Sound familiar?
It falls over under load
Timeouts at peak hours, 500 errors during campaigns, a database at 100% while customers wait. We profile before we touch anything, so the fix lands where the problem actually is: the slow query, the missing index, the queue that backs up.
The developer left
No documentation, no tests, one person who "knew how it worked", and they're gone. We take over undocumented systems for a living: we map what exists, get it running in a reproducible environment and write the documentation that should have existed.
Every change breaks two things
Simple features take weeks because the codebase fights back. Velocity is approaching zero. We put tests around the paths that matter first, so changes stop being roulette and your team ships features again instead of hotfixes.
Common questions
Do we have to stop using the system?
No. Rescues happen on live systems, changes ship incrementally with rollback plans, not in a big-bang migration.
What stacks do you take over?
Node.js, TypeScript, Python, PHP/Laravel; PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis; AWS, GCP and Vercel. Ancient versions welcome.
Will you push a full rewrite?
Rewrites are the last resort, not the sales pitch. Most systems are 20% surgery, not 100% replacement.
What does it cost?
The diagnosis is a small fixed fee; the fix is quoted as one fixed number after it. You'll never get a surprise invoice.
How do you diagnose what is actually wrong?
We read the code, profile the system under real load and find the true causes, then give you a fixed quote for the fix ranked by risk, not a guess.
How fast will things stabilise?
Critical fixes, the crashes, slow queries and security holes, ship first, usually within the first weeks, so your system stops being an emergency before the deeper modernisation begins.
Who owns the fixes and documentation afterward?
You do. We leave the system better documented than we found it, with tests, monitoring and a cleanup roadmap, so your team (or we, ongoing) can move fast safely.
Can you rescue a backend without the original developers?
Yes, that is the normal case. We start from the running system and the code, not from tribal knowledge: we map the architecture, reproduce the environment, and instrument it so behaviour becomes visible. Within the first days you get an honest written assessment of what state the system is really in and what stabilising it will take.
Do you also handle the infrastructure and DevOps side?
Yes. Backend rescue usually includes the infrastructure: broken deploy pipelines, servers nobody dares touch, missing backups and absent monitoring. We get deploys repeatable, add alerting so problems announce themselves, and document the setup so your team can operate it without us.
How we build.
Unit and feature tests with PHPUnit / Pest. Standard, not an add-on.
Automated tests and deploys on every push. No manual releases.
Every line reviewed by a senior engineer. No juniors on your budget.
Full source code, infrastructure and documentation transfer on handoff.
Describe the symptoms, you'll get an honest read on how bad it is and what it takes to fix.