Shopify maintenance and support
Shopify Plus retainer and maintenance
An OUXP retainer is for Shopify and Shopify Plus brands whose to-do list never stops but doesn’t justify a full-time hire. You get a senior engineering team every month – maintenance, bug fixes, theme changes and small features, plus CRO tests and integration upkeep on Growth and Dedicated. Three plans from $2,500/month, month-to-month, with a first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours.
Why stores keep an engineering team after launch
Your store never stops – and neither should your engineering. Most Shopify stores don’t fail at launch. They wear down afterward, one app update and one quick patch at a time. These are the four situations that bring merchants to a retainer.
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Small problems add up
- What happens
- Apps update and start to conflict, theme patches pile up, page speed drifts down and small conversion leaks appear.
- On a retainer
- Monthly maintenance and a review of app and theme updates catch these problems before they cost sales.
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The to-do list grows faster than it shrinks
- What happens
- Fixes and ideas get agreed, then wait for someone with time to build them.
- On a retainer
- A set number of senior engineering hours every month, worked in the order you choose. Every item has an owner and a clear definition of done that you approve.
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The agency moved on after launch
- What happens
- Project agencies move to the next build, and your roadmap waits in someone else’s queue.
- On a retainer
- The same team every month – engineers who already know your code, apps and integrations.
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Nobody knows who to call when it breaks
- What happens
- When checkout fails, a new developer first has to learn the codebase while orders are lost.
- On a retainer
- Diagnosis starts with engineers who know the store. Add 24/7 coverage and that holds at 2 AM too.
Retainer plans and pricing
Three tiers, priced by the engineering hours you need each month. Every tier gets the same senior engineers and the same first response time.
| Feature | Essential $2,500/month 20 engineering hours | Most popular Growth $5,000/month 45 engineering hours | Dedicated $9,500/month 90 hours or a dedicated engineer |
|---|---|---|---|
| First response (business hours) | 30–60 minutes | 30–60 minutes | 30–60 minutes |
| Maintenance and bug fixes | Included | Included | Included |
| Theme customization | Included | Included | Included |
| CRO and A/B testing | Not included | Included | Included |
| Integration maintenance (ERP, CRM, 3PL) | Not included | Included | Included |
| Strategy calls | Quarterly | Monthly | Weekly |
| 24/7 emergency add-on | +$750/month | +$500/month | Included |
Month-to-month, cancel with 30 days’ notice. Unused hours roll over one month. Monitoring, reporting and account calls don’t use hours.
Which plan fits
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Essential – $2,500/month
For a stable store that needs upkeep: app and theme updates, bug fixes and a steady flow of small changes – 20 hours a month, with a strategy call every quarter.
- Engineering hours
- 20 a month
- First response
- 30–60 minutes in business hours
- Maintenance and bug fixes
- Included
- Theme customization
- Included
- CRO and A/B testing
- Not included
- Integration upkeep
- Not included
- Strategy calls
- Quarterly
- 24/7 coverage
- +$750/month add-on
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Most popular
Growth – $5,000/month
For a store that should keep improving, not just keep running: a monthly A/B testing cadence alongside maintenance, plus upkeep of the integrations with your ERP, CRM or 3PL – 45 hours a month.
- Engineering hours
- 45 a month
- First response
- 30–60 minutes in business hours
- Maintenance and bug fixes
- Included
- Theme customization
- Included
- CRO and A/B testing
- Included
- Integration upkeep
- Included (ERP, CRM, 3PL)
- Strategy calls
- Monthly
- 24/7 coverage
- +$500/month add-on
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Dedicated – $9,500/month
For a store with engineering work most days: 90 hours a month or one dedicated engineer who learns your store and stays on it, weekly strategy calls, and 24/7 emergency coverage included.
- Engineering hours
- 90 a month, or a dedicated engineer
- First response
- 30–60 minutes in business hours
- Maintenance and bug fixes
- Included
- Theme customization
- Included
- CRO and A/B testing
- Included
- Integration upkeep
- Included (ERP, CRM, 3PL)
- Strategy calls
- Weekly
- 24/7 coverage
- Included
Month-to-month, cancel with 30 days’ notice. Unused hours roll over one month. Monitoring, reporting and account calls don’t use hours.
Not sure which tier fits? An engineer looks at your store and your list, then recommends the one that fits the work – not the biggest one.
What every retainer includes
Priorities are agreed at the start of each month, and you talk directly to the engineers doing the work.
