Refreshing Articles for
Businesses and Developers

Launching your app isn’t the finish line — it’s the start of the next bill. Bug fixes, updates, server costs — they don’t stop once you hit “go live.” In fact, year one can eat up 50% of your original dev budget. Want to stay ahead of those creeping costs? Let’s break down what app maintenance really costs in 2025.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

8

min read

On 11 Mar 2025, fintech app Chocolate Finance froze instant withdrawals for 60 000 users. Overnight payouts became 3–10 business days; MAS got involved. The cause wasn’t bad code—it was under‑budgeted infra, QA, and compliance. In Singapore regulatory mistakes cost more than code: AML/PDPA fines jumped 22 % in 2024.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

11

min read

Budgets implode when founders ignore calendars and creeping costs. Let’s map the real dev timeline, reveal the fees nobody quotes, and show where Sydney/Melbourne rates bite hardest.In October 2024, Josh Howland, founder of Sydney-based fintech startup SplitStack, kicked off app development with a “rock-solid” plan: MVP in 4 months, A$120K total budget.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

9

min read

So, you want to ship an app north of the 49th? Strap in, eh. Building digital in Canada is a different beast. Between Toronto’s “Silicon Valley lite” pricing and Montreal’s creative hustle, your budget can go offside faster than a Leafs playoff run.Here’s the no-bull reality:

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

10

min read

“We burned AED 400K on an app, but the real gut-punch? Only 60% went to code. The rest vanished on licenses, ‘urgent’ bugfixes, and ads that didn’t move the needle.” Sound familiar? Most UAE founders kick off their app projects confident they’ve budgeted realistically—until reality punches back.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

10

min read

In early 2024, FruPro — a B2B marketplace based in London — set out to build their MVP. They contacted three teams. A Shoreditch agency quoted £94k. A hybrid setup — UK-based PM with Polish devs — came in at £57k. Offshore? £28k, but no GDPR compliance, no UK legal coverage, and no post-launch support.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

7

min read

The app development cost in Germany ranges anywhere from €30,000 for a basic cross-platform MVP to well over €250,000 for regulated or enterprise-grade solutions. But what really drives the price up isn’t just complexity — it’s legal compliance, user expectations, and who you hire (Munich vs Berlin ≠ same quote).

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

11

min read

How much does it really cost to build an app in the United States? Take WellTrack, a Chicago wellness-tech startup. A Midwest agency quoted $118 000 for a HIPAA-compliant MVP. A team in India offered $18 000 for “the same spec.” Six sprints later the bargain build failed Apple’s review:

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

11

min read

Eight weeks, two founders, one billion-dollar exit. When Instagram shipped its first build, the entire “team” was Mike Krieger slinging code and Kevin Systrom chasing users. Launch night, servers melted under 25,000 sign-ups an hour. No DevOps hotline. No project manager drafting post-mortems.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

9

min read

Start with 3–7 people: 1 product owner, 1 tech lead, a few full-stack devs. Use Trello or Jira to track tasks. Do daily standups (15 min), a weekly demo, and a retro. Deploy code weekly using CI tools (like GitHub Actions). Hire flexible, proactive teammates. Don’t add managers or extra meetings until you’ve got at least 3 full dev squads.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

9

min read

Hey, we’re the Ptolemay team. Over the past decade, we’ve guided dozens of startups through software development for startups, helping them build products, nail down budgets, and get to market faster. One question founders always ask—and rarely get a straight answer to—is: “How much will startup product development actually cost me in 2025?”

Gubanova Olga

June 13, 2025

-

10

min read

By 2025, nearly 75% of companies are already using AI to speed up internal workflows (McKinsey). And yes — building apps with AI tools is faster. In fact, it's never been easier to launch something that looks impressive on the surface. But here’s the twist: in a massive analysis of startup failures, CB Insights found that the #1 reason products crash is still painfully simple — no one really needs them.

Olga Gubanova

June 13, 2025

-

8

min read