The honest answer is that the cost to fix a broken app depends on four things: how big the app is, how well it was built, what is actually broken, and whether the sensible route is a rescue, a refactor, or a rebuild. Nobody credible can quote you a fixed price from a menu before looking at the code. What a good team can do is assess the app cheaply, then give you a fixed quote for the actual work, so you never sign a blank cheque.
Why nobody can quote you a price up front
You have probably noticed that every studio you ask gives the same frustrating reply: "it depends". That answer is annoying, but it is also correct, and the ones who quote a confident number without seeing the code are the ones to worry about.
A broken app is not a broken washing machine. With the washing machine, the fault is visible and the parts are standard. With software, "the login is broken" might mean a five-minute configuration fix, or it might mean the authentication was never built properly and the whole thing needs redoing. From the outside, both look identical. Only reading the code tells you which one you have.
So the real question is not "what is the price". It is "what drives the price", and then "how do I find out where my app sits" without paying for a full rebuild just to get an estimate.
What actually drives the cost
There are four main drivers. Every quote you ever receive is really a weighting of these.
1. The size of the app
More screens, more features, more integrations, more data all mean more surface area to check and fix. A single-screen tool with one broken button is a small job. A multi-tenant platform with payments, user accounts, and third-party integrations is a large one, even if only one part is misbehaving, because the parts are connected.
Size sets the floor. A large app costs more to fix than a small one for the same class of problem, simply because there is more to hold in your head at once.
2. The quality of what was built
This is the biggest and most invisible driver. Two apps can look identical to a user and be worlds apart underneath.
Well-built code is organised, tested, and readable. A new engineer can find the broken part, fix it, and be confident nothing else broke. That is fast, and fast is cheap.
Poorly built code, often the result of rushed deadlines, a departed freelancer, or an AI tool generating features nobody reviewed, is tangled. Fixing one thing breaks two others. There are no tests, so every change is a gamble. This is where a lot of no-code and AI-generated projects end up, and it is exactly what our vibe-code cleanup work is for. The same visible bug costs far more to fix here, because the engineer has to untangle the surrounding mess before touching the actual fault.
3. What is broken
Not all breakages are equal.
- A cosmetic or single-feature bug is usually contained and quick.
- A performance problem (the app is slow, it falls over under load) takes investigation, because the cause is often not where the symptom appears.
- A data or security problem is serious and needs care, because getting it wrong can make things worse.
- An architectural problem, where the app was built in a way that cannot support what you now need, is the deepest kind, because the fix is structural rather than local.
A cheap-looking symptom can have an expensive cause, and an alarming-looking symptom can have a trivial one. You cannot tell from the symptom alone.
4. Rescue, refactor, or rebuild
Once someone has read the code, the fix falls into one of three shapes, and this decision moves the cost more than anything else.
- Rescue means the foundations are sound and the app mostly works. You fix the specific faults, stabilise it, and move on. This is the cheapest path and, happily, the most common one. Most apps are less broken than their owners fear. Our software project rescue work usually lands here.
- Refactor means the app works but the code underneath is fragile, so you keep it running while cleaning up the parts that keep causing trouble. More effort than a rescue, far less than a rebuild.
- Rebuild means the foundations genuinely cannot carry the app forward, and continuing to patch it costs more over time than starting the worst parts again. This is the most expensive path and, done honestly, the rarest. A trustworthy team pushes toward rebuild only when the maths clearly favours it, not because it is the biggest invoice.
The difference between these three, for the same app, can be several times over. That is why an honest assessment matters more than a fast quote.
How the assessment-then-fixed-quote model removes the risk
Here is the part that should reassure you. You do not have to gamble.
The sensible way to handle a broken app is to separate finding out from fixing. First, a senior engineer reads the code and tells you plainly what is wrong, how deep it goes, and which of the three routes fits. This is a small, bounded piece of work, whether it is a focused code audit or a deeper technical due diligence review before you invest or acquire.
Only after that do you get a quote for the actual repair, and because it is based on real knowledge of your code, it can be a fixed price. You know the number before the work starts. If it is not worth doing, the assessment tells you that too, and you have lost very little.
This is exactly how our fix broken MVP service works, and you can read the full sequence on how we work. Assess, quote, agree, fix. No open-ended hourly meter, no surprise on the invoice.
The short answer
- The cost is driven by app size, code quality, what is broken, and whether it needs a rescue, refactor, or rebuild.
- Symptoms do not reveal cost; only reading the code does.
- Most broken apps need a rescue, not a rebuild, which is the cheaper end.
- A cheap, bounded assessment turns an unknown into a fixed quote before you commit.
What to expect working with us
We are senior engineers in the EU timezone, based in Moldova, GDPR-aware, and typically around 40 percent below Western European rates for the same seniority. That last point matters here: it lowers the cost of every route above without lowering the quality of the engineering.
We work on live products every day, including GazetAI, CarVinVin, and Bank-Lift, so a fragile inherited codebase is familiar ground rather than a novelty. And whatever we do, you keep all your code. There is no lock-in.
If you are staring at a broken app and dreading the answer, the honest first step is small. We offer a free 15-minute triage call to hear what is wrong and tell you, plainly, roughly which of the three routes you are likely looking at. From there, a proper assessment gives you a fixed number.
When you are ready, have a look at fix broken MVP or simply get in touch. No pressure, no hype, just a clear read on where you stand.