Application maintenance means handing the upkeep of a production platform to an outside team: hosting supervision, security patches, verified backups, user support and a monthly allowance of changes. We offer three contract levels, from 4,000 to 20,000 MAD per month depending on scope, with a takeover audit before any commitment on a system we did not build.

The problem this solves

A business platform lives eight to ten years. What costs money over that span is not development — it is the absence of upkeep. A dependency left unpatched for two years becomes a vulnerability you cannot fix without rebuilding around it. A backup never restored is not a backup. A regulatory change ignored ends as an emergency compliance project, at emergency rates.

The most common scenario is simpler still: the person who understood the system has left. The code is there, it runs, and nobody knows why. Maintenance exists so that knowledge of your system does not depend on one developer being available.

Three levels

Essential — 4,000 to 7,000 MAD / month. Business-hours support and small fixes, on top of the common baseline.
Active — 7,000 to 14,000 MAD / month. A monthly allowance of changes, a monthly report, and a contractual response time.
Strategic — 14,000 to 20,000 MAD / month. A larger allowance of changes, a quarterly roadmap, and sector regulatory monitoring.

Response time is set in the contract, per level, and it is not the same thing as resolution time: we commit to when somebody who knows your system picks the issue up, not to when a problem whose cause is still unknown will be solved. A provider promising a firm resolution time on a platform they have never seen is selling you a sentence, not a commitment.

Included at every level

Tested backups. Automatic backup, and a restore actually replayed at a defined interval. That is the only proof a backup works.
Dependency security updates — monitoring published vulnerabilities in the libraries your platform uses, and applying the fixes.
Availability monitoring — hosting supervision and an alert when the service stops responding, without waiting for a user to report it.
One contact who knows the system — not a ticket that starts from zero every time.
Bug fixes within the delivered scope.

Not included

Saying so avoids the argument in month three:

New modules and functional redesigns — those are projects, quoted separately.
Data migration from an external source.
Third-party licences and subscriptions (hosting, payment gateway, SMS service), which stay in your name.
End-user business support: we train your internal champions, we do not replace your support desk.
Changes beyond the monthly allowance of your level; those are quoted, never consumed without approval.

Two billing models

A platform we did not build — a monthly fee of 1,000 to 20,000 MAD. We take over code we did not choose, so the rate depends on the real state of the system and a takeover audit always precedes the commitment.
A platform built by Digi4 — 15 to 20% of the build cost per year. Upkeep effort follows the size of what was delivered rather than a flat figure. Below 15%, upkeep is not actually funded, and the client pays for catching up two years later.

Amounts exclude VAT and match our pricing page.

The takeover audit

Before committing to an existing system we spend a few days establishing what we are taking on: an inventory of dependencies and their age, the state of backups, the access and secrets in circulation, visible technical debt, likely breaking points. You receive the assessment whether or not you then sign a maintenance contract.

That assessment is sometimes unpleasant, and that is precisely its value. Occasionally the conclusion is that maintaining the system will cost more than rebuilding part of it; we would rather say so at the start than after a year of stacked patches.

Maintenance, hiring, or a freelancer?

A fair comparison, and the answer depends on your volume of change, not your budget.

An in-house developer. Immediate availability and real business knowledge — but a single person: their holidays, their departure and their blind spots become yours. Worth it once you have a continuous flow of changes, not for upkeep alone.
A freelancer. The lowest day rate — 800 to 2,000 MAD on this market — with no redundancy and no continuity obligation. An incident during another engagement waits.
Managed maintenance. A team, a commitment on pick-up time, monitoring and tested backups included. More expensive than a freelance day rate, and justified when platform downtime has a cost.

Our own test: if your platform can stop for two days without consequence, a freelancer is enough. If it carries your invoicing, your patient records or your service charges, it needs continuity that nobody can guarantee alone.

The first month

Week 1 — takeover audit: dependencies, backups, access, hosting, breaking points.
Week 2 — access and secrets handed over, monitoring and alerting in place, first backup restore actually tested.
Week 3 — outstanding security patches applied, in order of severity.
Week 4 — the assessment, the register of remaining risks, and the plan for the next three months.

After that the rhythm is monthly: fixes, changes within your allowance, a report. The report says what was done, what remains open and what we recommend — including when the recommendation is to do nothing.

Who this is for

A production business platform whose internal team no longer has a grip on it: a management back office, a client or member portal, a field application. If your need is a simple showcase site, maintenance is already part of our website creation offer and this contract would be oversized.

If your system is near end of life, the question is not maintenance but progressive rebuilding: see business platforms, where the most painful module is rebuilt first while the rest keeps running.

Getting started

Tell us about your platform: one conversation is enough for us to say whether a takeover audit is warranted, and which contract level your system corresponds to.

Maintenance & support