App Care
We look after the mobile app your business relies on.
App Care is a fixed monthly service. We keep your app in the App Store and Google Play, watch it in production, and ship the maintenance it needs. You get a named engineer and a one-page brief every month.
Enhancements, framework migrations and rebuilds are there when you want them.
Melbourne team. Native, cross-platform and hybrid apps since 2009.
Example brief
Login crash on Android 15 fixed. Four library and security updates.
Two reviews mention slow login. Now a Care fix.
- 12 JunGoogle Play target API
- 3 AugiOS certificate expires
- CareUpdate the payments SDK before its support ends.
- EnhancementRemember the last sign-in method.
Who it is for
A good fit if this is you.
You have a live iOS and Android app. Your own developers, if you have them, are on the backend or the website. The app still has to keep working.
Nobody owns the app
It is in production. Nobody on the team has mobile as their job. You want it watched and released without commissioning a project every time.
The framework is ageing
Xamarin, Cordova and older Ionic apps get harder to keep working every year, and may need to move to a current stack. We plan the upgrade path with you, and today that move is far easier than it used to be.
Members or crews
depend on it
A health fund, a super fund, an association, a field team. When login breaks, someone senior hears about it the same day.
Technologies
Native, cross-platform and hybrid apps.
We have built and looked after mobile apps since 2009. The stack does not change the service.
Cross-platform
Hybrid
Native
The offer
Four ways we work.
Health check
One week in the app. You get a written picture: whether it can stay in the stores, what is crashing, and what monthly care would cover.
App Care
Maintenance and support. We watch the app, fix what breaks, apply library updates and security updates, and keep up with store and OS requirements. One named lead and a brief every month.
Enhancements
A steady stream of small enhancements from your backlog on a monthly budget, or a fixed-price project for a bigger feature.
Migrations and rebuilds
A move to a current framework, an app rebuild, or a redesign. A major project, scoped from what the health check found.
Included every month
What happens every month, whether or not someone raised a ticket.
Watched in production
Crashes and new regressions come to us through Sentry, with readable stack traces on every release.
Fixed when it breaks
Defects in the app are ours. A severe incident is acknowledged within 4 business hours.
Kept in the stores
Target SDK, privacy requirements, signing certificates, and the OS updates that would otherwise bounce a release.
Library and security updates
Libraries and SDKs kept current, without changing how the app behaves. A critical vulnerability is patched or brought to you within 14 days.
Released monthly or quarterly
You choose the release cadence. Monitoring, fixes and updates happen every month either way, and every month gets the brief.
A person, and a page
One named lead. A one-page brief: what shipped, stability, what users are saying, the next 90 days, and what we recommend.
Reviews and user feedback
We read store reviews, ratings and in-app feedback. Bugs users report become Care fixes. Feature requests go to your Enhancements backlog.
Planned ahead
Store deadlines, certificate expiry and OS releases are tracked 90 days out, so none of them arrive as a surprise.
A month with us
What you actually see.
We watch
Crashes, failing builds, store reviews, user feedback, certificate dates, and the next store deadline. You hear about a serious incident from us.
We fix
Small fixes are prepared, reviewed by an engineer, and tested on the path your users cannot lose: launch, login, and the one workflow you name.
We release
Releases go to the stores monthly or quarterly, whichever you choose. An urgent fix does not wait. You approve the submission, unless you have asked us to do that for you.
You get the brief
One page, every month. What shipped, how stable the app was, what users are saying, what is coming up, and any enhancement we think is worth funding.
Pricing
A fixed monthly fee, quoted in writing.
The fee depends on the app, how often you release, and how fast you need a response. The health check gives you the number before anything else starts.
Health check
One week, fixed fee. Written baseline, the App Care recommendation with its monthly fee, and a migration range if the framework is ageing.
App Care
One plan, one fixed monthly fee, for the app that matters to your business.
- Production monitoring and crash triage
- Store reviews and user feedback monitored
- Maintenance, library updates and security updates
- Store and OS requirements kept current
- A release monthly or quarterly, whichever you choose
- Severe incidents acknowledged within 4 business hours
- Other defects acknowledged the next business day
- One named lead and the monthly brief
Experience
Building and supporting apps since 2009.
Our founders started in aerospace software, where quality control is not optional. That standard has come with us into every app since.
Founded in Melbourne, and building mobile apps ever since.
Clients, big and small, we have delivered projects and support for.
Industries, from health and insurance to transport, government and retail.
Of Australians use apps and systems we have built in health, public safety and transport.
Questions
Questions we get before the health check.
How much does App Care cost?
It is a fixed monthly fee, set after the health check, once we have seen the app, the build and the crash reports. Pricing an app we have not looked at would be a guess. The number you get in writing is the number you pay each month.
Can we just buy a block of hours?
You can, and the hours usually go to whatever was asked for last. App Care is the maintenance, done every month, for a fixed fee. Feature work is Enhancements or a project, so it has its own budget.
We might rebuild next year.
App Care continues month to month after the first year, with 90 days' notice. A rebuild, if you want one, is quoted from the same knowledge of the app. Staying on App Care does not block that decision.
Our developer left.
That is a common reason to call. The health check is a week in the code and the build, so you are not asked to document the app before we can help.
Do you answer our members?
Your service desk does. We work with the person you name, and with what production monitoring shows us.
Start with the week, not the year.
The health check tells you if App Care fits, what it would cost, and whether the app needs to move to a current framework first.
Or email enquiries@orbital8.com.au and put the app's name in the subject line.