Technical due diligence
Technical due diligence for sellers preparing to list a web-based business.
Buyers of web-based businesses are running real technical diligence now, across the code, the analytics, the payments, and the automation holding your business together. Veritech Diligence reviews your business the way a buyer's reviewer will, so findings surface on your terms, months before an offer, not during a live negotiation.
What's changed
Buyers used to skip the technical review. That's no longer the safe assumption.
A business built over years carries a decade of decisions nobody wrote down: a CMS layered with plugins that solved one problem at a time, a checkout customized in ways that made sense at the time, an analytics setup that was configured once and never revisited, and a set of automations that only you fully understand. None of that is unusual. Almost every web-based business at this deal size looks the same way from the inside.
What's changed is what happens on the other side of the table. Serious buyers, especially search fund principals and repeat acquirers building a portfolio, now bring a real technical review into the exclusivity window. That review checks the GA4 event stream against reported revenue, reconciles subscription counts against the payment processor, and asks who owns the domain registrar and the Zapier account. Findings there become leverage against your price, whether or not the underlying problem is serious.
The asymmetry works against you if the first time any of this surfaces is during someone else's diligence window. A pre-listing readiness review runs the same nine layers a buyer's reviewer will run, on your timeline, while there's still time to fix what's fixable and document what needs a story instead of a scramble.
Stack coverage
Reviewed against the same stack range a buyer's technical diligence will check.
Veritech Diligence covers the full range of technology in a web-based business, across every major platform, framework, and infrastructure layer these businesses run on.
Drupal 8, 9, and 10 (including custom module development, Views configuration, and platform migrations), Shopify, Webflow, Squarespace, Contentful, Storyblok, Sanity, Bloomreach, Sitecore, and WordPress (including multi-site networks, headless implementations, custom theme and plugin architecture, ACF field systems, Gutenberg block development, and every major page builder including Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Breakdance, and Astra Pro).
WooCommerce (including Subscriptions, custom checkout, and multi-location inventory), Shopify, and Stripe integrations, along with custom checkout builds and PCI configuration review.
PHP 8+, JavaScript and TypeScript (ES6+), Python, React, Next.js, Node.js, Django, Vue.js, GraphQL (including Graphene-Django), REST APIs, jQuery, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
GA4 event architecture and property configuration, Google Tag Manager (both web and server-side), Consent Mode v2, data layer design, cross-domain tracking, Meta Pixel, Meta Conversions API with server-side deduplication, Google Ads conversion imports, HubSpot tracking, and Looker Studio.
Vercel, Fly.io, Neon, AWS, Linux server administration, Apache and Nginx, PHP-FPM, Redis, OPCache, CDN configuration, and SSL/TLS.
Zapier, Make, n8n, custom PHP API clients, RESTful API integrations, Salesforce, HubSpot, Cloudinary, SAML SSO patterns (Okta and Azure AD), and SFTP workflow management.
Technical SEO (schema markup, structured data, XML sitemaps, canonical URLs), Answer Engine Optimization, WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 accessibility, OWASP Top 10 mitigation, malware remediation, and vulnerability assessment.
If your business runs on it, Veritech Diligence reviews it. If you don't see a specific platform listed, ask on the scoping call.
What the review covers
Nine layers of technical risk, checked before a buyer checks them for you.
These are the same nine layers covered in a Veritech Diligence buy-side engagement. A buyer's reviewer will look at all nine. The last three are where formal diligence checklists most often stop looking, and where an unprepared seller is most often surprised.
Analytics and Data Integrity
Whether the traffic, conversion, and revenue numbers in your deal deck reflect what the underlying tracking actually recorded. GA4 property age and configuration checks, event stream deduplication, server-side and client-side event reconciliation, and revenue reconciliation against Stripe, Shopify, or your payment processor of record. A buyer's first move is often checking whether these numbers hold up.
Platform and Codebase Architecture
What's actually running the site. Custom code inventory across whichever platform is in use (Drupal, WordPress, Shopify, headless React or Next.js, custom PHP or Django), plugin and module audit, staging and deployment maturity, update history, and how much technical debt is sitting in theme files, page builders, or custom modules that nobody has documented.
