What Happens After Launch? Custom Software Maintenance, Explained

Short answer: after launch, a custom web app needs four things — a place to live (hosting), security updates, the odd fix, and new features when your business grows. Someone has to own each of those jobs. With us, the first three are covered by the monthly fees, and new features are billed hourly only after you approve them in writing. And if you ever leave, your data leaves with you.

This is the question buyers rarely ask out loud: what if it breaks and the developer disappears? It's a fair fear — the industry earned it. So here's the honest picture of life after launch, including the parts that protect you.

What maintenance actually involves

For a custom web app, "maintenance" is four small jobs, not one mysterious big one:

• Hosting. Server rent — the app has to run somewhere, and someone has to watch it and keep backups. For a small business app this should be boring, the way rent should be.
• Updates. The building blocks under your app (frameworks, libraries) get security patches. Applying them is an hour here and there, not a project — but it has to actually happen.
• Small fixes. The button that misbehaves on one person's phone, the report that formats oddly. Minutes to hours of work, occasionally.
• Feature additions. The good kind: the app is earning its keep, so you want it to do more. This is growth wearing a maintenance costume.

Worth saying plainly: the code itself doesn't wear out, but the ground under it moves. Browsers update, libraries get security patches, certificates expire. Most of the visible "maintenance" spending is really evolution — the business changed, so the software should too — but the quiet upkeep is what keeps it safe.

What it costs, realistically

It depends on who's responsible for the upkeep. There are two common setups:

• You own the code. You pay for hosting directly, plus someone's time for updates and fixes — pay-as-you-go or a monthly agreement with a developer you choose. Raw hosting for a small app is usually the cheap part; the real cost is making sure someone actually does the upkeep.
• The developer licenses and maintains it. A monthly fee covers the upkeep, and keeping the app running is the developer's job.

We use the second model. Our standard rates are a $650/month platform fee plus $49/month per staff login, adjusted to each project and confirmed in a written quote. Together, the monthly fees cover hosting, monitoring, backups, security updates, bug fixes, and email support. New features after launch are $150 an hour, done only after you approve the work in writing, with the hours tracked and reported. Whoever you hire, they should be able to tell you exactly what a monthly fee covers. Our cost guide lays out what's included and what's billed separately, and why we price it monthly explains the reasoning.

The exit: your data leaves with you

Here's what our agreement says about leaving. We own and maintain the software and license it to you while you're a client — which means keeping it running is our job, not a favor. If you ever want out, either side can end the agreement with 60 days' written notice. Your data is made available to you in a common format, and you have 30 days after the agreement ends to take it; help moving to a new system is available at the hourly rate. No hostage data: your records are yours, and they leave with you.

Whoever you hire, get the exit terms in writing before you sign: how much notice, what format your data comes back in, and what help with the transition costs. It sits near the top of our questions to ask a software developer.

Red flags in maintenance contracts

• No written data-export terms. If the contract doesn't say how your data comes back to you, and in what format, ask. Then keep asking.
• A monthly fee nobody can itemize. A maintenance fee should say what it covers — hosting, backups, security updates, fixes — in plain English.
• Billable work you never approved. Any change that costs money should be described and approved by you, in writing, before it starts.
• No way out. Every agreement should say how either side can end it, and with how much notice.

None of these are normal or necessary, and the fix is simple: get the answers in writing before you sign.

Frequently asked questions