Someone on watch whenyour theme breaks.
A Shopify developer for your storefront, fixing what breaks, building what you need and sorting out whatever has made it slow. Ad hoc when you need it, or a monthly retainer you can 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.
Ad hoc or on retainer
Two ways to work.
Same developer and the same standard of work either way. The difference is whether time is held open for you. If your store is stable, ad hoc is the honest answer, and a retainer tends to start paying for itself somewhere north of £10,000 a month in revenue.
Ad hoc
For a stable store that needs a developer occasionally, not monthly.
- Fixes, changes and small builds, whenever they come up
- No monthly bill and nothing to cancel
- Scoped and agreed before work starts
- Replies within 2 working days
Retainer / monthly
Time reserved for your store every month, sized to how much it changes.
- Reserved time each month, from one day upwards
- Priority in the queue, replies within 1 working day
- Bug fixes and app conflicts, as they surface
- New sections and template work
- Speed checked whenever something new goes live
- Cancel any month, no minimum term
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 retainer
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, your retainer is too big and I'll say so.
A retainer is a set amount of hands-on time a month, agreed up front. Extra work beyond that is billed by the hour, agreed in writing before it starts. Reserved time is always the cheaper way to buy it, so the hourly rate sits above what your retainer works out at. Nothing gets billed that you haven't approved.
Out-of-hours and site-down work is billed at an emergency rate with a two-hour minimum, and the rate is agreed in writing before you need it. 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 ad hoc work 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.
By the day / quoted
A theme setup and customisation typically runs about four days. 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 "replies within 1 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, get in touch ad hoc 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 want a smaller retainer or ad hoc work instead, and I'll tell you which.
Why does a retainer day cost more than a 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. If your store doesn't need anything held open, a build or ad hoc work is the honest recommendation.
Can I change my retainer 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 billed at an emergency rate with a two-hour minimum, ad hoc or on retainer. 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, price, notice and confidentiality. Everything else in it is already on this page, and the price is agreed before you sign, so there's nothing in the document you haven't seen first.
Request a berth
Tell me what's breaking.
Send the store and the problem. You'll get a straight answer about whether ad hoc or a retainer fits, including "you don't need one of these yet" if that's the truth.
- A reply within two working days, usually sooner
- No call required unless you want one
- No obligation, and no follow-up sequence
Prefer email? hello@harbourlabs.app