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Handover: Existing app

Your app works. The person who built it is gone.

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An app in production that nobody on your side can change is a liability with a countdown on it, whether the developer left or the agency stopped delivering. It starts with the App Check at $2,000, then the App Takeover from $10,500, then operation from $1,400 a month, on accounts in your name.

The app is live. Customers use it. And the only person who understood it has not worked here since March. Nothing is on fire yet, which is exactly why it gets postponed. Then Apple deprecates an API, a certificate expires, a dependency stops building, and a quiet problem becomes an outage on a day nobody chose.

The countdown nobody starts deliberately

Mobile software decays on someone else's schedule. Every year brings a new OS, a new SDK requirement, such as the Google Play target API level deadline, and a store policy change, and each one is trivial to handle in advance and expensive to handle under pressure. An unmaintained app does not stay as it is; it slowly stops working.

First the App Check, then any decision

The first step is not a rewrite and not a hire. The App Check at $2,000 takes stock of every account and access: code repository, Apple and Google developer accounts, cloud, database, domain, payment provider, email sending and API accounts, who owns each and who can log in. It checks where the keys and passwords are, whether the app still builds with current tools, what puts it at risk in the stores, and whether payments and backups work. Within five business days you get a traffic-light report, the most critical gap is fixed, and you get a recommendation (keep and take over, rescue, or rebuild) with a fixed price for the next step. The price is credited in full if you order that step within 60 days; the first five clients (until 31 December 2026 at the latest) pay the introductory $1,100. The report is yours either way, to take to any provider.

When the agency stops delivering

Not every takeover starts with a developer who left. Often the agency still exists, but releases stopped, tickets go unanswered, and the store accounts, servers and source code sit with them. Then the first job is to get those back into your company's name: Apple developer account, Google Play Console, domain, hosting, repository and signing keys. I give you the list, check what comes back for completeness and confirm that the app can be built from it. Enforcing the handover against the agency is a matter for your lawyer. How the store side works step by step: transferring an app and its source code into your own accounts.

What the App Takeover delivers

A fixed price from $10,500, set after the App Check:

  • every account moved into your name or set up fresh in it, the previous developer's access removed
  • a reproducible build with current tools, running in your repository
  • one store update shipped
  • monitoring and backups, with a restore that has actually been tested
  • an emergency handbook, an account register and an exit plan

No new features and no redesign. If the App Check shows that the app needs more than a takeover, for example security holes or broken payments, that is a rescue. If Apple has just rejected an update, see App Store rejection help.

A typical timeline

This is how a takeover typically runs. It is not a guarantee; the actual dates depend on how quickly accounts and code come back and on what the App Check finds.

  • Week 1: App Check, secure access and code
  • Weeks 2 to 3: first update in the store
  • After that: ongoing operation, with response times of 4 hours for critical outages on business days and one business day for everything else, counted until work starts

Then operation in three tiers

  • App Care, $1,400 a month, 3 months minimum: OS and SDK updates, security patches, new major iOS and Android versions, store deadlines, monitoring and restore-tested backups
  • Full Service, $2,900 a month, 3 months minimum: everything in App Care plus releases and bug fixing
  • Your Technical Lead, $7,200 a month, 6 months minimum: everything in Full Service plus technical responsibility for roadmap, architecture, releases and the stores

Hosting is billed at cost on top. New features come by change order at their own fixed price. Details on app maintenance and operation. Or you take the documented app to your own team: that works too.

Prepared in case I drop out

There is no named stand-in, and I will not pretend otherwise. What protects you is written down and in your hands: the accounts are in your name, the emergency handbook in your repository shows step by step how the app is built, released and restored, and the exit plan says what is handed over if we part. In operation, a handover test once a year checks that another experienced developer could take over from the documented state.

No lock-in, deliberately

Everything runs on accounts you own. Documentation is written for a successor, not as a formality. If you bring development back in house next year, you take the system with you and nothing has to be untangled first. The reason to stay should be that it works, not that leaving is expensive. All prices are net; the tax treatment is clarified before contract and stated in the offer.

Confidential from the first call: we are happy to sign an NDA before we talk.

Professional liability insurance in place, proof on request.

If it never shipped in the first place: rescue a failed app project. If it was built with AI tools: vibe-coded app to production.

Common questions

My app developer left. What do I do first?

Do not change anything in a hurry. Write down every account you know of: Apple, Google, hosting, domain, payments, email. Then book a call. The App Check at $2,000 finds the rest: who owns which account, who can log in where, where the keys are and whether the app still builds. The report comes within five business days, and the price is credited in full if you order the takeover within 60 days.

My app developer is not responding. What can I do?

Give it a deadline in writing, and in the meantime find out what you can already reach yourself: the Apple and Google developer accounts, the domain, hosting and the code repository. Whatever is registered to your company you can secure without the developer. Whatever is in their name has to be transferred by them; in the standard process, Apple and Google both need the current owner to start an app transfer.

How do I get the source code back from my developer?

Ask in writing for the repository itself, moved to an account your company owns, with its full history, the signing keys and short build instructions, not a ZIP file. Whether they have to hand it over depends on your contract. I check that what comes back is complete and that the app builds from it.

Can you just maintain it, or does everything have to be rebuilt?

Maintenance is usually possible and usually the right first step. Rewrites are the expensive reflex of people who did not write the original. Where a rebuild is genuinely necessary, the App Check says so with reasons, and it can be staged rather than done all at once.

What does the App Takeover include?

From $10,500: every account moved into your name or set up fresh in it, the previous developer's access removed, a reproducible build with current tools, one store update shipped, monitoring and backups with a tested restore, plus the emergency handbook, the account register and the exit plan. No new features; those come later at their own fixed price.

Will you operate it as well?

Yes, in three tiers. App Care at $1,400 a month keeps the app current and safe; Full Service at $2,900 a month adds releases and bug fixing; Your Technical Lead at $7,200 a month adds technical responsibility. Response times: critical outages within 4 hours on business days, everything else within one business day, counted until work starts. Hosting is billed at cost on top.

Our agency stopped delivering and will not hand over the code or the accounts. What now?

First we list what you need back: Apple developer account, Google Play Console, domain, hosting, source code and the keys to sign releases. I tell you which of these is in your name already and which you have to request. Enforcing a handover against the agency is a matter for your lawyer; I make sure that what comes back is complete and that the app can be built and released from it.

You are one person. What if you are unavailable?

There is no named stand-in. What you have instead: the accounts are in your name, the emergency handbook in your repository shows step by step how to build, release and restore the app, and the exit plan says what is handed over. In operation, a handover test once a year checks that another experienced developer could take over from the documented state.

What if we later want to bring it back in house?

Then you take it back. Everything runs on your accounts, the documentation is written for a successor rather than for me, and there is no proprietary layer that makes leaving expensive.

Keep reading

App Check: what you own and what works App maintenance and operation Rescue a failed app project Help after an App Store rejection Transfer an app to your own account

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