The Hidden Costs of Traditional Event App

🚨 You Paid for the App… But You’re Still Paying Apple

You’ve done the “smart” thing. You hired a developer, got your custom event app built, and dropped a nice chunk of your event budget — maybe £5,000, maybe £15,000, maybe more. The app looks good. Sponsors are excited. You’ve got “Download now on the App Store” buttons on your homepage. You feel like a pro.

But then... your budget starts to bleed.

Because what nobody told you is this:

Once your app hits the App Store or Google Play, you're officially on Big Tech’s payroll — and you're the one doing the paying.

🧨 The Hidden Costs You Never Approved

🏦 Apple App Store Fees: Up to 30%

Here’s the kicker. Apple charges up to 30% of all in-app purchases. Doesn’t matter if it’s:

• VIP ticket upgrades
• Sponsor upsells
• Premium session access
• Links to merch or donation pages

If your app touches commerce, Apple wants a slice — even if you don’t sell directly through the app.

Let that sink in:

You pay thousands to build the app — and then give away up to 30% of your own event revenue just to host it.

It’s like paying for your own event venue… and then letting Apple run the bar.

📲 Google Play Gotchas

Don’t worry, Android isn’t any better. You still have to:

• Pay for a developer account (and sometimes individual event listings)
• Push manual updates for every version and device
• Deal with random rejections from their review system
• Wait days (or longer) for approval
• Cover every bug and compatibility issue yourself

Oh, and Android users are far more fragmented — meaning your team (or dev agency) is fixing a dozen versions of the same bug across different phones. Good luck with that two weeks before the event.

🧾 Ongoing Compliance = Endless Dev Bills

Let’s talk maintenance. Because your app isn’t a one-and-done project. It’s a forever-pet you just adopted.

Every few months, something breaks:

• 📱 New OS release? You need an update.
• 🛡️ Privacy laws change? Time to update your permissions and privacy policy.
• 🔌 API outage? Your agenda stops loading.
• 🐛 Bugs reported by attendees? Fix, test, resubmit, wait.

This isn’t just annoying — it’s expensive.

Unless you’ve got a dev team on speed dial, expect hundreds to thousands in maintenance bills every year. And if you’re outsourcing, hope they still exist the next time something breaks.

You built an app for your event — not to moonlight as a software company.

🤯 The App Store Tax Is Real

Here's the brutal truth:

Traditional event apps are expensive to build, expensive to maintain, and expensive to distribute.

And for what? The privilege of being buried in the App Store next to Candy Crush?

Let’s break it down:

Traditional apps are like renting a stall at your own event — and then being told you owe 30% of every sale to the landlord.

🚀 What If You Could Skip the Stores Altogether?

Good news: you can.

With Presso’s Progressive Event App (PEA©), you get everything a traditional app offers — minus the hassle, delays, and app store taxes.

Here’s how it works:

✅ No downloads — attendees open a link and boom, they’re in

✅ Everything built-in — ticketing, check-in, agenda, sessions

✅ Instant updates — no resubmitting, no approval queues

✅ One seamless link — from site to app in one tap

✅ Browser-based by design — works on any device, no installs needed

✅ Fully included when you sell tickets through Presso (flat 1% fee)

This isn’t a half-baked app replacement — this is the app. The whole thing.

It’s like giving your attendees an event app… without ever making them download one.

💡 Ditch the App Store Tax — Forever

It’s time to stop giving away chunks of your event budget just to exist on the App Store.

Presso gives you the power of a fully functional, beautifully branded event experience — live in minutes, accessible with a link, and priced fairly.

• No downloads
• No wasted fees
• No waiting around

Just one platform, one link, one less thing to worry about.

👉 Start Free with Presso — and keep 100% of your event revenue where it belongs: with you.