Most clients come to us after a developer has left, an offshore team has stopped responding, or a freelancer has moved on. We take over where others left off. You get a UK-based team, a shared Slack channel, and someone who actually knows your app. Foresight Mobile is a UK mobile app maintenance company based in Manchester, with clients across London, Birmingham, and beyond.
50+ apps shipped since 2017
Most apps don't fail from bad code on day one. They fail slowly: an iOS update that breaks the login screen, a payment gateway that stops sending webhooks, a security vulnerability that nobody notices until it's too late. Keeping a live app healthy is a specific job, and it's one most teams aren't set up to do properly or efficiently.
Apple rejected 2,093,244 of the 9,100,620 app submissions it reviewed in 2025, more than one in five, according to its App Store Transparency Report. In our experience the problems that build up in an unmaintained app are dependency drift, target SDK bumps and missed compliance deadlines, and any app that goes more than 12 months without active maintenance usually has some of them.
We regularly take over apps from offshore teams, departing developers and freelancers. It's the most common way we start working with a client. You don't need to have built your app with us. If it's live and it needs someone reliable to look after it, that's enough.
App Care retainers start at £675/month. Every client gets a shared Slack channel with a named contact and agreed SLA response times. No ticketing systems, no email queues, no waiting 48 hours for someone to acknowledge a simple question.
Essentials
From £675 / month
Standard
From £995 / month
Premium
From £1,495 / month
The most common reasons clients come to us:
• Developer leaving or retiring: We do a structured handover, document what we find, and provide continuity without gaps.
• Offshore team frustration: Timezone friction, slow responses, inconsistent quality. We're UK-based, same timezone, on Slack.
• Freelancer who's become unreliable: Named contact, SLA response times, cover during UK business hours.
• App launched but no plan for what comes next: Proactive OS updates, security patches, monitoring from day one.
• Growing user base outpacing current support: Scalable team with documented processes and staging environments.
• Coming out of an App Rescue: App Rescue clients transition to App Care with the same team, so no handover is needed.
The onboarding fee is typically £500 to £1,000 depending on complexity. It covers the code review, documentation build, and pipeline setup. After that, you move to a rolling monthly retainer. Three months minimum initially, then monthly with no long-term lock-in. After a rescue or a no-code delivery, the first month of that initial three-month term is included and the onboarding fee is waived, because we already know the app.
Written by Gareth Reese, Founder and CTO of Foresight Mobile. Gareth oversees App Care engagements and has led the transition of many apps from offshore teams, freelancers, and departing developers to ongoing UK-based support.
An actionable four-week plan with clear deliverables and an unbeatable £3,500 price point, credited against your first development sprint.
Total client time commitment: 5-7 hours across 4 weeks
We meet with your key stakeholders to understand your business goals, user needs, and technical constraints. You'll share any existing research, designs, or documentation you have.
Our engineering team assesses the technical feasibility, identifies integration points with your existing systems, and evaluates architecture options.
We determine whether Flutter, native development, or another approach makes the most sense for your specific requirements.
We create clickable prototypes so you can experience your app before it's built. You'll test navigation flows, validate the user experience, and gather feedback from stakeholders.
Alongside this, we prioritise features based on business value and technical complexity, mapping out a phased delivery plan with a detailed cost estimate.
You receive your complete Gameplan pack, plus a presentation walkthrough with Q&A. Your team walks away with everything needed to make a confident decision.
A named team who knows your app inside out. Available over Slack, responsive when things go wrong, and proactive enough that most things don't.
React Native and Expo apps face the same Apple and Google compliance deadlines as native apps, plus their own layer of complexity: the New Architecture migration (mandatory since React Native 0.82), Expo SDK end-of-life cycles, and a large npm dependency tree where package abandonment is a routine risk rather than an edge case.
One React Native App Care retainer covers both iOS and Android under a single agreement. We handle New Architecture migration, Expo SDK version tracking and EAS infrastructure (Build, Submit, Update), monthly npm dependency audits, Google Play's 16 KB page size requirement for apps targeting Android 15 or higher (from 1 February 2027 you can't release an update without it), and the move to Apple's UIScene life cycle, which apps built with the iOS 27 SDK must adopt or they won't launch. OTA hotfixes through EAS Update let us ship emergency fixes without waiting for App Store review. We roll them out to 10% of users first and watch the error rate before releasing to everyone. From £675/month for both platforms.
