Maintaining custom software means keeping it running, safe and useful after it is built: hosting it, backing it up, updating the components it is built on, watching for faults, and changing it as the business changes. None of this is dramatic work, but every part of it needs a named owner.
With rented software the vendor does all of this out of sight and the cost is folded into the subscription. When you own the system, the same jobs still exist. The only question is who does them and on what terms.
The work that never stops
- Hosting: the servers and database the system runs on, sized for a match day and not for a quiet Tuesday.
- Backups: taken automatically, stored somewhere separate, and restored as a test now and then. A backup nobody has restored is only a hope.
- Security updates: the operating system, database, framework and libraries underneath your software all publish fixes, and someone has to apply and test them.
- Monitoring: an alert that reaches a person when the system slows down or stops, before a supporter tells you on social media.
- Renewals: domain names and security certificates expire on fixed dates and take the whole system down if they are missed.
- Outside changes: when a payment processor, ticketing provider or access control supplier changes how its connection works, your side has to change too.
Small changes as the club changes
A team or venue does not stand still. Each season brings new membership categories, a revised price list, a changed fixture calendar, a new sponsor who wants a different report. Each is a small job, but they arrive constantly, and software that cannot absorb them falls out of step with how the place runs.
Timing matters as much as the change. Agree that nothing is released in the hours before an event. A change made on a quiet morning can be reversed calmly. The same change made while the gates are opening cannot.
Someone to call
The moment you need help is unlikely to fall in office hours. It is when scanners stop reading tickets as the crowd builds, or when a membership renewal page fails on the evening a deadline closes. Support cover should follow your event calendar. Ask who picks up, how you reach them, and what they can do remotely.
What to agree up front
Get these settled before the build starts, in writing, and have the contract reviewed if the system is central to your operation.
- What the ongoing price covers, and whether hosting, fixes and changes are inside it or billed separately.
- How fast someone responds, in hours and out of hours, and on event days.
- How you ask for a change, and how you find out whether it is included or quoted.
- Whose name the hosting, domain and third-party accounts are in.
- Where backups are kept, how frequently they run, and when one was last restored.
- What is handed over if the relationship ends: code, data, logins and documentation.
Deciding whether it is worth it
Maintenance is the main reason rented software is the sensible choice for many systems. Owning only pays when the rented bill is large enough to justify taking this work on, or paying someone to. Put your current charges into our free software bill calculator to see the yearly and three-year totals. Our guide to renting versus owning business software has a section on who maintains what.
At Hiro, one flat monthly price covers hosting, fixes and changes, with no per-seat fees, and the customer owns the code and the data. Our page for sports teams and venues describes which systems can be rebuilt. Card processing and any ticketing marketplace you sell through stay where they are.