Mobile app rescue

Mobile App Rescue Services. A stalled project, put back on a shippable path.

The code exists, the money is spent, and the release keeps not happening. We audit what was built, tell you in writing what is worth keeping, and finish the product at a fixed price. Flutter and React Native, 19+ projects delivered.

Written report

What the rescue audit tells you

  • What state the code and architecture are actually in, in plain language
  • What is worth keeping and what would cost more to fix than to rewrite
  • Who owns the store accounts, repositories, and third party services, and what access is missing
  • A fixed price for each path: finishing what exists, or rebuilding a narrower version one

Fixed fee, agreed on the intro call. Credited toward the rescue work if you continue with us.

19+
Projects delivered
100%
Fixed price scopes
1 year
Warranty on larger contracts
2 paths
Priced in every audit
Where projects stall

Five situations we take over

Stalled projects rarely fail in a dramatic way. They drift into one of a few recognizable states. If yours is on this list, it can almost always be either finished or rebuilt smaller, and the audit tells you which.

The team that started it is gone

The agency or freelancer who began the build stopped responding, or the relationship ended before the release did. You have some code, some designs, and no one who can ship them.

Ninety percent done for six months

Every update says almost there. The remaining ten percent turns out to contain payments, store review, and the edge cases that decide whether the product actually ships.

It demos well and fails in real use

The app works in a controlled walkthrough and breaks on real accounts, real data, and real networks. Users see errors the team cannot reproduce.

The budget grew past the point of trust

The original number was spent, then extended, and the scope is still not closed. Each new invoice is harder to justify than the last, and no one can say what finished looks like.

The visual builder hit its ceiling

The product was built on a visual development platform and has outgrown it. That situation has its own path, covered on our FlutterFlow to Flutter migration page.

Rescue or maintenance

Which page you actually need

This page: the project stalled

The build stopped, broke, or never reached release. There is code and there is a gap between that code and a product your users can install. Mobile app rescue services start with an audit and end with a working release.

The app works and is live

If your product is already shipped and you need someone to keep it stable through OS updates, store policy changes, and new features, that is maintenance, not rescue.

See our mobile app maintenance services

Step one

A fixed fee audit with a written report

Before anyone quotes you a rescue, someone has to read the code. We take access to the repositories, the store accounts, and the services the app depends on, and we come back with a document you can hold people to.

The technical state, in business language

What was built well, what was built fast, and where the risk sits. Not a lecture about code style. An answer to whether this codebase can carry your product to release.

The ownership and access inventory

Who legally controls the Apple developer account, the Google Play Console, the repositories, and every third party service the app uses. Across our delivery work, late or missing access is the most common cause of delay we see, so a rescue maps it on day one.

A number on each path

A fixed price for finishing what exists, and a fixed price for rebuilding a narrower version one. Two concrete options instead of an open ended estimate.

The honest verdict clause

If the honest answer is that your current team should finish the project, or that the product is not worth rescuing at all, the report says so in writing. The audit fee is credited toward the rescue work if you continue with us, so the audit is an entry point, not a separate product we profit from.

Two paths

Finish what exists, or rebuild it smaller

Path one: finish what exists

When the architecture is sound and the gaps sit in the last mile, we take over the repositories and accounts, stabilize what breaks, and drive the shortest path to a release. Payments, store review, crash fixes, and the unfinished flows that kept the launch date moving.

The scope is agreed as a fixed price before work starts, and your own team uses the app on real work while we build, because the requirements that stalled the project usually surface in real use, not in another demo.

Best when

Finishing fits your project if

  • The foundation is solid and the missing work is visible and nameable
  • The product decisions were validated and the code just never reached them
  • You need a release in weeks, not a second development cycle

Path two: rebuild a narrower version one

Some codebases cost more to untangle than to replace. When the foundation is the problem, we keep what the project got right, the validated product decisions, the backend where it is sound, the accounts and the users, and rebuild the app itself in Flutter or React Native around the features that matter.

A rebuild sounds like defeat and usually is not. A narrower version one built on a clean foundation ships faster than a rescue of code that fights back, and it leaves you with a product a team can extend.

Best when

Rebuilding fits your project if

  • Fixing the existing code keeps uncovering new problems under each one
  • The original build never had an architecture, only accumulated features
  • The audit prices the rebuild at or below the cost of finishing

Every audit ends with a number on each path. What it costs to finish, and what it costs to rebuild smaller. The decision stays yours, and it is made on figures, not on faith.

Your side of the rescue

What a rescue needs from you

Access, early

Repositories, the Apple developer account, Google Play Console, and the third party services the app depends on. Every week those sit with the previous team is a week added to the plan.

Account ownership in your name

If the previous team owns the store accounts, moving ownership starts on day one. The accounts stay yours. We work through invited access, never by holding your product hostage.