New Architecture Migration • Expo EAS Management • npm Dependency Audits • Store Compliance • OTA Hotfixes • iOS and Android
Flutter's single-codebase model means one maintenance retainer covers both iOS and Android. The same engineer who handles your App Store compliance also handles your Play Store compliance. When Flutter ships a breaking change, both platforms are addressed in one sprint, not two separate engagements. In our experience, one Flutter codebase takes fewer maintenance hours a month than two separate native apps.
Our Flutter App Care retainer covers Flutter SDK version management, pub.dev dependency maintenance (including handling abandoned packages), dual-platform compliance, and crash monitoring via Firebase Crashlytics with separate iOS and Android streams. From £675/month for both platforms, under one agreement.
Flutter SDK Management • pub.dev Dependency Maintenance • Dual-Platform Compliance • Firebase Crashlytics • Single Retainer for iOS and Android
Most Android maintenance work comes from fragmentation: apps run on a huge range of devices from many manufacturers. Google's target API level deadline moves every August (since 31 August 2026, new apps and updates must target Android 16, API level 36). Android vitals also tracks your user-perceived crash and ANR rates, and if either goes above Google's bad behaviour threshold (1.09% for crashes and 0.47% for ANRs, averaged across devices), Google Play may reduce your app's visibility and show users a warning on its store listing.
Our Android App Care retainer tracks all three compliance clocks simultaneously. We stay ahead of Google's annual API level requirement, monitor your Vitals weekly (overall and per-device), handle Kotlin and Jetpack migrations, and manage Play Store policy changes before they become rejections. From £675/month.
Play Store API Level Compliance • Android Vitals Monitoring • Fragmentation Testing • Kotlin/Jetpack Migrations • Play Review Management
Your iOS app faces Apple's annual compliance cycle: Xcode SDK deadlines each spring, Privacy Manifest requirements that change whenever your dependency tree changes, and a new major iOS release every September that breaks something in almost every app. Staying compliant isn't a one-off task. It's a rolling calendar of obligations that need someone paying attention.
Our iOS App Care retainer keeps your app ahead of every Apple deadline. We test on the developer beta from June, handle Privacy Manifest updates, monitor crash and hang rates with MetricKit, and manage the App Store submission process including rejections. From £675/month, with the same named engineer throughout.
Xcode SDK Compliance • Privacy Manifests • MetricKit Monitoring • App Store Rejection Handling • Swift Modernisation
No hidden costs, no long-term lock-in after the initial three months, and everything included in one monthly price. App Care retainers start at £675/month on the Essentials plan, covering both iOS and Android. Pricing depends on the app's complexity, whether backend infrastructure is included, and the SLA response time you need.
The initial commitment is three months, to make the onboarding investment worthwhile on both sides. After that, you're on rolling monthly. No annual contracts, no penalty for leaving. We want clients to stay because the service is good, not because they're contractually stuck.
Everything is included in the retainer price: OS updates, security patches, monitoring, crash investigation, App Store compliance, and your Slack channel. There are no surprise invoices for "urgent" work that should have been caught proactively.
From £675/month • 3-Month Initial Period • Rolling Monthly After • No Hidden Costs
Maintenance and new features from the same team that already knows your codebase, or maintenance only if that's all you need. Some clients genuinely just need OS updates, security patches, and someone to call when something breaks, and that's a perfectly valid requirement.
The advantage of using the same team for both is obvious: there's no handover friction, no re-explaining the codebase, and no "that wasn't our bug" conversations when a new feature introduces an issue. Feature work is scoped and priced separately from the retainer, so you always know what you're paying for maintenance versus development.
We won't push feature development on clients who don't need it. If you're happy with the app as it is and just want it kept healthy, we'll tell you that's the right call.
