Out-of-hours on-call
If your e-commerce dies on Saturday night, someone has to get off the sofa. This page explains what that someone costs, why we charge for it, and under which rules.
Why on-call availability costs money
A person on call is not a free person. They don’t go to the cinema, don’t stray far from a connection, don’t order the second beer at dinner with friends; they sleep with the phone on the nightstand and the laptop in the backpack, ready to be lucid and operational within an hour, at any hour. That constraint exists even on nights when nothing happens: the availability itself is what has value, before any intervention. That is why it is paid as a monthly retainer, not per use.
Many providers “include” 24/7 support in their fee. Nobody gives anything away: large organisations run shift teams and spread that cost across hundreds of subscriptions - your fee includes their on-call duty too, you just don’t see it. Low-cost providers simply promise it: without someone organised to be there, “24/7 support” means someone will reply whenever they happen to. Unorganised availability is not a guarantee, it is a hope.
We are a small studio and we prefer honest numbers: if we commit to being there at 3 AM, it is because we organised ourselves to be there - and that has a written price, not one hidden inside an inflated fee. Few clients, a real phone number, a person who knows your systems and answers.
What the retainer buys
Pickup within 1 hour
For P1 emergencies in the covered window: within one hour of your call we are working on the problem.
Direct emergency number
Reserved for retainer clients, shared at activation. No switchboards, no ticket queues: the phone that rings belongs to the person who works on your servers.
Monitoring with alerts
On the agreed systems. We often see the emergency before you do.
Access and procedures ready
Whoever shows up at 3 AM already has credentials, documentation and the recovery plan at hand: no first hour wasted figuring out how to get in.
The retainer pays for availability, not for work: interventions are billed separately, in whole hours (1-hour minimum), with the price-list surcharges. Those surcharges are the same for everyone - the retainer does not discount them: it pays for someone actually answering.
The plans
Weekends
€200/monthSaturday and Sunday, around the clock: P1 always, P2 during the day (08:00-22:00). Public holidays are not included.
Weekday evenings & nights
€300/monthMonday to Friday, outside office hours (so 18:00-10:00): P1 always, P2 in the reduced early-morning and evening bands (08:00-10:00 and 18:00-22:00). Public holidays are not included.
Full on-call
€450/monthAll out-of-hours time: weekday evenings and nights, weekends and - the only plan that covers them - public holidays.
Public holidays (Christmas, New Year, Easter, Ferragosto and the rest) are covered by the full plan only: Christmas is not just another Sunday, and whoever wants guarantees on those days takes full coverage.
With annual prepayment you pay 11 months out of 12: €2,200/year, €3,300/year or €4,950/year.
Seats are few, by design: we are people, not a shift-based call centre, and every extra on-call client raises the odds of simultaneous emergencies. We take on new plans only as long as we can keep the promise made to those already covered.
Prices exclude VAT. The plan is formalised in writing, on your real case.
The rules of the game
Few rules, written down in advance and equal for everyone. They are what makes the promise sustainable: without them, on-call becomes a promise that cannot be kept.
01At night, P1 only
At night (22:00-08:00) we intervene only for P1, whatever the day: production down or severely compromised, data loss in progress, active security incident. In the day and evening bands covered by a plan - weekdays 08:00-10:00 and 18:00-22:00, weekends and holidays 08:00-22:00 - we also cover P2. A P2 that surfaces at night waits for the morning; P3 and P4 wait for the next opening. There is no such thing as a night intervention that is not a P1.
02Reduced bands are cheap, but that is not on-call
On weekdays, just outside office hours - 08:00-10:00 before opening and 18:00-22:00 after closing - the surcharge is +40%, the lowest of all: these are the bands where someone is most likely already or still at a keyboard. Be clear on what that buys, though: without an active plan that rate grants you no pickup time - we step in if someone happens to be free, otherwise it waits for the next day. The one-hour guarantee comes from one thing only: the retainer, because it requires a person committed to being reachable.
03Christmas is not a Sunday
Italian public holidays - New Year, Epiphany, Easter and Easter Monday, 25 April, 1 May, 2 June, Ferragosto, All Saints, Immaculate Conception, Christmas and Boxing Day - have their own band: +150% during the day, +200% at night, and they are covered by the full plan only. The weekend plan covers Saturday and Sunday, not the red days on the calendar: giving up Christmas lunch is a different matter from an ordinary Sunday, and the price says so.
04We do the triage
We assign the priority at the moment of the call, using the criteria published on the response-times page. “It’s urgent for me” does not turn a P3 into a P1.
05Planning is not on-call
The retainer is for emergencies - for what cannot be foreseen. Night or holiday work decided in advance - a migration, an update in an agreed window - needs no retainer at all: just plan it at least 20 days ahead and it is billed at the surcharged rate of the band. Scheduled work can be organised around; on-call is a constraint that applies every night, including the ones when nothing happens.
06Systems we know, full access
On-call activates without discussion on servers we built or have been managing for a long time. On someone else’s system we do not say no upfront: we assess it case by case, with a preliminary audit, because we cannot guarantee the reliability of an architecture we do not know - and therefore not its on-call coverage either. In every case we need full access to anything that could be involved: root on the server, the cloud console hosting it, CDN and WAF, DNS provider, domain registrar. At 3 AM we cannot discover that the fault is a wrong DNS record and that nobody on our side has access to that panel.
07The call does not buy the intervention
If the emergency number is used for something that is not an emergency - a P3 at 2 AM, a change request on a Sunday - the disturbance is billed anyway: one hour at the surcharged rate of the window. But the problem is not worked on: it slips to where it would have slipped anyway. The invoice pays for waking us up; it does not turn night into office hours.
