Software for the work your business actually does.

Less than a from-scratch build usually implies, because the first release is deliberately the smallest thing that solves the real problem. What decides the number is how many distinct things the software has to keep track of. One workflow with a few record types is the smallest version of this. Several workflows that all have to agree with each other is the largest. The first release gets scoped before we quote it rather than after, so what you get is a number for something specific — and if it is smaller than the work deserves we would rather say so than scope it down until it stops working.

You will have something you can click on in about two weeks. When it is ready to rely on depends on how broad the requirements are. Honest answer, and the reason the first release’s scope gets agreed before we quote instead of after.

The build keeps going, and it should. Plan 15–25% of the build cost a year to keep the software worth using; that is the long-standing industry benchmark for software maintenance. Software that stops being invested in stops being used. The Exterior Living Company’s production platform started as task tracking and now runs purchase orders, scheduling and a deck builder, years later.

No. A dashboard shows you data that lives somewhere else. This is software that owns its own data: its own users, records and permissions, where the records exist because this application created them. If your numbers already live in tools you pay for and you need one screen to read them, that is internal dashboard development, and it is a different job.

Often yes, for a first version, and that is a genuinely good way to find out whether the idea is right before paying anyone. The problems start later, when the thing works but nobody can safely change it. Small edits break something unrelated. Releases start to feel risky. Usually that is a sign the architecture was never defined, and not that the tool was bad.

Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. It starts with a code audit: what the system actually does, where the architecture was never defined, and what it would cost to make it safe to change again. You get that as a written assessment and you keep it whether or not you continue with us. It applies equally to software a previous agency built and to software largely written by AI.

Next.js, Postgres and Cloudflare. A boundary, not a shortlist. We run these every day across every client, which is what makes it possible to quote a first release at this range and support it for years afterwards. If what you have is built on a stack we do not run, you will hear that on the first call instead of three weeks in.

Yes, but it is a different engagement and the range above does not apply. Compliance brings audit, documentation and infrastructure obligations that sit outside a first release, so tell us early if that is your situation. It changes the shape of the project instead of adding a line to it.

You do. The repository is yours from the first commit, along with the documentation and the accounts it runs in. Nobody here is holding your codebase as leverage.