Software your business runs on, that you actually own.
CRM, point of sale, order tracking, internal tools. Built from scratch in whatever language and framework the job calls for, then run and maintained rather than handed over and abandoned. The code and the data are yours from the first day, which is not how most of this industry works.
From 2,950 euro to build.
10 years of orders, customers and payments running in software I built from scratch 22 data models, 28 test suites, in daily use by a Dutch furniture retailer. Read how it was built ➤Featured case study
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- 34findings fixed
When a custom system is the right call
Most businesses should buy off the shelf. This is for the cases where off the shelf has already failed, and you can name how.
Somebody else holds the system you depend on
The most expensive position in business software: your operation runs on something you cannot access, change or take with you. It is also the most common, and it is usually only noticed when the relationship ends or the server is switched off.
You are paying per seat for software you use a tenth of
Every extra person costs again, forever, for a product built for somebody else's business. At a certain headcount, building the tenth you actually use is cheaper than renting the whole thing.
The work happens in spreadsheets nobody trusts
Orders in one file, stock in another, someone's personal copy on a laptop. It works until two people edit at once, and by then nobody can say which number is real.
Off the shelf nearly fits, and the gap is the whole problem
Your ten week custom order cycle, your dealer pricing rules, your three brands. The gap between nearly and exactly is where the manual work lives, and it grows.
Not sure whether building is cheaper than renting in your case? Ask and I will tell you honestly, including when it is not. Get the site check
Not sure it needs building? Tell me what the process is now and where it breaks. If a tool you can buy does the job, I will say so.
What I have actually built
One client, named with their permission, running on this today. Not a portfolio of concepts.
A CRM, after they were locked out of their own
The client's system was held by somebody else, on a server being switched off. The rescue came first so the deadline stopped driving the decision, then the replacement: a working application with its own data model, admin and sales screen.
Ten years of history, migrated and kept
A decade of orders, customers and payments brought in as a read only archive rather than replayed into a new engine. Old records stay queryable; new work runs forward cleanly.
A sales screen the showroom staff actually use
Built for people who are not technical, standing up, with a customer waiting. That constraint decides the whole interface and it is the part most custom software gets wrong.
An order warning dashboard
Ten to twelve week custom orders go wrong quietly. The system now says which ones are drifting before the customer rings to ask.
Order tracking customers check themselves
A page each customer can open to see where their order is, plus QR invoices that open the right order directly. Every one of those is a phone call the team no longer takes.
Messages that send themselves
Order updates that used to be typed by hand now go out automatically over WhatsApp, and incoming replies land where the team can see them.
What I will not do
Four habits that make custom software a liability instead of an asset.
No code I keep
It goes in your repository under your account, from the first commit. If you stop working with me you lose a developer, not your business system.
No data I hold
Your database, your hosting, your export whenever you want it. What happened to this client before I met them is the thing I am least willing to repeat.
No rewrite for the sake of it
If extending what you have is cheaper and safer, that is the recommendation, and I will say so before quoting a build.
No building what you can buy
If an off the shelf product fits, it is faster and cheaper than anything I write. I would rather tell you that and keep the relationship than take the money.
A furniture retailer: three storefronts, three ad accounts and a CRM
The CRM described on this page, plus three storefronts, product feeds and the advertising, for a Dutch furniture retailer on a ten to twelve week order cycle.
Fair questions about custom software
You say any language or framework. Really?
The stack follows the job rather than my preferences. What I have shipped and run in production is Python and Django, JavaScript, PHP, SQL and a good deal of automation tooling; where a project genuinely calls for something else, I work in it. If a job needs something I would be learning on your money, I will tell you that rather than bill you for the education.
How long does a build take?
A first working version in four to eight weeks for most internal systems, then changes monthly. The scope is written down before anything starts, so the timeline is a commitment rather than an estimate that drifts.
What if I already have a system?
Then the first job is usually rescuing and extending it, not replacing it. That is exactly what happened with the client on this page: rescue first, which removed the deadline, then a calm decision about what to build.
What happens if you disappear?
You keep the code, the repository, the database and the hosting, because they were never in my name. That is the whole point of the arrangement and it is the first thing I set up.
Can you build a POS?
Yes, and I will be straight with you: the system I have shipped and run is a CRM with order tracking, invoicing and messaging, not a till. A point of sale is the same problem shape, and the parts I have already built cover most of it, but if you want somebody with five POS deployments behind them, that is a fair thing to want and it is not me yet.
Is 2,950 euro realistic for custom software?
For a focused internal system replacing a spreadsheet or a tool nobody owns, yes. For something with many users, complex permissions or heavy integration, it is the starting point and the real figure goes in writing after scoping. I would rather publish the floor than hide behind a quote form.
Built for these kinds of company
The same service, written for what each of them has to prove.
Tell me what breaks, and I will tell you whether to build.
Describe the process that is costing you time. You get an honest answer about whether custom software is the right spend, including when the answer is to buy something off the shelf instead.