A store requirement moved
Apple raised the SDK floor, or Google raised the target API, and the app no longer qualifies.
Your app still works. It just hasn't kept up.
Remediation for apps that run but have fallen behind: a store requirement you have missed, a framework two versions back, a release nobody can ship. It starts with a paid audit, from $5,000, so the quote is based on the code rather than a guess.
No fixed price is quoted on code nobody has read. Remediation begins with a paid audit. You keep the findings and a fixed quote whether or not you continue, and the audit fee comes off the work if it starts within 60 days.
Starting investment
Audits start at $5,000.
A typical remediation is a defined upgrade on a working app: moving a framework forward, clearing a store requirement, or restoring a release that will not build. The proposal may be higher when the codebase is large, the dependency graph is tangled, or the app has been untouched for several years.
The audit reads the app's code and dependencies, the backend, database and APIs it relies on, the build pipeline and both store listings, and ends in a written verdict: fix, stabilize, rebuild, or walk away. When the answer is fix, you get a fixed quote, and the audit fee comes off it in full if work starts within 60 days. The audit also confirms who actually owns your App Store and Play accounts and your signing keys.
What this usually looks like
Four situations account for almost all of it.
The release is stuck
It built fine a year ago. Now nobody can produce a build that passes review.
The framework is behind
Two or three major versions back, and every upgrade attempt breaks something else.
The backend or web app is behind
The server, database or web app no longer matches what the mobile app needs, or the app has moved ahead of the web version.
Why apps fall behind
Everything around your app keeps moving. An app nobody updates falls behind on its own.
Apple and Google raise their requirements every year. Google requires apps to target a recent version of Android and moves that line forward annually, and apps that fall too far behind stop showing up for people on newer phones. Apple raises the minimum it accepts for new uploads on a similar yearly rhythm.
The packages inside the app move even faster. A React Native app depends on hundreds of open-source packages, and many of them ship updates every few weeks: security fixes, new platform support, breaking changes. Skip a year and one upgrade becomes several, each depending on the others.
None of it waits for your roadmap. The longer an app sits, the more the catch-up costs, which is why the audit comes first.
Right now: apps that target an older version of Android are already hidden from new users on newer phones, and Google's extension window for this year's requirement closes on 1 November 2026.
How it runs
A remediation in four steps
- 1.Paid audit. The app's code and dependencies, the backend and APIs it relies on, the build pipeline and both store listings are read, and you receive a written finding.
- 2.Fixed quote. Based on what the audit found, not on an estimate made before anyone opened the repository. The audit fee comes off the work if it starts within 60 days.
- 3.The work. A scoped upgrade with a named end, delivered as working builds you can install throughout.
- 4.Handover. A short written record of what changed, what is now current, and what will come due next. The app is left better documented than we found it, so whoever comes next starts ahead.
When remediation isn't the answer
- The app needs to become a different product. That is a build, and it is priced as one.
- Nobody inside your organization owns the product or the decisions. Remediation fixes code; it does not fix ownership. That is an embedded leadership engagement.
- The app was abandoned years ago and nobody uses it. Remediation is worth doing when the app still has a job; otherwise you are paying to maintain a liability.
- The only problem is a standalone website with no app behind it. We fix the web and backend around an app, not websites on their own.
Common questions
Why do you insist on a paid audit?
Because a fixed price on code nobody has read is a guess, and a guess protects neither of us. The audit makes the quote real. You keep the findings either way.
What does remediation cost?
It is quoted from the audit, because the price depends on what the audit finds. Audits start at $5,000, and the fee comes off the work if it starts within 60 days.
Can you fix an app somebody else built?
That is the normal case. Most remediation work is on code written by a team that has moved on.
What if the audit says it is not worth fixing?
Then it says so, in writing, with the reasoning. More often it is the other way around: apps another team said to scrap usually need fixing, not replacing. Either way, get a second opinion.
Do you take over maintenance afterwards?
Yes. Maintenance runs month to month and starts at $2,000 a month: OS updates, store requirement changes, security and dependency updates, and monitoring. If we fixed the app, it starts straight away. New features and major upgrades are quoted separately.
Start with the audit.
You get a written finding and a fixed quote. If the answer is that it is not worth fixing, you get that in writing too.
One less thing to worry about.