The verdict in three sentences
For a 6-year-old business application that rarely changes, time and materials at EUR 550 to 850 per day in Dublin or GBP 500 to 800 in London gets expensive as soon as requests pile up, while a fixed monthly fee makes the budget predictable. Work units suit applications that change often, provided the catalogue is precise. The application maintenance budget is, as a 2026 order of magnitude, 10 to 20% of the build cost per year, and the contract must set fix times from 4 hours to 5 days depending on severity.
The three maintenance models compared
Application maintenance covers three activities: corrective maintenance (fixing defects), preventive and adaptive maintenance (security patches, framework upgrades, browser compatibility) and evolutive maintenance (new features). For a regional health insurer or a mutual society, the member and claims application must also follow regulatory change, such as new reporting rules from the Central Bank of Ireland or the FCA.
In Dublin, consultancies charge EUR 550 to 850 per day; in London, GBP 500 to 800, as a 2026 order of magnitude depending on the profile. The model is simple, but all the risk sits with the client: a badly estimated fix costs twice as much as planned.
| Criterion | Time and materials | Work units | Fixed monthly fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principle | Days billed as used | Fixed-price task catalogue | Fixed amount per month |
| 2026 market price | EUR 550 to 850 or GBP 500 to 800 per day | EUR 300 to 2,500 per unit | EUR 1,800 to 7,000 per month |
| Budget predictability | Low | Medium | High |
| Overrun risk | Client | Shared | Provider |
| Best for | One-off projects | Frequently changing apps | Stable apps |
| Governance | Timesheets | Purchase orders | Monthly report and SLA |
The fix times to write into the contract
A maintenance contract without service levels protects nobody. Common practice defines three or four severity levels, each with a response time and a fix or workaround time. For an insurer, a defect that blocks claim payments is critical; a display glitch on a secondary screen is minor.
| Severity | Example | Response | Fix or workaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blocking | App down, reimbursement calculation wrong | 1 h | 4 business hours |
| Major | Certificate printing module down | 4 h | 1 business day |
| Minor | Search filter broken | 1 day | 5 business days |
| Cosmetic | Label or alignment | 2 days | Next release |
| Security | Vulnerability reported in a dependency | 4 h | 48 h |
Late penalties are usually capped at 5 to 15% of the monthly fee. Also include a reversibility clause: up-to-date documentation, access to source code and 5 to 10 days of knowledge transfer if you change provider.
What Kolonell offers on a fixed fee
Kolonell maintenance comes in three monthly levels: 35,000 FCFA (53 EUR), 75,000 FCFA (114 EUR) and 120,000 FCFA (183 EUR) per month. These plans cover monitoring, backups, security updates and corrective maintenance depending on the level. Service level commitments specific to your context and evolutive work are quoted on request. If the application needs a rebuild, it is priced on the custom application grid: simple from 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 FCFA, medium from 4,000,000 to 7,000,000 FCFA, complex from 7,000,000 to 15,000,000+ FCFA.
The gap with market prices comes from a Dakar-based team with a different cost structure. Dakar runs on GMT all year, the same time as Dublin and London in winter and one hour behind in summer, so business hours overlap almost entirely.
Mini case study
Aoife, IT director of a health insurer in Dublin, maintains an application that cost EUR 150,000 six years ago. Her current provider bills time and materials: 32 days in 2025 at EUR 700, or EUR 22,400, about 15% of the build cost.
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- Kolonell fixed fee: 120,000 FCFA per month, or 183 x 12 = 2,196 EUR per year for monitoring, security and corrective work.
- Regulatory changes estimated at 10 days per year, quoted on request.
- If those changes cost as much as today (10 x 700 = EUR 7,000), the total is about EUR 9,200, a saving of roughly EUR 13,200 per year.
Aoife keeps functional ownership in-house, asks for a monthly ticket report and writes the 4 business hour target for blocking defects into the contract.
FAQ
What annual budget should we plan for application maintenance?
The 2026 order of magnitude is 10 to 20% of the build cost per year. For a EUR 150,000 application, that means EUR 15,000 to 30,000 per year on classic time and materials.
Fixed fee or time and materials for a 6-year-old app?
For a stable application, a fixed fee is more predictable and moves overrun risk to the provider. Time and materials remains useful for a one-off job, such as a 20-day major upgrade.
What should the reversibility clause include?
Handover of source code, documentation and access, plus 5 to 10 days of knowledge transfer. Without it, changing provider can take months.
Can a Dakar-based provider meet a 4-hour target?
Yes, Dakar is on GMT, between 0 and 1 hour from Dublin and London depending on the season. Business hours overlap almost completely, so response within the hour is realistic.
How do you take over an application you do not know?
A 2 to 4 week takeover phase covers code audit, monitoring setup and documentation. It is quoted on request according to the size of the application.
Let's scope your project. Tell us about your application, its technology and your current ticket volume, and we will propose a maintenance model and service levels that fit. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
