Architect Retainer · Tier 3
A senior architect on call — before the next campaign breaks something.
Architecture reviews, sub-4-hour response, a monthly strategy session, and the next problem caught while it’s still cheap to fix. Month to month. No lock-in.
Who this is for
Past the firefighting — and you want to stay there.
The store is healthy, and you want it to stay healthy through growth and campaigns.
You have a small in-house team that ships well, but no senior architect to escalate to when a schema change, a new extension, or a big feature is on the line.
You’d rather pay to catch problems early than pay overtime — and lost orders — to fix them at peak, mid-campaign.
You want senior coverage you can start and stop as you need it, not a twelve-month agency contract.
Most retainers begin right after an Architecture Build, or after an audit that found a healthy store worth keeping that way.
What’s included
Architecture reviews
PRs, schema changes, new extensions, and big features reviewed before they ship, not after they break.
Sub-4-hour response
Anything you flag during business hours gets a senior response within 4 working hours.
Monthly strategy session
60 focused minutes on what’s coming: the campaign, the migration, the scaling question, the build-vs-buy call.
Early-warning monitoring
The recurring checks from the audit framework, run monthly, so regressions surface before your customers find them.
Build priority
Retainer clients go to the front of the build queue, at a retainer rate, when hands-on work is needed.
How the month runs
- Async, as it comes up.
- Flag a PR, an extension, or a “should we…?” — you get a senior read within 4 working hours, not a ticket in a queue.
- One scheduled strategy session.
- 60 minutes, booked, on what’s ahead.
- A monthly early-warning pass.
- The audit’s recurring checks, re-run, so drift gets caught.
- A short written note each month.
- What was reviewed, what changed, what to watch next. So the value is visible, not vague.
The response SLA
What you send, and when you hear back.
Production-impacting question
Response: same business day, prioritized. Triage, diagnosis, and a recommended next move — fast.
Architecture / code review
Response: 4 working hours (ack), reviewed within 1 business day. PRs, schema changes, extensions, feature designs before they ship.
Strategy & planning
Response: the monthly session, plus async as needed. Roadmap, migrations, scaling, build-vs-buy.
Honest scope: this is senior advisory coverage, not a 24/7 emergency pager or a managed-hosting NOC. If you need a hands-on build, we scope and quote it — at your retainer rate.
Why us
The same senior, every time.
No rotating account managers, no re-explaining your stack each quarter. The senior architect who knows your store is the one reviewing it.
Evidence over opinion.
Reviews and the monthly pass are grounded in what’s actually measured on your store — not a generic checklist.
Honesty is the business model.
If a quarter goes by with little to review, we’ll tell you to pause and come back when you need it.
10+ years on Magento and Adobe Commerce.
Plus deep Laravel and platform architecture. The escalation point your team doesn’t have in-house.
What this is not
- Not a 24/7 emergency pager or a managed-hosting NOC. It’s senior architecture coverage during business hours.
- Not unlimited development hours. Reviews, advice, and early warning are included; hands-on builds are scoped and quoted at your retainer rate.
- Not a lock-in. Month to month. Pause it, drop it, restart it — no minimum term, no penalty.
What happens after
-
1
It just keeps the store healthy.
The next problem gets caught in a review or the monthly pass, while it’s still cheap.
-
2
A build, when you need hands-on work.
Retainer clients get build priority at a retainer rate.
-
3
You pause when it’s quiet.
No-lock-in means the retainer earns its place every month, or it doesn’t run that month. That’s the deal.
Questions, answered straight.
What counts as a "response"?
Is development included?
What are your hours and timezone?
Is there a minimum term?
Can I pause and come back?
What if I need more than advisory?
$1,800/mo · month to month
Start the coverage.
The next problem caught before it costs you a campaign. Not there yet? Most retainers start with an Architecture Build or a $1,500 Performance Audit.