SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE
PHP support and maintenance
Someone who knows your codebase, on the end of an agreed response time — whether we built it or inherited it. Including the version and dependency updates that stop a quiet problem becoming an emergency.
Three ways to buy support
Most people start on one and move to another once they see how often they actually call. We will tell you which one your usage points to.
Break-fix
You call when something is wrong, we scope it and fix it. Cheapest per month, and the slowest when it matters, because every job starts cold with someone re-reading the code.
Retained hours
An agreed block of hours each month covering fixes, small changes and update work, with a statement of where the hours went — so the plan is easy to size up or down.
Managed
We take on the health of the application: monitoring, patching, PHP and dependency versions, backups verified by restoring them, and a response time agreed in the contract rather than implied.
What a support plan covers
The routine work that keeps an application boring, which is the highest compliment a production system can be paid.
Incident response
A named route to a developer with your codebase in front of them, not a shared inbox.
Security patching
Core, framework and library patches applied and tested, not saved up for the next big release.
PHP version updates
Kept on a version that still receives security fixes, so the upgrade never becomes a project.
Dependency updates
Composer packages and plugins reviewed and moved forward before they are abandoned upstream.
Monitoring and alerting
Uptime, error rates and certificate expiry watched, so we usually see it before your customers do.
Backups that restore
Backups taken and periodically restored into a test environment, because an untested backup is a hope.
Small changes
The content, template and integration changes too small for a project and too fiddly for your team.
Performance work
Slow queries, caching and page weight addressed against real measurements rather than a feeling.
RESPONSE TIMES
What “four-hour response” actually means
Response time is how long before a person picks it up. Resolution time is how long before it is fixed. Suppliers quote the first and customers hear the second, which is where most support relationships go wrong.
So we agree severity levels first, in writing, and the target times attached to each one go in your contract rather than on a marketing page. Here is the framework we start from.
P1 — Down
The site or a business-critical function is unavailable, or data is at risk. Work starts immediately and continues until there is a fix or a workaround.
P2 — Impaired
Something significant is broken but there is a way round it. Scheduled into the current working day.
P3 — Bug
Wrong behaviour that is irritating rather than blocking. Batched into the next release.
P4 — Question or change
A question, a content tweak or a small change. Handled within the retained hours.
How support starts
Before we take responsibility for something, we find out what it is.
01
Audit
A read of the codebase, the hosting, the PHP version and the integrations, so nobody is guessing on the first incident.
02
Plan and price
The level, the severity targets and the hours, written down, with what is in and what is out.
03
Onboarding
Access, monitoring and a runbook set up, so any of our developers can pick up a ticket, not just the one who did the audit.
04
First review
A session after the first month to compare what actually happened with what we sized for, and adjust.
Our recent clients
Organisations of all sectors and sizes draw on our PHP development expertise.
Support questions
Will you support an application you did not build?
Yes, and most of what we support we did not build. It starts with an audit so we are not learning the code during your first incident. If the audit finds something that makes the application unsafe to support as it stands, we tell you that before you sign anything.
What counts as an emergency?
The site or a business-critical function being unavailable, or data being at risk. Severity levels and the target times attached to them are agreed in the contract, so nobody argues about the definition at the point it matters.
Do unused retained hours roll over?
That is agreed when we set the plan up, and either answer is fine as long as it is written down. What we will not do is quietly bill for hours nobody can account for — you get a statement of what the time went on.
Do you support out of hours?
It depends on the plan. Out-of-hours cover costs more because it means someone on a rota, so it is worth being honest about whether your application genuinely needs it or whether next working day is fine.
Can you host it as well?
Yes. Hosting and support together mean one number to call when something is wrong, instead of two suppliers pointing at each other.
What if we want to leave?
You take the code, the documentation and the runbook. They are yours throughout, not something handed over at the end as a favour.
Contact us!
Do you have a question about our PHP development services?
Looking for a bespoke solution for your website?
We’re here to help!
What happens next
We reply within one working day. The first call is 30 minutes, with a developer on it, and there is no charge for it.
Phone:
0203 507 1728