How Application Management & Maintenance Supports Your Team
Explore plan options, coverage differences and add-ons for application management & maintenance. Use this page to compare tiers, then build a plan in consultation with CipherX.
What Is Application Management?
Application Management is an ongoing monthly service that keeps your web or mobile application healthy after launch. This includes dependency updates, security patching, error monitoring, performance checks, and allocated hours for bug fixes — everything needed to prevent technical debt from compounding over time.
What Is Covered?
All plans include dependency and package updates, automated backups, uptime and error-rate monitoring, SSL management, and critical security patch application. Growth and above add staged deployments, automated test execution, database health reviews, and direct engineering contacts.
Choosing the Right Plan
Essential App Care is a solid foundation for recently launched apps with light ongoing change. Growth App Maintenance suits production apps with regular users. Business-Critical App Support adds SLA-backed incident response and a dedicated engineer. The Application Development Retainer is for teams that need continuous feature development, not just maintenance.
Essential App Care
Best for: Launched web apps that need dependency upkeep, backups, and basic monitoring.
Pricing based on coverage
Custom monthly quote
Setup fee confirmed during onboarding
Commitment terms confirmed in proposal
Response target: 2 business days
Support hours: Mon–Fri 9 am–5 pm ET
- Dependency & package updates (monthly)
- Automated daily backups with 30-day retention
- Uptime and error-rate monitoring
- SSL certificate management
- Security patch review & application (critical CVEs)
- 1 hour of minor bug fixes or config changes per month
- Monthly application health report
Growth App Maintenance
Best for: Production apps serving regular users that need proactive maintenance and faster turnaround.
Pricing based on coverage
Custom monthly quote
Setup fee confirmed during onboarding
Commitment terms confirmed in proposal
Response target: 1 business day
Support hours: Mon–Fri 9 am–6 pm ET
- Everything in Essential App Care
- Dependency & framework updates (bi-weekly)
- Database query performance review (monthly)
- 2 hours of bug fixes or minor enhancements per month
- Priority email & Slack/Teams support channel
- Automated test-suite execution after deployments
- Staged deployment pipeline review
- Quarterly technical debt & roadmap review call (30 min)
Business-Critical App Support
Best for: High-traffic or revenue-generating apps requiring proactive SLA-backed support.
Pricing based on coverage
Custom monthly quote
Setup fee confirmed during onboarding
Commitment terms confirmed in proposal
Response target: 4 business hours
Support hours: Mon–Sat 9 am–6 pm ET
- Everything in Growth App Maintenance
- Dedicated application engineer contact
- 4 hours of bug fixes or minor feature work per month
- Real-time error tracking (Sentry / equivalent)
- Incident response with post-mortem report
- Load and performance testing (quarterly)
- Security vulnerability scanning (bi-weekly)
- Bi-annual code review & architecture health check
Application Development Retainer
Best for: Teams that need ongoing feature development, not just maintenance — a dedicated monthly engineering allocation.
Pricing based on coverage
Custom monthly quote
Setup fee confirmed during onboarding
Commitment terms confirmed in proposal
Response target: 2 business hours
Support hours: Mon–Fri 8 am–7 pm ET (extended by agreement)
- Everything in Business-Critical App Support
- Dedicated senior developer(s) on retainer
- Agreed monthly sprint / hour block for new features
- Product backlog grooming & sprint planning support
- Code reviews and pull-request feedback
- CI/CD pipeline management
- Documentation updates with each release
- Monthly demo & stakeholder update session
Plan Comparison
Plans differ by update frequency, included development hours, incident response targets, test automation support, and whether a dedicated engineer is assigned. All are quoted in CAD based on your application's complexity and stack.
Essential App Care
- Monthly rate
- Pricing based on coverage
- Promotion / renewal
- Custom monthly quote
- Setup fee
- Confirmed in proposal
- Contract term
- Confirmed in proposal
- Response target
- 2 business days
- Support hours
- Mon–Fri 9 am–5 pm ET
- Included coverage
- 7 listed inclusions
Growth App Maintenance
- Monthly rate
- Pricing based on coverage
- Promotion / renewal
- Custom monthly quote
- Setup fee
- Confirmed in proposal
- Contract term
- Confirmed in proposal
- Response target
- 1 business day
- Support hours
- Mon–Fri 9 am–6 pm ET
- Included coverage
- 8 listed inclusions
| Feature | Essential | Growth | Business Critical | Dev Retainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly rate | Pricing based on coverage | Pricing based on coverage | Pricing based on coverage | Pricing based on coverage |
| Promotion / renewal | Custom monthly quote | Custom monthly quote | Custom monthly quote | Custom monthly quote |
| Setup fee | Confirmed in proposal | Confirmed in proposal | Confirmed in proposal | Confirmed in proposal |
| Contract term | Confirmed in proposal | Confirmed in proposal | Confirmed in proposal | Confirmed in proposal |
| Response target | 2 business days | 1 business day | 4 business hours | 2 business hours |
| Support hours | Mon–Fri 9 am–5 pm ET | Mon–Fri 9 am–6 pm ET | Mon–Sat 9 am–6 pm ET | Mon–Fri 8 am–7 pm ET (extended by agreement) |
| Included coverage | 7 listed inclusions | 8 listed inclusions | 8 listed inclusions | 8 listed inclusions |
Optional Add-Ons
Extend your plan with extra development hours, mobile crash monitoring (iOS/Android), database administration, API and third-party integration support, or QA and test automation. Add-ons are available at any time and can be adjusted each month.
Extra Development Hours
Add dedicated engineering hours to your plan for months with higher feature demand or sprint overruns.
Not included in the first-time offer by default
Mobile App Monitoring (iOS / Android)
Crash reporting, ANR tracking, and release health monitoring for native or cross-platform mobile apps.
Not included in the first-time offer by default
Database Administration
Monthly DBA services: index optimisation, query tuning, schema migrations, and backup validation.
Not included in the first-time offer by default
API & Third-Party Integration Support
Ongoing monitoring and maintenance of external API integrations (payment gateways, CRMs, ERPs, etc.).
Not included in the first-time offer by default
QA & Test Automation
Expand test coverage with automated end-to-end and regression test suites, reducing release risk.
Not included in the first-time offer by default
First-Time Client Offer
New Application Management clients receive a promotional rate for their first full billing month. The offer is confirmed at quote time and subsequent months renew at the standard rate agreed during onboarding.
Onboarding Process
We begin with a code review and environment audit to understand your architecture, CI/CD pipeline, and current state of testing. Onboarding takes 5–10 business days and results in full documentation, monitoring setup, and a clear scope of monthly work. You receive portal access and an engineering contact before the first billing month begins.
Frequently Asked Questions
See the FAQ section below for details on supported stacks, the difference between maintenance and a dev retainer, how deployments are handled, and policies around unused monthly hours.
Full answers are listed in the FAQ section below.