One person who can decide

Rescue scoping trades daily. Keep this screen or cut it, ship without this feature or wait for it. A postponed decision becomes the new delay, so we need one person with the authority to answer.

Your team on the app during development

Not a demo at the end. Your own people using the build on real work while we develop, because that is where the requirements that stalled the project in the first place show themselves.

The truth about the deadline

A real date lets us cut scope honestly. An optimistic date recreates the exact conditions that stalled the project before.

Why it sticks

Delivery habits that make a rescue final

A rescue that ends in another stall is just a more expensive stall. The habits that prevent that are contractual, not motivational: a fixed price agreed before work starts, an acceptance protocol that separates a defect we fix for free from a change request we price separately, and a one year warranty on larger contracts.

The delivery habit matters just as much. On TimeFix, a field service product we built, the requirement that decided daily usability, a work timer that keeps counting with the screen locked and during a phone call, surfaced only when technicians used the app on real jobs. That is why every rescue puts your team on the build early.

Read the TimeFix case study

In the contract

What closes a rescue for good

  • Fixed price scope signed before development starts
  • Acceptance protocol: defect versus change request, defined in writing
  • One year warranty on larger contracts
  • Handover with accounts, code, and documentation in your name
Pricing

What a rescue costs

Every rescue is quoted as a fixed price in the audit report, specific to your codebase. Two things are true for all of them: we take rescue engagements from $10,000 upward, and a rebuild is priced like what it is, a full development project.

The audit
Fixed fee

Agreed on the intro call, delivered as a written report, and credited in full toward the rescue work if you continue with us.

Finishing what exists
from $10,000

Priced per codebase in the audit report. The minimum keeps us on rescues that end in a shipped product, not on patch jobs.

Rebuild of a narrower version one
$18,000 to $35,000+

A full development project on a clean foundation, keeping the validated decisions and the backend where it is sound, and priced like one.

Process

From first call to a shipped release

1

Intro call

Thirty minutes on what stalled, what exists, and what a good outcome looks like. We agree the audit fee on this call. No preparation needed.

2

Audit with a written report

We take access, read the code, and map the ownership of every account and service. The report lands with a verdict and a fixed price on each path.

3

Fixed quote and scope

You pick the path. We sign a fixed price scope with acceptance criteria, so finished is defined before work starts, not argued about after.

4

Build, with your team testing

Development in release cycles, with your own people using the app on real work throughout. Problems surface while they are cheap to fix.

5

Acceptance and handover

The acceptance protocol closes delivery. Accounts, code, and documentation end up in your name, with a one year warranty on larger contracts.

FAQ

Mobile app rescue services, the practical questions

How is rescue different from your maintenance service?

Maintenance keeps a working, live app stable. Rescue takes a project that stalled, broke, or never reached release and drives it to a working product. If your app is live and healthy, you want our mobile app maintenance services page instead.

What if we do not have the source code?

First we check what your contract says about ownership, because in many cases the code is legally yours and can be requested. If the code is genuinely unrecoverable, the honest answer is path two: a rebuild of a narrower version one. A store binary cannot be turned back into a maintainable codebase.

Which technologies do you take over?

Our delivery focus is Flutter and React Native, and rescues in those stacks are our core case. Native iOS and Android codebases are assessed in the audit. If a project sits outside what we can responsibly finish, the report says so instead of pretending otherwise.

How long does the audit take?

Most audits complete within one to two weeks of us receiving access, depending on the size of the codebase and how scattered the accounts and services are.

Will you tell us if the project is not worth rescuing?

Yes, in writing. The report exists to protect your next dollar, not to win a project. If finishing with your current team, or not finishing at all, is the better answer, that is the verdict you get.

What happens to the audit fee if we continue?

It is credited in full toward the rescue work. You pay for the audit as a standalone document only if you take the report and go elsewhere, which you are free to do.

Do you take over our store accounts?

No. The Apple developer account and Google Play Console stay in your name, and we work through invited access. If the previous team currently owns them, transferring ownership to you is part of step one, not an afterthought.

The app was built with AI tools or a visual builder. Does that change anything?

The audit works the same way: we read what exists and price what it takes to reach a release. If the product outgrew a visual development platform specifically, our FlutterFlow to Flutter migration page covers that path in detail.

How fast can a stalled project ship after rescue?

A narrow finish can reach the stores in a matter of weeks once access is in place. A rebuild of a first version typically runs 8 to 12 weeks. The audit report gives you a timeline next to each price, specific to your project.

Is there a warranty on the rescued product?

Larger contracts carry a one year warranty, and every rescue closes with an acceptance protocol that defines in writing what counts as a defect we fix for free and what is a change request priced separately.

Talk it through first

Tell us where the project stopped

Thirty minutes on what exists, what stalled, and whether a rescue makes sense at all. If it does, you leave the call with an audit fee and a start date.

Thomas Siudut Talk to ThomasCo-Founder and CEO, Apps Value

30 minutes, no preparation needed.