Maintenance-Only Plans Available • Feature Work Scoped Separately • Same Team for Both • No Upsell Pressure
Same timezone, plain English communication, and delays flagged before they become problems. If you're moving from an offshore team, the transition is usually straightforward: we review the codebase, document what we find, set up proper version control and deployment infrastructure if needed, and take it from there.
If the codebase needs cleanup work (and it usually does), we scope that separately so you know what you're paying for. That shouldn't be a differentiator, but it consistently is.
Same Timezone • Plain English Communication • Codebase Cleanup • Proper Documentation
We aim to catch crashes and performance issues before your users report them. Firebase Crashlytics and Sentry show us the stack trace, device, OS version and user journey behind each crash.
When a new crash pattern appears (often after an OS update or a backend change), we investigate and fix it before it affects a significant number of users. We track crash-free sessions for every App Care app in Firebase Crashlytics, and the figures go into your monthly health report with crash trends and anything we fixed or flagged.
For apps with backend infrastructure, we also monitor API response times, error rates, and server health. A slow API is just as damaging to user experience as a client-side crash.
Firebase Crashlytics • Sentry • Backend Monitoring • Monthly Health Reports
Your app stays protected against known vulnerabilities without you tracking updates yourself. We monitor the entire dependency tree, from payment gateways to authentication providers, and apply security patches on a schedule. Critical fixes are deployed immediately; routine updates are batched, tested, and released monthly.
We check your own code for security problems too. If something needs attention, we fix it and tell you what we did.
Dependency Monitoring • Critical Patch Response • Monthly Update Cycle • Security Scanning
Compatibility with new iOS and Android releases is tested months before they go public, so issues are caught before users see them. Both Apple and Google can remove apps that don't keep up, and guideline changes are equally important to track.
Apple's App Review Guidelines change regularly (most recently on 16 October 2026), and so do its privacy manifest, SDK and data handling requirements and API deprecations. Google Play has its own compliance cycle around target API levels, data safety sections, and content policies. We track these changes and handle the updates proactively.
Apple's App Store Improvements policy spells out what happens to an unmaintained app: no update in 3 years plus very few downloads over a rolling 12-month period triggers a notice from App Review in App Store Connect, then 90 days to update before removal. Apps that crash on launch are removed immediately, with no grace period. The alternative is finding out when Apple pulls your app from the store, or when users start reporting crashes after updating their phone. Neither is a good morning.
iOS and Android Beta Testing • App Store Guideline Compliance • SDK Updates • Privacy Manifest Management
Message a named developer who knows your app directly on Slack, and get a reply during UK working hours. No ticketing system, no generic support email, no explaining the context from scratch every time.
Clients consistently tell us this is the thing they notice most after switching from a previous team. If you've been raising support requests and waiting two days for an acknowledgement, this will feel different.
Response times follow your plan. On Standard and Premium, we respond to a critical (Severity 1) issue within 2 business hours and aim to fix it within one business day, not counting app store review time. Essentials is best efforts, and no plan includes out-of-hours cover. Premium adds emergency incident response (priority handling in business hours, best efforts outside them) for critical problems such as the app going down or payments failing.
Named Contact • Direct Slack Access • UK Working Hours • SLA Response Times
Days to get started, not weeks, even if documentation is thin or the previous developer has already left. We do a code review, document what we find (including anything that needs immediate attention), set up our own monitoring and deployment pipelines, and make sure we understand how the app is meant to behave.
If there's a departing developer available, we'll use some of their remaining time to ask questions and fill in gaps. If there isn't, we work from the code.
The onboarding fee is typically £500 to £1,000 depending on the app's complexity. After that, you move into a rolling monthly retainer with no long-term lock-in after the initial three months.
Code Review • Documentation Build • Pipeline Setup • Developer Knowledge TransferEvery App Care retainer includes proactive monitoring as standard. We set up Firebase Crashlytics, Performance Monitoring, and platform-specific tools (MetricKit for iOS, Android Vitals for Android) during onboarding. Automated alerts in your dedicated Slack channel notify you of crash rate spikes, performance regressions, or API failures before users report them. Monthly health reports summarise crash-free session rates, performance trends, and upcoming OS compatibility risks. Standard adds a priority SLA, and Premium adds emergency incident response.
