How Much Does it Cost to Maintain Software? – A Detailed Guide

Fastly is a cloud computing provider trusted by big companies globally. On June 8, 2021, it faced a network outage that disrupted the internet for the entire world. Sites like Amazon and the BBC, among others, suddenly vanished from the face of the Earth.

These websites rely on Fastly to distribute their content swiftly to their users. Now, they were left clueless.

The cause behind the debacle?

Just a routine configuration change by a Fastly customer. It triggered a bug within the system. This, in turn, led to a bunch of Fastly returning errors. It massively disrupted online services.

When One Glitch Shakes the Web: The High Stakes of Software Failures

The example above highlights the risks of not addressing potential software weaknesses. Fastly’s expenses went beyond technical fixes. It also faced revenue loss and reputational damage.

This incident serves as a crucial reminder for owners of digital apps. It is the importance of continuous software maintenance.

Yes, software maintenance cost is an additional expense after development. But it’s critical to deliver the best user experience.

In the past years, money spent on low-quality software in the US increased to over $2 trillion. Technical debt alone ballooned to more than $1 trillion!
– Consortium for Information & Software Quality

What Are Software Maintenance Costs?

Software maintenance involves upgrading the solution. This is done by fixing any current issues. Developers also enhance the software with more features. The aim is to improve the overall performance of the system.

The maintenance cost of software comes after it’s ready to use. It means that the solution is present in the market. So, the maintenance costs are expenses that occur to upgrade the software.

Besides fixing technical glitches, it also involves updating security requirements. The company also incurs expenses for updating compliance requirements. Things like upgrading the software’s hardware add to the total cost.

Each of these processes is critical to ensure the workability of the system. Knowing software maintenance costs helps you plan and execute appropriate processes smoothly.

Types of Software Maintenance

Every company should know about the four types of maintenance. You need all of them at various stages.

1. Corrective Software Maintenance

It addresses the issues that impact various aspects of your product. These are logic, code, and design. Corrective maintenance allows you to find bugs early. This lets you give a great user experience. It covers around 20% of the total software costing. This percentage can increase or decrease. It depends on whether the software is new or in development.

• Suited for low-priority development
• Can cause runaway repair expenses

2. Adaptive Software Maintenance

It encompasses updates to the OS. This type of maintenance also includes updates to cloud storage and hardware, and software dependencies. Products in a swiftly changing environment need this maintenance. It takes up about 15% of the maintenance effort. Again, the percentage can go up or down. It depends on the changes in your software environment. You are likely to incur more if there are frequent changes to regulatory policies.

• Extend the lifespan of software
• Requires much time, skill, and resources

3. Perfective Software Maintenance

Perfective maintenance involves enhancing the product features. Teams may also remove features if they aren’t needed. The sole aim is to improve the product’s quality. It covers around 25% of the cost of software maintenance. The percentage can also change. It relies on the kind of focus the team has on improving the software’s usability.

• Timely and informed monitoring
• Can be costly to set up

4. Preventative or Proactive Software Maintenance

Spotting and fixing issues before they occur is the aim of this maintenance. It serves as a proactive approach to plan and implement changes for potential glitches. Commonly, it identifies and fixes invisible bugs in the code. Preventive maintenance covers around 10% of the overall maintenance effort.

• Best to execute without expertise
• PM creep can occur without optimization

POINT TO NOTE

It’s common to use preventative and corrective maintenance synonymously. But doing so is wrong. Preventative maintenance spots and resolves issues before they become blunders. Corrective maintenance manages errors after they have occurred. Preventive maintenance is thus key for effective software.

• Smaller companies spend an average of $121,336 yearly on software.

• Mid-sized firm spend around $193,716.

• Larger SMBs invest about $251,119 in software annually.

– 2025 Software Spend Report

How much does software maintenance take up this massive investment?

Estimating Software Project Cost Based On Different Types Of Maintenance

How to Calculate the Maintenance Cost of Software?

Almost every company wonders: How much does software maintenance cost? You cannot guess the answer. It depends on various factors. Software maintenance is complex. Some tasks might need you to fully overhaul the product. Here, the cost can range between $5,000 – $50,000 per month.

The kind of maintenance you need and the app users affect the cost. Your software type also impacts the total expenses. More critical is the fact that maintenance is a continuous process. So, you’ll need to keep a dedicated budget at all times.

