The architecture decisions that decide whether a platform still works, untouched, three years after launch, and how a Vermont studio makes them early.
Web applications and SaaS, designed and built in one studio
Customer-facing products and SaaS platforms, from the sign-in screen to billing and the admin side, on a stack your next engineer will already know.
Our approach
Most web applications fail slowly. The first release works, then every change gets more expensive because nobody wrote down why the data looks the way it does, the design system was never a system, and the deployment only works from one laptop. We build the first release so the tenth one is still cheap.
Design and engineering happen in the same studio, so the interface you approve is the interface that ships. There is no hand-off document between a design agency and a development shop, and nobody has to translate a Figma file into a guess.
What is included
- Product and interface design
- User flows, wireframes and a working component library, designed against real content rather than placeholder text.
- Front end
- React and Next.js with server rendering, so pages load fast, work without a spinner and can be indexed by search engines.
- Back end and data
- Node.js APIs and PostgreSQL schemas designed around the questions your business asks of its data, with migrations checked into the repository.
- Accounts, roles and billing
- Sign-in, teams and permissions, subscription billing and the admin screens your staff need to support customers.
- Hosting and deployment
- Preview environments for every change, a production setup you own, and monitoring that tells someone when something breaks.
- Documentation and handover
- A written architecture overview, a runbook and a repository another engineer can pick up without calling us.
Who it is for
- Founders turning a validated idea into a product that customers pay for.
- Companies replacing a spreadsheet-and-email process with a proper customer portal.
- Teams whose current web app has become slow to change and needs a cleaner foundation.
How the work runs
Built with Next.js, React, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL and Vercel.
01
Scope
A conversation about the business and its users, then a written scope that says what the first release does and what it leaves out.
02
Design
Key screens designed with real content and reviewed with you before engineering starts on them.
03
Build in slices
Working software on a preview link every week or two, so you review the product, not a status report.
04
Launch and look after
Production launch, then maintenance and new features on a schedule that suits the product.
Examples
Case studies where this was the main job.
Questions
How much does a custom web application cost?
It depends on what the first release has to do. After a scoping conversation we send a written scope with a price for that first release, so you know the cost before any engineering starts.
Do we own the code?
Yes. The repository, the hosting accounts and the domain are in your name from the first day, and the handover documentation is part of the work.
Can you work with our existing design or brand?
Yes. We can build from an existing design system, or design one when there is none, and keep it consistent across the product.
Do you work with companies outside Vermont?
Yes. We meet clients across New England in person and work with companies across the United States remotely.
Read next
- How we architect platforms for a five-year horizon
Other services: Mobile apps for iPhone and Android, Internal tools and business systems, Modernizing older software
Tell us what you are building.
A few lines about the project and when it needs to ship is enough to start.