Ecommerce and Payment Infrastructure
Whether subscription billing, refund handling, PCI configuration, and custom checkout code are stable and transferable. Reconciliation of reported MRR against the payment processor, run before a buyer runs it and finds a gap you didn't know existed.
Infrastructure, Deployment, and Performance
Hosting, caching, CDN, SSL, and monitoring, across shared hosting, managed WordPress hosts, AWS, Vercel, Fly.io, or custom Linux server setups. Core Web Vitals traced back to root cause rather than a surface scan.
Security
Vulnerability scan against known CVE databases, review of admin access and authentication, check for indicators of prior compromise, backup strategy verification, firewall configuration. An unpatched vulnerability found by you costs a fix. Found by a buyer, it costs a price adjustment.
SEO and Organic Channel Value
Whether organic traffic is real, defensible, and unlikely to break when new ownership takes the keys. Technical SEO audit, backlink profile, ranking concentration, and mapping of organic traffic to revenue, the same numbers a buyer will use to stress-test your growth story.
Accessibility and Compliance
WCAG 2.1 conformance, cookie consent configuration, privacy policy and terms of service checked against actual site behavior. Legal exposure quantified and fixed before it becomes a buyer's negotiating point or, worse, a claim you're still liable for after close.
Automation, Integration, and Operational Fragility
Every third-party service, Zapier, Make, or n8n workflow, API key, and credential ownership relationship, mapped and documented. This is the inventory most sellers can't produce on request, and its absence reads to a buyer as unmanaged risk even when nothing is actually broken.
Concentrated Knowledge Risk
How much of the operating knowledge lives only in your head, and how a buyer's diligence team will read that concentration. Documentation quality assessed, with a prioritized list of what to write down before a transition support agreement is the only place that knowledge lives.
How it works
Three to four business days from access to a fix list. Confidential throughout.
Day 0
Scoping call
Twenty to thirty minutes. You describe the business and your listing timeline. Scope and price are confirmed, and I send an engagement agreement and an access request checklist. Every engagement is covered by a written confidentiality agreement.
Days 1–3
Review
I work through all nine layers with the access provided. Substantive findings typically turn up within 48 hours; the full review takes the balance of the window.
Day 4
Readiness report and fix list delivered
Full technical report plus a prioritized fix list ranked by cost, effort, and how the finding is likely to read to a buyer's diligence team. Followed by a 30-minute call to walk through what to fix, what to document, and what to leave alone.
Run this six to twelve months before you list, so there's time to act on what it finds. If you're closer to listing than that, say so at the scoping call and I'll confirm what's still realistic.
Deliverables
Findings translated into what to fix and what it protects.
Every engagement produces two written deliverables and a walkthrough call. Both are built to be worked from directly, whether you handle the fixes yourself, hand them to a developer, or bring them to whoever's helping you prepare for the sale.
Valuation defense summary
One page. What the review found, what it would cost you in a buyer's negotiation if left unaddressed, and what's already solid enough to stand behind. Written so it can be shared with a broker or an advisor helping you prepare to list.
Full technical report
Detailed assessment of all nine risk layers, with findings ranked green, yellow, or red exactly as a buyer's diligence would rank them. Every yellow or red finding includes a remediation cost estimate, a recommended timeframe, and the specific evidence behind the finding.
Prioritized fix list
Every finding ordered by what to fix before you list, what to document instead of fixing, and what genuinely isn't worth the effort. Estimated for effort (hours, days, or weeks) and cost range.
Integration and credential map
A written inventory of every third-party service, API integration, and automation workflow the business depends on, with account ownership noted. The exact artifact a buyer's diligence will ask for and most sellers can't produce on the spot.
Walkthrough call
Thirty minutes after delivery to answer questions and talk through sequencing: what to fix now, what to fix before you go to market, and what to simply be ready to explain to a buyer.
Everything above is diagnostic: what needs attention and what it protects. We can help with the remediation work directly, or you can take the fix list to whoever already handles your site.
