Straight answers
Everything
people ask.
Collected from every page on this site, so you do not have to go looking. Each answer links back to the page it came from.
Web Applications Go to page
How long does a custom web application take to build?
Six weeks to eighteen months, and the range is that wide because scope drives it far more than technology does. A focused internal tool with one user role is a few months; a multi-tenant SaaS product with billing, permissions and an audit trail is closer to a year. We give a fixed price with the assumptions written down after a week of scoping, so you are not guessing.
Can our own developers take over the codebase later?
Yes, and it is a design constraint rather than a promise. Typed end to end, documented APIs, tests that run on every pull request, and infrastructure defined in code. We also do the handover properly — a walkthrough, the runbook, and the accounts transferred into your name.
Do you work with an existing codebase, or only greenfield?
Both. Roughly half of what we take on is somebody else’s unfinished build. We start those with a paid assessment so you get a written opinion on what is salvageable before committing to a rebuild.
Who owns the code?
You do, from the first commit. The repository lives in your organisation or is transferred to it at handover, along with the domains, the cloud accounts and the third-party services. There is no hostage infrastructure here.
iOS Applications Go to page
How much does it cost to build an iOS app?
Most native iOS builds we take on land between $40,000 and $150,000. A single-purpose app over one API is at the bottom of that; an app with offline sync, payments and a backend of its own is at the top. The published ranges and three worked examples are on our pricing page — we do not make you book a call to find out.
Do you handle App Store submission and review?
Yes, including the listing copy, the screenshots, the privacy nutrition labels and the rejections. First-time submissions get rejected often and usually for something procedural rather than a real defect, which is a bad week to be learning the process for the first time.
Should we build iOS and Android at the same time?
Usually yes, and usually not with one shared codebase. We share the business logic and the API layer where it earns its keep and keep the interface native on each platform, because that is where the cost of cross-platform actually shows up.
What happens after the app launches?
Apple ships a major iOS release every year and it breaks things. We stay on a retainer for OS updates, dependency upgrades, crash triage and new features — or we do a documented handover to your team. What we do not do is disappear at launch and reappear with a quote when something breaks.
Android Applications Go to page
How much does an Android app cost?
The same band as iOS — most builds land between $40,000 and $150,000 — and building both together costs meaningfully less than the two separately, because the API, the data model and the business logic are shared. Full ranges are on the pricing page.
Which Android versions do you support?
We target current minus two by default, which covers the overwhelming majority of active devices without dragging deprecated APIs through the codebase. If your analytics show an older long tail that matters commercially, we widen it and tell you what that costs.
Can you take over an Android app someone else built?
Yes. We start with a paid assessment: a written opinion on the code, the release setup and the Play Console configuration, and an honest answer on whether it is worth continuing or rebuilding. About half the time the answer is continue.
Websites & Commerce Go to page
How much does a website cost?
Bespoke marketing sites start around $3,000 and most land between $8,000 and $25,000 depending on page count, integrations and how much content needs writing. Commerce builds start around $8,000 and run to $75,000, because checkout, tax, fulfilment and payment edge cases are where the real work is. Ranges and three worked examples are published on the pricing page.
Do you use WordPress?
Often, and never with a purchased theme. WordPress is an excellent editing surface when the theme is built for the client rather than bought and bent into shape. When a team would be better served by a headless CMS or a static build, we say so — the choice follows who has to maintain it.
Will our team be able to edit the site?
Yes, and that is a design requirement rather than a training problem. Editable regions are built as editable regions, with real previews and no way to break the layout by pasting in a long headline.
Do you do SEO?
We do the technical half — structure, schema, performance, crawlability, internal linking — as part of the build, and ongoing content and authority work as a retained digital service. We do not sell rankings, because nobody can.
Hosting & Infrastructure Go to page
What does managed hosting cost?
Retainers typically run $100 to $3,000 a month depending on traffic, environment count and response commitments, on top of the cloud bill itself — which stays in your name. We do not mark up infrastructure costs.
Do we have to host with you?
No. It is the part of the offer we think matters most, but plenty of clients run their own platform team and just want the build. If you host it yourself we deliver the infrastructure as code and a runbook, and we will still answer the phone.
What happens if the site goes down at 3am?
An alert reaches an engineer, not a shared inbox. Deploys are blue-green with an armed rollback, so the most common category of incident is resolved by putting the previous build back — one command, no rebuild, no waiting for a fix to be written under pressure.
Are backups actually tested?
Quarterly, by restoring them. An untested backup is a hope with a filename, and the first time you find out whether it works should not be the day you need it.
Digital Services Go to page
What is AI-answer optimisation?
Making a site quotable by assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews. In practice that means structured data that identifies the business and its services, question-shaped headings with the answer in the first sentence, and content that takes a position — hedged marketing copy is unquotable, so it never gets cited.
Do you offer support without having built the product?
Yes, after an assessment. We need to understand what we are taking responsibility for before we commit to a response time, so the first engagement is always a paid look at the code and the infrastructure.
What does a support retainer include?
A named engineer, an agreed response time, security patching, dependency upgrades and a monthly block of development hours that roll into whatever you need most. Retainers start around $750 a month.
Pricing Go to page
Why do you publish prices when nobody else does?
Because the alternative wastes everyone’s time. If your budget is $2,000 and the work is a $90,000 build, both of us want to know that in the first thirty seconds rather than after three meetings and a proposal. Publishing the ranges filters out the mismatches before they become calls.
