What counts as application rescue?

A system that works but should not. Code nobody understands. Original developer is gone. Critical business logic in a language or framework nobody wants to touch. Performance degrading over time.

Do you rewrite from scratch or fix the existing code?

Whichever is cheaper for the client. Usually incremental: document what is there, stabilize the worst parts, then migrate piece by piece. Full rewrites are last resort.

What if the original code is a security risk?

Assess first. If it is actively exploitable, that gets patched in week one regardless of long-term plan. Long-term migration happens in parallel.

Will the application be offline during migration?

Rarely. Standard approach is a staging environment parallel build, data sync, then DNS cutover. Planned downtime is usually measured in minutes.

Can you work with code from 10+ years ago?

Yes. Rofsky background includes Drupal 6/7 migrations, pre-WordPress PHP apps, Adobe Alchemy/Flash-era browser applications, and custom frameworks from the early 2000s.

What if I do not have access to the original developer?

That is the normal starting point. Most application rescue projects begin because the original builder is no longer reachable.

Your Site Is Down, Hacked, or Failing, and Your Developer Is Gone.

Discuss a project

Application rescue, platform migration, and hack recovery for businesses that cannot afford downtime.

Something broke, someone got in, or a platform you have been running for years just stopped working the way it should. The original developer is unreachable. The agency that built it does not support it anymore. The hosting company is telling you to upgrade but will not tell you what will break when you do.

This is not a sales pitch. It is a direct line to someone who has been untangling these situations for 25 years across every major web platform. I will tell you what is actually wrong, what it will take to fix, and whether a repair or a migration makes more sense for your business.

Platforms I Have Worked With Directly

This is not a capabilities deck. Every platform listed here is one I have built on, migrated from, rescued, or maintained in a production business environment.

Ecommerce Platforms

osCommerce: One of the earliest open-source ecommerce platforms. Still running in businesses that launched it in the 2000s. Migration paths to WooCommerce or modern platforms with full product and order history preserved.

OpenCart: Common in small to mid-size retail. Frequent targets for security exploits due to outdated extensions. Rescue, patching, and migration.

Magento 1 and Magento 2: Magento 1 reached end-of-life in 2020 but thousands of stores still run it. Magento 2 migrations, performance rescue on large catalogs, extension conflicts, and security patching.

PrestaShop: Popular in international ecommerce. Module conflicts, performance issues on growing catalogs, and migration to more maintainable platforms.

WooCommerce: Plugin conflicts, performance collapse on large catalogs, checkout failures, payment gateway issues, theme incompatibilities after updates. The most common rescue request.

Shopify and BigCommerce: Custom theme issues, Liquid template debugging, app conflicts, data migration in or out of the platform.

Custom cart systems: Proprietary ecommerce platforms built 10 to 15 years ago by developers who are no longer available. Stabilization or migration with full data preservation.

CMS and Web Application Platforms

WordPress: The most common platform and the most common rescue target. Hacked sites, broken updates, plugin conflicts, white screens of death, database corruption, performance collapse, staging-to-production failures.

Drupal 6, 7, 8, 9, 10: 70 to 80 Drupal builds across a decade. Module migrations between major versions, custom module rescue, Views and Panels debugging, multisite configurations, Drupal-on-SQL-Server.

Joomla: Extension conflicts, security patching, and migration to WordPress or custom platforms.

CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Laravel, Zend: PHP framework applications. When a custom application built on one of these needs maintenance and the original developer is gone.

Custom PHP/MySQL applications: Hand-built systems with no framework. Often the hardest rescue work because there are no conventions to follow, so you have to read it line by line.

What Gets Fixed

Hack Recovery and Security

Malware removal, backdoor identification, database injection cleanup, file integrity restoration, and hardening to prevent reinfection. Includes identifying the attack vector, how they got in, and closing it. Google Safe Browsing and blacklist removal if the site has been flagged.

Platform Migration

Moving from an end-of-life or unmaintainable platform to something current, without losing products, orders, customer data, or SEO equity. URL mapping, 301 redirect planning, data transformation, and post-migration QA.

Emergency Stabilization

The site is down and the business is losing money every hour. Diagnosis, emergency fix, and stabilization, then a follow-up plan to prevent it from happening again. Database crashes, server misconfigurations, failed updates, SSL failures, DNS issues.

Performance Rescue

A site that used to load in two seconds now takes twelve. Database query optimization, caching architecture, server tuning, plugin and extension audits, image pipeline fixes. Finding the actual bottleneck, not guessing.

How It Works

Emergency and on-demand: $175–$250/hour, billed in 30-minute blocks. Two-hour minimum. Remote work begins as soon as access is arranged, usually the same day for emergencies.

Migration projects: $3,500–$8,500/month for a typical 3–6 month engagement. Scope and total cost agreed before work begins.

Why Rofsky

25 years across every major web platform. I was building on osCommerce when Shopify did not exist, writing Drupal modules when WordPress was a blogging tool, and deploying custom PHP applications before frameworks were standard.

Rescue work requires pattern recognition that only comes from volume. After 350+ projects, most problems are variations of something I have already solved. The diagnosis is faster, the fix is more targeted, and you do not pay for someone to learn your platform on your time.

Every engagement is handled directly. No junior developers, no offshore teams, no handoffs.

Tell me what is broken. I will tell you what it takes to fix it.

Describe the situation: what platform, what is happening, how urgent. You will get a direct answer about what is wrong and what the fix involves.

Get in touch

Common questions

What counts as application rescue?: A system that works but should not. Code nobody understands. Original developer is gone. Critical business logic in a language or framework nobody wants to touch. Performance degrading over time.
Do you rewrite from scratch or fix the existing code?: Whichever is cheaper for the client. Usually incremental: document what is there, stabilize the worst parts, then migrate piece by piece. Full rewrites are last resort.
What if the original code is a security risk?: Assess first. If it is actively exploitable, that gets patched in week one regardless of long-term plan. Long-term migration happens in parallel.
Will the application be offline during migration?: Rarely. Standard approach is a staging environment parallel build, data sync, then DNS cutover. Planned downtime is usually measured in minutes.
Can you work with code from 10+ years ago?: Yes. Rofsky background includes Drupal 6/7 migrations, pre-WordPress PHP apps, Adobe Alchemy/Flash-era browser applications, and custom frameworks from the early 2000s.
What if I do not have access to the original developer?: That is the normal starting point. Most application rescue projects begin because the original builder is no longer reachable.