Custom software, built for how your business actually works
When the spreadsheet stops coping and no off-the-shelf product fits, we build the thing itself. Builds start at $1,900, and how much of it you own is a decision you make, not one we make for you.
The question most developers skip: who owns it?
Access
You use the platform. We keep ownership and may reuse the work with other clients. Cheapest by a wide margin.
Own your modules
The parts specific to your business are yours permanently, on top of our platform under a perpetual licence. What we recommend to most businesses.
Full custom
All of the intellectual property assigned to you. You own it and can do anything with it, including sell it.
Most quotes hide this. We put it first, because it changes the price more than the feature list does.
Those are starting figures against an agreed scope, not a menu. We will not quote a fixed price before we understand the work — but once it is fixed, it is fixed. If you intend to resell what we build, say so early; it changes the licensing.
Running costs, stated up front
Hosting
From $99 CAD per month depending on tier. Canadian servers, or your own infrastructure if you prefer.
Maintenance
Optional, from $175 per month. The industry benchmark is 15-25% of build cost per year; we quote against that rather than inventing a number.
Changes
$125 per hour, quoted in advance. Nothing recurring starts until launch — development and staging hosting are free during the build.
What tends to get built
- Estimating and quoting, with your own markup and margin logic
- Labour and material costing, and job-costing dashboards that tell you if you made money
- Client and tenant portals
- Scheduling, dispatch and route planning
- Document generation — quotes, invoices, statements, compliance records
- AI where it earns its place: drafting, summarising, classifying, answering
- Phone and messaging built into the product, not bolted beside it
- Integrations with the accounting, payment and CRM systems you already run
Typical timelines are 6–8 weeks for the access and ownership tiers, and 16–20 weeks for a full custom build.
Two examples
Vytera — a construction and trades platform
Vytera came to us wanting to turn a set of hard-won Excel workbooks — real estimating and costing logic, refined over years — into a web product for small construction and skilled-trade businesses: customer and project management, estimating, labour and material costing, markup and profit, quote PDFs, and a job-costing dashboard.
The workbooks were the specification, not a rough guide. We quoted all three ownership models rather than picking one for them, because the right answer depended on whether they intended to sell the product to other firms or just use it. Phase one landed in the $1,900–$5,800 band depending on that choice, with the full build quoted separately and a free review of the workbooks before any fixed price was committed.
TriageLogic — twenty years on a clinical platform
Joel spent roughly two decades as Director of IT building and running the nurse-triage platform at TriageLogic: healthcare integration and interoperability, infrastructure and availability, and an AI governance practice that existed well before anyone called it a product category. It is the clearest evidence we can point to that a full custom build, owned outright by the client and maintained for the long term, is something we have actually done rather than something we are willing to attempt.
The write-up is deliberately precise about what is and is not being claimed — including that TriageLogic's SOC 2 Type II attestation belongs to TriageLogic, not to us. Read the full case study.
Long-term support, and handing it to your team
Software that nobody can maintain is a liability with a nice interface. We plan for the handover from the start: documentation written for the person who comes after us, training for whoever on your staff will own it, and a maintenance arrangement sized to the build rather than to what we think you will tolerate.
If you want your own developer to take it over, we will help them take it over. At TriageLogic the platform was handed over at the end of the contract at no charge, which is the posture we bring to this generally.
Common questions
How much does custom software cost to build?
Builds start at $1,900 for platform access, $3,800 to own your modules outright on a perpetual platform licence, and $14,400 for a full custom build with 100 percent of the intellectual property assigned to you. Those are starting figures against an agreed scope. Hosting starts at $99 per month and changes are $125 per hour.
Do I own the software you build?
That is your decision and it changes the price more than the feature list does. Three options: we retain ownership and you get access; you own the modules specific to your business on top of our platform; or all intellectual property is assigned to you and you can do anything with it, including resell it.
How long does a custom SaaS build take?
Six to eight weeks for the access and module-ownership tiers, and sixteen to twenty weeks for a full custom build. Development and staging hosting are free during the build, and nothing recurring starts until launch.
What are the ongoing costs of custom software?
Hosting from $99 CAD per month, an optional maintenance retainer from $175 per month, and changes or new work at $125 per hour quoted in advance. The industry benchmark for software maintenance is 15 to 25 percent of build cost per year, and we quote against that rather than inventing a number.
Can I resell the software to other companies?
Yes, under the full-ownership tier or by negotiated licence under the middle tier. Tell us early, because it changes both the licensing and how the software is built.
Guides
Written up in more detail, including what usually goes wrong:
- Custom estimating and job costing softwareWhen your estimating spreadsheet has outgrown itself: turning working Excel logic into real software for construction and trades. Builds from $1,900, IP ownership negotiable.
- Custom client and tenant portal softwareWhen to build a client or tenant portal, what belongs in it, and the access-control mistakes that leak one customer's data to another. Builds from $1,900.
- Custom scheduling and dispatch softwareCustom scheduling and dispatch for field service businesses: why off-the-shelf tools fail on real constraints, what to build, and what it costs. From $1,900.
- Compliance and audit trail softwareCustom compliance software for regulated Canadian businesses: append-only audit trails, consent records, retention, and the versioning trap that invalidates them. From $1,900.
- Custom inventory and order management softwareWhen generic inventory software stops fitting: custom stock, order and fulfilment systems for Canadian wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers. Builds from $1,900.
Start
Bring the spreadsheet, the process, or just the problem. If what you need is really a website, we will point you at the $99 build instead of selling you software.