Here is a pattern I see every few months. A business launches a website or app, the developer moves on, and for a year nothing happens. Then one morning the checkout stops working, or the contact form emails go to spam, or the host announces that PHP 7.4 is being switched off next week. Suddenly it is an emergency, and nobody has the login details.
Maintenance is the dull part of web development that keeps the exciting part alive. I'm Arun Tyagi, a freelance Laravel and React developer in Sector 58, Noida, and I look after sites and apps I built as well as ones I inherited.
What "maintenance" actually covers
Different developers mean different things by the word, so here is exactly what I include:
- Security updates: Laravel, WordPress core and plugins, PHP versions, and server packages.
- Backups that are tested: daily database and file backups, with a restore check every quarter. A backup you never tried to restore is a hope, not a backup.
- Uptime monitoring: alerts to my phone if your site goes down, not to your inbox three days later.
- Error tracking: I read the logs so problems get fixed before customers email you about them.
- Small changes: text edits, new banners, minor layout fixes, a new form field.
- Performance checks: slow queries, bloated images, expired caches.
What it does not cover
New features and big redesigns are separate work, quoted on their own. A fair plan has clear edges. If I blur the line between a "small change" and a new module, one of us ends up resentful. I would rather give you a written list and a monthly hours cap.
Plans
| Plan | Approx. monthly (INR) | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Basic care | ?8,000 - ?12,000 | Brochure sites, WordPress, small stores |
| Standard care | ?15,000 - ?30,000 | Laravel apps, active stores, a few hours of changes |
| Retainer | From ?45,000 | Products in active growth with a steady backlog |
| One-off rescue | ?10,000 - ?40,000 | Hacked site, broken update, urgent bug |
Annual billing gets a discount. There is no long lock-in; thirty days notice either way.
Response times I commit to
- Site down or payments failing: response within two hours on working days, usually faster.
- Broken feature, workaround exists: same working day.
- Small changes: within two working days.
I am one person, so I am upfront about this. I do not claim 24/7 staffed support. For most small and mid-sized businesses, a developer who reliably responds in a couple of hours is what matters.
Taking over a site someone else built
Common and perfectly fine. I start with a short audit: who owns the domain and hosting, what version everything runs on, whether there are backups, and what is obviously fragile. You get a one-page report with fixes ranked by risk. Sometimes the answer is "this is fine, keep it ticking." Sometimes it is "this plugin has not been updated in three years, and it is the reason you got hacked." Either way, you will know.
Upgrades worth planning for
- PHP and Laravel version upgrades, which are cheaper done regularly than in a panic after support ends
- Payment gateway API changes
- Browser or SSL certificate changes
- Moving to better hosting when traffic grows
If your app is on an old Laravel version, I will tell you plainly how risky that is and what an upgrade would take. See Laravel development for the upgrade work I do.
Why bother paying monthly
Think of it as insurance that also includes a mechanic. One hacked site or one lost weekend of orders typically costs more than a year of care. And a developer who touches your code every month already knows where things are when you urgently need a change.
Get started
Send me your site address and a note about who built it. I will look it over and tell you which plan, if any, makes sense. WhatsApp +91 8791775933 or book a free call. If your site is in rough shape, mention that up front; I have seen worse.