We track crash-free sessions for every App Care app in Firebase Crashlytics, and the figures go into your monthly health report. Catching a new crash pattern before it spreads protects your users and costs less than reacting afterwards.
App Care retainers cover keeping the existing app healthy. Feature development is costed separately, either as fixed-price mini-projects or as additional development days. The advantage of using the same team for both is that there's no handover friction, no re-explaining the codebase, and no confusion about responsibility when something goes wrong. Many of our App Care clients also commission new features when they need them.
Completely fine. Some clients want active feature development, but others genuinely just need OS compatibility updates, security patches, and someone to call when something breaks. We have a plan for that. It's the most straightforward version of App Care, and there's nothing wrong with wanting it. We won't push feature work on clients who don't need it.
Yes. Most of our App Care clients came to us after working with a different developer or agency. The onboarding process exists specifically for this. We do a code review, set up proper version control and deployment infrastructure if it's not already in place, and document the architecture. This usually takes three to five working days. We've taken over apps built in Flutter, React Native, native iOS (Swift), native Android (Kotlin), and various backend stacks.
Three months initially, to make the onboarding investment worthwhile on both sides. After that, we move to rolling monthly with no long-term lock-in. We want clients to stay because they're happy with the service, not because they're tied into a contract.
Yes. Every client on an App Care retainer gets a shared Slack channel with a named contact. Not a ticketing system, not a generic support email. You message us directly and we respond during UK working hours. Most clients tell us this is the thing they notice most after switching from a previous team. If you've been waiting 48 hours for acknowledgement of a simple question, this will feel different.
App Care costs £675, £995 or £1,495 a month (Essentials, Standard or Premium), or custom pricing for complex portfolios. Every plan covers both iOS and Android. Which one fits depends on how complex the app is, whether you need backend infrastructure included, and the response time SLA you need. The onboarding fee (£500 to £1,000) is separate and covers the initial code review, documentation, and pipeline setup. We'll discuss your actual needs before recommending a plan. We don't oversell.
Core maintenance covers: iOS and Android OS compatibility updates (we test against beta releases before they go public), App Store and Google Play guideline compliance, critical bug fixes, security patches, third-party dependency updates (payment gateways, analytics, push notifications), and monitoring with Firebase Crashlytics and Sentry. Every client also gets a shared Slack channel with a named contact and agreed SLA response times. Feature development is scoped separately. The retainer covers keeping your existing app healthy.
Very common. Clients moving from offshore teams, typically in India, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, or Australia, usually cite the same combination of issues: slow response times, timezone friction, inconsistent quality, and difficulty getting straight answers about what was actually changed and why. If that sounds familiar, the transition to a UK-based team is usually straightforward. We review the codebase, document what we find, and take it from there.
We can usually start a handover within a week or two of first contact, depending on availability. The handover itself takes a few days. We need access to the codebase, the app store accounts, any third-party service credentials, and ideally some time with the departing developer to ask questions. If the handover is rushed (notice period is ending soon), we'll prioritise getting the critical things documented first and fill in the gaps over the following weeks. Get in touch as soon as you know the timeline.
Yes, and this is probably the most common way we start working with new clients. We have a structured handover process: we review the codebase, document what we find, set up our own monitoring and deployment pipelines, and make sure we understand how the app is meant to behave before we start actively managing it. If the documentation is thin (which it usually is), we build it ourselves during onboarding. The onboarding is a one-off fee, typically £500 to £1,000 depending on complexity. After that, we move to a rolling monthly retainer.
App Care support runs during UK business hours. On Standard and Premium, we respond to a critical (Severity 1) issue, such as a complete loss of service, login failures or broken payments, within 2 business hours and aim to fix it within one business day, not counting app store review time. Business hours are 9:00 to 17:30 UK time, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays. Essentials is best efforts, and no plan includes out-of-hours cover.
Most issues don't reach you as emergencies because we catch them first. Every retainer includes proactive monitoring with Firebase Crashlytics and Sentry. When a new crash pattern appears, often triggered by a backend change or an OS update, we investigate before it affects a significant number of users.
