Your process is the advantage
You win work because of how you quote, schedule or handle exceptions. A generic product flattens that into whatever every competitor also gets.
✦ Bespoke software development
Custom software development company for B2B businesses
Haystak is a custom software development company that builds the system your business actually runs on. One-off build fee, low monthly retainer to host and support it, and no per-seat licence for the rest of its life.
✦ The triggers
When custom software is the right call
You do not need all five. Two or three usually means the maths already works.
You pay for seats you don't use
Everyone in the business has a licence because two screens in the product require one, and the bill grows every time you hire.
Three systems, one order
The same job gets typed into a spreadsheet, then the accounts package, then a supplier portal. Every re-type is a chance to get it wrong.
The tool dictates the process
You changed how you work to suit the software, and you are still explaining that workaround to every new starter.
The roadmap will never reach you
The feature you need has been requested for three years. You are not a big enough segment for the vendor and you never will be.
The knowledge lives in one head
One person maintains the macro, the pricing sheet or the Access database. When they are away, the process slows down. When they leave, it stops.
✦ Being honest
When custom software isn't the right call
We will tell you this on the first call, before anybody has spent money. Losing a bad-fit project costs us less than delivering one.
Accounting, payroll, email
Solved problems with regulatory burden attached. Buy the product, and let us integrate it with the part of your business that is genuinely yours.
The process is the problem
If three approval steps exist because of an argument in 2019, automating them makes a bad process faster. Fix the process, then talk to us.
An off-the-shelf tool fits
Sometimes a product covers 95% of what you need for a manageable licence fee. We will name it and tell you to go and buy it.
✦ Deliverables
What you get from a bespoke software development project
Everything on this list belongs to you at the end of it.
- A working web application, built around your process, live and in daily use
- The source code in your repository, from the first commit
- Hosting in your cloud account or ours, itemised either way
- Your data migrated from the old system and validated against it
- Documentation written for humans: how it works, how it is deployed, how to recover it
- Training for the people who use it, and a short handbook for new starters
- Monitoring, backups and security patching under the monthly retainer
- A named engineer who knows your system and answers when you write to them
✦ The process
From first call to running software
1
Scope it properly
A half-day session with the people doing the work. We map the process, the systems it touches and the workarounds, and produce a written scope you can hand to anyone.
2
Fix the price
A fixed price for the first release, agreed before any code is written. If we misjudge the estimate, that is our risk to carry.
3
Build in short cycles
A staging link from week one and a working demo every week. You course-correct in days rather than discovering the problem at the end.
4
Launch alongside the old system
Data migrated and checked, users trained, both systems running in parallel until the agreed cutover criteria are met.
5
Run it and keep improving
Monitoring, support, fixes and a monthly allowance of small changes under the retainer, with a quarterly plan for what to improve next.
✦ Commercials
How custom software development is priced
Two numbers. A one-off fee to build it, fixed after the scoping session. A low monthly retainer to host, monitor, patch, support and keep improving it.
There is no per-seat licence, so hiring twenty people does not change what your software costs. There is no annual uplift, because the retainer is agreed with you rather than announced to you.
We do not publish figures, because the honest range spans an order of magnitude between a single-process tool and a system that runs your whole operation. You get a real number after the scoping session, in writing, before you commit.
✦ Technology
What we build with, and why it's deliberately boring
You should be able to hire someone else to maintain this in five years. That rules out most of what is fashionable this year.
Web first
A modern TypeScript and React front end with a well-supported server framework behind it. Nothing to install, one codebase, updates the moment we deploy.
Relational databases
PostgreSQL for almost everything. Your operational data has structure and relationships, and pretending otherwise causes pain later.
Mainstream cloud
AWS or Azure, in an account you own where possible, with infrastructure defined in code so it can be rebuilt rather than remembered.
Native mobile when required
iOS and Android where the work genuinely needs offline, camera, GPS or barcode scanning. Otherwise a web app on a phone does the job for less.
Integration over replacement
We connect to the accounting, CRM and warehouse systems you are keeping instead of insisting everything moves into one platform.
Your existing stack
If your team runs .NET, Java or Python, we will build in that so your developers can pick it up. We adopt your stack rather than forcing ours.
✦ Questions we get asked
Custom software development: your questions
How much does custom software cost?
It depends on scope, and any figure quoted before scoping is a guess. We give you a fixed price in writing after a half-day scoping session, covering the build fee and the monthly retainer, before you commit to anything.
How long does it take?
A single well-defined process is typically live in weeks rather than quarters. Larger systems are broken into releases so something useful goes live early instead of everything arriving at the end.
Who owns the code?
You do, from the first commit. The repository, the documentation, the data and the cloud account are yours, and nothing about that changes if you stop working with us.
What's included in the monthly retainer?
Hosting, uptime monitoring, backups and tested restores, security patching, bug fixes, support with an agreed response time, and an allowance of small changes each month. New modules are scoped and quoted separately.
What if we want to leave?
You take the software with you. We hand over the code, the credentials, the documentation and the hosting, and we will support the transition to your team or another firm. There is no exit fee and no kill switch.
Can you work with our existing systems?
Yes, and usually we should. We integrate with accounting packages, CRMs, warehouse and courier systems, supplier portals and older in-house software, including systems with no modern API.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes, before any detailed discussion if you would prefer. We are also happy to work under your standard supplier terms and to complete security questionnaires.
Do you work outside the UK?
Yes. The work is mostly remote in any case; the scoping session happens in person or over video depending on where your team sits.
Tell us what isn't working. We'll tell you what we'd build.
Thirty minutes. Bring the process, the systems it touches and the deadline. You'll leave with an approach and an honest answer on whether custom software is the right call.
No pitch deck · We map your process · You own the software