01 / fully custom development
fully custom builds
A fully custom build means the code exists only for your business — your data model, your interfaces, your logic — written by hand and with AI assistance, reviewed by engineers, and owned outright by you.
This is what we do when the thing being built is the product: a platform, a marketplace, a booking engine, a tool your team lives in. No template, no plugin ceiling, no monthly platform tax on your own idea.
typical timeline: A focused product usually launches in 8 to 16 weeks. A full venture — brand, product, launch — fits inside six months.
who this is for
pick this if any of these are true.
not this? A five-page marketing site with a contact form. We will tell you to use a builder and spend the difference elsewhere.
- The website or app is the product, not a brochure
- Users log in and see different things
- Money, bookings, contracts or stock move through it
- It has to talk to other systems — payments, calendars, accounting
- Search performance and page speed are commercially critical
what you actually get
data model first
Before a screen is designed we define what things exist and how they relate. Everything downstream is cheaper when this is right.
interface design
Designed for the person doing the job repeatedly, not for a portfolio screenshot. Fast, keyboard-friendly, obvious.
accounts and permissions
Roles, row-level security, audit trails. Who can see fees, who can approve, who can delete.
payments and integrations
Stripe or Paddle checkout, subscriptions, invoicing, plus the APIs your business already depends on.
search engineered in
Server-rendered pages, a route per topic, structured data and Core Web Vitals held to budget from the first commit.
handover you can use
Your repository, your database, your accounts. Documentation written for the next developer, whoever that is.
how we do it
scope
We write what gets built, in what order, and an explicit not-now list. The not-now list is what protects the date.
model and prototype
Data model plus a clickable version of the core journey, so decisions are argued about early and cheaply.
build in weekly slices
You see working software every week. Nothing disappears into a black box for a month.
harden
Real content, real data volumes, permissions tested, speed measured on a mid-range phone.
launch and keep going
Launch is a week, not a day. Then we watch behaviour and change what the evidence says to change.
the honest comparison
| builder | custom wordpress | fully custom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| best for | small marketing sites | content-heavy sites | products and systems |
| time to live | days to weeks | weeks | weeks to months |
| logins & workflow | very limited | possible, constrained | unlimited |
| you own the code | no | yes | yes |
| ceiling | low | medium-high | none |
the tools we use
Named, not implied. If a tool is on this list we have shipped production work with it.
front end
- React
- TypeScript
- TanStack Router & Query
- Tailwind CSS
- Motion
back end & data
- Postgres
- Supabase
- row-level security
- server functions
- edge hosting
commerce & comms
- Stripe
- Paddle
- transactional email
- webhooks
- document generation
delivery
- Git
- AI-assisted development with human review
- automated builds
- analytics
questions people ask
Is AI-assisted development safe for a real business?
Used by people who can read what it produces, yes — and it removes weeks of scaffolding, admin screens, migrations and tests. Shipped without review, it is a liability. Everything we generate is reviewed, typed and tested by the engineer responsible for it.
Who owns the code?
You do. The repository, the database and the hosting accounts are yours, and we will hand them to another developer without friction if you ever want to.
What does it cost to run?
Far less than most people expect. Hosting and database for a typical platform runs in the tens of pounds per month, not hundreds, because we build lean and host at the edge.
read deeper
Written from the work, not from a keyword list.
start somewhere
what are you trying to make better?
Answer a few quick questions and we will come back with a price bracket, a timeline and a scope you can hold us to.