A support retainer keeps your existing Laravel application working. It does not build the next version of it. Here is where the line sits, why it exists, and what that means before you sign anything.
UK Laravel vacancies have collapsed 76% since 2024. Salaries haven't budged. The market is telling you something — and it isn't 'keep looking.'
Your developer is leaving — or has already left. The application works, but nobody else understands it. Here is the handover process that separates a three-week transition from a six-month crisis.
Sixty percent of Laravel applications are at least two versions behind. The cost of catching up doesn't grow on a calendar — it grows on a curve.
You've just inherited a Laravel application you didn't build. Before you change a single line of code — or pay someone else to — you need to know exactly what you're working with. This is the audit process, step by step, for both technical leads and non-technical business owners.
Most agencies won't tell you what a retainer includes until you're on a sales call. Here's everything — scope, hours, response times, exclusions, and how the UK market actually prices this — so you can decide before you pick up the phone.
Audit costs, upgrade costs, remediation costs, rebuild costs — and the one number that makes all of them look expensive. UK pricing data, published where it exists, estimated where it doesn't.
Seven warning signs that your Laravel application has crossed from asset to liability — each backed by published research, each with a practical way to check. Plus a ten-point scorecard to find out where you actually stand.