On every plan
- Monthly maintenance and a review of app and theme updates
- Troubleshooting and bug fixes
- Theme customization and frontend improvements
- Small feature development
- Performance monitoring against Google’s Core Web Vitals, with performance optimization when a page slips
- A monthly report: work completed, hours used and recommendations
- A direct Slack or email channel to your engineers
- First response within 30–60 minutes during business hours (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET)
Growth and Dedicated add
- CRO experiments and A/B tests on a monthly cadence, reported as what ran, what won and what shipped
- Maintenance of the integrations between Shopify and your ERP, CRM or 3PL
Senior engineers on every plan
On Essential, Growth and Dedicated alike: no juniors learning on your store. The same team that moves enterprise stores off Magento, Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud maintains yours, so routine maintenance gets migration-grade engineering. We use AI tools where they save time, so you get more output per hour, and a senior engineer reviews every change before it ships.
How we fix bugs and troubleshoot problems
Bugs on a live store rarely have one obvious cause. We find it – theme code, custom code, an app conflict, content or an integration – before changing anything, then check every journey the fix touches.
- 1
Describe it
What happens, where and since when. Post it in your channel – a link, a screenshot and the device are plenty.
- 2
Reproduce
We repeat the problem on a known page, device and account state, in a preview theme or staging – not on your live store.
- 3
Fix the cause
The smallest change that removes the cause, not just the symptom, reviewed by a senior engineer.
- 4
Verify and publish
We test the affected journey and the nearby ones that share its code, then publish once you approve. Not fixed? Back to step 2 with what we learned.
Problems we fix most often
- Conflicts after an app or theme update
- Broken sections, layouts and mobile display issues
- Cart, discount and checkout errors
- Orders, stock or customer data out of sync with an ERP, CRM or 3PL
- Pages that got slower, and Core Web Vitals that slipped
- Leftover code from apps you removed long ago
Every step is recorded, so the monthly report shows what changed and why. Store down or orders failing right now? Call +1 (818) 651-3226 – the emergency line is open 24/7. Response times and prices are under 24/7 coverage below.
How retainer hours work
You buy a monthly block of engineering hours, and only engineering work draws on it. The monthly report shows where every hour went.
Uses your hours
- Bug fixes and troubleshooting
- Theme customization and new features
- CRO experiments
- Integration work
Doesn’t use your hours
- Monitoring
- Monthly reporting
- Account calls
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Unused hours roll over
Hours you don’t use carry into the next month, once – so a quiet month isn’t wasted.
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Busy months cost the same per hour
Hours beyond your plan are billed at your tier’s effective hourly rate. If it happens regularly, we’ll suggest moving up a tier instead.
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No long-term contract
Every plan is month-to-month. Cancel with 30 days’ notice.
What happens when something breaks after hours
Essential and Growth can add 24/7 emergency coverage, and Dedicated includes it. Coverage means a first response within 2 hours outside business hours, around the clock, and incident work that starts straight away, instead of waiting until engineers are available. Covered clients never pay hourly for emergencies.
| Option | Price |
|---|---|
| 24/7 coverage on Essential | +$750/month |
| 24/7 coverage on Growth | +$500/month |
| 24/7 coverage on Dedicated | Included |
| One-time emergency, no retainer | $250/hour, 2-hour minimum |
During business hours (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET) every request gets a first response within 30–60 minutes, with or without coverage. Outside them, covered clients get a first response within 2 hours, around the clock; one-time requests are answered as engineers are available, so call rather than email.
Not a client? You can still call: one-time emergency work goes to senior engineers with priority scheduling. It fixes today’s problem; monthly maintenance is what makes the next one less likely.
How a retainer starts
Five steps from the first call to the first monthly report.
- 1
Strategy call
30 minutes with an engineer, not a salesperson: your goals, your stack and what keeps going wrong.
- 2
Store review
We look at your code, apps and performance baseline. Access goes through a Shopify collaborator request – no shared passwords.
- 3
Plan recommendation
The tier that fits the work you have, with the reasoning written down.
- 4
Onboarding
Access, documentation and a prioritized backlog.
- 5
Monthly cycle
Priorities agreed, work delivered through the month, then a report of what changed and what’s next.
Step 1 takes 30 minutes, and you get a tier recommendation before you commit to anything.
Want a full written report before you commit? A store audit costs $2,500 flat and ranks every finding by impact and effort, delivered in 5 business days.
Retainer, dedicated engineer or your own hire?
