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Navigating 15 years of code without downtime
Challenge
RouteYou's 15-year-old PHP/JavaScript platform served 15 million users perfectly but was becoming impossible to maintain and recruit for. They needed modernisation without disrupting service.
Solution
We created a hybrid architecture allowing React components to coexist with legacy code, enabling gradual migration. Our developer embedded with RouteYou's team for seamless collaboration.
OUTCOME
- Working hybrid codebase
- Future-proof product
- Successful knowledge transfer
- More autonomy for marketing
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Gert from RouteYou said something that perfectly captures their situation: "We're a small business with big business problems."
Allow me to paint you a picture.
18 people, 15 million users, 100+ million page hits annually.
Their route planning platform had been humming along for 15 years on JavaScript and PHP. It worked just fine. Only one problem: Nobody graduating from university knows how to maintain platforms like those anymore. Gert explains:
Most people graduating know React, but they're no longer equipped to write JavaScript from scratch.
It’s a classic legacy dilemma: it works too well to replace, but eventually you won't find anyone who can fix it.
Why not just rewrite everything? (Spoiler: nobody wants that)
RouteYou needed to modernise while:
Keeping 15 million users happy
Supporting 8 different languages
Working with SME budgets
Actually shipping features, not planning them
"We can't afford a complete rewrite," Gert says. Plus, Mediahuis had just acquired them and wanted a native app to stand up to their competitors. No pressure.
The partnership started organically:
You quickly sense when someone knows how to approach things,
Gert reflects on choosing us. And we were more than happy to prove him right.
The solution: Let old code and new code be friends 🤝🏻
Instead of the dreaded "big bang" rewrite, we proposed something more elegant: build a hybrid system where new React components could live alongside legacy code. Like a multigenerational household, but with less drama.
Kevin and Dries worked with Pavel and Gert from RouteYou to validate this approach. "We proved it was possible," so they went to work.
When the real project started, things went in the right direction from day one: Kevin basically moved in with their team. That's what we call a knowledge transfer from day one.
"We're all flexible, and there's no bullshit," Gert notes. Music to our ears.
The proof: It worked (and we're still friends)
RouteYou now has a platform that attracts modern developers, ships faster and handles those millions of users. They're migrating page by page, homepage up next.
As Gert puts it: "RouteYou is a super product everyone should use." And a note from our side: They have a technical foundation that won't give them recruitment nightmares in 2030. 😉
Not bad for a small company with big company problems.