A senior outsourced development team, without the hire
Outsourced software development for businesses that need senior engineering without a permanent hire: ongoing development on the systems you already run, rescues of software nobody understands any more, integrations, and honest technical advice. Developers, not a helpdesk.
Most businesses hit the same wall. You need real technical skills, but not enough of them to justify a full-time salary, so the work lands on whoever's least afraid of computers and small problems quietly become expensive ones. That's the gap we fill: senior developers you can hand things to, on tap when you need them, out of the way when you don't.
From £10 an hour· fixed quote before we start
What you can hand to us
Anything a good in-house developer would pick up. These are the jobs that land on our desk most often.
Ongoing development
New features and improvements to your existing website, app, or system - shipped steadily, without you having to manage a project.
Fixes and rescues
The system nobody understands, the developer who left, the agency that stopped replying. We pick it up, work out how it runs, and get it healthy.
Plain-English technical advice
Sense-check a supplier's quote, choose between tools, or talk through a decision before you sign anything. Advice from people with no stake in the answer.
Maintenance and monitoring
Updates, backups, uptime monitoring, and security patches handled quietly in the background, so things keep working without you thinking about them.
Integrations and automation
Make the tools you already pay for talk to each other, and turn the weekly copy-paste routine into something that runs itself.
An extra pair of senior hands
Already have developers? We slot in alongside them for the crunch, the backlog, or the specialist piece nobody in-house has done before.
How the arrangement works
Some clients bring us one job at a time; others keep us on a small monthly retainer with agreed response times, so there's always someone to call. Both are fine, and you can move between them as your needs change - no long contracts, no minimum term.
Everything we touch stays yours: the code, the accounts, the passwords, and plain-English documentation of what we did. If you ever want to bring the work in-house or move elsewhere, you can, cleanly. We think that's exactly why clients stay.
Taking over a system nobody understands
This is the job that lands on our desk most often, and it arrives in a state: the developer left, the agency stopped replying, and nobody can say how the thing works. Here is exactly what our first thirty days look like, so you can compare it against anyone else you're considering.
Days 1-3: get the keys
An inventory of every account, repository, domain, server and third-party service, and putting them all in your name with us as removable administrators. Surprisingly often, this step alone finds something important that was in a former employee's personal account.
Days 3-7: read the code
How it's built, how it deploys, what it depends on, what's out of date and where the dangerous parts are. You get a written map at the end, in plain English.
Days 7-14: stop the bleeding
Backups working and a restore actually tested, monitoring and error alerting in place, and any critical security problem fixed. Nothing cosmetic until this is done.
Days 14-30: the honest assessment
A prioritised list of what needs doing, what it costs and what can safely wait. Including, occasionally, the recommendation that rebuilding is cheaper than continuing to patch.
Throughout: documentation
Written as we go, for whoever comes next, not for us. The point is that the business is never again dependent on one person's memory, including ours.
The uncomfortable bit
If we find something serious, whether a breach, an unlicensed dependency or a data-protection problem, you hear it straight away and in writing. That's the deal.
How you'd actually engage us
Two arrangements, and you can move between them without renegotiating anything. Job by job: you describe the work, we quote a fixed price for that piece, and there's no commitment beyond it. Most clients start here.
Or a small monthly retainer: an agreed number of hours a month with agreed response times, so there's always someone to call and small things get done without a quote each time. Unused hours don't roll up indefinitely, which we'd rather say plainly than bury; if you consistently aren't using them, we'll suggest you drop the retainer.
Specialist time starts from £10 an hour. There are no long contracts, no minimum term and no notice period beyond finishing what's in progress. Everything we touch stays yours: the code, the accounts, the passwords and the documentation, so leaving is a handover, not an argument.
More senior than a freelancer, cheaper than a hire
A capable in-house developer costs a serious salary before you add recruitment, training, and the risk of hiring wrong. A lone freelancer is cheaper, but you get one person's availability and one person's blind spots. An outsourced team gives you the middle ground: a bench of senior skills, paid for only when you use them.
We keep that affordable the same way we keep our builds affordable: experienced engineers using state-of-the-art AI tools for the routine work, and their own judgement for everything that matters. And if a job genuinely needs a specialist we're not - an accredited auditor, say - we'll tell you plainly and help you find one.
Common questions
How does pricing work for outsourced development?
Specialist time starts from £10 an hour, and you choose how to use it: one job at a time with a fixed quote per job, or a small monthly retainer with agreed response times so there's always someone to call. There are no long contracts and no minimum term, and you can move between the two as your needs change. Most clients start with a single job, see how it goes, and settle into a retainer once we've earned it.
Our old developer left and nobody understands the system. Can you take it over?
Yes, this is one of the most common jobs that lands on our desk. We start by reading the code and mapping how it actually runs, then stabilise the urgent problems before touching anything else. You get plain-English documentation of what we find, so the business is never dependent on one person's memory again, including ours.
Read this before you commit
Custom software
When the fix list turns out to need a proper new system rather than more patching.
Hosting and maintenance
The steady-state version: monitoring, backups, updates and fixes at a flat monthly figure.
Security reviews
An independent look at the systems we would be taking over, before we take them over.
What we have shipped
Products we built and still run, so you can judge the engineering instead of the sales page.
Related services
Tell us what needs doing
Describe the job, the broken thing, or the decision you're stuck on. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right people, and what it would cost.
Start the conversation