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Monthly Retainer

Your product is live. We keep it running and improving.

For one predictable monthly fee, a VAUG team fixes bugs, keeps your app secure and up to date, watches it around the clock and ships a set of improvements every month. AI-powered monitoring and testing mean problems get caught early and fixed fast.

  • Bug Fixes & Support
  • Security & Updates
  • Monitoring & Uptime
  • Small Features Each Month
  • AI Upgrades
  • Monthly Report
Book a strategy callHow we work

This month

1 fee

Same fee
  1. MonitorW1
  2. FixW2
  3. ImproveW3
  4. ReportW4

Monthly cost Retainer Ad-hoc fixes

Illustrative example: One month on a retainer
every month, agreed up front
1 feeevery month, agreed up front
monitoring with alerts to our team
24/7monitoring with alerts to our team
improvements shipped and reported
Monthlyimprovements shipped and reported

The problem

Sound Familiar? 

  • Nobody owns it after launch

    The original team moved on. Bugs pile up and every fix means finding a new freelancer.

  • Updates keep slipping

    Outdated libraries, expiring certificates and app store rules nobody is tracking.

  • You find out from customers

    Downtime and broken checkouts reported by users, not by an alert.

  • Small ideas never ship

    A list of small improvements that's too small for a project and too big to ignore.

What's included

What's Included Every Month. 

Best for live products that need steady care.

  • Bug fixes & support

    Report an issue and we triage, fix and release it, with agreed response times.

  • Security & updates

    Dependencies, frameworks, OS versions and app store requirements kept current.

  • Monitoring & uptime

    Errors, speed and uptime watched around the clock, with AI flagging issues early.

  • Monthly improvements

    A set of small features and UX tweaks planned with you and shipped each month.

  • AI upgrades

    Add AI search, assistants or automations to your product as they make sense.

  • Monthly report

    What we fixed, what we shipped, how the app performed and what's next.

How it works

How a Retainer Runs. 

  1. 01

    Week 1

    Health check

    We review the code, hosting and backlog, and fix anything urgent first.

  2. 02

    Week 1

    Agree the plan

    Response times, monthly scope and the first month's priorities, in writing.

  3. 03

    Always on

    Monitor

    Alerts, error tracking and uptime checks set up and watched.

  4. 04

    Every week

    Fix & improve

    Support tickets handled as they come, planned improvements shipped each week.

  5. 05

    Monthly

    Report & re-plan

    A monthly report and a short call to set the next month's priorities.

How we start

Check its health first. Then look after it monthly.

Every retainer starts with a health check of your product, so we both know what we're looking after before the first invoice.

  1. This week

    Step 01

    Product review call

    Walk us through your product, your stack and what keeps going wrong.

    What you get

    • A first view on risks
    • What a monthly plan would cover
    • Suggested retainer size
    Get a tailored proposal
  2. 1 week

    Step 02Where most start

    Health check

    A review of code, security, hosting, monitoring and your backlog, with urgent fixes flagged.

    What you get

    • Written health report
    • Prioritised fix list
    • A monthly plan and fee, in writing
    Get a tailored proposal
  3. Monthly rolling

    Step 03

    Monthly retainer

    Support, updates, monitoring and planned improvements every month, for one agreed fee.

    What you get

    • Agreed response times
    • Improvements every month
    • Monthly report and planning call
    Get a tailored proposal
  • One agreed monthly fee
  • Scale the plan up or down monthly
  • You own the code and IP
  • NDA on request

Deliverables

What You Get Every Month. 

  1. 01Bug fixes with agreed response times
  2. 02Security patches and dependency updates
  3. 0324/7 monitoring and error alerts
  4. 04Backups and uptime checks
  5. 05Planned improvements shipped
  6. 06App store and platform compliance
  7. 07Monthly performance report
  8. 08A named VAUG lead

Why VAUG

Why Teams Choose VAUG. 

  • We manage it, not you

    We decide who does what across design, engineering, QA and DevOps. You just set priorities.

  • AI-powered upkeep

    AI-assisted testing, monitoring and code review catch problems early and fix them faster.

  • A fee you can plan around

    One monthly figure, agreed up front. No surprise invoices for small fixes.

  • We'll take code we didn't write

    Built by another agency, a freelancer or an AI builder? We review it and take it on.

Case studies

Monthly Retainer in Practice. 

See all case studies

Technology

Tools We Use. 

Apps we look after

  • Next.js
  • React
  • Flutter
  • React Native
  • Node.js
  • Python

Platforms

  • AWS
  • Vercel
  • Supabase
  • Firebase
  • Shopify
  • WordPress

Monitoring & quality

  • Sentry
  • Datadog
  • Better Stack
  • Playwright
  • GitHub Actions
  • Dependabot

Engineering behind it

Industries

Sectors We Know. 

We look after live booking apps, marketplaces, portals and internal tools across sectors.

Who it's for

Who Monthly Retainer Is For. 

Questions We Hear Often. 

  • How is this different from Dedicated Developers?

    With Dedicated Developers you get named engineers and direct them yourself. On a retainer we manage the work: we pull in design, engineering, QA or DevOps as needed to keep your product fixed, secure and improving.

  • What does the monthly fee cover?

    Support and bug fixes, security and dependency updates, monitoring, and an agreed amount of improvement work each month. It's all set out in writing after the health check.

  • Can you look after an app someone else built?

    Yes. We start with a health check, fix anything urgent and document what we find. We take on apps from other agencies, freelancers and AI builders like Lovable or Bolt.

  • What if we need more one month?

    Tell us. We can scale the plan up for a busy month or quote a larger feature separately, and scale back down afterwards.

  • How fast do you respond to issues?

    Response times are agreed in the plan, with faster cover for anything that stops customers using your product.

  • Is there a long contract?

    No. Retainers roll month to month with a short notice period.

Get in touch

Let's talk about Monthly Retainer.

Share a few lines about your idea, workflow or project. A senior lead replies within one business day.

  • Free 30-minute strategy call
  • NDA on request
  • Proposal within 48 hours
hello@vaug.in Our offices

We reply within one business day. No spam, ever.

Explore

Other Ways to Work With Us. 

Product live but nobody
looking after it?

Free 30-minute call · Health check first · One monthly fee

Start a retainer