My client spent $150K on custom software, and now the dev agency is demanding $1,500/month in “mandatory maintenance” that was never in the contract.

One of my clients—a small manufacturing company with about 10 employees—recently went through a painfully expensive lesson in custom software development. It didn’t have to go this way; honestly, that frustrates me most.

Their business was running on a mashup of spreadsheets, siloed tools, and old software duct-taped together. It worked—kind of—but not well. So they decided to invest in a custom platform to centralize operations and cut the inefficiencies.

They hired a dev shop, agreed to a $150,000 build, and were told it would take 3 months. It ended up taking 9. That’s six months of project overrun, missed opportunities, and stress.

But the real plot twist came after the system launched.

Three months post-deployment, they received an unexpected email: they now needed to pay $1,500 per month for an “essential maintenance package.” That’s $18,000 a year—never discussed in the original scoping, contract, or calls. Just… dropped on them.

And when they pushed back? The agency claimed it’s “standard industry practice” and warned the system would “eventually stop working properly without ongoing maintenance.” Translation: pay us or your investment withers.

Look—I’ve worked on enough software systems to know that yes, ongoing support and updates are a thing. But surprise fees after the fact? That’s not “standard practice,” that’s hostage-taking.

So now my client’s left wondering:

• Should they cough up $18K/year just to avoid degradation?

• Let the software go stale and unsupported?

• Try to find a new dev to maintain a codebase they didn’t write?

• Lawyer up?

This entire situation was avoidable.

If they’d had me in their corner as a Fractional CTO, none of this would’ve happened. I would’ve:

• Vetted the dev agency properly (spoiler: they were the kind of firm that buries landmines in the fine print)

• Made sure the contract explicitly covered support, handoff, and long-term maintenance before a single line of code was written

• Architected the system in a way that any qualified developer could pick it up, so they weren’t locked in

• Managed scope, timeline, and deliverables with accountability from start to finish

Custom software can be transformative if it’s done with the right guardrails. However, for non-technical founders, these projects can quickly become a financial trap if no one is looking out for their interests.

That’s what a Fractional CTO does—we speak tech and business and make sure you never get strong-armed after spending six figures on something meant to help you grow.

So if you’re about to start a custom build, don’t go it alone. Let someone like me make sure the tech you’re buying doesn’t end up owning you.