Why is the audit mandatory?

Because rescue quotes without an audit are guesses, and guesses cost the client money. The audit surfaces what's actually broken, which is almost never what the team thinks. Once we know that, we can scope the rescue honestly as a flat fee. No audit, no rescue quote.

What does 'stable' mean at handoff?

Three things: the app is reliably crash-free in real user sessions, the build pipeline runs cleanly from commit to App Store / Play Store submission, and there's a runbook so the next team can ship a release without calling us. We don't call it stable until all three are true.

What if the app turns out to need a rebuild, not a rescue?

The audit will say so. We re-scope as a Build (full rebuild) or a Partner (ongoing stabilization with roadmap work). Not a stretched rescue. The audit report goes with you regardless of which engagement comes next.

Can you rescue a Xamarin or Cordova app?

Yes. Xamarin, Cordova, Ionic, Flutter, and end-of-life React Native versions all show up in rescue work. The audit decides whether stabilization-in-place is viable or whether the only honest answer is a rebuild. Either way you get a written plan with the trade-offs and the dollar number on each path.

What happens during the 30-day stability window?

You have direct access for anything the rescue surfaced in production. If a fix introduced a regression, we fix the regression. After the window closes, you're either on your own or on a Partner retainer. Both are fine.

Every day your app is broken costs you money. Get unstuck fast.

Crashes in production, an App Store rejection you can't solve, a contractor who walked, a vibe-coded build that can't scale. A senior team takes over where the last one stalled. Mandatory paid Technical Audit first, flat-fee rescue scoped from the findings. No guesses. No stretched engagements.

Audit-first · Flat-fee · Senior-led · Quoted from findings

Stalled project kanban board representing a stuck rescue

Rescue outcome

0.7★ → 4.4★ over 18 months

5× customer growth (100 → 500+) after we took over a failing React Native therapy app weeks before the funding customer would have walked. Cold start cut from 3 seconds to under 0.5. Biweekly crash triage still running on the team that took over. This is what a rescue can look like when the build has senior hands on it.

Read the full case →

If any of these sound familiar, you need a rescue

These are the situations we take over routinely.

React Native app built with React JS patterns

Your contractors treated it like a web app. Nothing feels right on mobile: navigation, lists, images, forms. The architecture fights the platform.

App Store or Play Store rejections you can't resolve

Privacy manifests, permissions, guideline violations, metadata drift. You've resubmitted three times and the review team keeps saying no.

Crashes on real devices

Works on your phone. Crashes on older devices, different OS versions, or specific screen sizes. Crash-free rate under 95%. Ratings trending down.

Vibe-coded build that can't scale

The first version shipped with heavy AI assistance. Now it's in production and nobody on the team fully understands what's actually in the codebase.

Contractor vanished or team dissolved

The previous developer stopped responding. You have a repo, maybe docs, maybe not. You need someone to take ownership and get the release pipeline moving again.

Xamarin, Cordova, or end-of-life stack

Your app is on a stack that's deprecated or about to be. Maintenance costs are climbing, new hires refuse to touch it, App Store is pushing you off older SDKs.

Cold start is embarrassing

App takes 3+ seconds to reach the first screen. Users churn before they see your product. Something in the startup path is doing far too much work.

Wearable companion that never syncs reliably

watchOS or Wear OS app shipped without the paired-phone handshake working. HealthKit or Health Connect integration throwing permission errors in production.

How a rescue actually runs

Four stages. Clear, concrete steps. Every step has a deliverable you can point to.

Paid Technical Audit

Mandatory first step. Read-only repo access. Standalone product. You walk away with a written report whether or not you move forward with a rescue.

Every rescue starts with a Technical Audit: read-only repo access, real-device testing, and a severity-ranked findings report. This is non-negotiable: rescue quotes without an audit are guesses, and guesses cost you money. The audit is a standalone product; you get a written report and a live walkthrough no matter what engagement comes next.

Fix plan

We turn the audit's prioritized findings into a flat-fee rescue scope. You see the plan before any rescue work starts.

Once the audit is delivered, we translate findings into a flat-fee scope: what gets fixed, in what order, what a done-state looks like, and the specific dollar number. You always know the ceiling before we start. If the work is larger than a Rescue can cover (an architecture rebuild, an indefinite stabilization), we tell you and re-scope as a Build or a Partner, not a stretched Rescue.

Executed fixes

Hands-on takeover. Read/write repo access, daily builds, weekly sync. We ship in the order the audit prioritized.

Stop the bleeding first. Critical crash fixes, release-blocker store rejections, regression-risk work on the paths that are hurting users. Daily builds to your team, weekly sync with your stakeholders, and we ship fixes in the order the audit ranked them. No feature work sneaking in through the side door.

Handoff + stability window

Handoff docs to your team (or a new contractor), plus a 30-day stability window. Then you pick your next path.

Your team, or a new contractor, takes the wheel with a handoff package built to be read, not filed. Operational runbooks (the day-to-day how-tos), architectural decision records, and an onboarding doc for the next engineer. A 30-day stability window follows handoff: we respond to anything the fixes surfaced in production. After that you pick: maintain in-house, go a different direction, or graduate to a Partner retainer for ongoing ownership.

Outcomes from a recent rescue

Per-engagement numbers from a React Native therapy-app rescue, not a company-wide average.

10×

Fewer crashes per top offender

3s → <0.5s

Cold-start load time

0.7★ → 4.4★

App Store rating over 18 months

How much does a Rescue cost?

Audit-first, quoted fast. Flat-fee scope from the audit's findings. No estimates, no stretched engagements.

Rescue

Starting at $8,000 · quoted after audit

Flat-fee rescue scoped from the audit's findings. Deposit + milestones. Scope is locked. If the audit surfaces deeper work, we rescope as Build or Partner, never a stretched Rescue.

Scope is locked after the audit. If the findings point to an architecture rebuild or indefinite stabilization, we rescope as a Build or a Partner, never a stretched Rescue.

See full pricing details →

Common rescue patterns we handle

Every rescue starts with the same audit. These pages cover the specific situations we take over most often, with case-study evidence on each one.

Frequently asked questions

See all FAQs →