Software Maintenance
Keeping working systems working — including ones built by somebody else.
What happens after launch — the part that decides whether the investment lasts.
Software does not sit still after it is delivered. Dependencies get security patches, browsers change, payment gateways update their APIs, and the business itself changes what it needs.
A maintenance arrangement is what turns that from a series of emergencies into a routine. It should say what is covered, how quickly, and what happens outside those hours — in writing.
Keeping working systems working — including ones built by somebody else.
Software shaped around the way your business already works, instead of a packaged product you have to reorganise around.
Hosting designed around what your application actually needs, with the monitoring and backups that make it safe to rely on.
People look for this subject using a lot of different wording. These all describe the same thing, and this is the page for all of them.
Security updates, dependency upgrades, monitoring, and fixes for defects, with agreed response times. Changes and new features are quoted separately so the two do not get confused.
Often, after reading the code. Whether it is sensible depends on what we find — some systems are cheaper to support than others, and we would say which before committing.
Related topics
Describe it in your own words and we will tell you what it would take, or whether something simpler would do the job.