Software maintenance and support
Live software needs regular maintenance. Dependencies fall behind, integrations change, usability problems accumulate and useful improvements are postponed when nobody has clear responsibility for the system.
Our ongoing plans go beyond uptime checks by giving you a senior technical partner who understands the system and is accountable for keeping it healthy and moving forward.
- Proactive maintenance, not waiting for something to break
- Guaranteed response times
- Development time included for planned improvements
- We work on systems we did not build
What ongoing support covers
The balance shifts depending on the system and the month. A plan that is entirely consumed by fixes usually means something structural needs attention, and we would rather tell you that than keep billing for symptoms.
- Dependency, framework and security updates
- Monitoring, with alerts that reach a person
- Backups, and periodic checks that they restore
- Bug fixing and user support
- Performance and Core Web Vitals
- Accessibility fixes as they are found
- Regular development time for new features
- Planned work to reduce technical debt
- Integration updates when a third party changes
- Reporting and data work as the business asks new questions
- Technical input on decisions before they are made
Monthly support plans
Three levels, all excluding VAT and billed monthly. The difference between them is how much development time is included and how quickly we come back to you.
Sapling
£750 per month, excluding VAT
- Up to 4 hours of developer time per month
- Monthly WordPress core and plugin updates
- Security monitoring
- Uptime monitoring and alerts
- Monthly prioritisation and planning session
- 24-hour response SLA, business hours
Roots
£1,500 per month, excluding VAT
- Everything in Sapling
- Up to 10 hours of developer time per month
- Monthly technical audit with prioritised recommendations
- Performance and stability checks
- 8-hour response SLA, business hours
Canopy
£2,500 per month, excluding VAT
- Everything in Roots
- Up to 25 hours of developer time per month
- Fortnightly prioritisation and planning session
- Priority support with a same-day response target
- Emergency weekend and evening support
What the developer time is for
The hours are available for planned improvements as well as fixes. We agree priorities with you each month, and if repairs repeatedly consume the plan, we will explain which structural work would address the cause.
Questions we get asked
Will you support software somebody else built?
Yes. We start with a review of the codebase and infrastructure so we know what we are taking on, and so you get an honest picture of its condition before either of us commits.
What do the plans cost?
Sapling is £750 a month, Roots £1,500 and Canopy £2,500, all excluding VAT. They include 4, 10 and 25 hours of developer time respectively, alongside the monitoring, updates and planning sessions set out above.
Which one fits depends less on the size of the system than on how much you want to keep changing it. A stable site that mainly needs looking after sits happily on Sapling; a platform you are actively developing will use Canopy every month.
What are the response times?
Sapling carries a 24-hour response SLA and Roots an 8-hour one, both within business hours. Canopy targets same-day response and adds emergency cover in the evenings and at weekends.
Response means a person looking at it and telling you what is happening, not an automated acknowledgement.
Are we tied in?
The code, repositories and documentation are yours throughout, so you can leave by giving notice and handing the documented system to another developer. We would prefer to keep earning the renewal.
Discuss ongoing software support
Tell us what the system does, who currently maintains it and where support is falling short.