Why Do Users Abandon Your Apps?
June 06, 2017

Ayal Zylberman
QualiTest Group

Today's app development landscape is competitive and expensive. Thousands of apps are released each month, and user acquisition and retention are costing app developers millions. User abandonment is one of the main battles of every app developer — as every lost user means another wasted investment.

What do these investments look like today? The cost for each install facing app developers averages $2.00. The cost per loyal user, on the other hand, defined as users who have opened an app more than three times since downloading, ranges from $2.50 to more than $4.00 at times.

According to a recent QualiTest survey, 88 percent of app users abandon apps due to finding bugs and glitches. If we consider the cost per install, an app with 500,000 users means an investment of $1 million — and it also means a potential loss of $880,000 plus future revenue from those users, all because of bugs not found during the development phase.

The recent survey also revealed that users notice bugs in their apps constantly, and are willing to stop using an app the moment they experience a bug, as well as altogether when their user experience is affected negatively.

■ Nearly 8 in every 10 users notice glitches and bugs in the apps that they use.

■ Over 50 percent of users indicated that they would abandon an app completely if they experienced one or more bugs per day.

■ Nearly 40 percent of users indicated that they were likely to close out of an app if they experience a bug.

Here are some more insights found in QualiTest's App Abandonment Survey that will help app developers maximize daily active users, prevent avoidable lost ones, and minimize the part of their investment gone to waste:

■ Only 12 percent of respondents indicated that they would not abandon an app altogether based on bugs or glitches.

■ 51 percent of users indicated that they would abandon an app completely if they experienced one or more bugs per day, and the group most willing to abandon an app completely, men between the ages of 25 and 44, indicated that 63% of them would completely abandon an app if they experienced a few glitches each month.

■ Nearly 40 percent of users indicated that they were likely or extremely likely to close out of an app the moment they experience a bug. Developers of apps with older user bases should also note that respondents between the ages of 35 and 54 were more likely to close out of an app after experiencing a bug than younger respondents, those between 18 and 34.

■ Nearly 8 in every 10 users notice glitches and bugs in the apps that they use, and 3 in 10 indicated that they notice glitches and bugs one or more times each week.

The survey, conducted in April 2017, was jointly carried out with Google Consumer Surveys based on a representative sample of more than 1,000 respondents from the United States between the ages of 18 and 54.

Ayal Zylberman is CEO and Founder of QualiTest Group
Share this

Industry News

March 18, 2024

Kubiya.ai announces the launch of its DevOps Digital Agents.

March 18, 2024

Aviatrix® introduced Aviatrix Distributed Cloud Firewall for Kubernetes, a distributed cloud networking and network security solution for containerized enterprise applications and workloads.

March 18, 2024

Stride announces the general availability of Stride Conductor, its new autonomous coding product that transforms the software development landscape.

March 14, 2024

CircleCI unveiled CircleCI releases, which enables developers to automate the release orchestration process directly from the CircleCI UI.

March 13, 2024

Fermyon™ Technologies announces Fermyon Platform for Kubernetes, a WebAssembly platform for Kubernetes.

March 13, 2024

Akuity announced a new offer targeted at Enterprises and businesses where security and compliance are key.

March 13, 2024

New Relic launched new capabilities for New Relic IAST (Interactive Application Security Testing), including proof-of-exploit reporting for application security testing.

March 12, 2024

OutSystems announced AI Agent Builder, a new solution in the OutSystems Developer Cloud platform that makes it easy for IT leaders to incorporate generative AI (GenAI) powered applications into their digital transformation strategy, as well as govern the use of AI to ensure standardization and security.

March 12, 2024

Mirantis announced significant updates to Lens Desktop that makes working with Kubernetes easier by simplifying operations, improving efficiency, and increasing productivity. Lens 2024 Early Access is now available to Lens users.

March 12, 2024

Codezero announced a $3.5 million seed-funding round led by Ballistic Ventures, the venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to funding entrepreneurs and innovations in cybersecurity.

March 11, 2024

Prismatic launched a code-native integration building experience.

March 07, 2024

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. announced its Check Point Infinity Platform has been ranked as the #1 Zero Trust Platform in the latest Miercom Zero Trust Platform Assessment.

March 07, 2024

Tricentis announced the launch and availability of SAP Test Automation by Tricentis as an SAP Solution Extension.

March 07, 2024

Netlify announced the general availability of the AI-enabled deploy assist.

March 07, 2024

DataStax announced a new integration with Airbyte that simplifies the process of building production-ready GenAI applications with structured and unstructured data.