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Running costs of an app in 2025

App running costs: what costs will I incur and how high are they?

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups have all their software developed with the main goal of achieving a sustainable return on investment as quickly as possible. When you approach an app idea with your development partner, you usually already have a clear overview of the one-time costs for your app development, You can do this in advance using our App Cost Calculator Estimate in a few minutes.

Often, running costs are treated separately and can cause a rude awakening after the launch of your app. It is important that you get a clear overview of the running costs in advance in order to budget properly. We explain cost drivers and define how high these running costs may be.

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App running costs

In this article you will find information about:

What are the running costs of an app?

What are the types of ongoing costs of an app?

Illustration of people working with large digital screens displaying data visualizations in a modern tech environment

Running costs of an app can vary greatly and are known to bring a large price gap. The entire spectrum can be possible here - from 0€ to several hundred thousand euros. This is because the ongoing app costs depend on a variety of cost factors, such as the amount of users, the amount of functions, the required computing power of the functions, the required server sizes or certain third-party services. Therefore, it is very important for SMEs and startups to properly understand their ongoing costs. We list the most important cost drivers for you, quantify them and provide recommendations for action.

Basically, there are different approaches in app creation to get to the goal, all of which are be priced differently. For functionalities that have already been used frequently in various apps, you can often fall back on free open-source solutions. More complicated functions in an app often have to be pulled up from the beginning. This means that since the feature is new, you can't fall back on old tried and true, but instead write the entire code from scratch. Another option, of course, is to get the software solution from a third-party vendor in the form of a subscription model or on-demand service. But basically, there are these 5 ongoing cost drivers of an app:

Server costs
1. server costs
Database costs
2. data bank costs
Data storage costs
3. data storage costs
api programming
4. third-party API costs
Cost App Store and Play Store
5. launch fees
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Server costs

1. server costs

What are the ongoing server costs of an app?

The following applies: Not all functions that you can see and use as a user of an app are executed directly in the app. A lot of information is transferred on the server side, so basic functions like login/registration are handled directly on the server side.

Many agencies talk about the number of users accessing their servers when it comes to pricing server costs. However, it is not really the amount of users that matters - many of the users may be inactive and therefore not require any server volume. Rather, it is important that you know about the amount of simultaneously active users and the computing power they require.

If you ask for 5 different quotes from the many agencies available, there will certainly be 5 different server concepts proposed. Therefore, here are a few recommendations that you should pay attention to when choosing a server package.

  • Be sure to use a cloud provider. This is essential for scalability of your app.
  • Look for serverless or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions.
  • When choosing a cloud provider, pay attention to server location and existing security measures. Problems may occur more often if you use US providers for German platforms.
  • Google Firebase and Heroku are known for user-friendliness while AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud stand for high performance capacity

 

To give you a feel for the cost: Google Firebase has a generous starter package that is available completely free of charge. Microsoft Azure also offers free server usage and low starter package prices starting at $20, which is often enough for up to 5000 users.

Of course, if your app scales, there's always the option to upgrade the server. For around $50 per month, you have great included services with both apps, which can be enough for up to 12,000 users per day for a simple app.

Once you exceed 12,000 users per day, you can expect to pay around 100-200€ per month in server costs.

The above prices for the running server costs are indicative. Depending on usage, there can always be outliers up and down.

Attention: Server costs can already start with the launch of your App development launch. Because app agencies naturally need a live server to test and demonstrate the developed functions.

Database costs

2. database costs

What are the ongoing database costs of an app?

On the topic of "monthly database costs", you need to know that basically all the information of an app is saved in a database. This includes all your customer data, account information, as well as information regarding the user's interaction.

Cost drivers for databases fall into three categories: Capacity, Provisioning, and Capacity. In short, the more data or users that need to be managed in the database, the more expensive the database becomes. Of course, there are many apps that run on a large number of databases that need to be maintained.

Price-wise, you don't have to worry at all about smaller applications with up to 5,000 users, because up to this threshold you can most likely still benefit from the database providers' free packages.

Database cost for apps for 5,000 to 25,000 users is around 100€ a month upwards. And the cost of the database for large apps of over 25,000 users is around 250€ per month. But, as already mentioned, there is no limit upwards here. Because you can be sure that apps like Facebook or Uber will certainly not run on a 250€ database. More complex systems will be significantly more expensive to maintain. Basically, the more records that need to be held in the database - whether it's product information, customer information, or input - the more the database will cost.

