Mobile app maintenance for companies.

Nobody touches the code and the app still fails. The usual causes: every iOS and Android version deprecates APIs and changes behaviour (permissions, background execution, notifications); Google Play enforces a recent target SDK — apps that do not update lose the ability to publish and even visibility on new devices; dependencies get abandoned (the payments library or maps plugin that stopped being maintained and now blocks every other update); and signing certificates and profiles expire. Each of these fronts is routine if someone watches it — and a fire if nobody does.

The pattern we see most in audits: an app that ran perfectly for a year without maintenance suddenly needs €15,000 of urgent clean-up because the mandatory target SDK update drags a chain of broken dependencies. Regular maintenance exists precisely so that snowball never forms.

The industry standard places maintenance between 15% and 20% of the initial development cost per year: 2–4 compatibility updates a year, continuous dependency management, monitoring and a buffer for bugs. A €40,000 app → €6,000–8,000/year; a €100,000 one → €15,000–20,000/year.

What makes maintenance cheaper: a single cross-platform codebase (maintaining Flutter costs less than two native apps), clean architecture with tests, CI/CD automating releases, and a conservative dependency stack. What makes it more expensive: two native codebases, legacy integrations, exotic dependencies and — costliest of all — undocumented inherited code from a provider who no longer answers.

Corrective is fixing what breaks: reported bugs, crashes caught by monitoring, failures after an OS update. Preventive is keeping it from breaking: updating dependencies before they block, adapting the app to iOS/Android betas before public release, watching store notices. Evolutionary is improving the product: new features, conversion optimisation, A/B testing — the boundary where maintenance becomes product growth.

A healthy contract always covers the first two and sizes the third to the product's stage. The usual trap in cheap contracts: they only cover corrective work, so every «unforeseen event» is billed apart — and in mobile those are not unforeseen, they are Apple and Google's annual calendar.

New iOS versions catch you by surprise instead of being tested before public release. Bugs take weeks to resolve with no SLA limiting it. Your app keeps getting slower and nobody can tell you why. Your provider will not give you access to the repository or store accounts — a sign of lock-in, not service. Or simply: your app has not shipped an update in over six months. Any one of these justifies a second opinion; several at once justify switching providers.

Everything starts with a technical audit: we do not take over code we have not seen. With the diagnosis, we define the plan and SLA, set up (or clean up) CI/CD and crash monitoring, and from there the cycle is predictable: compatibility updates aligned with Apple and Google's calendar, dependencies kept current, monthly reports with stability metrics and an evolution budget sized to your stage. A 100% senior team in Barcelona and Andorra — the same engineers who build the projects in our portfolio. Maintenance is never subcontracted or handed to junior profiles.

If your app needs a technical owner, tell us about it: initial audit with a fixed quote and an honest diagnosis — even if the conclusion is that you do not need to change anything.