Custom tools & software
When nothing off the shelf fits
Sometimes the spreadsheet has outgrown itself and the products on the market all solve a slightly different problem. That is when it is worth building the thing properly — small, specific, and shaped around how you actually work.
What this looks like
Usually smaller than people expect
Internal tools
The thing your team currently does in a shared spreadsheet that three people have broken at once.
Dashboards
One screen that answers the question you keep asking, built from the data you already have rather than a new platform to feed.
Calculators and quoting tools
Pricing, estimating and quoting logic turned into something anyone can use without knowing the formula.
Small web apps
A focused application with logins and stored data, where a website is not enough but a full platform is far too much.
Bridges between systems
A purpose-built connector when two systems have to work together and neither vendor has any interest in making that easy.
Assistants and AI features
Grounded in your own content and constrained so it cannot invent things. The assistant on this site is an example of the pattern.
Before you spend anything
We will try to talk you out of it first
Custom software is the most expensive option and the easiest to get wrong. If an existing product does 80% of what you need, that is usually the better answer and we will say so. We would rather lose the project than build something you regret paying for.
Questions
Reasonable things to ask
Automation connects things that already exist. A custom tool is a new thing — something with a screen that a person uses. Plenty of projects need both.
More than a website, and it varies too much to publish a figure. The first step is always a scoping conversation, and it is free. If an off-the-shelf product would do the job for a fraction of the cost, we will point you at it.
Yes. Once the project is paid for, the code is yours. We keep our own generic tooling and templates, not your product.
That depends on it being maintained, and we will be straight with you about that before you commit. Software that nobody looks after degrades, whoever wrote it.
Contact
Tell us what you need
Whether it is a first website, a process that eats your week, or a tool nobody sells off the shelf — describe it in your own words and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.