Software for the part of your business a website cannot do

Client portals, booking systems, quoting tools, internal dashboards. Projects start at £7,500 and are scoped individually, because a booking system for one studio and a booking system for eleven sites are not the same job. I have built and run my own product, so I will be straight with you about what year two costs.

From £7,500
Scoped per project
Laravel, Node, Next.js
Discovery first, always

The bit most quotes leave out

Custom software is not finished at launch. It needs hosting, monitoring, dependency updates, and someone to answer when a user cannot log in on a Sunday. I ran SoloCRM for two years and that ongoing weight is exactly why I eventually retired it. It taught me more than any client build.

So every app quote from me includes a running cost estimate for the first two years alongside the build price. If the total does not make commercial sense for you, better to find that out in week one than in month fourteen.

What I take on

Client and customer portals

Logins, documents, statuses, notifications. Usually replacing a spreadsheet and a lot of email.

Booking and scheduling

Availability, payments, reminders, cancellations. The hard part is the edge cases, and that is where the time goes.

Quoting and configurators

Turning a pricing structure that lives in someone's head into something a customer can use unsupervised.

Internal dashboards

Pulling numbers out of the systems you already pay for and putting them on one screen.

Integrations

Stripe, accounting, CRMs, couriers, whatever has an API. Where there is no API I will say so before you budget for it.

Rescuing a stalled build

Half-finished projects where the original developer left. Sometimes fixable, sometimes not. Honest assessment first.

How I scope it

Discovery comes first and it is paid. Two to five days, depending on the size of the thing, and you get a written specification, a data model, screen sketches and a fixed build price at the end of it. That document is yours whether or not you hire me for the build.

I do it this way because fixed-price software quoted off a phone call is how both sides end up unhappy. The discovery fee comes off the build cost if you go ahead.

Discovery

£950

Two to five days. Written spec, data model, screens, fixed build price. Deducted from the build if you proceed.

Questions people actually ask

Can you take over from another developer?

Often, yes. I will read the code first and give you a straight answer on whether continuing is cheaper than restarting.

Do you build mobile apps?

Not native iOS and Android. I build web apps that work properly on a phone, which covers most business cases at a fraction of the cost. If you genuinely need App Store presence I will point you to someone who does that full time.

What happens if you are unavailable?

The code is documented and in your repository, on standard frameworks any competent developer can pick up. That is a deliberate choice, not a courtesy.

Ongoing support?

Retainer or hourly, your preference. Most app clients take a monthly retainer because software needs attention in a way a brochure site does not.

Describe the process you want to replace.

Get a quote in four questions

hello@madebykestrel.co.uk · replies inside one working day

This page, measured in your browser

Your device

LCPMeasuring…

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How long until the main content appears. Google wants under 2.5 seconds.

INPMeasuring…

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How quickly the page answers when you tap. Under 200ms is the target.

CLSMeasuring…

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How much the layout moves while loading. Under 0.1, ideally zero.

Real numbers from your device and connection, not a screenshot of a score I chose. Nothing is sent anywhere. The measurement happens in your browser and stays there. If one of these ever reads amber on my own site, you will see it, which is rather the point. I audit these for £650.