Launch day is amazing.
After months of hard work, stressful meetings, and difficult decisions, your new software is finally live. The client is happy. The development team is relieved. You pop the champagne.
Then, everyone goes home. The project is marked as “Done” in your project management tool. The team moves on to the next big client.
Silence.
Three months later, the client calls in a panic. “The login isn’t working! Our payment processor changed something, and now we can’t take money! Fix it NOW!”
You scramble to find a developer who remembers the code. They are busy on another project. The client is angry. You are stressed.
What went wrong?
You fell into the “Launch Day” Trap. You treated software development like building a house—once it’s built, you walk away.
But software is not a house. It is a living thing. The moment it goes live, it starts to decay.
This article explains why software breaks even when you don’t touch it, why relying on panic calls is the most expensive way to manage it, and why a professional Maintenance Retainer is the best insurance you can buy.
Table of Contents
- The dangerous illusion of “Done”
- Why software breaks (even if you don’t touch it)
- The high cost of “Ad-Hoc” panic support
- The solution: The Maintenance Retainer (SLA)
- Shifting from “Project Mindset” to “Product Mindset”
- How devtimate helps manage the long game
- Checklist
- FAQ
The dangerous illusion of “Done”
In the world of custom software, the word “Done” is a lie.
When you build a bridge, it is done. It sits there for 100 years and doesn’t change much.
When you build software, it is never truly done. It exists in a digital world that is constantly changing around it.
Think of your software like a brand-new car. On day one, it is perfect. But if you drive it for a year and never change the oil, never check the tires, and never tune the engine, it will break down on the side of the highway.
Clients often believe that because they paid a lot of money for the software (perhaps via a fixed price contract), it should just work forever.
It is the agency’s job to educate them. If you don’t plan for what happens after launch day, you are planning for a future crisis.
Why software breaks (even if you don’t touch it)
This is the hardest concept for non-technical clients to understand.
“We haven’t changed anything in the code for six months. Why did it suddenly stop working today?”
The answer is external dependencies. Your software does not live in a vacuum. It relies on dozens of outside factors that you do not control.
Here are the three main reasons your “perfect” software will break over time:
1. The outside world changes (OS & Browsers)
Your mobile app works perfectly on iOS 17 today. Tomorrow, Apple releases iOS 18. Suddenly, a core feature of your app crashes because Apple changed how the operating system works. You didn’t touch your code, but the environment around it changed.
2. Third-party tools change (APIs)
Your app uses Stripe for payments, Twilio for SMS, and Google Maps for location. These are separate companies. One day, Stripe updates their security protocols. They send an email saying: “You must update your code by next month, or payments will stop working.” If nobody is monitoring that email address, your business stops collecting money on that date.
3. Security threats evolve
A software library that is considered secure today might have a vulnerability discovered tomorrow. Hackers are constantly finding new ways to break in. If you aren’t actively installing security patches, your application becomes an easy target over time.
Conclusion: If your application stands still, it is actually moving backward.
The high cost of “Ad-Hoc” panic support
Many clients say: “I don’t want to pay a monthly fee. I’ll just call you if something breaks.”
This is called Ad-Hoc Support, and it is the worst possible way to manage software. It is bad for the client, and it is bad for the agency.
Why it is bad for the client:
- You wait in line: When you call in a panic, the agency’s developers are already busy on other scheduled projects. You are not their priority. You have to wait until someone is free.
- Whatever it costs: When your site is down, you don’t have time to negotiate. You have to pay emergency rates, which are often double the standard hourly rate.
- Brain drain: The developers who built your app might have left the agency. A new developer has to spend hours just learning how your code works before they can fix it. You pay for that learning time.
Why it is bad for the agency: It creates chaos. You cannot plan your resources. You constantly have to pull developers off planned work to fight fires, which makes your other projects late.
The solution: The Maintenance Retainer (SLA)
The professional alternative to panic is insurance. In software, this is called a Maintenance Retainer, often backed by a Service Level Agreement (SLA).
This is a contract where the client pays a fixed monthly fee in exchange for peace of mind.
What is the client buying?
They are not buying “bug fixes.” They are buying availability and prevention.
1. Guaranteed Response Time (The SLA) The most important part. The agency promises: “If you submit a critical issue, a human will look at it within 4 hours, guaranteed.” The client is buying a place at the front of the line.