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Data storage costs

3. data storage costs

What are the data storage costs of an app?

One of the existing functions of your app involves uploading and downloading files such as images, videos and texts. These need to be backed up online to ensure synchronization between different end devices. That means that this information is displayed regardless of the end device used.

In addition to Amazon's S3, the industry leader, Google and Microsoft have also developed a service for this purpose. However, the market shares in 2021 are relatively clearly distributed in favor of Amazon. Google and Microsoft are far behind in second and third place.

S3 offers maximum performance and availability, because here only the volume used is billed.

To make a reliable statement about the ongoing data storage costs, you need to know the user base and volume of your app. In general, however, you can expect costs of 20€-100€ for a small to medium-sized app. For large apps with a lot of data transfers and data queries, there is of course no upper limit, but you can expect costs of 100€ upwards.

Attention: If you like to calculate your estimated Amazon S3 cost, you can do it here: https://calculator.aws/#/estimate

api programming

4. third-party API costs

What are the API costs through third party vendors?

There are different approaches to develop an app function. Either (1) you develop from scratch, or (2) you use various public frameworks and libraries that have already tested and improved certain basic functions millions of times, or (3) you use licensed software from a third-party provider.

Option (1) and (2) are free of charge from the ground up - option (3) uses licensed software that is managed and maintained by a company. This has to be paid for. When using third-party APIs, the usage is mostly handled via

Programming everything from scratch doesn't make sense: it's expensive, difficult to keep up to date, and requires a lot of effort to maintain. To quickly implement some features into your app, it's better to take advantage of what certain vendors already offer.

AttentionThe costs for the Google Places or Maps API, for example, are between 0.015€ and 0.005€ per call or query.

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Cost App Store and Play Store

5. fees to launch your app in AppStore or PlayStore.

What is the cost of releasing your app in the store?

Ongoing costs for your App in the store (PlayStore or AppStore) are generally rather low compared to the costs listed above. Both stores do not charge a subscription fee or fee, but rather a one-off fee for setting up a App developers Accounts. This account can be used to publish an infinite number of apps in the store.

In addition to this account setup fee, the two target platforms also take a commission on your in-app sales. In plain language, this means that all conventional sales via the app, such as goods or physical products, are not affected by the commission. Digital sales such as a premium account with additional features are probably the best example here.

The Google PlayStore specifically charges about €25 in one-time costs. Google's commission is between 28% and 35% of in-app sales in the first account year. After some time, the commission drops to a lower level of about 10% to 18%.

The Apple App Store charges an annual fee of 80€. If an app is to be available via the AppStore, but is only used internally within the company, you must expect annual costs of €250. Apple also charges identical commission prices for in-app purchases as the Google PlayStore.

Play Store and App Store Costs

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Practical examples for apps

This is how high the running costs of comparable app developments are

As described previously, the price gap in ongoing app costs can be very wide. The biggest cost drivers are number of active users, number of queries, and size of queries.  

To give you an idea of how high the running costs of an app should be, we've put together a few examples for you here. The apps differ in the most important cost drivers:

  • Native Fitness App for Android and iOS - 6.000€

Features include in-app purchases, GPS tracking, and uploading images to a feed. Active user numbers of up to 15,000 users.  

  • Native mobility app for Android and iOS - 2.500€

Functions include GPS tracking, decentralized vehicle booking, driver communication and payment transactions. Active users: 50,000

  • News Feed Android App - 180€

A very simple app with push notifications and a news feed without interaction. Active users: 500

  • Platform for rentals for iOS and Android - €9,000

Comprehensive app with chat integration, GPS location, customer product upload, permanent content editability, and in-app purchases for premium accounts. Active users: 80,000

Ongoing app costs
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How the cost of app development in the EU will have changed in 2025:

Hourly rates

Western Europe: Slight decrease to $50-$125/hour, compared to $65-$130/hour in 2024.

Central Europe: Stays at 50-99 $/hr, with countries like Estonia at 20-$50 $/hr for web applications
IT Craft.

Eastern Europe: Increase to average $40-$60 /hr (from $25-$50 /hr) due to strong demand Geniusee.

