Someone on watch whenyour theme breaks.
A Shopify developer kept on retainer for your storefront, fixing what breaks, building what you need and sorting out whatever has made it slow. 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 and blocks · 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 much time is reserved for you each month, and how fast you're answered. A day means eight working hours and doesn't have to be spent in one go. Only two of these three are retainers: if your store is stable, the first column is the honest answer, and a retainer tends to start paying for itself somewhere north of £10,000 a month in revenue.
Checking these against the market? Here's what a Shopify retainer should cost in the UK — the hourly rates behind every monthly figure, and what to argue about in someone else's quote.
£650 / 5 hours
For a stable store that needs a developer occasionally, not monthly.
- Five hours, drawn down whenever you need them
- No monthly bill and nothing to cancel
- Bug fixes, changes and small builds
- Replies within 2 working days
- Credited in full if you move to a retainer
£1,150 / month
For a store that's actively changing: campaigns, sections, fixes.
- Replies within 1 working day
- Priority in the queue
- Bug fixes and app conflicts, as they surface
- New sections and template work
- Speed checked whenever something new goes live
£2,000 / 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
- A theme check before peak season
- Quarterly roadmap session
Need more than two days 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 time 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.
Time you don't use rolls over for one month, then expires. So a quiet January isn't wasted, but a balance can't quietly build up into a debt I owe you a year from now. If you're routinely rolling over, you're on the wrong tier and I'll say so.
Harbour is one day of hands-on work a month, Deep Water is two. Extra work beyond that is £175 an hour, agreed in writing before it starts. That's deliberately above the rate your retainer works out at, because reserved time should always be the cheaper way to buy it. Nothing gets billed that you haven't approved.
Out-of-hours and site-down work is £250 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. Where a block of hours is for whatever comes up, this is for work you can already describe.
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.
£900 / day
A theme setup and customisation typically runs about four days, roughly £3,600. 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 live Shopify store on an ongoing retainer, 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.
My store is stable. Do I need a retainer at all?
Probably not, and I'd rather say so here than take a direct debit for a year. Shopify hosts your store, patches it and keeps it up, so there's no rot to hold back the way there is on WordPress. If nothing much changes month to month, buy a block of five hours and draw it down when something breaks. A retainer earns its money once your store is changing regularly or once an hour of downtime costs more than the monthly fee — as a rough line, somewhere north of £10,000 a month in revenue.
Does a day have to be used in one go?
No. A day is eight working hours and it gets spent however your month actually goes: an hour on Tuesday, three on a new section a fortnight later, the rest on whatever breaks. It's quoted in days because that's the unit real work arrives in, not because you have to book one.
What counts as time on the clock?
Time spent on your store: investigating, writing code, testing and deploying it. Reading your email and replying to it doesn't come off your time. Neither does the time it takes me to understand a bug I've caused.
What happens to time I don't use?
It rolls over for one month and then expires. A quiet month isn't money thrown away, but it doesn't build into a bank either — you're reserving capacity and a fast answer, not buying credit. If you're rolling over most months, you're on the wrong tier or you want a block of hours instead, and I'll tell you which.
Why is a retainer day more than your £900 build day?
Because they buy different things. A build day is booked in advance and I know what I'm doing before it starts. A retainer day is held open for you, which means turning other work away to keep it free, and the answer to "can you look at this today?" being yes. You're paying for the availability as much as the hours. The same logic sets the rest of the ladder: the more notice you give me, the cheaper the hour. If your store doesn't need anything held open, a build or a block is the honest recommendation.
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, reserved time, 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.
Still working out whether any of this is a fair price? Read what a Shopify retainer should cost in the UK, written against the published market rather than against this page.
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