Custom business software

When the spreadsheet stops coping, and no product quite fits.

Three people editing the same spreadsheet at once. Software you pay $200 a month for and use two features of. A process that lives in one person's head. Custom software is what you build when the off-the-shelf answer costs more in workarounds than it saves. From $5,000, scoped and priced in writing first.

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Text me anytime: (218) 818-1023. Skip the email if you like. I read and answer every text myself.

What people actually ask for

The shapes this usually takes

Almost nobody arrives asking for custom software. They arrive with a process that hurts. These are the ones that come up again and again.

An internal dashboard

What came in this week, what is outstanding, what needs chasing, on one screen, pulled from the systems you already use instead of added up by hand on a Friday.

A customer or client portal

Somewhere your customers log in to see their job, their documents, their invoices or their progress, instead of emailing you to ask.

Job and quote tracking

Which quotes went out, which came back, which went quiet, and what is scheduled for next week. The whiteboard, but it cannot be wiped by accident.

A replacement for a spreadsheet

The one three people edit at once, that nobody trusts, that breaks when someone sorts a column. Same data, with rules, permissions and a history.

A replacement for a subscription

The product you pay monthly for and use one feature of. Sometimes building it once is cheaper, and sometimes it is not, and I will tell you which.

An integration between two systems

Your booking tool and your invoicing. Your forms and your CRM. The least glamorous build on this list and usually the one that saves the most time.

No mystery

Ordinary, boring, industry-standard tools

Custom software has a reputation for becoming a trap: one developer, one weird stack, and a business that cannot leave. I build the opposite on purpose.

A normal web app, in the browser, that works on a phone and a desk machine without installing anything.
Supabase or Postgres for data, an open-source database you can export in full, any time, without asking me.
Hosted on Vercel, the same infrastructure large companies use.
You get the source code. Every project. Any competent developer can pick it up, and that is the point.

Where it makes sense, AI goes inside it: drafting, classifying, reading documents, summarising. Where it does not, it stays out, because AI inside a system of record is a liability if nobody checks it. More on how I build the AI parts →

What it costs

From $5,000, and scoped before you commit

Scoping conversation

What the process is now, what it costs you, and whether software is actually the answer. Sometimes the answer is a better spreadsheet and I will say so.

Custom business software

from $5,000

Dashboards, portals, internal tools and workflow applications. One fixed price for the agreed scope, in writing, before any work starts.

Ongoing development

from $999/mo

Defined monthly capacity for businesses that want continuous improvement rather than one project and silence. Optional, month to month.

Big builds get split. A $5,000 first phase that solves the worst problem and earns its keep beats a $20,000 project that arrives in six months and is wrong in three places. I would rather ship you something small that works and let you decide whether phase two is worth it.

Hosting and third-party costs are yours and stated up front. Usually a few dollars a month, occasionally more if the thing works hard. You see the real number before you agree, and you can put the accounts in your own name.

Questions

Custom software questions, answered

How much does custom software cost for a small business?

From $5,000 for a first build, quoted as one fixed price in writing for an agreed scope. The scoping conversation is free. What moves the number is how many things it has to talk to, how many kinds of user it has, and how much of your process has rules that only exist in someone's head. Big projects get split into phases so you can stop after the first one if it is not paying for itself.

Isn't it cheaper to just buy software?

Very often, yes, and I will tell you when. Off-the-shelf wins when your process is normal, when the product does most of what you need, and when the subscription is small next to the build. Custom wins when the workarounds have become the job, when you are paying for five products to do one thing, or when the thing you need does not exist. That comparison is most of what the free scoping conversation is.

What happens if you get hit by a bus?

You have the source code, the database is open-source and exportable, and the hosting is in your name or transferable to it. Nothing about the build requires me specifically. That is deliberate, and it is the question I would ask a solo developer too.

Can it connect to the software we already use?

Usually. Most business tools have an API, and where one does not there is often a workable route through exports, email or a shared file. If something genuinely will not connect I will tell you before you commit, not after, along with what the alternative costs.

Who owns the data?

You do. It sits in your database, on your account where you want that, and you can export all of it whenever you like. Nothing is held hostage and there is no export fee.

Do you do ongoing support?

If you want it. Automation Care from $199/month covers monitoring and small fixes; the $999/month partner arrangement is defined development capacity for continuous work. Both are optional and month to month. Plenty of clients take the code and run it themselves.

Tell me about the process that hurts.

Not the software you think you want. The thing that takes three hours a week, or the spreadsheet everyone is scared of. I will tell you what building it would involve, what it would cost, and whether you should buy something instead.

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