Straight answers
The questions clients ask, answered without the sales language
Everything below is what we would tell you on the telephone. Where the honest answer is that it depends, we explain what it depends on rather than dodging the question. If something you need to know is missing, write to us and we will answer it directly.
Cost and budget
It depends on scope, and any firm quoting a number before understanding your requirements is guessing. A straightforward business website with a handful of pages sits at the lower end. A content managed site with many sections, a blog and multiple enquiry paths sits higher. A web application with user accounts, permissions, workflow rules and reporting is a different category entirely, because you are buying software rather than pages.
What we can promise is a written estimate broken into stages, with the assumptions and exclusions stated plainly. That structure lets you see exactly what each part costs and decide what to build now and what to postpone until the system has proven itself.
Usually because they are quoting for different things. One firm has assumed a template with your logo dropped in. Another has assumed a custom build with a proper data model. One includes hosting, security and a year of support. Another excludes all three and will invoice for them later. One will write the code locally, another will pass it to the cheapest available subcontractor.
The way to compare fairly is to ask every supplier what is excluded, what the second year costs, who writes the code and what happens if you need an urgent change. Those four questions separate quotes far more effectively than the headline number.
Both, depending on the work. Once a specification exists we can usually fix the price for each stage, because the scope is properly defined. Exploratory work, ongoing improvements and support are better handled hourly or through a monthly retainer, since fixing a price for undefined work forces any supplier to pad the number to cover risk. We will tell you which model suits your project and why.
Ongoing costs generally consist of hosting, domain renewal, any third party services the system uses such as email or message delivery, and a maintenance arrangement covering updates, security patching, backups and small changes. We quote these figures before you commit rather than letting you discover them in month thirteen. For most small business systems the ongoing cost is modest, and it is always far lower than the cost of neglect.
Yes, and we usually recommend it. Building the core of a system first, putting it into real use and then extending it based on what you learn produces better software than trying to specify everything in advance. The important part is designing the foundation so that later additions fit, which is a decision made at the data model stage rather than something that can be retrofitted cheaply.
Timelines and process
A business website is typically three to five weeks. A larger content managed site is five to nine weeks. A web application with accounts and roles is usually three to five months. A native mobile application is around three to four months plus store review time. A full platform with a web system and two mobile apps runs from six to ten months. Those ranges assume decisions come back promptly, which in practice is the largest single factor in whether a schedule holds.
Because almost every failed software project we have been asked to rescue failed for the same reason. Nobody wrote down what the system was supposed to do, so the client and the developer each held a different picture in their head and the difference only surfaced at the end. A written specification costs a week or two and repeatedly saves months. It also gives you something concrete to approve before significant money is spent.
One person able to make decisions without waiting for a committee, access to the staff who actually do the work being automated, honest descriptions of how things really happen including the workarounds, prompt feedback on demonstrations, and your content and data in whatever state it currently exists. Projects slow down far more often because of delayed decisions than because of technical difficulty.
Changes are normal and we plan for them. Small adjustments within the agreed scope are simply absorbed. Anything that meaningfully changes the work is quoted separately before it is done, so you always decide with the cost in front of you. What we avoid is the pattern where a series of small unbilled changes quietly consumes the schedule and then the project appears to be late.
You receive short written updates at regular intervals covering what was completed, what is next and anything requiring a decision, plus demonstrations of working software as each stage lands. If something is going to be late, you hear about it as soon as we know, not at the deadline.
Ownership, hosting and support
You do. On completion you receive the source code, the database structure and the deployment documentation. We do not build on a proprietary platform that only we can operate, and we do not hold your domain or your accounts hostage. If you ever choose to work with another firm, everything they need is already in your possession and we will assist with the handover.
No. Most clients choose to because having one company responsible for the code and the server removes the finger pointing that happens when something breaks, but you are free to host anywhere. If you host elsewhere we will document the requirements clearly and help your provider get the environment right.
Security updates to the operating system and the application dependencies, certificate renewal, backup verification rather than just backup scheduling, uptime monitoring, error log review, small content and feature changes within an agreed allowance, performance checks as data grows, and a written monthly summary of what was done. Clients on a plan rarely have emergencies because the problems get handled while they are still routine.
Anything affecting a live system takes priority over everything else. In practice our monitoring often tells us before a client does, which means the work has usually started before the message arrives. Response commitments are set out in writing for clients on a maintenance agreement so that expectations are clear on both sides.
You keep everything and we help you leave properly. That means providing the current code, a database export, server configuration notes and a conversation with whoever is taking over. A company that needs to trap its clients has already admitted something about the quality of its work.
Technical questions
Mostly Python with the Django framework, MySQL for data, Redis for caching, Celery for background work, Kotlin for Android, SwiftUI for iOS and Linux with NGINX and Gunicorn for hosting. It matters because these are widely used, well documented tools with long support histories. If you ever need another developer, thousands of them know this stack. Choosing something fashionable would make that far harder in five years.
Yes, and not as an afterthought. Everything we build is responsive from the first design decision, tested on real devices including older ones, and kept light so that people on ordinary mobile connections are not punished. For most businesses the majority of visitors now arrive on a phone, so the mobile experience is the main experience.
Usually. If the other system offers a documented interface, we can integrate with it, and we do this regularly with payment providers, email and message services, accounting packages, mapping services and calendar systems. Where no interface exists we will look at other options such as scheduled file exchange, and we will tell you honestly if a connection is not practical.
Sometimes. It genuinely helps with drafting repetitive text, answering questions from your own documents, classifying incoming enquiries and improving search. It is a poor choice for anything requiring exact arithmetic, guaranteed consistency or a decision that must be defensible. We are happy to say when a simple rule would do the job better and cost almost nothing to run.
Certificates and secure connections, sensible password storage and policy, permission checks enforced on the server rather than only hidden in the interface, protection against the common web attacks, dependency updates applied on a schedule, firewalls and login attempt limits on the server, and backups that are tested by restoring them. None of this is charged as an extra, because software without it is not finished.
Working with us
Yes. We have offices in Saskatoon, Canada and Casper, United States, and we have delivered work across North America and the Middle East. Because everything we build is designed for the web from the start, distance has never been the limiting factor. Clear written communication and regular demonstrations matter far more than a shared postcode.
Regularly. We begin with a review of the code, database and server, then give you a written assessment of what is sound, what is risky and what stabilising it would cost. Sometimes the answer is to keep and improve. Occasionally it is to rebuild, and we will explain exactly why rather than simply asserting it.
It is a fair question to ask any small firm. Our answer is QuranRecord, a platform we designed, built, deployed and still operate, serving more than a million page views a month across web, Android and iOS. Scale in software comes from architecture and discipline rather than headcount, and being small is why you speak to the engineer rather than a coordinator.
Yes, and we do. If an established product covers most of your requirements for a fraction of the cost, that is the advice you will get, and we would rather configure it properly for you than sell an unnecessary build. Turning down work occasionally is what makes our recommendations worth anything.
Write to us describing the problem in your own words rather than the solution you think you should ask for. We reply with questions, then with an honest view of whether we are the right firm and what a realistic scope looks like. There is no charge for that conversation and no obligation attached to it.
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