BESPOKE SOFTWARE · SOUTH WALES
The system you wish you had
From £4,500, or £395 a month. Bespoke business software for South Wales companies, built by the people who will still be hosting it, patching it and answering the phone about it in three years.
- Fixed price before we start
- You own the code
- Hosted and supported by us
Trusted by businesses across South Wales
Pricing
What it costs
Ring three providers and ask what they charge. You will get three discovery calls and no numbers. Ours are published, excluding VAT, with out-of-scope work quoted before it starts rather than after.
See all pricesExcluding VAT. Third-party licences are shown as their own line on your invoice, separate from what you pay us.
The day to day
What is included
Everything below is in the price. Anything that is not is listed further down, before you have to ask.
Scoped before it is quoted
Two or three sessions working out what the system actually has to do, written down and agreed. The quote comes after that, not before.
A fixed price, not a day rate
You know the number before work starts. Change your mind mid-build and we requote that part, openly, rather than quietly billing more days.
Built on boring technology
PHP, MySQL and plain JavaScript. Not whatever framework is fashionable this year, because you need this running in 2031 and somebody other than us has to be able to pick it up.
You own the code
It goes in your repository, under your account, with the documentation. If you ever want somebody else to take it over, nothing stops you.
Hosted, backed up and patched
On infrastructure we manage. Daily backups that we restore from to prove they work, and security updates applied without you asking.
Proper authentication from day one
Role-based access, two-factor, sessions that expire, and an audit log of who did what. Not bolted on after a scare.
Your staff trained, not just handed a login
A session with the people who will use it every day, and a written guide that matches what is actually on screen.
Support from the same team
The people who built it answer the phone about it. No handover to a support desk who have never seen the code.
Changes quoted, not estimated
A fixed price per change once it is live, so a small improvement never turns into an open-ended bill.
Why an IT company
The build is the part we added, not the part we outsource
The usual story: a development agency builds something, invoices the final stage and moves on. Twelve months later nobody can reach them, the server has not been patched, the backup has been failing silently since March, and the business that depends on it has nobody to ring.
We already run servers, backups, security and a helpdesk for a living. So what we hand you lands in an environment we already look after, and the number you ring when it misbehaves is the number you ring when your laptop does.
Proof
You are reading this on software we wrote
Not a capability we hope to have. These are running now, and two of them are what our own business depends on.
The client portal
Tickets, invoices, quotes, documents, e-signatures, bookings and a knowledge base. Two-factor authentication and a document store that sits outside the web root.
The platform we run on
CRM, projects, onboarding and a credential vault. The system the company is operated from, built in-house.
A lift servicing operations portal
Role-based access and audited document handling, with a matching customer portal for their clients.
The honest version
Most of the time bespoke is the wrong answer
We have talked people out of projects before, and we will tell you which of these two you are in during the first conversation.
Buy the product
If something off the shelf does eighty percent of what you need, buy it. Licence fees spread over three years come in under any bespoke build, and somebody else carries the maintenance.
Build it
Bespoke earns its money in one situation: the way you work is genuinely different from everyone else in your industry, and that difference is why customers choose you. Forcing yourself into somebody else's product costs you the thing you are good at.
How a build runs
Stages you sign off one at a time
Most projects run six to fourteen weeks. We do not take one where the deadline is already impossible, and we say so rather than taking the deposit and hoping.
Scoping, before any price
Two or three sessions, written up and agreed before a figure is discussed.
A fixed quote, broken into stages
Not an estimate. Each stage is signed off on its own.
Working software at every stage
Not a status report. It is the only reliable way to catch a misunderstanding early.
Handed into an environment we run
The servers, the backups and the helpdesk are already ours, so there is nobody to hand over to.
Certified, not just recommending it
We hold Cyber Essentials ourselves
It would be a strange thing to sell and not hold. We take clients through the same certification, start to finish.
Questions
Bespoke business software, answered
What does bespoke software actually cost?
From £4,500 for a focused tool that does one job well, and £395 a month if you would rather spread it, which includes hosting, backups, patching and support. A system that replaces several of the tools you currently pay for usually lands between £8,000 and £20,000. You get a fixed number before work starts, not a day rate.
Do I own what you build?
Yes, outright, including the source code and the documentation. It lives in your repository under your account. We have no lock-in clause and no licence fee on your own system, and if you ever want another developer to take it over we will help with the handover rather than make it difficult.
How long does a project take?
Most run six to fourteen weeks from the end of scoping. Scoping itself is usually two to three weeks because it is done properly rather than squeezed into one meeting. If your deadline cannot be met we will say so before you commit, not three weeks in.
What happens if you get hit by a bus?
A fair question and one nobody asks until it matters. The code is in your repository, written in widely used technology rather than anything exotic, and documented as it is built. Any competent PHP developer can pick it up. That is a deliberate choice and it costs us leverage, which is rather the point.
Can you work with software we already have?
Usually. Most projects involve talking to something you already run, whether that is Microsoft 365, your accounts package or a supplier system. If it has an API we can work with it, and if it does not we will tell you what that limitation will cost you before you commit.
Do we have to be an IT support client?
No. Software clients are a separate thing and plenty of them never buy support from us. If you do take support as well, the system is covered by the same agreement rather than sitting outside it, but that is an option and never a condition.
Will you maintain it after launch?
Yes, and this is the part that usually goes wrong elsewhere. Hosting, backups, security patching and support are included in the monthly option, or available separately if you bought outright. Changes after launch are quoted individually at a fixed price so a small improvement never becomes an open-ended bill.
Can you take over software someone else built?
Sometimes. We will read it first and tell you honestly whether it is worth keeping. Occasionally the right answer is that rebuilding is cheaper than maintaining what you have, and we would rather say that at the start than discover it at your expense.
Services that go with this
We cover South Wales from Pembroke and Narberth in the west to Newport in the east, and from Barry up to Brecon. On-site visits are included on the Professional and Advanced support plans, and quoted before we travel on Essential. See the towns we cover
A free review, and an honest answer
An hour of our time, on site. You get a written list of what is fine, what is risky and what is costing you money. If everything is healthy, we will tell you that and leave you to it.