For critical issues that do come through, we start triage straight away during business hours. If a fix needs an app store submission, we submit it as soon as it's ready and request expedited review where available. We'll keep you updated throughout. Not a ticket number and silence.
An unmaintained app doesn't stay stable. It degrades relative to its environment. Apple's App Store Improvements policy spells this out: no update in 3 years plus very few downloads over a rolling 12-month period gets you a notice from App Review in App Store Connect, then 90 days to update before removal, and apps that crash on launch are removed immediately, with no grace period at all. Google's equivalent works differently: apps whose target API level falls too far behind stop being available to new users on devices running newer Android versions, rather than being delisted outright. Existing users keep the app.
Before removal becomes a risk, you'll see earlier signs: login flows break after an OS update, a payment gateway stops sending webhooks, a security vulnerability appears in a third-party dependency that nobody patches. These aren't hypothetical. They're the most common reasons clients come to us after a period without proper maintenance.
The practical risks are: App Store or Google Play removal, security vulnerabilities in outdated dependencies, compatibility failures with new iOS and Android releases, and App Store guideline violations that can lead to suspension. An app that hasn't been touched in 12 months isn't stable. It's 12 months behind.
Support covers the human-facing side: responding to user queries, investigating bug reports, and advising on how to use the app. Maintenance covers the technical side: code changes, OS updates, security patches, and dependency upgrades.
In practice, the two overlap. A user reports that push notifications stopped working. That starts as a support query and becomes a maintenance task when we identify that a library needs updating. On an App Care retainer, both are included. You don't need to pre-classify every issue before contacting us.
The distinction matters mostly for scoping. If you only need someone to handle user queries and light troubleshooting without touching the codebase, that's a lighter arrangement than a full maintenance retainer. We'll tell you which one makes sense for your situation.
Usually not. Most App Care work ships as a normal app store update, which your users install without any interruption. If a backend change needs a short outage, we agree the timing with you in advance.
SLAs are tailored to each client, but we work to four standard severity levels. On Standard and Premium, the most critical (Severity 1: complete loss of service or users unable to log in) gets a response within 2 business hours and a fix target of one business day, not counting app store review time. Essentials is best efforts.
All support runs during UK business hours (9:00 to 17:30, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays), and no plan includes out-of-hours cover. The four levels cover the standard range from total service outage down to cosmetic issues and low-priority requests, with response and resolution targets that scale accordingly. We agree the full SLA during onboarding so there are no surprises.
If you have specific requirements (regulatory obligations, higher-risk user bases, tighter windows) we can discuss a custom arrangement. We'd rather match the SLA to what your app actually needs than sell a fixed package that doesn't fit.
With our App Care, keeping a mobile app running costs £675, £995 or £1,495 a month. Every plan covers both iOS and Android, and which one fits depends on how complex the app is and how much support you need. Essentials (£675) covers OS compatibility, security patches, critical bug fixes and monitoring. Standard (£995) adds backend and API monitoring, a priority SLA and a monthly check-in with an engineer, and Premium (£1,495) adds emergency incident response, quarterly architecture reviews, penetration testing and hours for feature development. Enterprise pricing is custom for complex multi-platform apps or portfolio-wide SLA requirements. There's also a one-off onboarding fee of £500 to £1,000 to cover the initial code review, documentation, and pipeline setup. Apps built in Flutter, React Native, Swift, or Kotlin are all covered. In our experience, apps that come to us through an App Rescue cost more to look after at first, and the cost falls once they're on a retainer.
Mobile apps experience software entropy. Even if your code doesn't change, the ecosystem around it evolves constantly. APIs deprecate, each year's iOS and Android releases introduce breaking changes, security vulnerabilities emerge in third-party libraries, and user expectations shift. An app left untouched for 12 months isn't stable; it's broken relative to its environment.
Laws and store rules change too. The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many consumer services sold in the EU, including e-commerce and banking. Apple can remove an app that hasn't been updated in 3 years and has almost no downloads over a rolling 12 months, and Google Play stops offering apps with an out-of-date target API level to new users on newer Android versions.
