How much it costs to maintain an app per year
This is the line that disappears from almost every budget, and the only one that keeps arriving after the project is finished. It is worth splitting into three groups, because they behave differently.
1. What arrives on its own, even if you touch nothing
- Apple: US$ 99 a year. Let the membership lapse and the app leaves the App Store;
- Google: a recent target API level requirement, revised every year. Fail to update and the app stops appearing for people on newer Android, then stops being installable;
- the domain: annual renewal;
- certificates and signing keys: they expire, and the day to find that out is not the day the campaign launches.
This group is what turns "idle app" into "broken app", and it does not ask permission.
2. What depends on who built it
- agency or freelancer: maintenance is usually a separate contract, and the industry rule of thumb is 15% to 20% of the build cost per year. It exists because the cost is hours, and hours do not disappear when the project ends;
- platform: the cost is the subscription, and it does not grow with the size of the app. At Fabapp plans start at R$ 99 a month, and store requirements land on the platform's plate rather than yours.
It is the most concrete difference between the two paths, and it shows up in the second year.
3. What only arrives once the app has people
- content: prices, menu, opening hours, photos. The cheapest cost and the most forgotten, and the one that makes an app look abandoned;
- support: somebody has to answer. Even ten customers generate questions;
- real change: the new screen, the new field, the report somebody asked for.
This group is the only good sign on the list: it exists only because the app is being used.
How to halve the bill
Do not be in the stores if you do not need them. An app published on the web has no annual fee, no review, no API level deadline and no certificate to expire. Almost all of group 1 disappears.
For menus, catalogues, portfolios and booking, that is the common case. The criteria are in native app, PWA or website.
The summary
- an idle app still costs: store, domain, certificate and API requirements arrive on their own;
- with an agency maintenance is a contract; on a platform it is the subscription, and it does not grow with the app;
- out-of-date content is the cheapest cost and the most visible;
- staying out of the stores removes almost all the fixed annual cost;
- when asking for a quote, ask about the second year, not the first.