the KPIs defined at the beginning and the response from users, evolves our app. Therefore, a mobile application requires a dynamic element that needs constant maintenance.
Let us start with the Incident Report. Every mobile app development has some of the following incidents: problems connecting to web services or payment gateway, problems with the server and with new versions, or problems with programming.
Also, take into account the update of versions of operating systems. Failure to update may result in the non-functioning of some of our features. Therefore, we must review those of higher versions and adjust and change the code of those that are obsolete.
New features. Once it begins to gain acceptance in the market, it is essential to include new functionalities based on the requirements of our users. This will require a previous analysis, the graphic design of new screens, the programming and testing of the new functionalities, as well as the generation of new versions and their uploading to the markets.
2. Why is the maintenance of a mobile application important?
We now know that its importance is vital for the continuity of the marketplace. Several points make it essential. Users do not value those applications that are not updated based on the new operating systems.
Poor maintenance can result in the non-functioning of the application on some devices. Continuous updates make it necessary to constantly evolve apps. Due to a large number of devices on the market, it is necessary to follow up to avoid bugs through testing.
Therefore, as we have already seen, among other aspects, feedback from our customers becomes necessary to alter and modify the initial version of our app. In short, without the maintenance of an app development service, it will end up becoming obsolete in terms of design, functionalities, or malfunction.
If your application requires payments for any reason, you must ensure that your application follows proper security protocols. In this case, your app is not only responsible for its financial security, users must also have the security of their data.
2.1 Why contract app maintenance?
The world of mobile application development is constantly evolving and therefore app maintenance is essential. The importance of hiring good maintenance of apps lies in a series of factors of great importance.
The continuous updates of the operating systems of the mobile devices, make necessary a continuous adaptation of the applications to them. The release of new devices on the market means that without proper app maintenance the application may stop running on some of these devices.
The user, on the other hand, does not value favorably the applications that do not adapt to the new versions of the operating systems. As there are an infinite number of devices, especially in the case of Android, it is necessary to follow up to avoid bugs through a testing exercise.
3. What aspects are important to cover with the maintenance cost of an application?
Compatibility with evolving devices and operating systems. With technological developments, devices and operating systems are both evolving. You need to ensure that your application is compatible with these evolutions. By focusing on some of the maintenance costs of your application here, you can increase its lifespan.
Modify and update the UI and UX. Updating the user interface and user experience to make your app more user-friendly is a smart decision you can make. You can look at popular apps, review user suggestions, and use their ideas to make changes. Your ultimate goal should be to make users feel the need for your app.
Update functionalities and add new features. After such a long time, you will notice that many popular apps add something new to stand out. For example, gaming apps invested in improving their graphics. Also, food delivery apps adapted live tracking systems for their orders. This has evidently improved user satisfaction.
4. How much does the maintenance of an application cost?
There are different perspectives in the industry on this. However, it also depends on the complexity of the mobile application, the technology used, the platform on which the application runs, and much more. In general, experts suggest that application maintenance can cost between 15% and 20% of the total development cost.
The average cost of maintaining an application includes the cost of content generation, promotional activities, graphics creation, multimedia purchases, and more. Upgrading servers or hosting services also impacts the maintenance costs of mobile applications.
Recurring maintenance costs, such as code modifications, integration of new technologies, or platform upgrades. Other than that, here are other items that could affect mobile app maintenance costs: Servers, Push notifications, Payment gateways, Additional unpredictable events (depending on the event).
4.1 How much does it cost to keep an application running?
Calculating the exact cost of application maintenance becomes complicated, since it involves multiple predictable and unpredictable aspects, as also mentioned above. However, there are some additional possibilities to answer this question, we will mention some more for your further reference
According to the breakdown we mentioned above, the average cost of maintaining an app can fall between 1450dhs and 3300 DHS per year. It can have a large variation depending on the market location, type of technology, and type of update. The amount spent on the app marketing strategy will also be counted as the total cost of maintaining the app.
