Mobile App Maintenance: why it is important
Sometimes people find it difficult to think about mobile app maintenance service, along with app development.
Maintenance is meant to enhance the app or maintain its good condition. Fixing any bugs in an application is also a part of its maintenance, but there are many other aspects of app maintenance service. The following summary gives a detailed analysis of why mobile app maintenance service is essential for every app developer.
1. To take account of updates
With a lot of competition in the app development industry, users tend to uninstall an app if it doesn’t come with updates. An application needs to receive regular updates to perform better, be scalable, and secure. Hiring expert app maintenance service providers is essential.
2. To improve User Interface (UI) about the new features
The User Interface (UI) of any application is very important in terms of offering great customer satisfaction. The app acquiring new features through regular updates needs improvement or maintenance of the app’s interface. Otherwise, the user may experience issues in navigating or discovering the new feature.
3. Bug Fixing
Mobile applications involve continuous threats of being a victim of a bug attack. It is important to fix bugs to avoid app failure. There can be various reasons behind a mobile app getting bugs. Businesses operating their sales should hire mobile app maintenance services to avoid a break in their service due to app bug issues. These service providers frequently keep track of the app’s coding, and a range of functionalities to efficiently fix any bugs in the fastest possible time.
4. Avoid Cyber Threats
Always keep cyber threats in mind. It is crucial for app owners to think about hiring expert mobile app maintenance services. Specifically, those getting personal data or account details should take this seriously. An app may get outdated in spite of being encrypted through premium security protocols. It is thus essential to update the applications regularly to avoid any kind of cyber threats.
5. Maintain norms of App Stores
Often the mobile app stores develop new norms through different releases, which all the applications on it are required to obey. It is recommended to hire an expert app maintenance service provider to keep a strict eye on these things.
6. Reduce the Downtimes to Avoid Business Loss
Hiring a specialist app maintenance service provider will help to reduce downtime of your app.
7. Maintaining growing traffic and software library
An experienced professional app maintenance service provider will maintain and keep the software library updated. Applications that obtain regular updates are ranked higher, which results in larger amounts of traffic. More traffic will likely result in more leads and conversions.
Mobile App Maintenance Cost
Worried about mobile app maintenance cost? Well, let us show you some expected app maintenance expenses and ways to reduce them!
Mobile app maintenance is a periodic and important task for every application. Even if you have created an excellent application and added every possible security and safety feature, applications can still have setbacks over time. Therefore, there is a need for mobile app maintenance.
Whenever you plan to develop an application, apart from the development cost of the app, it is recommended to evaluate the approximate cost of maintaining an app.
How much does it cost to maintain a mobile application?
The cost to maintain a mobile app depends upon the features, functionality, and complexity of the application, the technology which has been used, the platform for which the application was built, and other factors. Experts in the industry usually suggest to allow 15-20% of the total app development cost for app maintenance.
- The cost of maintaining an application includes the cost of content generation, graphic creation, the purchase cost of media elements, and app promotional activities;
- Upgrading hosting services will affect app maintenance costs;
- Periodic maintenance costs like code modifications, advanced technology integration, and upgrading app platforms
Other elements that might affect the app maintenance cost:
1. Servers
2. Push Notifications
3. Payment Gateways
4. Cost of unpredictable events.
Essential aspects to cover with the cost of maintaining an application
Elements of application maintenance where you should invest more:
- Compatibility with advanced Operating systems and devices
Technological developments, operating systems and devices, are continually changing. You need to ensure that your app is compatible with these technological evolutions. By investing in your app maintenance costs, you can increase its lifespan.
- Upgrading the UI/UX
Upgrading the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) to make your application more user friendly is recommended. You can examine and research the most popular apps, go through suggestions and feedback by users, and use your app ideas to make changes. Your overall goal should be that users feel a genuine need for your application.
- Add new features and upgrade app functionality
Every now and then, you will notice that well-known apps add something new to stand out. For example, gaming applications like Temple Run invest in upgrading their graphics. Food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato recently implemented live tracking systems for their orders and it enhanced users’ satisfaction with the app
How much does it cost to maintain an app?
Consider the following to maintain an app:
- The cost of hiring an app developer or mobile app development company to maintain the app;
- App maintenance costs could reach up to 20% of the total app development cost;
- App maintenance costs vary depending on your market location, type of technology used, and type of upgrade.
App development and maintenance costs due to breakdown
1. Focusing on Hosting Services
Hosting service costs are on-going. Your application can not function without this service.
Also consider CPU memory, supporting media types on the server, and other features hosting provider offer. There are some popular organizations like Amazon web services and HostGator which offer some of the best discounts on hosting services.
2. Monitor app user traffic with analytics
Analytics is essential to measure the growth of your app and is a cost you cannot ignore. Analytics require investment for services like traffic sources, traffic measures, user behavior, and average application usage time.
Tools like Google Analytics can help you to see which the parts of your app are experiencing growth.
3. Bug Fixing
Bugs can arise suddenly anytime for many reasons such as hosting upgrades, server updates and device changes. The cost of identifying and fixing bugs can vary as it depends upon the type of bug and the time it will take to resolve it.
4. Improving Customer Experience
Solving app-related issues raised by customers is also an important role for any app developer. User’s feedback needs to be taken seriously and resolved. However, it is not always possible for an individual app developer or a developer’s team to communicate with users directly. To solve that issue, Customer Service Representatives (CSR) will undertake this role. Being responsive to users’ queries builds goodwill.
5. Marketing activities of an Application
Users need to be made aware of updates being made to an application, particularly if these changes affect the privacy, data, or payment info of users. For every new upgrade in the app, you will need to undertake promotional activities. This will incur time and costs that cannot be avoided.
Some other ways to reduce mobile app maintenance costs:
1. Choose the right app development platform
Choosing the right app development platform can affect the cost, effort and time you will need to invest in the application. There are two main types of application development platforms available at present:
- Native App Development
- Hybrid App Development
Native apps are platform-oriented – you need to develop different native apps for different operating systems like Android, iOS, and Windows. Native apps are normally faster and consume less space once installed. These apps also enable better features as app developers are focused on making these applications for one specific type of operating system.
Hybrid apps are also known as cross-platform apps. Creating one application for multiple operating systems is a time-saving and cost-saving process. If you want to enable services on multiple platforms with limited features, you should choose to develop a hybrid app as it will save you from maintaining multiple applications.
2. Build a Minimum viable product (MVP) App
The Minimum viable product (MVP) app refers to an application with only basic features. Providing an app with useless features can increase app loading time, app size, and the chances of app crashes. So, it is advised to develop an application featuring key features for your users.
You can add app features later according to the feedback from your app users. You can also observe your competitors or current trends and upgrade your application if it doesn’t reduce the performance of your app.
Conclusion
If you observe the market, you will discover that many of the top app development companies are implementing these tactics while they are building applications for their clients. The reason is that applications of many kinds are increasing in the app development industry. Therefore, the competition is high and every step taken towards app development should enhance your apps’ reputation. Following these app development and maintenance standard procedures can help you in planning your project cost and obtaining best value for money.
Mobile applications have helped many businesses to reach out to diverse audiences, and upgrading your app with the latest advanced trends should be a priority. If you are planning on developing or upgrading your business applications consider a firm like ISH Technologies that can offer you professional mobile app development services.
Please feel free to contact. us.
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