Is it fixed price or time and materials?
Fixed scope and fixed price by default. We quote after a paid discovery on anything substantial, because a number produced before we understand your data model is a guess. Time and materials is available if you prefer it, and is usually the honest choice for open-ended platform work.
What does the discovery cost?
Discovery is typically $2,500 to $8,000 depending on the size of the system, and it produces a specification, an architecture and a fixed quote you own. If you take the build to someone else you still keep all three — it is not a loss leader with strings.
Do you charge for hosting on top of the build?
Yes, separately, and the cloud account stays in your name. Managed hosting runs $100 to $3,000 a month depending on traffic, environments and response commitments. We do not mark up the underlying infrastructure bill, and you can take the account elsewhere at any time.
What is the smallest project you take on?
Around $3,000. Below that you are better served by a specialist or a good template, and we will usually say so and point you at one. We would rather lose a small project than do it badly around larger ones.
Do you take equity instead of fees?
No. We are a development company, not an investor, and an equity deal quietly makes us a stakeholder in decisions we should be giving you neutral advice about.
Built in the USA Go to page
Is any part of the work done offshore?
No. Design, development, testing and deployment are all done in the United States by our own team. This applies to the whole engagement, not just the parts you can see.
Do you use contractors?
Occasionally, for genuinely specialist work — a security audit, a particular native integration. When we do, they are US-based, you are told before it happens, and we stay responsible for the result.
Can we meet the people writing the code?
Yes, and you should. You meet the engineers who will be on your project before you sign, not a sales team who then hand you over. The same people are still on it a year later.
How much more does onshore development cost?
Rates are typically two to four times an offshore equivalent per hour. Total project cost is usually a much smaller multiple than that, and sometimes lower, because the hours spent re-explaining, re-testing and re-writing largely disappear. We are happy to talk through where the line falls for your specific project.
Rescue a build Go to page
We have lost contact with our developer. What can we do?
Secure the accounts you can still reach — domain registrar, DNS, cloud hosting, app store, source control — and change the credentials. Then get whatever code you have access to audited. Most of the recoverable damage in this situation is administrative rather than technical, and it gets worse with time.
Will you take over a project you did not build?
Yes, regularly. We audit it first at a fixed price so that both of us are deciding with real information. We do not take over a codebase sight unseen, because that is how you end up quoting for a project that turns out to be a rewrite.
How much does the audit cost?
Typically $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the size of the system, delivered in one to two weeks. The written assessment is yours regardless of what you do next, including taking it to another firm.
Can you work with the original developer?
If they are still available and willing, a handover conversation saves everyone weeks and we will happily set one up. If they are not, we work from the code — which is the situation most of the time.
What if the code turns out to be unusable?
We tell you, in writing, with the reasoning. Then we quote the rebuild honestly, and we point out anything worth salvaging — the data model, the design work, the integrations. It is rare that nothing survives.
The platform Go to page
How do you handle a traffic spike?
Capacity is a setting, not an emergency. We size for the known peaks in advance — a campaign, a season, a press hit you tell us about — and the architecture scales horizontally for the ones nobody predicted. If a spike does cause trouble we are the ones paged, so there is no debate about whose problem it is.
Do we get access to the servers?
Yes. It is your cloud account, so you can grant yourself anything you want. In practice most clients take read access to logs and dashboards and leave deploys to us, because two parties deploying to the same environment is how an outage starts.
Can we leave?
Yes, and you take everything with you: the cloud account is already yours, the code is in your repository, and we document the runbook rather than keeping it in someone’s head. There is no exit fee.
Process Go to page
How long does a project take?
A marketing site is typically 3 to 12 weeks. A web application or a native app runs from about 6 weeks for something tightly scoped to 8 months for a platform. The worked examples on the pricing page are real engagements at the faster end. Discovery gives you a real date rather than an optimistic one, which is most of why it is worth paying for.
What do you need from us?
One decision-maker who can actually decide, roughly two hours a week, and content. Content is the single most common cause of a slipped launch — not engineering.
What happens when we change our minds mid-build?
It gets scoped and priced when it comes up, and you decide. Changes are expected; what we avoid is a pile of unpriced changes surfacing as a dispute in the final week.
Security Go to page
Are you SOC 2 certified?
No. We will not imply a certification we do not hold. If your procurement process requires one from your vendors, tell us early — that is a legitimate constraint and it is better established in week one than in month four.
Who has access to our production data?
Only engineers actively working on your system, only when there is no workable alternative to production data, and access is logged. Development and testing use anonymised or synthetic data wherever that is possible.
What happens to our data if we stop working with you?
Nothing has to happen, because it is already in your cloud account. We remove our access, hand over the runbook and any credentials still held on your behalf, and that is the whole process.
About Go to page
How big is the team?
Small and deliberately so. You meet the engineers who will be on your project before you sign, and they are the same people a year later. If a specific headcount matters for your procurement, ask and we will tell you.
Do you work with clients outside New Jersey?
Yes, throughout the United States. Most engagements run remotely with occasional in-person sessions. Being in the New York metro area means we can be in a room quickly when that is what a decision needs.
What kind of projects do you turn down?
Work under roughly $3,000, where a specialist or a good template serves you better. Projects where nobody can make a decision. And anything where the compliance scope is beyond what we should responsibly take on — we would rather say so than learn it in month four.
Tell us what you are trying to ship.
A real technical opinion back within two business days — not a sales call.