Ongoing support

Planned capacity for maintenance, security, and steady improvement so deferred work has a defined place in the schedule.

Who this is for

You shipped something that matters. You need predictable help keeping it secure and healthy, plus a fair way to queue small improvements, without hiring a full team overnight.

Security patches and dependency updates keep slipping
Incidents repeat because root causes stay unaddressed
Your backlog includes fixes that need senior review before they ship
You want a partner who knows the codebase rather than a rotating ticket queue

What we deliver

Clear written scope, agreed response times, and one accountable owner on our side for continuity.

Product vs platform: This retainer is for application work on your product (bugs, small features, security hygiene on the codebase you ship). For platform engineering retainers (CI/CD, environments, observability, release safety as the main focus), see Infrastructure & scaling. Some teams run both; we scope them separately so invoices match reality.

Hygiene & reliability

Patching, monitoring gaps, backups, and “sharp edges” that cause outages.

Dependency and security updates (within agreed risk)
Incident triage and postmortems with actions

Product continuity

Small features and improvements delivered in a steady cadence, prioritized with you.

Backlog grooming and sizing
Release coordination with your stakeholders

Transparency

Monthly reporting: what shipped, what we learned, what we recommend next.

Clear boundaries on what is in vs out of scope
Optional link to Infrastructure & scaling for platform-heavy work

How we scope retainers

Retainers fail when scope is undefined. We agree on monthly capacity (days or points), response windows for different severities, and a change process when load spikes.

Baseline audit (short). Stack, deploy path, on-call history, top risks.
Proposal. Tier, monthly fee, inclusions/exclusions, and escalation path.
Quarterly review. Adjust tier if load or ambition changes.

Indicative pricing (monthly)

Monthly fees assume a defined number of engineering days per month and weekday response windows. Evenings, weekends, and 24/7 on-call are quoted separately.

Essential

What it covers: Security and dependency hygiene, prioritized fixes, and guidance within a defined monthly capacity with senior-level attention and clear boundaries.

Typical capacity: A predictable slice of engineering time each month, scoped to your risk profile.

Growth

What it covers: Higher monthly capacity for fixes plus a steady stream of small features; tighter coordination with your product owner.

Fit when: You are actively improving the product, not only keeping the lights on.

Partner

What it covers: Dedicated capacity, stronger SLAs, and leadership-level communication for business-critical systems.

Fit when: Downtime directly hits revenue or regulated obligations.

Figures are indicative. Final pricing depends on stack complexity, regulatory burden, on-call expectations, and whether we inherit documentation or need to reconstruct context from the codebase.