Quick summary
Maintenance is two different things people conflate: unavoidable fixed costs (hosting, domain, store fees, verification SMS) starting practically at ~SAR 1,500 a year for a simple site, and an optional maintenance contract running SAR 3,000 to 30,000 a year depending on response level. The crucial difference: a website can run for years untouched, an app cannot — Apple and Google periodically raise build requirements, and an app that is not rebuilt gets removed from the store no matter how well it works.
Fixed costs — pay them or shut down
| Item | Approximate annual cost | Needed for |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | SAR 50 – 200 | Everyone |
| Hosting and database | SAR 1,800 – 9,600 | Everyone |
| Apple Developer account | ~USD 99 per year, renewing | Apps |
| Google Play account | ~USD 25 one-time | Apps |
| Verification SMS (OTP) | Per message, by usage | Phone sign-in |
| Push notifications | Usually free at normal volumes | Apps |
Maintenance contracts
| Tier | Annual range | Includes | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | SAR 3,000 – 8,000 | Security updates, backups, fixes within business days | A brochure site or blog |
| Active | SAR 8,000 – 20,000 | Above plus monthly development hours, uptime monitoring, store updates | A store or app used daily |
| Critical | SAR 20,000 – 30,000+ | Above plus response within hours, on-call, an SLA | A product that is your main income |
The common global rule of thumb is 15–20% of build cost annually. It is a reasonable starting estimate but wrong at both ends: a brochure site built for SAR 40,000 does not need SAR 8,000 a year, while a payment-handling platform may need more than 20%.
Why apps specifically have no choice
Two forces impose periodic work unrelated to anything you asked for: store requirements — Apple and Google raise the minimum build environment periodically, and an app not rebuilt and resubmitted is removed from the store even if it works perfectly; and changing connected systems — payment gateways, SMS providers and e-invoicing interfaces change, so an integration working today can stop after someone else's update.
We say this plainly to clients: if your budget barely covers the build with nothing left for year two, the project is under-funded — better to reduce scope than to skip what comes after.
What we provide after launch is covered under web development and mobile app development.
