Someone on watch whenyour theme breaks.
A Shopify developer kept on retainer for your storefront, fixing what breaks, building what you need and watching what slows down. Fixed monthly price, published below. Cancel any month.
Why a retainer · not an emergency call
Themes break on their schedule, not yours.
Nothing on this page is a subscription to software. It's a standing arrangement with a developer who already knows your store, so the answer to "can you look at this?" is yes, not "I'm booked until March."
- Tuesday
An app update quietly changes the cart. You find out from a customer who couldn't check out.
- A theme release
Take the update and risk your customisations, or stay behind and drift. Most stores drift.
- Black Friday
Something's broken and every good freelancer is booked solid. This is the week it costs the most.
Retainers · read them in ten seconds
Pick a depth.
Every tier is the same developer and the same standard of work. The only difference is how many hours are reserved for you each month, and how fast you're answered.
£300 / month
For a stable store that needs cover, not a project.
- Replies within 2 working days
- Bug fixes and breakages
- Theme and app updates applied
- Speed and uptime watched
£750 / month
For a store that's actively changing: campaigns, sections, fixes.
- Everything in Anchor
- Replies within 1 working day
- Priority in the queue
- New sections and template work
- Core Web Vitals monitored
£1,600 / month
For high-volume stores where an hour of breakage costs real money.
- Everything in Harbour
- Answered the same working day
- A direct line, not a form
- Quarterly roadmap session
Need more than 16 hours a month?
At that point it's closer to having a developer on the team than a retainer, and it's priced for your store rather than off a list. Tell me what you're running and we'll work out the right shape.
Scope · both halves of it
What's covered, and what isn't.
The second column matters as much as the first. Anything in it is still work that can be done. It's quoted separately, so a retainer never quietly turns into an unpaid redesign.
Covered by the retainer
- Bugs and breakages, wherever they surface
- Theme updates, applied without losing your customisations
- Liquid, CSS and JavaScript changes
- App conflicts, traced and resolved
- Speed and Core Web Vitals work
- New sections and blocks for your theme
- Small design changes, on the pages you already have
Quoted separately
- Full redesigns and new theme builds
- Custom Shopify app development
- Migrations from another platform
- Product and content entry
- Brand, photography and copywriting
- Anything larger than the hours in your tier
The small print · in full
No surprises on the invoice.
Four things worth knowing before you sign up
All of it is on this page rather than in a contract you find later.
Hours reset at the end of each month and don't roll over. You're reserving capacity, not buying credit. If that doesn't suit your store, take a smaller tier.
Extra work beyond your tier is £125 an hour, agreed in writing before it starts. Nothing gets billed that you haven't approved.
Out-of-hours and site-down work is £200 an hour with a two-hour minimum. Weekends, evenings, and the last week of November included.
One month's notice, any month, no minimum term and no exit fee. Your theme and code are yours throughout. Nothing is held hostage.
Not ready for a retainer
Start with the work instead.
Plenty of stores don't need a standing arrangement yet. They need one specific thing built properly. Day rate, quoted up front, same developer.
Most clients move onto a retainer afterwards, and that's the honest reason this section exists: a build is how both of us find out what your store actually needs month to month.
£650 / day
A theme setup and customisation typically runs about four days, roughly £2,400. You get a fixed quote before anything starts, not an estimate that drifts.
- Fixed quote before work begins
- Your theme, your repo, your code
- Retainer credit in the first month
Who you'd be working with · and what they're already doing
This is already the day job.
Right now that includes maintaining a Shopify store on an 80-hour monthly arrangement, so the work on this page isn't a new line of business being tested on you. It's what the week already looks like.
Alongside it, Harbour Labs builds and maintains its own apps on the Shopify App Store. Theme work isn't a sideline here; it's the same surface, every day.
There's no account manager and no ticket queue. Emails reach the person who writes the code, because that's the only person here.
Questions before you commit
The awkward ones, answered.
What does "answered the same working day" actually mean?
A reply from the person who'll do the work, not an automated acknowledgement. And it means a response, not a resolution. How long a fix takes depends on what broke. If something is genuinely urgent I'll say so and start immediately; if it's a two-day job, you'll be told that on day one rather than day three. Working days are Monday to Friday, UK hours.
What counts as an hour?
Time spent on your store: investigating, writing code, testing and deploying it. Reading your email and replying to it doesn't come off your hours. Neither does the time it takes me to understand a bug I've caused.
What happens to hours I don't use?
They expire at the end of the month. That's deliberate and worth being upfront about: you're paying for reserved capacity and a fast answer, in the same way that an insurance premium buys cover rather than a credit balance. If you're routinely using half your hours, move down a tier. I'd rather you were on the right one.
Can I change tier or stop?
Any month, with a month's notice, in either direction. No minimum term, no exit fee, no cancellation call. Your theme, code and repository access stay yours throughout.
Will you work on my theme, or only certain ones?
Any Shopify theme: Online Store 2.0, older vintage themes, custom builds, and headless storefronts where the front end is the thing that needs support. If a theme is in a state where maintenance isn't sensible, I'll tell you that before taking your money rather than after.
Something's broken at 11pm on Black Friday. What then?
Out-of-hours work is £200 an hour with a two-hour minimum, on any tier. Retainer clients get answered first. To be straightforward about it: this is one person, not a rota, so I can't promise instant cover at 3am. If guaranteed round-the-clock response is what you need, an agency is the honest recommendation.
Is there a contract?
A one-page agreement covering scope, hours, notice and confidentiality. Everything commercial in it is already on this page. There's nothing in the document that you haven't read here first.
Request a berth
Tell me what's breaking.
Send the store and the problem. You'll get a straight answer about which tier fits, including "you don't need one of these yet" if that's the truth.
- A reply within one working day
- No call required unless you want one
- No obligation, and no follow-up sequence
Prefer email? hello@harbourlabs.app