Your mobile app is likely your primary revenue engine. For mobile-first businesses, it's where transactions happen, where users engage, where your brand lives. Maintenance isn't a cost centre. It's revenue continuity insurance.
Keeping users is cheaper than winning new ones, and an app that breaks after an OS update or falls behind its competitors loses them. Regular dependency updates also protect you from supply chain attacks, where one compromised library in your build can expose everything. And a maintained app can pick up new platform features, such as Live Activities on iOS, while they're still a reason to choose you.
We'll communicate directly with your previous agency to facilitate the smooth transition of your investment to both yourself and Foresight. You'll receive all of the code and credentials you need to work with any agency you choose going forward. We can either communicate directly with the developers or agency, or advise and direct the process through yourself to ensure that we have everything you need to continue making your app a success.
You've got a working app and nobody reliable to look after it. Maybe your developer handed in their notice. Maybe the offshore team stopped responding. Maybe the freelancer who built it has gone quiet at the worst possible time.
App Care onboarding gets you from that situation to a UK-based team who knows your codebase inside out, with a shared Slack channel and agreed response times. Onboarding takes 3 to 5 working days. The fee is typically £500 to £1,000 depending on complexity, and we waive it, with your first month included, if we've just rescued your app or taken it from no-code to production. After that, App Care starts at £675 a month for both iOS and Android, with a three-month minimum and then rolling monthly.
We start with a short call to understand what your app does, what platforms it runs on, and what the handover situation looks like. Then we request access to the repository (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket), your App Store Connect and Google Play accounts, and any backend infrastructure. If a departing developer is still available, we'll use some of that time to fill in gaps. If not, we work from the code.
We review the architecture, third-party dependencies, security posture, and anything that looks fragile. If there's technical debt that needs fixing before we can support the app properly, we scope that separately so you know what it'll cost. We also build internal documentation covering how the app is structured, where the critical logic lives, and how deployments work.
We add Firebase Crashlytics and Sentry for crash reporting, and set up CI/CD pipelines so releases don't depend on one developer's laptop. Test builds go out through TestFlight on iOS and Google Play's internal testing track on Android.
Your retainer covers OS updates, security patches, App Store compliance, crash investigation, and proactive monitoring. Feature work is scoped and priced separately so you always know what you're paying for. The initial commitment is three months, then rolling monthly with no long-term lock-in. You stay because the service is good, not because you're contractually stuck.
Your app, your way. Here's how we make it happen
Fixed monthly retainer: you know exactly what you're paying and what's covered. No hidden call-out fees, and no surprise invoices when something breaks.
Essentials is £675 a month, Standard £995 and Premium £1,495, or we agree custom pricing, and every plan covers both iOS and Android. All three include monthly OS compatibility updates, crash monitoring, App Store and Google Play compliance checks, a monthly health report and a named contact who knows your app. Standard adds an engineer check-in and a priority SLA. Premium adds emergency incident response (priority handling in business hours, best efforts outside them), quarterly architecture reviews and penetration testing.
We track crash-free session rates, ANR rates and App Store and Play Store review trends through the month, and you see them in your monthly health report. In our experience, catching a problem early costs a fraction of an emergency fix.
You focus on your product roadmap. We make sure the app underneath it keeps working as Apple and Google move the goalposts. New OS? We test before it ships to end users.
We track crash-free sessions for every App Care app in Firebase Crashlytics, and the figures go into your monthly health report alongside ANR rates and App Store and Play Store ratings. In our experience, an app stays stable when the team supporting it knows the product and watches these numbers every month.
We're based in Manchester with offices in London and Birmingham. We think the relationship is as important as the retainer. Drop in whenever you like.
Foresight Mobile have been great work with! My previous developer was messing me around, but Foresight's structured App Care process transferred all of the servers and source code efficiently without any hiccups. We now have working payments and great observability on issues that real users might be having.
“They’re more thoughtful than any other development team I’ve worked with..... I’m not sure what they could improve."
"The team has delivered exactly what we asked for but is able to use their own skill and judgment to make improvements"
"Foresight Mobile effectively and promptly met our needs. They were a candid, reliable, and collaborative partner."
