Contract Clause Library
Hosting and maintenance clause
Defines whether ongoing hosting and maintenance are included after launch, and on what terms if they continue.
A build project and the ongoing hosting/maintenance that follows it are commercially different things, and this clause draws the line between them: whether maintenance is included for a fixed post-launch window, billed separately, or not covered by this agreement at all. It's one of the most common sources of an out-of-scope request the moment something breaks after launch.
Sample wording
Sample language (illustrative, not legal advice)
Vendor will provide bug-fix support for defects in the delivered work for 30 days following launch at no additional charge. Ongoing hosting, security updates, content updates, and any support beyond that 30-day window are available under a separate maintenance agreement.
Red flags
- No defined end date for included post-launch support, leaving "how long is free support" ambiguous
- "Bug fix" left undefined relative to "new feature," which is exactly the boundary clients push on after launch
- No mention of what happens if the client doesn't sign a separate maintenance agreement — does support just stop, or continue informally?
How MarginFlow reads it
MarginFlow extracts the free-support end date as a hard deadline: any support request logged after that date is flagged as billable maintenance work rather than included post-launch support, which is the single most common false-negative this clause type guards against.
Related reading