Pricing
Flat fee, starting at $1,800.
Veritech Diligence quotes a flat fee at the scoping call, based on the complexity of your business, not the hour. The same review a buyer would commission on the other side of the table, run for you first.
Base fee
Content sites, simple ecommerce, standard CMS or Shopify builds.
Higher complexity
WooCommerce with subscriptions, multi-location inventory, custom checkout code, headless or decoupled architecture, multi-site networks, custom Drupal, or heavy custom PHP or Django.
Complexity is priced honestly at scoping. No surprise fees between engagement and delivery.
Common questions
Questions sellers ask before they book.
Isn't this just inviting someone to find problems in my own business?
The problems already exist either way. This review finds them on your schedule, with time to fix what's fixable, instead of on a buyer's schedule, inside their exclusivity window, with your price on the table. A finding you already know about and have a plan for reads very differently than the same finding surfacing for the first time during someone else's diligence.
What does this actually cost, all in?
Veritech Diligence confirms a flat fee at the scoping call before any work starts: $1,800 for standard builds, more for higher-complexity businesses like WooCommerce subscriptions or a headless architecture. There's no hourly billing and no invoice surprise after delivery.
Will this slow down my timeline to list?
No. The review itself takes three to four business days once access is granted, and runs well before you go to market, not during a live negotiation. Run it six to twelve months out and it has zero effect on your listing timeline. Run it closer to listing and we'll talk through what's realistic at the scoping call.
What happens if you find something bad?
You get it in writing, with a cost estimate and a recommended timeframe, before anyone else does. Some findings are worth fixing before you list. Some are worth documenting so you have a clear answer ready instead of an evasive one. The fix list tells you which is which.
Can I just have my developer look at this instead?
You can, and for some of it that's the right call. The value here is reviewing your business the way an acquirer's technical diligence actually reviews one, across analytics authenticity, subscription reconciliation, credential ownership, and the layers most in-house developers aren't specifically checking for, because it isn't the lens they normally work from.
Can you help fix what you find?
Yes. The review hands you a prioritized fix list either way. If you'd rather have it executed than handle it yourself or hire it out separately, say so at the scoping call or after delivery. Remediation work is scoped and priced separately from the review.
How is this different from the buy-side review Veritech also offers?
Same nine layers, same stack coverage, same reviewer. The difference is which side of the table you're sitting on and what the report is built to do: a buy-side report prices risk into an offer, this one turns the same risk into a fix list before an offer ever gets made.
Do you ever work for the buyer on my deal too?
No. Veritech Diligence takes one side of a given transaction, never both. If a buyer evaluating your business separately engages Veritech for their own technical diligence, that's a conflict, and it doesn't happen. Each engagement, whether sell-side or buy-side, is scoped to a single client on a single side of the deal.
Resources
Free resources for sellers and their advisors.
What to Check Before You Buy a Web-Based Business
Written for buyers, and worth reading before you list. This is the nine-layer risk inventory a buyer's technical reviewer will run against your business. Ungated PDF, free to share with your broker or advisor.
Sample report
A redacted example of a completed Veritech Diligence engagement, showing report structure, finding formatting, and fix-list style. Available on request during the scoping call.
About the practice
Fifteen years of full-stack work across the platforms these businesses actually run on.
Veritech Diligence is run by [Author Name], a technical consultant with fifteen years of full-stack work across the exact range of platforms and infrastructure web-based businesses run on: CMS platforms including Drupal, Shopify, headless builds on Sanity, Contentful, and Storyblok, and WordPress (including multi-site networks, headless implementations, custom theme and plugin architecture, ACF field systems, Gutenberg block development, and every major page builder), custom checkout and subscription systems on WooCommerce and Stripe, GA4 and Google Tag Manager with server-side implementation, framework work in React, Next.js, Node.js, Django, and Vue.js, and the automation and integration work that connects everything. [Author Name] reviews both sides of these transactions, for buyers evaluating a target and for sellers preparing to list one.
Contact
Know what your buyer will find, before they find it.
Nine layers of technical risk, reviewed and turned into a fix list. Three to four business days.