Faster, cheaper, easier to live with.
Performance audits, scaling work, database tuning and legacy codebase rescue. We find the actual bottlenecks, fix them properly, and leave you with a codebase your team can confidently work in.
When you need us
If any of these sound familiar
Your app is slow and getting slower
Pages that used to load instantly now take three or four seconds. Reports time out. Users have started complaining. It is not your imagination - and it is almost always fixable without a rewrite.
Your hosting bill has tripled
More users, more data, more containers - and a cloud bill that is starting to hurt. The fix is rarely "throw more compute at it". The fix is finding the queries, queues and patterns that are silently burning money.
You inherited a codebase nobody understands
The original developer left, the agency stopped responding, the documentation is non-existent. Every change is risky and every release breaks something. We have done this many times - it can be untangled.
You cannot ship features any more
Every new feature takes twice as long as it should. The codebase pushes back. The tests, if there are any, are flaky. That is a recoverable situation - and the first step is honest measurement.
What we look at
A proper optimisation pass
Database
Slow queries, missing indexes, N+1 patterns, unbounded table scans, lock contention. The database is almost always where the easy wins are - and the cheapest place to find significant performance improvements.
Application code
Profiling, hot paths, unnecessary work in request handlers, missing caching, over-fetching from APIs. We use the right tools for the language - Blackfire and Tideways for PHP, Py-Spy for Python, Clinic.js for Node.
Frontend
Bundle size, Core Web Vitals, render-blocking resources, oversized images, third-party script bloat. These are the things Google measures and your users notice - and they are usually fixable in days.
Infrastructure
Are you running the right shape of server for the workload? Is the database in the right tier? Is autoscaling configured properly? We frequently cut hosting bills by 30–60% just by right-sizing what is already there.
Frequently asked questions
What does an application optimisation engagement look like?
It starts with a fixed-price audit - we read the codebase, run profiling, look at hosting, database queries and frontend performance, and write up a prioritised list of findings with realistic effort estimates. From there you can either hand the report to your own team, or hire us to implement the high-impact fixes. There is no obligation either way.
How long does an audit take?
A focused audit of a small application is usually a week. A full audit of a larger codebase with database, infrastructure and frontend angles typically runs two to three weeks. We give you a fixed quote upfront so there are no surprises.
My app is slow but I do not know why - can you find the cause?
That is exactly the kind of work we are good at. "Slow" almost always traces back to one of a small number of usual suspects: unindexed database queries, N+1 query patterns, missing caching, bloated frontend bundles, slow third-party API calls, or oversized infrastructure with the wrong shape. Profiling tools find the truth quickly.
Do you handle legacy modernisation as well as performance?
Yes. We regularly take over inherited codebases - old PHP, ageing Node apps, custom in-house frameworks - and gradually modernise them while keeping the lights on. Type-safety, automated tests, dependency updates, sensible deployment pipelines. Without the drama of a full rewrite where one is not needed.
How much does application optimisation cost?
A typical audit is £2,500–£8,000 depending on scope. Implementation work is then quoted off the audit findings - often the highest-impact fixes can be done in a few days and pay for themselves quickly through reduced hosting bills or recovered conversion rates.
Slow app, big bill, or both?
Book a fixed-price audit. We will tell you exactly where the problems are and what it will take to fix them - even if the answer is that nothing is wrong.