Custom Applications
Applications, portals, and integrations that work alongside a website rather than inside it.
Not everything an organization needs fits inside a website. We build the tools that sit alongside one: portals, booking systems, internal dashboards, and integrations that move data between the systems you already run. We will also take on an application somebody else built.
Custom application work we do
Some of it faces your customers, like a product configurator or a member booking system. Some of it only your staff ever see: dashboards, reporting, and the integrations that write records back into Salesforce or HubSpot.
Applications & Portals
Member portals with real-time availability and booking, commerce and subscription platforms, event registration with linked accounts, internal dashboards and custom reporting, and browser-based tools that do more than display content.
- Member & Client Portals
- Booking & Registration
- Dashboards & Reporting
Integrations & Data Flow
Moving data between the systems you already run, in both directions: creating and updating records in Salesforce and HubSpot, keeping event registrations in step with a CRM, and running scheduled syncs against existing databases and directories.
- Salesforce & HubSpot
- Custom & Third-Party APIs
- Scheduled Data Syncs
Existing Applications
You do not have to start over. We take on applications built by other teams, learn how they work, then extend, modernize and maintain them. Several of the applications we look after now were running long before we were involved.
- Takeover & Handover
- Extending & Modernizing
- Ongoing Support
Maintenance & Support
An application keeps changing after launch. Dependencies age out, third-party APIs change, and a scheduled sync can fail silently for weeks unless someone is watching. Support comes on a retainer or as needed, for applications we built and ones we didn't, and every plan includes dedicated hours beyond routine updates.
- Guaranteed response times during business hours
- Emergency availability for outages
- Continuous uptime monitoring at two-minute intervals
- Daily backups with tested recovery
- Dedicated hours each month beyond the update work
- Quarterly status and review
- Framework, dependency and security updates
- Integration and API monitoring
- Scheduled sync and job failure alerts
- Performance tuning and database work
- Bug fixes and technical support
- Feature development and enhancements
- Documentation and handover for your team
How we approach custom applications
We build custom applications that are meant to last. The structure is planned up front, the code is documented as it is written, and updates stay straightforward. Whoever maintains it next, our team or yours, should be able to pick it up and keep going.
The website is rarely the whole system
A lot of what we build never appears on a page: the sync that keeps a college's staff directory in line with its HR records, the availability logic that stops two members of a travel club booking the same home, the admin reporting a housing office uses to run roommate matching.
Integrations that write back
Pulling data in to display it is the easy half. The useful half is writing back: creating records, registering attendees, updating accounts, and keeping two systems in agreement without someone adding it by hand.
We work with what you already have
We build in Drupal, WordPress, PHP, React and Ruby on Rails, and the problem decides which one we use. If you already have an application, we will work in it.
Applications outlive websites
A site gets redesigned every few years. The application behind it keeps running, often for a decade or more, so it has to be documented, maintainable, and handed over properly. Everything we build is yours.
Recent application work
All projects
Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center
A custom application that pulls events from Fonteva, builds the registration forms around them, and signs attendees up in Salesforce, alongside intake forms feeding both Salesforce and HubSpot.
View project
Organize My Drawer
A browser-based design tool that converts customer drawer layouts into cut files for the factory's laser cutters, with back-office workflows built for production.
View project
ETCC
A backend service that collects project reports from outside sources every day, a granular report lookup built on Drupal's Search API, and custom JavaScript that shows PDFs in the browser as images.
View projectQuestions we get asked
What kinds of custom applications have you built?
Member portals with real-time availability and booking, commerce and subscription platforms, event registration systems with linked parent and player accounts, patient intake flows, a web-based product design tool, internal dashboards and custom reporting, and backend services that collect data from outside sources.
Can you build something that lives outside our website?
Yes, and a good deal of our application work does. For Organize My Drawer we built a browser-based design tool that converts a customer's drawer layout into cut files for the laser cutters on their factory floor, along with the back-office workflows the factory runs on. The website is the entry point, not the system.
Can you integrate with Salesforce, HubSpot or other systems we use?
Yes. For Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center we built a custom application that pulls events from Fonteva, generates the registration forms around them, and signs attendees up in Salesforce. Their intake forms also create and manage contacts in both Salesforce and HubSpot. We have run scheduled syncs against client databases and HR directories, and integrated with existing authentication systems.
Can you build payments, ecommerce or subscriptions into an application?
Yes. We have built commerce-enabled event registration with Authorize.Net payments, a configurator that prices a custom-manufactured product from the customer's own specification and takes payment for it, and a membership platform running subscription plans of different lengths alongside individual purchases and physical product sales, with receipts and order emails handled automatically. Payments run through gateways such as Authorize.Net and Stripe. Where it suits the project we build on Drupal Commerce; where it does not, we build the commerce logic directly into the application.
Can you work on an application we already have?
Yes, and we do this often. We review the existing codebase, hosting and data model first, tell you plainly what is worth keeping, and then extend and maintain it from there.
What technologies do you build with?
Drupal and WordPress where a CMS belongs underneath, PHP and MySQL, React and modern JavaScript on the front end, Ruby on Rails where that fits, and modern frameworks such as Astro and Payload. We choose based on the problem, the systems you already run, and who will maintain it afterward.
Can you build an API for a mobile app or another service?
Yes. We build APIs for mobile applications, partner systems and internal services, and we regularly connect to APIs such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Fonteva and CommonSpirit's Apigee services.
Do you support applications after launch?
Yes, and that is where most of an application's cost sits. We offer retainer and as-needed plans covering dependency and security updates, integration monitoring, alerts when a scheduled sync fails, bug fixes and ongoing feature development.
Who owns the application you build?
You do. Every piece of code and design is yours, documented and structured so your own team or another vendor could pick it up. You paid for it, you own it.
How do you work with our team?
However suits you. We work in the tools your team already uses: Slack, Teams, email, or a project tool like Monday, Wrike, Teamwork or Asana. For some clients we are effectively the web team. Their editors and staff bring requests straight to us, and we take in, prioritize and run that work ourselves. For others, a single point of contact is simpler. Either way, the developer doing your work is the one managing it, so there is no account layer between you and the person writing your code, and none to pay for. We fit how you already work instead of asking you to adopt our process.