How To Estimate Software Development Cost: The COCOMO Approach

To estimate the cost accurately, experts have devised many methods. The COCOMO (Constructive Cost Model) has proven to be an effective one. Barry W. Boehm created it in 1981. We use this model as the basis of our cost estimation. A recent study has proposed the estimation method below.

The new COCOMO approach factors three things:

1. SMCE  with  Fourth  Generation  Language Environment
2. ACT  (Annual  Change  Traffic)
3. Technical and Non-Technical factors that impact the maintenance cost.

Let’s look closely at each of them.

1. Software Maintenance Cost with Fourth Generation Languages.

Fourth-generation languages offer a novel approach to optimizing software maintenance. An issue that many face is being unable to create new solutions quickly. Fourth-generation languages resolve this problem. They allow rapid creation of new systems.

This, in turn, has increased the software that requires maintenance. It has been found that many firms choose to develop their systems rather than maintain them. Fourth-generation languages can impact maintenance in these ways:

• Developers can prevent simple hidden errors. This is because a fourth-generation language can manage specific software parts automatically.
• Many of these languages are linked to data management platforms. These are built within data dictionaries. This prevents the coder from misrepresenting the data.
• Most languages are self-documenting. Poor documentation is the main cause of maintenance-related issues.
• The languages make the program easier to understand. So, a third person can easily maintain it.
• Most of these languages do not permit poor program constructs. Thus, there are fewer chances of having trouble later.

2. Factors Affecting Software Maintenance Cost.

Two factors impact the maintenance cost of software.

Technical Factors

Ability of the Maintenance Team

Software maintenance requires a good amount of team training. If the members keep changing their positions, the effort massively goes up. The member’s experience also affects maintenance tasks.

Complexity of the System or its Part

The system or its parts can have a simple interface. You can implement them easily. But they can also be complex. It affects the overall effort.

Quality of Documentation

Poor code documentation proves costly. It makes it hard to resolve issues in the software. Documentation quality can make or break maintenance efforts.

Quality of Testing

Robust testing can reduce many errors. This lowers the maintenance effort and its cost. Contrarily, subpar testing increases the cost and the effort.

Software Life Span

Software with a longer lifespan has higher maintenance needs. One with a shorter span takes up less effort. It directly impacts the cost.

Code Quality

Spotting issues in unstructured code is hard. It influences the cost of software maintenance

Software Application

It means the area where the user employs the software. Every system has certain features related to its work.

Complexity of the Interface

Is the interfacing of the parts complex? It will increase the maintenance expenses of part-based systems.

CASE Tools

This refers to computer-aided software engineering. These tools help developers work through complex processes. CASE tools support various tasks. They can be simple editing tools. Alternatively, they can also be complex ones that support the system’s lifespan.

Non-Technical Factors

Level of Comprehension

When a developer tries to maintain a system created by another expert, they must understand it properly. If they find it tough to comprehend, it limits maintenance.

Likelihood of Occurrence

Every scenario during a software’s lifespan will have specific chances of occurrence. Teams must assign every scenario a probability.

Modernity of the Tech Stack

Maintenance risk and cost can go up based on the newness of the tech stack. The level at which new technology emerges also influences it.

Business Maturity

One can base a firm’s maturity on its quality certification. CMM level defines a minimum guarantee for the development’s quality. A reputable business has skilled staff. They have processes to spot and correct defects. It lowers the dependence on experts. This, in turn, optimizes maintenance costs.

3. Estimation of ACT (Annual Change Traffic)

For estimating software project cost for maintenance, Boehm used ACT. It is the fraction of the source guidelines of the product. These are the rules that change during the year. This change can come through addition or alteration.

You use the ACT quantity along with the development effort in months. This lets you find the yearly software maintenance costs.

To estimate the ACT of your software, begin by defining specific features of the product. These functions should critically affect ACT. Review and assess the features regularly. It lets you spot crucial software attributes.

You can then assign a weight to each one. Now, you can properly address every characteristic based on the ACT data. Every software will have two options for every attribute. It can have it or not.

Software Maintenance Models to Optimize Cost

Maintenance is the only sensible route to keep the software aligned with the evolving business needs.

Companies desire incremental changes to their product. The aim is always to cut costly, time-intensive development efforts. A software maintenance model offers a way to improve the software without a full overhaul.