Three ways to get ongoing Shopify engineering. A retainer buys outcomes from our team; a dedicated engineer is one specific person embedded in yours; a hire is your own employee.
| Criteria | OUXP retainer | Dedicated OUXP engineer | Senior in-house hire |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | A senior team working through your list every month | One named senior engineer in your Slack, sprints and repositories | One employee |
| Cost | $2,500–$9,500 a month ($30,000–$114,000 a year) | Dedicated tier $9,500/month; full-time and half-time quoted after a fit call | $120K+ a year before benefits and recruiting |
| Skills covered | Frontend, backend, integrations and CRO from one team | Your engineer, with the OUXP team behind them for specialist work | What one person knows |
| Holidays and sick days | The team covers | Covered from the OUXP bench | The work waits |
| Getting started | A one-week onboarding | You meet the engineer before you commit, then an embed week | Recruiting, then ramp-up |
| Best when | The work never stops but doesn’t need someone full-time | You set your own product direction and need daily capacity | You want the skills inside the company for the long term |
Honest note
Essential costs $30,000 a year and Growth $60,000, against $120K+ for one senior Shopify engineer before benefits and recruiting. The Dedicated tier, at $114,000 a year, costs about the same as that hire – the difference is coverage: frontend, backend, integrations and CRO from one team, no recruiting or ramp-up, and no single person the store depends on.
If you need someone inside the company for years, hiring can be the right call – we also work alongside in-house teams. When you want one engineer embedded in your own workflow, see dedicated engineers.
What clients say after a year or more
Three clients on long-running engagements, quoted word for word from the Shopify Partner Directory.
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“I have worked with Vitali & OUXP team over several years and have always found his work and attention to detail a major asset to our team.”
Transient Specialistsvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Ongoing support -
“Vitali was a reliable contributor throughout the year when we needed help with Shopify's backend. He completed each task to spec and was especially helpful in solving unexpected problems when they came up.”
Golightly Cashmerevia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Ongoing support -
“We have now been working together for 1 whole year, and will continue to do so. Highly recommended.”
Restokitvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Apps & integrations
Reviews sometimes name our engineers – everyone named is part of the OUXP team.
Emergency support
Store down? Checkout broken?
- Store down or showing errors
- Checkout or payment failures
- A theme or app update broke something
- ERP, inventory or fulfillment sync stopped
Commerce engineers, not a help desk. Every request gets a first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours. Retainer clients with the 24/7 emergency add-on are covered around the clock. Not a client yet? Call anyway.
+1 (818) 651-3226 Emergency line 24/7 · Business hours Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET
Retainer questions
Something else? Ask an engineer – first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET).
How fast do you respond on a retainer?
Every retainer client gets a first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours – Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET (6 AM–6 PM PT) – on every tier and for every request. Outside business hours, clients with 24/7 coverage get a first response within 2 hours, around the clock. That coverage costs +$750/month on Essential or +$500/month on Growth, and is included on Dedicated.
What counts against my retainer hours?
Active engineering work: bug fixes and troubleshooting, theme customization, new features, CRO experiments and integration work. Monitoring, monthly reporting and account calls don’t use hours. The monthly report lists the work completed and the hours used, so you can see where every hour went before you set next month’s priorities.
What happens to unused hours, or if we need more?
Unused hours roll over for one month: use 12 of Essential’s 20 hours in March and the other 8 are added to April’s 20. Hours still unused after that expire. In a busy month, extra hours are billed at your tier’s effective hourly rate, so they cost the same per hour as the plan. If you go over regularly, we suggest moving up a tier – Growth includes 45 hours a month and Dedicated 90.
Can you maintain a store another agency built?
Yes – most of our retainers start that way, including half-migrated stores and setups still tied to legacy integrations. Before we touch production, we review the code, apps and integrations to learn how the store was built and where it is fragile. Changes are built in a preview theme or staging and published only after you approve them. If you want a written report first, a store audit costs $2,500 flat and takes 5 business days.
Who will work on our store?
Senior Shopify engineers only – no juniors learning on your store. The same team stays on your account month after month, so the engineers fixing a bug already know your code, apps and integrations. We use AI tools where they save time, and a senior engineer reviews every change before it ships. Access goes through a Shopify collaborator request, never shared passwords, and changes go live only after you approve them.
Do we need Shopify Plus for a retainer?
No. Retainers cover standard Shopify and Shopify Plus stores – maintenance, bug fixes, theme work, CRO and integration work run on any Shopify plan. Some work does need Plus: customizing the information, shipping and payment steps of checkout, and Shopify Functions in a custom app (public apps with Functions work on every plan). Since April 2026 core B2B features work on every paid Shopify plan; Plus adds more than 3 catalogs, catalogs assigned to specific companies and deposits.
Can we cancel a retainer, and is there a long-term contract?
You can cancel any retainer with 30 days’ notice, and there is no long-term contract – every plan runs month-to-month. If the work outgrows your plan and you regularly need more hours than it includes, we suggest moving up a tier rather than billing overage month after month. The monthly report and strategy calls show when that point has come, so the decision rests on the hours actually used.
Find the plan that fits your store
Tell us what keeps landing on your store’s to-do list. An engineer – not a salesperson – replies within 30–60 minutes during business hours, looks at the store and recommends a tier, or tells you if a retainer isn’t the right fit.