What Elcodamics Learned from Rescue Projects
The Hidden Cost of Hiring Cheap Developers - What Elcodamics Learned from Rescue Projects
Cost-saving is a natural instinct for any business. However, when it comes to software development, choosing the cheapest option often leads to the most expensive outcome. At Elcodamics, nearly 40 percent of our new clients come to us after a failed or incomplete project - sometimes after spending months or years with low-cost developers.
This explains the hidden costs behind cheap development and what we learned from handling multiple rescue projects.
1. Poor Code Quality Leads to Long-Term Technical Debt
Most low-cost developers focus on getting things “working” quickly rather than building maintainable systems. As a result:
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Functions are tightly coupled
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No naming standards
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No structure
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Hard-coded values everywhere
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No documentation
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No testing
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No version control
When Elcodamics takes over such projects, the codebase is often in such poor condition that fixing is more expensive than rebuilding.
Cheap development = future technical debt.
2. Frequent Breakdowns and Bugs Slow Down the Business
Bad code behaves unpredictably.
Common issues we find in rescue projects:
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Login breaks after a new feature
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APIs return inconsistent output
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Payment gateways stop working randomly
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Screens load slowly due to unoptimized queries
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Critical logs are missing
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Background jobs fail silently
Businesses lose customers, revenue and trust - all because of unstable code written to “save money.”
3. No Scalability - The System Crashes Under Growth
Cheap developers rarely think about:
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Database indexing
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Load balancing
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Caching
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Microservice structure
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Horizontal scaling
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Future feature expansion
When the business grows, the system cannot grow with it. Clients often come to Elcodamics when their “small app” suddenly needs to handle thousands of users - and everything collapses.
Re-architecture costs far more than building it right the first time.
4. Security Risks and Compliance Violations
This is one of the most dangerous consequences.
Cheap development often includes:
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No input sanitization
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Weak authentication
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Exposed API keys
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No rate limiting
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No encryption
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Hard-coded credentials in code
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Vulnerable outdated libraries
We have seen cases where apps got hacked simply because the developer ignored basic security rules. Fixing the damage - both technical and reputational - is far more costly than paying for a professional build.
5. Poor Documentation Makes Future Development Impossible
Low-cost developers almost never provide:
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API documentation
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Flow diagrams
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DevOps instructions
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Environment setup guides
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Deployment scripts
When they leave, the client is left with a broken system no one can understand. Businesses get locked out of their own projects.
Elcodamics often spends significant time reverse-engineering such codebases just to understand how things were arranged.
6. Endless Delays and Missing Features
Cheap development usually comes with:
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Communication gaps
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Missed deadlines
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Constant change requests
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Unfinished modules
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Unplanned rework
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No clear deliverables
The client ends up paying both in cash and time - the two things everyone wanted to save at the beginning.
7. The Cost of a Rescue Project Is Always Higher
When companies approach Elcodamics for a rescue project:
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We audit the code
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Identify technical debt
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Rebuild broken modules
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Optimize the architecture
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Fix scalability
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Rewire DevOps pipelines
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Clean up the database
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Harden security
This process usually costs 2x to 5x more than building the system properly from scratch.
Cheap development is the most expensive way to build software.
How Elcodamics Saves Failing Projects
We apply a structured rescue methodology:
1. Code Audit and Architecture Review
Identify root issues, security risks and scalability gaps.
2. Stabilization Phase
Fix critical bugs and restore basic functionality.
3. Re-Architecture and Refactoring
Rebuild modules using clean, scalable patterns.
4. DevOps and CI-CD Setup
Enable proper deployments, logs and monitoring.
5. Quality Engineering
Functional, performance and security testing.
6. Roadmap for Future Growth
A long-term plan to deliver features safely.
This process transforms unstable projects into reliable, enterprise-grade systems.
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