What Should You Know Before Choosing a Maintenance Model

To optimize the maintenance cost of software, you must execute the tasks systematically. Choose maintenance based on your project’s scope. Then, pick a model that most benefits your project.

Here’s what you should consider:

• If the impact scope is above 25% of the code, assess the age and structure of the current app. Here, opting for restructuring will be the best strategy.
• If the code changes are less than 15%, basic maintenance is usually enough.
• If the estimate is between those two figures, consider your time and budget to decide.

Software Maintenance Models

Once you are clear on the above, choose from these maintenance models.

a. Quick-Fix

Here, you make a change without factoring in potential future work. It is suited for emergency maintenance only. Ideally, you must create a team dedicated to crisis maintenance.

When using this model, specify changes with code comments. Also include a change ID. Input these changes into a maintenance history. It must document the reason for these changes and how they were done.

b. Iterative

The iterative model is ideal for a small-scale app revamp. You can also use it for planned maintenance. In this model, only the development team works. However, the model has a risk. It doesn’t include business justifications. So, the team doesn’t know if they will need to make bigger changes in the future.

This model follows the same steps as a full software project. It is perfect for changes made to confined app targets.

c. Reuse

This model includes the mandate to develop and reuse software parts. The parts can work in various apps or places. The aim is to create reusable parts. These can then be offered to all projects.

It’s critical to consider the parts of an existing app for reuse. You can make changes to them or add new ones. Operate within the bigger framework of the business with the reuse model. Avoid introducing much code specialization. This will prevent the model’s use.

d. Closed-loop

Closed-loop is suited for planned maintenance. It’s also ideal for an app upgrade. The team of developers put forward the suggestion. It’s crucial to validate the case before working.

In a closed loop, work begins through iterative model flow. It ends when the team assesses the changes in the software. They then propose any extra work to enhance the software. This begins another round of changes.

Based on your unique needs, you can follow one or more maintenance models.

Relative Cost Comparison

Ways to Reduce the Cost of Software Maintenance

Software maintenance costs can reach up to 90 percent of the software’s lifecycle expenses. 

Undoubtedly, optimizing costs is critical to running profitably. Below are some effective ways to cut costs.

Focus on Preventive Maintenance

Identifying issues before they occur prevents costly repairs. AI-based monitoring tools help you catch such problems early. It will let you spot alarming trends. Thus, you’ll never face a crisis situation.

Choose Quality Software Development

High-quality code is easy to maintain. It remains majorly free from bugs. Ensure that your team sticks to the best coding practices. There should be robust documentation to enhance maintainability.

Automate Repetitive Tasks

Automating frequently occurring tasks helps optimize your workflows. It frees up precious resources. If you continuously face similar requests, deploy a chatbot. It frees up response times and offers round-the-clock support. Another great option is centralized logging. It lets you swiftly trace issues to their root cause. Thus, it minimizes resolution times.

Optimize Your Infrastructure

Minimize downtime by optimizing your infrastructure. Set it up so it automatically directs workloads to the appropriate servers. It will also restart failed containers and replace defective parts automatically. As a result, your operations will run smoothly.

Thinking Ahead: Shaping Software Success with Proactive Maintenance

It’s crucial to account for the cost of software maintenance before beginning any project. Hopefully, you are now aware of everything that goes into it. It will help you make better decisions when it comes to budgeting for your software’s maintenance. Like a well-tuned engine, prioritizing software maintenance will ensure that your software stays up-to-date, secure, and meets the changing needs. It will help your system remain robust and achieve lasting success.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you estimate the maintenance cost of the software?

You can calculate software maintenance costs based on various aspects of the product. These are the software performance, updates, and ongoing support. Factors like the product’s complexity and its code, updates, and the tech stack used impact the cost.

2. What is the industry standard for software maintenance fees?

The industry criteria fall between 15% to 25% of the actual software license cost/year. The fees cover patches, updates, bug fixes, and more. It ensures that the solutions remain workable.

3. What is covered in software maintenance?

Software maintenance includes changing the product in any way so that it meets users’ demands. It’s done after the product is available for use. The process improves the usability of the software.

4. How does the architecture impact software maintenance costs?

Good architecture results in quality code. It is easier to maintain. Infrastructure designed with scalability in mind can handle more users. It promotes the addition of new features without much maintenance cost.