08Without a plan: best effort, no claims
Not having the retainer does not mean we will never answer at night: it means nobody organised to do so. It can happen that an engineer already up on another emergency sees the report and, while at it, fixes that one too - it happens, but rarely, and it stays a favour, not a service. No pickup time, no guarantee, no claim: the realistic expectation remains the next opening during coverage hours. Retainer clients always come first.
09Activated before, not during
The plan activates with 7 days’ notice and covers emergencies that start after activation. It cannot be switched on mid-emergency to pay less for the night you happen to need.
10Abuse and cancellation
Repeated use of the emergency channel for non-emergencies lets us cancel the plan with 30 days’ notice. You can cancel the monthly plan with 30 days’ notice; the annual plan is not refundable pro rata - that is the price of the discount.
What an emergency really costs
A single €75/hour rate across every technology. Surcharges apply to everyone, retainer or not: what changes is whether anyone is bound to answer. Five real scenarios, with the maths:
Slow site on Tuesday at 19:00
No retainer, evening band
2 hours of evening work: 2 × €75 +40% = €210. It is the cheapest out-of-hours band, but nobody is committed to being there: if we are free we step in, otherwise it starts again the next morning.
Corrupted database on Wednesday at 3 AM
With the Weekday evenings & nights or Full plan
Called back within 1 hour, 2 hours of night work: 2 × €75 +80% = €270, on top of the retainer.
E-commerce down on Saturday at 22:30
With the Weekends or Full plan
Called back within 1 hour, 2 hours in the weekend-night band: 2 × €75 +150% = €375, on top of the retainer. The site is back up during the night.
Orders blocked on 25 December at 15:00
Full plan only
2 hours in the holiday-day band: 2 × €75 +150% = €375, on top of the retainer. The weekend plan would not cover you: Christmas is a public holiday, and those are covered by full on-call only.
Same failure, no plan
Best effort, no guarantee
Nobody committed to being there, so the realistic expectation is the next opening: pickup on the first working day at 10:00. If we happen to be up already on another emergency we might look at yours too - but that is luck, not a service you can count on.
Why others don’t charge for it
The big provider
24/7 “included”: the cost of the shifts is spread across hundreds of fees, so you pay it too - you just don’t see it. It works, but you are a ticket in a queue and the real guarantees live in the fine print.
The low-cost one
“24/7 support” on the homepage, no written commitment about who answers and how fast. You find out what it is worth at 3 AM.
Us
Few on-call clients, a direct number, a person who knows your systems. Price written here, rules written here, pickup committed within 1 hour.
Frequently asked questions
Why do you charge for on-call when others include it?
Because nobody really gives it away: those who “include” it run shift teams and spread the cost across hundreds of fees; those who don’t simply promise it without guaranteeing it. Being on call means living with a constraint - no cinema, no trips, interruptible sleep - and that constraint has a cost even when nothing happens. We write it down instead of hiding it.
Does the retainer include work hours?
No. The retainer buys availability: the certainty that we answer within an hour, at any hour of the covered window. The actual work is billed separately, in whole hours, at the price-list surcharges - which are the same for everyone: the retainer does not discount the intervention, it pays for someone answering.
What happens if I call at night for something that isn’t urgent?
The call is billed anyway - one hour at the surcharged rate of the window - but the problem is not worked on at night: it slips to where it would have slipped anyway. The invoice pays for waking us up; it is not a ticket that turns night into office hours.
How do you decide whether it is really a P1 emergency?
With the criteria published on the response-times page: production down or severely compromised, data loss in progress, active security incident. We do the triage at the moment of the call; if monitoring shows the situation is worse than it looked, the priority goes up - never down without telling you.
Can I activate the plan for a single month, say for an important release?
Yes, the monthly plan has no duration lock-in. It does require activation with 7 days’ notice, and never mid-emergency: the plan covers what starts after activation.
What if two clients have an emergency at the same time?
We intervene in order of priority and arrival, and we say so upfront rather than letting you find out later. That is exactly why on-call seats are few: we keep the odds of it happening low.
Why are seats limited?
Because we are people, not a shift-based call centre. Every additional on-call client raises the odds of simultaneous emergencies and lowers the quality of the promise made to the others. Better few commitments kept than many commitments sold: we take on new plans only while we can genuinely honour them.
Without a plan, can I still have you work at night or on weekends?
Yes, as long as it is planned: a night migration, an update in an agreed window, booked at least 20 days ahead. It is billed at the surcharged rate of the band, in whole hours, and needs no retainer - that is scheduled work, not on-call. What does not exist without a plan is the guarantee on a sudden emergency: only retainer clients have the emergency number, and without it night work is best effort - it may happen, but you cannot demand it.
Do you activate on-call for a server you don’t manage?
It is not an automatic no, but not an automatic yes either: we assess it case by case with a preliminary audit. On an architecture we do not know we cannot guarantee reliability, and therefore not on-call coverage either; if the audit shows the system is fragile we say so, and we propose fixing it before activating the plan. The non-negotiable requirement is access: root on the server, cloud console, CDN and WAF, DNS and domain registrar. Working at night with partial access means reaching the point where the DNS needs changing and having to stop - and at that point the retainer you paid is worth nothing.
How do I cancel?
The monthly plan with 30 days’ notice, no penalties. The prepaid annual plan is not refundable pro rata: that is the counterpart of the free month.
How this fits with the rest
Response times and P1-P4 priorities → · Surcharges and billing →
Want to activate on-call cover?
Write to us: together we check whether your systems are ready for on-call coverage and we send you a written proposal.
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