Your developer left. We take it from here.
We take over PHP applications nobody on your team understands anymore. We sort out access, make the app reproducible, cover the critical paths with tests and document how it all works.
Signs you need a takeover
The person who built it is gone
A freelancer moved on, an employee left, or the agency closed or dropped the project.
Nobody can deploy with confidence
Releases depend on one server, one laptop or one script nobody documented.
You don't know what you have
Which PHP version, which packages, which cron jobs, who has the passwords: nobody is sure.
Every change is risky
There are no tests, so a small fix breaks something in a place nobody expected.
The first 10 business days
A typical plan for a small application (size S). The exact scope and dates are in the quote.
01
Access and inventory
Together with you, we collect every access in one place: repository, servers, domains, DNS, third-party APIs, backups. Everything stays in your name.
02
Reproducible environment
The app runs in Docker the same way on any machine. No more "it only works on the old server".
03
Tests on what earns money
10–20 characterization tests on the critical paths, such as login, checkout or the reports your team relies on. They record what the code does today, right or wrong, so any change in behavior shows up before it reaches production.
04
CI, monitoring, backups
Every change runs through CI. Monitoring reports errors and downtime. We test a full restore from backup.
05
Runbook and report
How to deploy, roll back, rotate keys and handle the usual incidents, documented. Plus a report on what we found and what we recommend next.
What you get
Access inventory
Every account, key and service the app depends on, with its owner.
Architecture map
Modules, data flows, cron jobs, queues and external services on one page.
Docker environment
Any developer can run the app locally in minutes.
CI pipeline
Tests and static analysis run on every change.
Characterization tests
10–20 tests on the paths your business depends on.
Restore test
Proof that a backup can be restored, with the steps documented.
Monitoring
Uptime and error alerts that reach a person.
Runbook
Deploy, rollback and incident steps anyone on your side can follow.
Findings report
Risks ranked by urgency, with options and prices for the next step.
Time and price
| S | M | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | from €1,500 | from €3,000 |
| Typical duration | about 10 business days | agreed in the quote |
Why Care starts with a takeover
We can only keep an app safe if we can rebuild it, test it and restore it. The takeover gives us, and you, that baseline. If your app already has parts of it, the takeover is shorter. If it already has all of it (tests, CI, monitoring and a runbook), Care can start without one.
Takeover questions
We don't have all the passwords. Can you still take over?
Usually, yes. Domain registrars, hosting providers and Git platforms have recovery procedures for account owners. We prepare the list and the requests; you send them as the owner.
Does the previous developer need to help?
It helps, but it is not required. An hour of their time with our questions saves a lot of guessing. If that's not possible, we work from the code and the servers.
Do you need access to production?
Read-only access first. For the takeover itself we need deploy access, with keys you create and can revoke at any time. We don't copy production data to our machines.
Can you take over a legacy Laravel app with no tests?
Yes. The steps are the same for Laravel, Symfony, Zend Framework, CodeIgniter, CakePHP or custom code. Characterization tests work on any PHP code, with or without a framework.
Tell us what you've inherited
PHP version, framework, hosting, and who looked after it until now. We reply with the next step.