Short answer: a common rule of thumb is 15 to 20% of what the app cost to build, every year. Cleveroad, an app development company, attributes that range to the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ) for small and medium business products (Cleveroad). For an app that cost $40,000 to build, that works out to roughly $6,000 to $8,000 a year, or about $500 to $670 a month, before any new features. What you actually pay depends on who does the work and how you pay them.
This guide breaks that number into the parts you will see on a bill, with US prices, so you can budget before something breaks.
What "maintenance" actually covers
Maintenance is everything an app needs after launch just to keep working for the people who use it:
- Hosting and a database. The server your app runs on and the place its data lives, billed every month.
- Domain and certificates. Your web address, renewed every year, and the https certificate that keeps logins private.
- Bug fixes. Every app has bugs, and real users find them faster than testers do.
- Updates. iOS, Android, browsers and the libraries your app is built on change constantly. An app nobody updates slowly stops working.
- Security. Patching, checking who can read which data, and watching logins and payments.
- Monitoring and backups. Knowing the app is down before your customers tell you, and being able to restore yesterday's data.
- Support. Answering your users' questions, and yours.
New features are not maintenance. When someone quotes you a "maintenance" price, ask which of the items above it includes. The gaps are where surprise bills come from.
The fixed fees you cannot avoid
Some costs are the same whoever looks after your app:
- Apple Developer Program: US$99 a year if your app is in the App Store (Apple Developer).
- Google Play developer account: US$25 one time (Google Play Console Help).
- Domain name: usually a small yearly renewal.
- Hosting and database: small apps can start on free or low tiers. Costs grow with users, storage and traffic, so check your provider's pricing page every few months.
These are small next to the cost of the people who do the work.
What the work costs in the US
This is the big line on the bill, and it depends on who you hire.
| Option | What it costs | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer on Upwork | typically $15 to $50 an hour | Upwork |
| US-based freelance developer | about $95 to $110 an hour on average | Index.dev, 2026 |
| In-house software developer | median pay of $135,980 a year (May 2025), before benefits | US Bureau of Labor Statistics |
A few hours a month of a US freelancer's time is already several hundred dollars. One bad week, such as a broken payment flow or a data leak, can cost more than a year of routine upkeep.
Three ways to pay for it
1. Hire someone when it breaks. You pay only when there is a problem, which feels cheap until there is one. The developer who fixes it often has to learn your code first, and you pay for that time too. Good for: an app that rarely changes and has few users.
2. Hire a developer. You get someone who knows your app inside out. At the BLS median, that is more than $11,000 a month in pay alone, which only makes sense once the app is the business. Good for: a company with a steady stream of work for a full-time developer.
3. Pay a fixed monthly fee. One agency hosts the app, keeps it secure, fixes bugs, keeps it updated and supports you for a known amount each month. Good for: a small business that wants one cost it can plan around and one place to call.