Application maintenance and support contract: pricing and SLAs in Dublin (2026)

The verdict in three sentences

For a Dublin company inheriting a business application whose freelance developer has left, the priority is a takeover audit (3,500 to 7,000 EUR excluding VAT) before signing an application maintenance and support contract. Serious support costs 800 to 4,000 EUR per month depending on volume, with a 4 business-hour response, monthly security updates and 10 corrective hours included. The most often forgotten and most valuable clause is reversibility: without it, you swap one dependency for another.

The takeover audit: knowing what you own

Before pricing maintenance, the vendor must understand the code. The audit checks that you actually hold the source code and access (hosting, domain, database), measures technical debt and lists known vulnerabilities. On an app built solo by a freelancer over 2 or 3 years, it is common to find dependencies not updated for 18 months and no tested backup.

The audit takes 5 to 10 days and costs 3,500 to 7,000 EUR. It leads to a priced remediation plan, often 6,000 to 18,000 EUR, to complete in the first three months of support.

Support tiers and the commitments to demand

For a business app used daily by 20 to 50 people, Standard support is the right balance. Check three clauses: the precise definition of a blocking incident, whether unused hours roll over, and a notice period of 3 months maximum.

Mini case study

Aoife, CFO of an event equipment rental company in Dublin, relies on a booking app built by a freelancer who left in 2025. Last year three outages blocked bookings for 2 days each, with about 6,000 EUR of lost revenue per day and 3,300 EUR of emergency fixes, 39,300 EUR in total. She orders a 5,000 EUR audit, 10,000 EUR of remediation and Standard support at 1,700 EUR per month (20,400 EUR a year). First year: 35,400 EUR. With a 4-hour response, an outage lasts half a day: three incidents cost about 9,000 EUR. From year two, total cost (support plus incidents) falls to 29,400 EUR against 39,300 EUR before, nearly 10,000 EUR saved each year with a properly secured app.

FAQ

How much does application maintenance cost in Dublin in 2026?

Between 800 and 4,000 EUR per month excluding VAT depending on hours and commitments. Standard support with 10 corrective hours and 4-hour response sits around 1,400 to 2,400 EUR.

Do we really need an audit before taking over an app?

Yes, it costs 3,500 to 7,000 EUR and avoids discovering problems during an outage. Without it, no serious vendor will commit to a 4-hour response.

What if the freelancer keeps access to the code?

Request in writing the handover of source code, hosting and domain access. If the original contract assigns IP rights, a formal letter resolves about 80 % of cases.

Do unused hours roll over?

It depends on the contract: rollover of 1 to 3 months is common at Standard level. Negotiate it before signing rather than at the first quiet month.

What is reversibility?

It is the vendor's commitment to hand back code, documentation and access at contract end, within 15 to 30 days. It lets you switch vendor without starting over.

Let's scope your project. Describe your app, its user count and history and we will propose a takeover audit, a support tier and a monthly budget in euros. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.