2. Proactive Maintenance (Oil Changes) The agency doesn’t just wait for the phone to ring. Every month, they log in and perform routine tasks:
- Updating security patches.
- Checking server health.
- Backing up the database.
- Monitoring for those emails from Stripe or Google about upcoming API changes.
They fix problems before the client even knows they exist.
3. Small Feature Requests Often, retainers include a small bucket of hours (e.g., 10 hours/month) for minor tweaks. “Can you change this text?” or “Can you swap this image?”. This prevents the need for a formal Change Request process for tiny tasks.
Shifting from “Project Mindset” to “Product Mindset”
The transition from “build” to “maintain” requires a shift in thinking.
Project Mindset: “We have a defined scope, a deadline, and a budget. Once we hit the deadline, we are finished.” This is how you build the initial version (MVP).
Product Mindset: “Your software is a living asset that helps your business grow. It needs continuous investment to stay secure, fast, and relevant.”
Successful companies treat their software like a product. They know that Launch Day is just the end of the beginning.
During the initial Discovery Phase, smart agencies already start talking about post-launch support. They set the expectation early: “To keep this running smoothly after launch, you should budget roughly 15-20% of the initial build cost per year for maintenance.”
How devtimate helps manage the long game
Most people think of estimation tools for big, new projects. But devtimate is just as valuable for long-term maintenance.
When you have a client on a retainer, they will constantly ask for small new features. “Hey, can we add a ‘Print’ button to that report?”
You still need to estimate these small tasks to make sure they fit within their monthly bucket of hours.
- Quick Estimates: You can use devtimate to create super-fast estimates for tiny features (e.g., 2-4 hours).
- Retainer Tracking: You can see if the client has enough hours left in their monthly retainer to cover the new request.
- Transparency: You can show the client exactly where their monthly maintenance budget goes. “We spent 4 hours on security updates and 6 hours building that new ‘Print’ button you asked for.”
This level of transparency makes clients happy to keep paying the monthly fee because they see the value they are getting.
Use devtimate to manage your long-term client relationships.
Checklist
✅ Start talking about post-launch maintenance during the very first sales calls.
✅ Never let a client believe that “launched” means “finished forever.”
✅ Offer a standard Maintenance Retainer proposal alongside the main project proposal.
✅ Define a clear Service Level Agreement (SLA), what is your guaranteed response time?
✅ Explain the difference between “reactive support” (fixing bugs) and “proactive maintenance” (security updates).
✅ Use a tool like devtimate to track small maintenance tasks and prove value to the client every month.
FAQ
1. How much should a maintenance retainer cost?
A common industry standard is roughly 15% to 20% of the original project’s build cost annually. So, if a project cost $100,000 to build, a fair maintenance budget is around $15,000 - $20,000 per year (split into monthly payments).
2. What if the client doesn’t use their retainer hours in a month? Do they roll over?
This is a business decision for your agency. Most advise against rolling over hours. The retainer fee pays for your availability, whether they use it or not. Like gym membership or insurance, you pay to have the option. If hours roll over, you might face a massive pile of work six months later that you don’t have capacity for.
3. Is “hosting” the same as “maintenance”?
No. Hosting is just renting the server space where the code lives (like paying rent for a garage). Maintenance is the mechanic who keeps the car in the garage running. You need both.
4. Can’t the client just hire their own internal developer to maintain it?
They can. But hiring, training, and managing a full-time developer is expensive and difficult. An agency retainer gives them access to a whole team of experts (backend, frontend, DevOps, QA) for less than the cost of one full-time employee.
5. What happens if a massive bug appears that takes 100 hours to fix? Is that covered by the retainer?
Usually, no. A retainer covers routine maintenance and small tasks. A massive new issue or feature request would be treated as a new mini-project requiring a separate estimate and contract. The retainer agreement must clearly define what is “standard maintenance” and what is “new scope.”
Don’t let your hard work die on the vine.
Software needs care. By shifting your clients from a “Launch Day” mentality to a long-term partnership mentality, you protect their investment and build a stable, recurring revenue stream for your agency.
The goal isn’t just to launch; it’s to keep running. Use devtimate to help you manage the journey for years to come.
