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How to do a software rewrite
16 min read
About this service
Build scalable, maintainable software with our experienced engineering teams. We deliver high-quality code and best practices that help your product succeed.
Go to serviceSoftware engineering
We work on software that already has users, history, and opinions. The kind where every change can break something, and “just rewrite it” is not an option. Our staff engineers join your team to unlock progress again.
Most of our work happens in brownfield and legacy systems. Code that has been around and accumulated debt, but still needs to perform. Cleaning up what matters while shipping real features gives us the thrills.
Our engineers lead by doing. They write code, improve systems and refine processes. Since 2008, we have been cleaning up codebases. We join with a clear plan to leave and when we are done, the waters are calmer, the team is stronger, and progress is predictable again.
We take on projects that make your product more robust. When the tech outgrows the team, we step in.

Our developers join your team, take on tickets and lead by example. They dive into infrastructure, refactor APIs, improve performance, build CI/CD pipelines and make your backend something your team can rely on.
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We modernise legacy frontends, clean up design systems, and fix performance and accessibility. We bridge design and engineering so what ships matches what was imagined, and users actually love using it.
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We help teams make smart use of data and AI. Not for the hype, but for real impact. Whether it is setting up pipelines, integrating generative AI, or applying machine learning where it makes sense.
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We build and improve mobile applications with the same quality-first approach we bring to web. Native or cross-platform, we focus on performance, reliability, and a great user experience.
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Our approach
“We join with a clear plan to leave. When we are done, the waters are calmer, the team is stronger, and progress is predictable again.”
You don't call us when everything's going great. You call us when things kind of work, but don't feel right anymore. When progress feels heavier than it should.

“Our app crashes on older devices and we’re losing users.”

“Our best engineers are drowning.”

“We made the decision to onboard a madewithlove senior front-end engineer very early in our journey. This has been transformational: there was an immediate alignment on the mindset, on understanding wh…”
Thomas-Louis de Lophem, CEO at MinersAI

“We’re stuck on an old framework version and can’t upgrade.”

“My developers are not working together.”

“In the early days, we had a hard time understanding the technical implications of the choices we wanted to make, which made prioritisation difficult. Madewithlove made a huge difference. What they bro…”
Ahmed Abdullah, Machine Learning Engineer at MinersAI

“We have data but nobody is using it to make decisions.”

“Our company is scaling fast, but the software isn’t.”
We've embedded staff engineers with dozens of SaaS teams to improve live software, mentor developers, and make progress sustainable.
You will not see companies like Amazon among our past clients. You will, however, see the names that will soon rock the SaaS world because we helped them predict risks and avoid failure.
“We enjoyed working with madewithlove for the qualitative feedback on our development flow, velocity, and attention to details they brought in our engineering team.”

Joel Harkes
Technical Team Lead, Vaigo
“At publiq, we value sustainable and stable software and that is exactly what the engineers of madewithlove provide. At the very start of every project, we involve the madewithlove team (with product managers and developers) so we can search for the real added value.”

Sven Houtmeyers
Technical Lead (CTO), Publiq
“Madewithlove is a team of highly talented and highly skilled developers. Their deep knowledge of the latest technologies and broad involvement in our growth has been an undeniable asset.”

Raphael Bochner
Co-Founder and CEO, SweepBright
FROM 180+ SAAS AUDITS
88% ship without automated testing
Manual QA dominates at every stage, seed to M&A.
Why QA becomes the bottleneckOur latest thinking on software quality, team dynamics, and the craft of building better products.
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Whether you need staff engineers to strengthen your team, help untangling a legacy codebase, or a fresh perspective on your architecture. We're ready to dig in.
Everything you need to know about working with our staff engineers.
We don't take over but we join. Our engineers embed directly into your team, pairing with your developers, reviewing architecture, and introducing better practices. The goal isn't to replace anyone. It's to leave your team stronger than we found them.
Very direct. If something is broken, unclear, or slowing the team down, we say it out loud. Always respectfully, never theatrically. Clear problems are easier to fix than polite misunderstandings.
No. We are pragmatic rather than dogmatic. We do not impose frameworks for the sake of consistency or fashion. We work with your existing stack, constraints, and team.
Mostly SaaS startups and scale-ups that have found product-market fit but struggle to scale their product or team. We often step in when internal teams are stretched thin or early technical decisions start slowing things down.
We do both, but our sweet spot is brownfield development. Improving and evolving existing software. Whether it is modernising a legacy codebase or untangling a complex monolith, we bring structure and calm to environments where the pressure is highest.
Almost never. Most teams do not need a big rewrite. They need fewer fires, better predictability, and clearer ownership. We focus on stabilising what matters first, then improving quality where it actually pays off.
We are technology-agnostic, but most of our projects use modern web stacks such as React, Vue, Laravel, Symfony, and Node.js. We also handle infrastructure, cloud environments, and data and AI integrations.
Most engagements last between 6 and 18 months. We stay as long as we add real value. Long enough to fix structural issues, mentor your team, and make progress sustainable.
We begin with an honest conversation about your challenges, technical, organisational, or both. From there, we may do a short audit or technical due diligence to clarify the situation and define next steps. Once aligned, we embed and start improving things immediately.