Architecture Review: Is Your App Ready for the Next Stage?
A fixed-price, written review of an existing system: how it’s built, where it will break as usage grows, and a prioritized fix list with effort estimates. It is for SaaS founders and small teams with an app already in production. Prices start from $640 ($480 founding), and the Starter review takes about a week.
See a sample report, proposal and weekly update- Price
- from $640
- Founding
- from $480
- Timeline
- ~1 week
- Format
- Fixed scope, fixed price
- Hours
- US Eastern Time, async
Who this is for.
A good fit if
- A SaaS app with paying users and growing slowness, errors or hosting bills.
- A founder whose original developer has left and who needs an independent view.
- Teams planning a big feature or a server split who want the risks listed first.
Common triggers
- Pages or jobs got slow as data grew.
- A single server runs everything, and you’re unsure when to split.
- An investor, buyer or new CTO asks, “Is this built well?”
Not a fit if
- You need a penetration test, a compliance audit or a certificate.
- The main question is “how do I reduce my cloud bill”. See Cloud Cost Review.
- You want line-by-line code review of the whole codebase. See Codebase Assessment.
What I do, and what you get.
What I do
- Map the current system: components, data flows, jobs, hosting and deploy process.
- Check the database: schema, indexes, slow queries and growth.
- Review failure handling: retries, timeouts, backups and what happens when a dependency is down.
- Check access control and secrets handling at the design level.
- Assess readiness for your next growth step (Standard and Plus).
- Rank the findings by risk and effort.
What you get
- A written report with a current-state diagram.
- A prioritized fix list: each item has a risk level, an effort estimate and a suggested order.
- A “leave it alone” list of things that are fine and don’t need changing.
- Standard: a scale-readiness section with the next step and its trigger point.
- Plus: an app/database split plan and a basic load check on a staging copy.
- A fixed quote for the top fixes, and handover notes.
Your part
- Read access to the repo, and read-only access to hosting/monitoring (or exports).
- A staging copy for the Plus load check. I never load-test production.
- A person who can answer questions about how the system was built.
Included
- Design-level review of app, DB, jobs, hosting
- Prioritized fix list with effort
- Scale-readiness (Standard/Plus)
- Load check on staging (Plus)
- Fixed quote for fixes
Not included
- Penetration test or compliance audit
- Fixes (quoted separately)
- Uptime or performance guarantees
- Load testing production
- Full cloud billing review (Cloud Cost Review)
Fixed prices, agreed before work starts.
One app plus its database and server, prioritized fix list. Fee credited toward follow-on work of $1,000 or more approved within 30 days; refunded if the report lacks a prioritized fix list with effort estimates.
Starter plus scale-readiness: growth limits, next step and trigger points
Standard plus app/database split plan and a basic load check on staging. Billed in 2 monthly milestones of $880 ($660 founding).
Build your scope
- Timeline
- ~1 week
- Payment
- Paid in full before work starts
- Earliest start
- Oct 5
The fee is credited in full toward a follow-on project of $1,000+ approved within 30 days.
Not a commitment. I confirm the exact price in a written proposal.Founding price: 3 of 7 spots left, until Mar 31, 2027 — one-off work, in return for a testimonial. How it works
Prices are in USD, paid by bank transfer against an invoice. Work under $1,000 is paid upfront; larger work is 50% to start and 50% before handover, or monthly milestones. The full fee of this service is credited toward a follow-on project of $1,000 or more that you approve within 30 days.How working together works
Variations
- Laravel/PHP
- Covers queues, cache, N+1 queries, the scheduler and the upgrade path.
- Go/Python services
- Covers concurrency, worker retries and connection pools.
- AI-heavy app
- Covers model-call retries, cost per request and output validation.
How it runs.
- 01
Email the template
Email the template below, and I reply within 1 US business day.
- 02
Prepay and grant access
You pay a prepaid invoice and grant read-only access.
- 03
Review
I review the system, with written questions as needed.
- 04
Report and walkthrough
I deliver the report with a walkthrough call or video.
- 05
Optional fixes
If you want, I do the fixes, with the fee credited.
Where I have done this before.
Licensing & Entitlement Platform
I led the reviews and release of a production Go service, and the design rules are enforced by structural tests.
Read the case study →SaaS · Cloud marketplace · Server automationWordPress Hosting Control Panel
I built multi-server management with about 30 self-healing checks.
Read the case study →Questions buyers ask.
Is this a security audit?
No. It covers security at the design level only. For a full security review, see Security Audit & Hardening.
Will you certify that it scales?
No. I give limits, trigger points and a plan. The load check in Plus measures one staging setup only.
Do you need write access?
No. Read-only access is enough.
What stacks?
Laravel/PHP, Vue/Nuxt, Go, Python, PostgreSQL and MySQL/MariaDB, on single-node or split hosting.
Can my developer do the fixes?
Yes. The fix list is written for any developer.
Ask about Architecture Review.
Tell me what you have and where it hurts. I reply within one US business day with either a fixed quote or the entry step that makes a fixed quote possible.
Helpful to include
- App and users
- Stack and versions
- Hosting (provider, number of servers)
- Current pain
- Expected growth
- Repo size (rough lines of code)
- Deadline
- Budget range