Portals and web apps

Client portals and web apps built to a written scope.

When a business needs logins, member data, bookings, or dashboards, it has stopped needing a website and started needing software. Discovery first, then a written scope with a fixed price, then staged billing as each piece ships.

Discovery first Fixed written scope You own the work outright

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Where the line sits

When a business needs a web app instead of a website.

The dividing line is whether people log in. If visitors read, decide, and call, a website is the cheaper and better answer. Once someone needs an account and their own data, you have crossed into software.

A website is enough
Most businesses
What visitors doRead about the work, look at proof, and get in touch.
What it storesEnquiries, and little else.
Who logs inNobody except you, to change content.
Where to goCustom websites, from $99/mo.
A trade that quotes
Trades
What visitors doAsk what a job costs and expect an answer quickly.
What it storesLeads, quote ranges, and the follow-up trail.
Who logs inYou, to read the day's leads.
Where to goThe Lead Machine, $399/mo.
You need software
This page
What visitors doSign in and do work: book, upload, pay, or check records.
What it storesAccounts, permissions, history, and files.
Who logs inCustomers, staff, or members, each with a role.
Where to goScoped in writing, billed in stages.
What gets built

Features we scope into portals and web apps.

Discovery works out which of these you genuinely need. Most projects use four or five, and paying for the rest is the usual way these builds get expensive.

Logins and roles Accounts for customers, staff, or members, with each group seeing only what belongs to them.
Member-only content Documents, schedules, video, or pricing held behind a login rather than published openly.
CMS editing The parts that change often made editable by you, without needing us for a price or a date.
Dashboards The numbers you actually run the business by, on one screen, pulled from wherever they live.
Bookings and scheduling Availability, reservations, and confirmations, with the rules your business actually follows.
Payments Deposits, invoices, or recurring billing handled through an established payment provider.
File exchange Customers or staff uploading and retrieving documents without a chain of email attachments.
Notifications Email and SMS that fire on the events that matter rather than on a schedule nobody reads.
Integrations Connections to the accounting, scheduling, or inventory systems you already run.
How it is billed

Discovery first, then a written scope, then staged billing.

Each stage is invoiced as it ships, so the cost tracks the work rather than arriving in one lump at an uncertain end.

  1. Stage 01 Discovery, and a scope you keep We work through who uses it, what each role can do, what it stores, and what it connects to. The output is a written scope with a fixed price and a stage plan. If you take that document elsewhere, it is still yours.
  2. Stage 02 The core, built first Accounts, roles, and the one workflow the whole thing exists for. This ships before anything decorative, so the part that carries the value is proven early rather than assumed.
  3. Stage 03 The surrounding features Bookings, payments, uploads, notifications, and integrations, added in the order the scope set. Each is invoiced when it is working rather than when it is started.
  4. Stage 04 Handover, and it is yours Source code, accounts, and documentation transferred to you. Run it yourself, hand it to another developer, or keep us on a care plan at $99 or $399 a month. The choice does not affect ownership.
Recent builds

A player hub that needed more than a set of pages.

A project that needed more structure than a set of pages could carry.

Sports program · Halifax, NS

A hockey program its players open every day

Clarke/Gray Hockey needed schedules, scores, standings, rosters and events in one place that players check between shifts at work. Players sign in with a one-time code sent to their email, so there's no password to forget, then pick their team and add every game to their phone's calendar. That means a site people return to daily rather than visit once, which changes what has to be fast and what has to be easy to update mid-season.

Player accountsSchedules and standingsFast on mobile
Visit clarkegrayhockey.ca
Clarke/Gray Hockey website built by Alp Web Studio
Pricing

Web app pricing scoped in writing before any build starts.

Quotescoped together
Most projects run a few thousand and up

Discovery produces a fixed written figure before any build begins, and every stage is invoiced as it ships. Care plans at $99 or $399 a month are optional and never a condition of the work.

  • Discovery, then a written scope you keep either way
  • A fixed price agreed before the first line is built
  • Staged invoices tied to working software
  • Logins, roles, and the data model designed first
  • Integrations with the systems you already run
  • Full handover, and you own the work outright
Scope a project Only need a website?
Questions

Common questions about portals and custom web apps.

What comes up before a project is scoped.

Prefer to ask directly?

Call (902) 225-5280 [email protected]
Q.01

What does a portal or web app typically cost?

Most projects run a few thousand and up, and the honest answer is that a number before discovery would be a guess. Two projects described in the same sentence can differ by a factor of five once you know how many roles there are, what has to be stored, and what it needs to talk to. Discovery produces a fixed written figure, and you decide from there.

Q.02

How long does discovery take?

Usually a week or two of back and forth rather than a long engagement. We work through who uses the thing, what each of them needs to do, what data it holds, and what it connects to. The output is a written scope with a fixed price and a stage plan, which is yours to keep whether or not you build it with us.

Q.03

Can this be added to the website I already have?

Often, yes. A portal can live behind a login on your existing site so customers move between the two without noticing a seam. Where the current site is on a platform that fights it, we will say so and price the alternative rather than forcing it and charging you for the struggle.

Q.04

Who owns the code when it is finished?

You do, outright. Custom project work is yours on handover, including the source, and there is no licence tying it to us. This is different from the Lead Machine, where the estimator and dashboard are our own software running for you as part of a monthly plan.

Q.05

Do we have to host it with you afterwards?

No. You can take the handover and run it wherever you like. If you would rather not think about servers, updates, and backups, the care plans are $99 or $399 a month depending on how much of it we look after. Neither is a condition of the build.

Ready when you are

Describe what it needs to do and we will scope it.

Tell us who logs in and what they need to get done. We will tell you whether this is a website, a plan, or a scoped project, and what each one would cost you.

Most enquiries get a reply the same day, usually within a couple of hours.

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Rather just talk? Text (902) 225-5280 Call us