Bespoke software development, UK
Bespoke software development from Cardiff: case management, customer portals, dashboards and integrations, at a fixed price agreed before we start.
Why firms come to us for bespoke software
The CRM nearly does it. The project tool nearly does it. So the team runs the last 30% in spreadsheets, email threads and memory, and the product you pay for becomes the thing you work around.
The estimate was a range. The range moved. Months in, the scope is still open, the invoices keep arriving, and nobody can give you the date it will be finished. Hourly billing rewards the drift.
Built by a contractor who left, or a supplier who kept the code. Every small change is a ticket, a quote and a wait. The business ends up adapting to the software instead of the other way round.
What we build for you
Most bespoke builds are one of these, or two of them joined up. Not sure the job is bespoke yet? If a shared spreadsheet has quietly become the system, start at Excel to web app. If the problem is repetitive admin rather than missing software, start at AI automation.
Matters, orders, jobs, claims: one record per case with its status, documents, deadlines and history in one place. The Lingo Service operations platform runs this way for a UK translation agency, from instant quote to certified delivery.
Your clients log in, see where their case is, upload what you need and pay, without ringing the office. Customer portal development that looks like part of your business, not a third-party widget bolted on.
One internal screen for the team: what is due today, what is stuck, what came in this week and what it is worth. The numbers you currently ask someone to pull, on screen the moment you open it.
Connected to what you already run: accounting, email, CRM, payments. We design the database and build the APIs so the new system feeds the old ones and nothing gets keyed in twice.
Pricing
Every project starts with a free 30-minute strategy call. We go through what you run now and what the system must do, then commit to a price and a timeline. No deck, no follow-up if it isn't for you. Want a number before the call? Try the estimate tool.
from £14,9506-10 weeks
Fixed price. Fixed timeline. 50% on signing, 50% on launch.
Book your free strategy callfrom £29,950Scoped on the call
Priced after the strategy call. Fixed once scoped, same 50/50 terms.
Book your free strategy call£99/moCancel anytime
For firms that want the engineer who built it on call.
Book your free strategy callThe method
Most software estimates are guesses dressed up as quotes. Ours is a commitment, because the thinking happens before the number, not after it. Four steps, and you know the price at the first one.
01
The free 30-minute strategy call. We go through how the work flows today, where it breaks, and what the system must do. You leave with a clear plan whether or not you hire us.
02
The price committed on the call is attached to a written scope: every screen, every rule, every integration, and what is deliberately left out. That document is the contract of what you get.
03
You deal with the engineer building it, not an account manager. You see working software as it takes shape, not a demo at the end. 50% on signing, 50% on launch.
04
Launch, then either the care plan or your own developer. The code sits in your own GitHub repository from the start, so both are real options, not a lock-in dressed as a choice.
This is the same method behind the products we built and run ourselves. The longer version is on our approach page.
Live products we've built
We build and run live products of our own, and each one is a bespoke build: a case management system with a client portal, and a real-time interpreting platform. Both are in the case studies.
A UK translation agency's full operations platform: instant quoting, certified workflows, client portal, and an embedded AI assistant qualifying leads 24/7.
View case study: Lingo Service
Certified Arabic translation with instant online quotes and same-day turnaround, accepted by the Home Office and UKVI, built and run as a live service.
View case study: Arabic Translation UK
Real-time interpreting across 260+ languages in text, many of them with voice, built for healthcare, legal and critical conversations.
View case study: LingoVoiceWhy this model fits bespoke builds
You've probably met the other kind: the agency with a sales layer between you and the work, the contractor who left, the supplier who kept your code. This is set up so none of that can happen to you.
Honest answers
If a ready-made product does the job with a few settings changed, use it, and we will say so on the call. Bespoke is for when the way you work is the advantage: your case flow, your approvals, your client experience, the rules nobody else's product understands. Then the software should follow the business, not the other way round. The strategy call is where we tell you honestly which one you need.
We do the knowing first. The strategy call goes through how the work flows today, what the system must do and what is left out, before a number is committed. That number is then attached to a written scope: every screen, every rule, every integration. Anything new that comes up mid-build is scoped and priced as its own item, so the agreed number stays agreed.
You do. The source code sits in your own GitHub repository, along with the designs and the database design. There is no licence fee and nothing that stops you taking it to another developer. That is the point of paying for bespoke software: it is yours.
Two options, both real. The care plan is £99 a month: UK hosting, two hours of development each month, bug fixes and a quarterly health review, cancel anytime. Or your own developer picks it up, which works because the code is yours and written to be read. You can also start on the care plan and move it in-house later.
Next.js, TypeScript and React on the front end, Node.js or Laravel behind it, PostgreSQL or SQLite for data. Where a system needs AI, we use Claude and OpenAI models, Whisper for speech recognition and ElevenLabs for voice. Nothing exotic, nothing a competent developer could not pick up after us.
A Custom Platform is 6 to 10 weeks from signing to launch, and the timeline is fixed alongside the price. Marketplaces and multi-tenant systems are scoped individually on the call. If what you need is closer to a website with forms and a few screens, the Custom Website tier at £4,950 takes 2 to 3 weeks; the strategy call decides which tier fits.
30 minutes, free, direct with the engineer. A fixed price and a plan, not a pitch deck.