The cost of hiring a developer or a small app development company can influence the average cost of maintaining an application. As mentioned above, the predictable maintenance cost of a mobile app can reach up to 20% of the total cost to develop an app.
Once the mobile app development process is finished, the next step is to keep the application running without any technical problems. And for that, you need to shell out a maintenance cost that is around 15 to 20% of the original development costs. For example, if the cost of developing an app is 36,700 DHS, then the cost of maintaining an app is around 7,346 DHS per year.
5. What areas are covered by application development and maintenance costs?
Hosting services, as a developer, you know that it is a recurrent cost. It is something your application cannot work without. Therefore, you can invest money according to your budget and that will provide you with time-limited access to the server. However, in addition to the length of the hosting, the type of data in your application will also be important.
Monitoring traffic, analytics is important to measure the real growth of your application. Therefore, it is a cost you will not be able to avoid. Analytics will require investments in services such as traffic measurements, traffic sources, user behavior, and an average time spent using the application.
Identifying and fixing errors. They can appear unexpectedly at any time and for any reason, such as server updates, hosting upgrades, device change, etc. However, the cost of detecting errors and fixing them can vary, as it depends on the type of error and how long it will take to get rid of them. The minimum expected cost to edit one line of code is $50.
Application marketing activities, developing and publishing applications are not the end of the responsibility. Users should be aware of all the changes they are going to make to the app to build trust. Especially if these modifications affect users’ data or payment information. For each new update or modification to the application, you will need to conduct promotional activities. You will attract costs that cannot be avoided.
6. What can be done to reduce costs?
Certain ways can be used to reduce the investment in mobile application maintenance. Choosing the right platform can affect the cost, effort, and time you will invest in the application. Currently, there are two types of application development platforms:
- Native Application Development
- Hybrid Application Development
Native applications are platform-specific. In other words, you must develop multiple native apps for multiple operating systems such as iOS, Android, Windows. However, native applications tend to be faster and consume less space once installed. These apps can also offer better features, as developers focus specifically on creating these apps for a particular type of operating system.
If we talk about hybrid applications, they are cross-platform, as the name suggests. Although creating an application for several operating systems, is a time and cost-saving process. If you want to offer services on multiple platforms with limited functionality, you should consider developing a hybrid application. Even from a long-term point of view, you are saving investment.
Focus on creating an MVP application Minimum Viable Product (MVP), refers to an application with only basic features. Therefore, offering many useless features can increase the size of the application, the loading time, and the chances of the application crashing. Therefore, it is recommended that you develop an application with features that are important to your users.
7. How do we know what kind of maintenance our app needs?
Each application has a series of different characteristics and particularities. Just as each customer needs to have security against future modifications or different incidents depending on their particular characteristics.
It is not the same, for example, to have an application that needs to provide customer support 24 hours a day 365 days a year, and have an agile app development team capable of solving any problem at any time. It is not the same, to have an application that displays static data without the need to make connections to web services or allow communication between users.
There are mobile applications that by their very nature need to add new functionalities in very short periods and with reduced entry dates, while other applications undergo very few modifications during their life cycle.
Some companies need to be able to add new features to their applications so that they can grow and offer new functions to their users while others just need to know that there is a technical team behind them, which, in the event of an incident, can solve the problem.
8. What can we recommend at Connect Tech?
It stays important to have a separate website for your service. However, considering app development for your service gives a great advantage to your business. It requires a good amount of investment, but it gives a lot back to your business. That is why we at Connect Tech recommend that you spare no expense in keeping your company’s apps in good shape.
In addition, with a comfortable app management system, you can have analytics generated to analyze the growth of your business at your fingertips. Nevertheless, these mobile applications for your business require maintenance, for which you will need to contract experts. However, the benefits likely outweigh the development and maintenance of the app in the long run.
Are you looking for more information about app maintenance costs? At Connect Tech we have the information you need. You can email us at CONTACT@CONNECTECH.DEV.
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