Project-based pricing

  • Simple "MVP" applications: $35 K-$70 K (≈ 10-15 % ↑ vs. 2024)
    Brilworks.
  • Applications of medium complexity: 70 T $ - 140 T $ (similar increase of 10-15 %).
  • AI-powered applications for enterprises: Typically 250,000 to 500,000 $, reflecting the additional AI, security and integration effort Brilworks.

Main driver

  • Inflation and wage growth (5-8 % year-on-year).
  • AI/ML functions (+20-30 % development time).
  • Cross-platform frameworks (Flutter/React Native can reduce the cost of simple apps by ≈ 30 %).
  • EU regulations and fees (e.g. Apple's €0.50 installation fee for "core technology" under the DMA) Reuters.
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Summary

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The running costs of an app cannot be generalized. As explained above, these running costs always depend on a variety of factors - whether it is the range of functions of the app, the specific functions of an app, or the number of active users on the platform. In general, however, you can only run smaller apps that have few active users for less than €180 per month in running costs. 

Medium-sized apps range from €180 to €300 per month, depending on the app's functionalities. 

Larger apps that generate revenue primarily through in-app purchases can scale the running costs up to about 15,000€. Of course, this always depends on the commission level of the target platform. 

Each agency or freelancer has a different focus. Some companies specialize in maintaining and servicing applications and can offer very competitive prices here, other companies specialize more in project work and are happy to hand over projects after the one-off development phase. 

Therefore, make sure to get at least 3 quotes to get a good overview of pricing structures and look at the agency's references. 

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App for visualizing operating cost images

People also ask - FAQ about the operating costs of an app

1. how much does it cost to develop an app?

There are many factors that affect the cost of developing an app. These include the type of app you want to develop, the location and experience of your development team, and the platforms you want to develop for.

Developing a few simple apps can cost as little as a few thousand dollars, while creating more advanced apps can cost tens of thousands to millions of dollars.

2. why does it cost so much to run an app?

There are several reasons why it costs so much to run an app:

  1. Costs for the operation of the server: The cost of this server depends on factors such as the storage and processing power required.
  2. Bandwidth costs: Bandwidth costs may be incurred when an app needs to transfer a large amount of data over the Internet.
  3. Maintenance costs: Bug fixes, new features, and compatibility with new versions of operating systems are some of the things apps often need.
  4. Marketing and advertising costs: There are costs for marketing and placing paid advertising for apps.
  5. App listing fees: Some app stores, such as the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, charge a fee for adding apps to their store.

3. is it worth developing an app?

There are several reasons why it costs so much to run an app:

  1. Costs for the operation of the server: The cost of this server depends on factors such as the storage and processing power required.
  2. Bandwidth costs: Bandwidth costs may be incurred when an app needs to transfer a large amount of data over the Internet.
  3. Maintenance costs: Bug fixes, new features, and compatibility with new versions of operating systems are some of the things apps often need.
  4. Marketing and advertising costs: There are costs for marketing and placing paid advertising for apps.
  5. App listing fees: Some app stores, such as the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, charge a fee for adding apps to their store.

4. is it worth developing an app?

Making an app can be profitable, but it is not a guarantee. The profitability of an app depends on a variety of factors, including the app's target market, demand for the app, competition in the app market, and pricing and monetization strategy.

To be profitable, an app must be able to generate revenue through one or more revenue streams such as in-app purchases, subscriptions, advertising, or licensing.

5. how can i earn money with apps?

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, global spending on apps will double to $171 billion by 2024, according to Sensor Tower's 5-year market forecast. There are several ways to make money with apps:

  1. Paid downloads: The one-time fee model can help you make money when you first launch the app.
  2. In-app purchases: In this model, users have the option to purchase additional content or features within the app for a small fee.
  3. By offering a subscription model: Some apps offer a subscription model where users pay recurring monthly or annual fees to access the app's content or features.
  4. Partnerships and sponsorship: Apps can also generate revenue through partnerships or sponsorships with companies or organizations that want to promote their products or services in the app.
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What is the purpose of the third-party API?

The third-party API allows an application to access data stored in another application or service.

If a company uses a third-party API, it may incur a fee for using the API based on the number of API calls, data transferred, or other usage metrics.

The cost of using a third-party API may be free, with limitations, or may require a subscription fee or license.

As an enterprise, you should pay attention to which third-party APIs are used in your application, as the cost of using these services can quickly skyrocket.

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Infographic on the operating costs of an app

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