App Maintenance Cost Calculator — What You'll Pay Per Month

Plan for 15-25% of your original build cost per year. In monthly terms for 2026: a simple app built for ₹4 lakhs runs ₹5,000-8,000/month, a standard ₹12 lakh app runs ₹15,000-25,000/month, and a complex ₹30 lakh platform runs ₹38,000-63,000/month. Cloud hosting is separate at ₹5,000-50,000/month depending on traffic. Use the calculator above for your specific build.

Because a live app decays without attention: iOS and Android ship major OS versions every year, security vulnerabilities need patching, third-party SDKs and APIs deprecate, and real users surface bugs no QA cycle caught. Stable, simple apps sit near 15%; apps with real-time features, AI, or many integrations sit near 25% because more moving parts break more often.

The same 15-25%-per-year rule applies at lower absolute numbers: a business website built for ₹3-6 lakhs costs roughly ₹4,000-12,000/month to maintain — covering updates, security patches, backups, and content tweaks. Add hosting at ₹5,000-20,000/yr and domain renewal at ~₹1,000/yr. E-commerce sites trend higher because payment and catalog integrations need more attention.

Bug fixes, OS-update compatibility, security patches, dependency and SDK upgrades, crash and uptime monitoring, performance tuning, and small improvements (copy changes, minor UI tweaks). It does not include new feature development, redesigns, or platform migrations — those are scoped and billed separately, which is exactly why a clear retainer definition matters.

For a few months, usually yes — then it gets expensive. Unmaintained apps break on new OS versions, accumulate security vulnerabilities, get flagged or delisted by app stores for targeting outdated SDK versions, and pile up dependency debt. Rescue projects on neglected codebases routinely cost 2-4x what steady maintenance would have. If budget is tight, drop to a minimal patch-only retainer rather than zero.

₹5,000-50,000/month for most production apps in 2026, depending on traffic and architecture. A small Firebase-backed app can run ₹500-5,000/month; a mid-scale app on managed cloud lands around ₹10,000-25,000/month; high-traffic or real-time platforms on AWS/GCP scale beyond ₹50,000/month. Hosting is billed by the provider at cost — it's separate from the maintenance retainer.