Web application development
When a website needs to do something, not just explain something.
Portals, dashboards, booking systems and first product versions — the point where content stops being enough.
Website
- Explains what you do
- Makes the case
- Guides people to enquire
Web app
- Accepts input
- Stores data
- Runs a workflow
- Gives people an account
01 — Which one do you need?
Website, web app, mobile app.
Three formats, one question: what does the person have to do?
- Website
- Explains, sells, guides. Anyone can read it. No login.
- Choose whenPeople need to understand you.
- Web app
- Accounts, data and workflows in a browser. Nothing to install, works on any device.
- Choose whenPeople need to do something.
- Mobile app
- Installed from a store. Earns its place through notifications, camera, location or offline use.
- Choose whenThe phone itself is the point.
Most businesses that ask us for an app need a web app. Most that ask for a web app need a better website. We will say which, before quoting. The mobile case is argued honestly on the mobile app page.
02 — What we might build
Six shapes we are usually asked for.
Customers
Customer portal
Status, documents and history behind a login, so customers look instead of calling.
Team
Operations dashboard
Every job, order or case in one place, with a status the whole team can see.
Founders
First product version
The smallest version of a SaaS idea that real users can actually pay for and use.
Customers
Booking system
Availability, reservations and reminders that match how you really schedule.
Sales
Configurator or quoting tool
Options in, a correct price out, the same answer from everyone on the team.
Partners
Dealer or vendor portal
Orders, stock and pricing for the people who sell or supply for you.
If the system runs your internal operation rather than facing customers, it is the same craft under a different name: custom software.
03 — What it costs
Web app projects generally start around US$5,000.
Most first versions land between US$5,000 and US$20,000, quoted as a fixed price once the scope is agreed. No hourly rates, no per-seat licence to us — you own it.
- User types
- Owner, staff, customer, supplier: each role that needs its own view.
- Workflows
- How many processes, and how many exceptions each one has.
- Integrations
- Every system it has to read from or write to.
- Scope of version one
- The biggest lever: a small complete app costs a fraction of a large partial one.
04 — How we work
Small, complete, in use early.
We scope version one down to the smallest thing that is genuinely useful, build it so people can use it before it is finished, and let real use decide version two. Design and development happen together, because a tool nobody opens is a spreadsheet with extra steps.
05 — Proof
Most of this work stays private.
A portal shows a company’s customers by name; a quoting tool shows its pricing. That is exactly why they are useful and exactly why they are not screenshots on a website. We will walk you through relevant examples privately, with the client’s details removed.
Our public work is two websites, built with the same care.
06 — Questions
Before you get in touch.
- What counts as a web application?
- Anything where people log in, put data in, and the software does something with it. If your site only has to be read, it is a website. If it has to remember who someone is and what they did, it is a web app.
- Why is it more than a website?
- Because a website has to be read and a web app has to be right. Accounts, permissions, stored data and workflows all have to behave correctly for every user on every path — that is where the work goes, and why version one is scoped deliberately small.
- Web app or mobile app?
- For most businesses, a web app. It works on every device, needs no install and no app-store review, and costs less to change. Choose a mobile app when notifications, camera, location or offline use are central — see the honest version of that argument on the mobile page.
- Can it connect to the tools we already use?
- Usually. Accounting software, email, WhatsApp, payment providers and calendars all have interfaces we can connect to. Older or unusual systems sometimes do not, and we will find that out during scoping rather than after.
- Can it become a mobile app later?
- Often the web app is already usable on a phone, which is enough. If a real app becomes necessary, building the web version first means the data and the logic already exist — the app becomes a new front end, not a new system.
07 — Next
Related service
Custom software developmentSoftware built around how your business actually runs.
Related service
Mobile app developmentAn app, when an app is actually the right format.
Work
Assam BroomsMaking a niche manufacturer findable.
08 — Start a conversation
What isn’t working?
Tell us what’s going on. We’ll work out the right next step together.
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