Software Engineering
Software shaped around how your business actually works
There is a point where a business stops fitting the software it bought. Work gets rekeyed between systems, someone maintains a spreadsheet that everything depends on, and a process that should take minutes takes a morning. Custom software is worth building when that friction is measurable — and not before.
Indicative
Discovery from £1,500
Fixed price agreed in writing before any build starts.
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The problem this solves
Off-the-shelf tools assume a standard process. Real operations are rarely standard, so teams adapt by building workarounds: exported CSVs, shared spreadsheets, a WhatsApp group that functions as an audit trail. It works until volume rises or the person holding it together leaves. We replace that with a system that matches your process instead of fighting it.
What you get
Discovery and process mapping
We sit with the people doing the work and document what actually happens, including the undocumented workarounds. This is where most of the value is found — often it reveals that you need less software than you thought.
Domain model and architecture
A data model that reflects your business vocabulary, with an architecture decision record explaining what we chose and why, so future engineers inherit reasoning rather than guesswork.
Role-based access control
Granular permissions so the right people see the right records, with an audit log of who changed what and when.
Integrations with existing systems
Connections to the accounting, CRM, payment and logistics tools you already run, so data flows instead of being retyped.
Reporting and dashboards
The handful of numbers your team checks daily, available without exporting anything.
Test coverage and documentation
Automated tests on business-critical paths, plus written handover documentation. You should be able to change agency without losing the plot.
How we work
Paid discovery
One to three weeks of process mapping, ending in a written specification, architecture outline and fixed build quote. Yours to keep whether or not you continue with us.
Prototype the risky part first
We build the hardest or least certain piece early, while changing direction is still cheap.
Iterative delivery
Two-week cycles, each ending with something working on staging that you can use rather than review.
User acceptance testing
Your team uses the system on real data before launch, with a structured feedback loop rather than scattered messages.
Phased rollout
Run alongside the existing process where feasible, so a problem never stops the business.
Handover and support
Training, documentation and a support agreement sized to how critical the system is.
What you should expect
- Manual data entry between systems eliminated
- Process steps that took hours reduced to minutes
- Single source of truth replacing parallel spreadsheets
- Audit trail suitable for compliance and dispute resolution
- Documented, tested codebase you own and can hand to any team
Built with
- TypeScript
- Node.js
- Laravel
- PHP
- Python
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- Redis
- Docker
- REST
- GraphQL
- AWS
Mainstream, well-supported technology — chosen so you can hire for it and so another team could take the project over.
Custom Software — your questions
Including the ones about cost, which most agencies leave off the page.
Discovery is typically £1,500 to £4,000 depending on complexity, and produces a specification plus a fixed build quote. Builds usually start around £12,000 for a focused internal tool and rise from there with integrations and user roles. We quote after discovery rather than before, because a number produced without understanding the process is a guess that someone eventually pays for.
Often, yes — and we will say so. Off-the-shelf wins when your process is genuinely standard, when the tool is mature, and when the annual licence costs less than the friction it removes. Custom becomes the better investment when your process is a competitive advantage, when licence costs scale painfully with headcount, or when no product fits without heavy workarounds. Discovery is designed to answer this honestly.
You keep everything: repository, deployment configuration, database, documentation and architecture notes. We use mainstream technologies specifically so another team can pick the project up. Vendor lock-in is a business risk, not a retention strategy.
Yes. We frequently work alongside internal teams — sometimes building a module they do not have capacity for, sometimes setting up architecture and CI they then own. We adopt your conventions and review process rather than imposing ours.
Data protection is designed in, not audited afterwards: we minimise what is collected, encrypt personal data at rest and in transit, implement retention and deletion, and keep a record of processing activities. We sign a data processing agreement, and we can host entirely within UK or EU regions where residency matters.
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Read moreTalk to someone who has built this before
A short call is usually enough to tell you whether this is the right service for your situation — including when it is not.