Tell us what you need built

Tell us about the software you need and you get back a written scope and a real price. No account, no payment, and you're never under any obligation.

What happens next

  1. 1. You describe the software below. It's about ten minutes if you already know what it needs to do, and there's really no wrong way to write it.
  2. 2. We read it. Then we decide honestly whether it's something we can build really well for you. If it isn't, we say so and point you at the nearest thing we can do.
  3. 3. If it is, you get a written scope and a fixed price. That covers what is included, what isn't, and anything we'd need from you. No surprises!
  4. 4. Nothing gets built and nothing gets charged until you've read that estimate and said yes. You're in control the whole way through!

Software we have already built

Real products, running right now. Open any of them and step through it. Every page listed below is live and filled in, not a screenshot and not a mockup.

Operations console

Tallgrass Provisions

Tallgrass supplies dry goods (flour, pulses, salt, sugar, spice) to about four hundred independent bakeries and kitchens across the middle of the country. This is the screen the four people who run that look at first thing.

Open the live application

Pages you can open

Backstage jobs board

The Ardwick Playhouse

Four hundred and twelve seats, two hundred and ten performances a year, and a building from 1904 that has opinions about all of it.

Open the live application

Pages you can open

Each of these is a real application we build and deliver, filled with our own demo content rather than a customer’s. What you commission is built the same way, for your business and your data.

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How the work gets done today, and what's wrong with it. Concrete beats polished! The spreadsheet everyone is emailing around tells us more than a mission statement.

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The people who open it, roughly how many, and how technical they are. This decides how much of the software can assume and how much it has to explain.

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A range, not a commitment. It tells us which version of this is worth scoping. We'd much rather quote you something you can say yes to!

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If a date is fixed by something outside your control, say so in the problem above.

What the software must do

These questions are about the application itself, not about how it looks. They're what we build from, so the more concrete you are here, the closer the first version lands!

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One row for each kind of thing you'd want to look up later. A hair salon might keep track of Clients, Appointments, Services and Staff. A builder might keep track of Jobs, Quotes, Customers and Invoices. These become the screens and lists your team works in.

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Each kind of person who logs in, and what that kind of person is allowed to do. One row per role, not per person.

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The jobs someone opens the software to get done, start to finish. Walk each one through in the order it actually happens today, even the awkward parts!

Other software this has to send information to, or get information from. The things you already pay for and wouldn't want to type into twice. Leave this empty if there are none.

Anything the build waits on that only you can provide: accounts, API keys, a data export, a sign-off. Naming them now is what stops the build stalling later!

Getting in

Above you listed what you would give us. This is the harder question, and the one that decides whether a price is worth writing: for each system or set of records, can anyone actually let us in, and how soon? Nothing here widens what we take on. It just stops us quoting around a door that turns out to be locked.

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Accounts, systems, spreadsheets, a database, records that already exist somewhere. Answer this even if the answer is no. "No" is an answer we can quote against!

One row each. Leave it empty if this stands alone. If you're not sure whether something counts, just add it. An item we did not need costs a sentence, one nobody mentioned costs weeks.

The opposite question to the one above: what keeps running untouched. A site that stays where it is, the accounts package your bookkeeper lives in, a process nobody wants changed. Naming it here is what puts it in the estimate as something we are NOT doing.

Where to send the scope

We reply to you directly. No account, no mailing list.

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Where the scope and the price go. We do not add you to anything.

Sending this costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

What it costs

from$500 to $4,000

plus $99/month for the tiers that include ongoing hosting and changes.

One-time build cost, depending on which tier fits what you need. You see the exact price before you pay anything.

See what each tier includes

Before you commission something

How is this different from ordering a template?

A template is a finished website you fill with your own words. You pick it, you fill it in, it goes live! Custom software is built for a job no template does, so it's really built around you: a booking system that knows your fitters, an inventory tool that matches how your stock actually moves. If what you need is a website, the template route is faster and cheaper, and we'll tell you so.

What do I need to know before I fill in the form?

What the software has to do, and who it has to do it for. You don't need to know how it should be built, what it should be written in, or what any of it is called. If you can describe the job the way you'd explain it to a new employee, that's absolutely enough to write a scope from!

What if you read my request and it is not something you can build?

We say so, and we say what we'd do instead. We'd really rather turn down a project than take money for software we'd build badly! A fixed-price estimate written by someone who is guessing is how a build goes wrong six weeks in. Nothing is charged for reading a request, ever!

Is the estimate binding, and can I change my mind after it?

The estimate is a fixed price for a written scope. That includes what is deliberately not in it, so there is nothing to argue about later. It is not a commitment from you. Nothing is built and nothing is charged until you've read it and said yes, and you're free to read it and walk away.

Who owns the code when it is finished?

You do. It is yours to keep, host anywhere, and hand to another developer whenever you want. We do not hold the source hostage as a retainer, and there is no licence you have to keep paying to keep running what you paid us to build.

See software we have already delivered Or start from a template instead