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A web application development agency for B2B and industrial firms

An online tool your customers, distributors or partners use: a calculator, a tracking or booking app, or a product sold on subscription. Designed, built and launched at a fixed price, typically in 8 to 14 weeks.

Updated

From

£13,000 ex VAT

Timeline
8 to 14 weeks
Pricing
Fixed price per stage
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A sample screen, for illustration. The companies and data are made up.
UsersWeb appYour dataUsersWeb appYour data

You need this if

  • Customers ask for an online tool your competitors already offer: a calculator, job tracking, a place to upload documents.
  • A service you sell is run today through emails and spreadsheets shared with the customer.
  • You have an idea for a digital product and want it in front of real users before you invest more.
  • A prototype built in-house or with a no-code tool has hit its limits: slow, hard to secure, customers’ data mixed together.
  • An existing application is ageing and nobody wants to change it any more.

What the application includes

  • User journeys and mock-ups

    Screens are drawn and tried by a few users before any code is written. You approve what you can see, not a list of features.

  • Accounts and permissions

    Sign-up, log-in, roles, several users per company. The separation between customers’ data is tested before go-live.

  • The core of the tool

    The calculation, booking, tracking or document upload, with the rules that belong to your offer.

  • An admin area

    Your staff manage accounts, content and settings without calling a developer.

  • Emails, notifications and connections

    Emails and notifications are in the first version. Online payment and a link to an ERP or a CRM, through their APIs, are optional modules.

  • Production set-up

    Hosting in the European Union in an account in your name, a test environment, backups and monitoring.

Example: repair tracking for a service workshop

A typical flow, by way of illustration. The company and the data are fictional.

  1. 1

    The customer reports a fault online: machine, serial number, photos.

  2. 2

    The workshop diagnoses it and sends a quote, which the customer accepts online.

  3. 3

    The customer follows each step: part ordered, repair under way, inspection, dispatch.

  4. 4

    When the job closes, the service report and the invoice are filed in the customer’s account.

  5. 5

    The workshop sees its average turnaround and the faults that keep coming back, by machine type.

How the project runs

  1. Audit

    We pin down who will use the tool, what it has to do first and what you already have in place.

    1 to 2 weeks

  2. Specification

    Clickable mock-ups, data schema, the scope of the first version. The firm price is fixed.

    1 to 2 weeks

  3. Build

    A delivery every two weeks on a test environment. A few pilot users try it before it opens.

    5 to 9 weeks

  4. Launch

    Go-live, training for your staff, one month of fixes against the specification included. Then maintenance by the month.

    1 week, then a month of fixes

Durations to scale, using the longest stated

What the price covers

The starting price is for a first version: accounts, one complete user journey, the admin area and the production set-up. It includes the specification; the audit is priced separately. The final price is fixed after the specification, before the build.

Estimate my projectSee pricing

First version: accounts, core of the tool, admin area
from £13,000 ex VAT
Online payment or subscriptions
from £2,600 ex VAT
Connection to an ERP or a CRM
from £2,600 ex VAT
Audit and roadmap, deducted from the first project we build for you
£1,650 ex VAT
Maintenance
from £390 ex VAT a month

Payment, for each stage

30%
on order
70%
on accepted delivery

Web application, internal software or customer portal: which do you need?

Technically they are close relatives. The difference is who uses them, and that changes the design: a tool for your customers has to make sense without training.

TypeWho uses itExample
Bespoke web applicationYour customers, your partners, sometimes the public.A calculator, job tracking, booking, a product sold on subscription.
Bespoke internal softwareYour own staff.Production tracking, quoting, planning, quality records.
Customer portalExisting customers, with their own prices.Orders, reorders, documents and tracking, read from the ERP.
B2B ecommerceBuyers, including new ones.Catalogue, basket, order, payment on account.

If what you mainly need is to give customers access to their orders and documents, a portal is more direct and cheaper. A web application earns its place when the tool is part of what you sell.

Bespoke web development: what goes in a first version, what waits

A web application that tries to do everything on day one ships late and costs more than planned. The specification is where we pick one complete journey, the one that proves the tool is useful, and park the rest.

In the first versionLater, if use calls for it
One complete journey, start to finish.Secondary journeys and rare cases.
Log-in by email and password.Single sign-on with your customers’ directory.
A web application that adapts to a phone.Offline mode, mobile push notifications.
One language.Other languages: translation and testing, little development.
Simple exports.Detailed dashboards.

We do not build native iOS or Android apps. A well-built web application opens on a phone and is enough for most business use. If yours really needs a native app, we will say so during the audit.

What drives the cost of web application development

  • The number of roles. A customer, their manager, your team, a partner: each role adds screens and access rules to test.
  • The calculation rules. A calculator with three inputs is nothing like a sizing tool that works from your price list and selection charts.
  • Payment and invoicing. Taking payment online, running subscriptions and producing invoices are priced separately.
  • Connections. Each link to an ERP, a CRM or a third-party tool is specified and tested on its own.
  • Taking over something that exists. Moving accounts and data from a prototype or an old application means a clean-up and a planned go-live.

For a sense of scale by size of project, the bespoke software guide gives price ranges and where they come from.

When bespoke is the wrong choice

Building an application has an up-front cost and a running cost. Before you commit, check you are not in one of these cases.

  • Subscription software already does the job. Appointment booking, forms, online training, customer support: off-the-shelf tools cover these for a subscription that bears no comparison with the cost of a build.
  • Nobody has seen the idea yet. Test it first with a mock-up or a no-code tool on ten customers. Bespoke comes once the demand is confirmed. The guide on moving from Excel to a web app compares the lighter tools.
  • The need comes down to one calculation. A simple calculator can live on a page of your website, with no accounts and no database.
  • Nobody on your side will own the tool. An application needs someone who sets priorities and answers its users.
The audit ends with a written opinion: build, buy or wait.

Frequently asked questions

How much does web application development cost?

From £13,000 ex VAT for a first version: accounts, one complete journey, an admin area and the production set-up. Online payment and connections to an ERP or CRM are priced separately. The final price is fixed after the specification.

How long before the application is live?

Allow 8 to 14 weeks from the start of the audit to launch. You see a first delivery about two weeks after the build begins.

Which technologies do you use?

Next.js, React, TypeScript and PostgreSQL. They are common tools: another supplier or a developer you hire can take the code over.

Who owns the code and the data?

The code repository, the hosting and the domain name are opened in your name from day one. Rights in the code pass to you as each stage is paid. The application is hosted in the European Union, or in the UK if you ask for it.

Will it work on a phone?

Yes. It adapts to a phone screen and opens in the browser, with nothing to install. We do not build native iOS or Android apps.

What happens after launch?

One month of fixes against the specification is included. After that, maintenance is paid by the month with no lock-in, and each change has a fixed price. You can also take the code in-house.

Read next

Start with a fixed-price audit

In one to two weeks you know what to build, in what order and in what price range. The audit fee is deducted from the first project we build for you.

£1,650 ex VAT 1 to 2 weeks See a sample report

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