Custom software ยท Markham and the GTA

Custom software for GTA businesses: web, iOS and Android

When a no-code tool cannot do the job, we build the app: web, iOS and Android software that fits how your business actually works. Fixed price, quoted per project.

Custom software is an application built for one business's way of working, rather than bought off the shelf and bent to fit. We build it for the web, for iPhone and for Android, from a studio in Markham, for businesses across the Greater Toronto Area.

Some jobs only need two tools you already pay for to talk to each other. Others need a real app: something your crew uses on a phone, something your customers download, or something that talks to your accounting system. We have been shipping software for web, iOS and Android since long before AI was the headline, and we will tell you which kind of job yours is.

When a business needs custom software

Most businesses do not, most of the time. The software you already pay for usually does more than anyone has set it up to do, and an automation between two of those tools is often the whole answer. See AI automation for those.

Custom software earns its cost when:

  • The work happens away from a desk. A crew in the field, a technician on a call, a driver on a route: they need something on a phone that works the way they do, not a desktop system squeezed onto a small screen.
  • Several systems have to agree. Bookings in one place, invoices in another, stock in a spreadsheet, and someone copying between them. Software that connects them removes the copying and the errors that come with it.
  • The process is yours. If the way you quote, schedule or inspect is part of why customers choose you, an off-the-shelf tool will flatten it. Custom software keeps it.
  • Customers need a way in. A portal to check a job's status, approve a quote or upload documents, instead of a phone call to ask.

What we build

  • Mobile apps for your team, on iOS and Android, including ones that keep working with a weak signal.
  • Apps for your customers, on the App Store and Google Play: booking, ordering, loyalty, or whatever brings them back to you.
  • Web apps and internal tools: dashboards, scheduling, quoting, inspections, anything your team runs in a browser.
  • Customer portals where clients see their jobs, quotes and documents.
  • Integrations that connect what you already use, such as QuickBooks or Xero, your calendar, your CRM and your spreadsheets, so data is entered once.
  • AI inside the software, where it earns its place: reading documents, drafting replies, sorting requests. Not as decoration.

How a project runs

  1. The Audit, two weeks, $2,500. We sit with the people who will use the software and watch the work as it really happens. You get a clear description of what to build, what not to build, and a fixed price for it. If you go ahead, the $2,500 is credited in full against the build.
  2. The build. We build the smallest version that takes the job off your team, and put it in their hands early, so what we learn from real use shapes the rest. The price is fixed, so changes in direction are a conversation, not a surprise invoice.
  3. Going live. Into your systems, on your data, with your team trained and a way to switch anything off if it misbehaves. Before anything connects to anything, you get it in writing: what the software and any AI in it can see, where data is processed, and what gets kept.
  4. Operate. Software needs looking after: operating systems update, the services it connects to change. On a monthly Operate plan we keep it running and improve it each quarter.

What it costs

Every custom build is a fixed price, quoted per project. What drives the number is how many screens and user types there are, how many systems it connects to, and whether it needs to run on phones as well as the web. The Audit, at $2,500, is how we get from "we need an app" to a price we will commit to. All prices are in Canadian dollars, plus 13% HST.

If the job turns out to be small enough for one of our standard automations, which start at $250, we will tell you that instead.

Where we work

We are based in Markham and work with businesses across the Greater Toronto Area. The Audit happens in person, where the work happens. Building and support are mostly remote, with visits when they help, such as training your team at launch. Two apps of our own, both about to launch, are on our work page.

Questions

How much does a custom app cost?
It depends on what it has to do, so we quote each project as a fixed price rather than an hourly estimate. Most start with our two-week Audit, $2,500, which is credited in full against the build if you go ahead. Prices are in Canadian dollars, plus 13% HST.
Do we need an app, or would an off-the-shelf tool do?
Often a tool you already pay for does most of it, and we will say so. Custom software earns its cost when the job is specific to how you work, when several systems have to talk to each other, or when your people need it on a phone in the field.
Can you build on top of the software we already use?
Usually, yes. Most of what we build connects to systems a business already runs, such as accounting software, calendars, spreadsheets and CRMs, rather than replacing them.