FAQs
The questions people ask before they get in touch.
What we build, from a single tracker through to a full customer relationship system, what it costs, who owns it, and what happens to your information. If your question isn't here, ask us and we'll answer in writing, the same or next working day.
Getting started
If you've no idea where to begin, start here.
Nobody arrives with a specification. Most people arrive with a job that annoys them.
What kind of app do you actually build?
A private working tool for a business, built from scratch around how you work. Size doesn't narrow it: from sole traders running the whole job alone to multinational organisations with a dozen systems already running. It can be as simple as a stock list that keeps itself up to date, or as involved as a customer relationship system: enquiries tracked through to signed work, every email and call on the record, quotes and reminders raised on their own, the pipeline on one screen. It can connect to the tools you use today, handle photos, video and paperwork, and turn the lot into a dashboard you'd actually look at. It opens in a browser on a laptop, tablet or phone, and only the people you invite can get in. It isn't something you download from the App Store or Google Play, and it's never offered to the general public.
Do I need to know what I want before I get in touch?
No. The form asks about the job, not the software: what's slowing you down, what you use today, what a good week would look like. The free call is where it takes shape, and if it turns out nothing needs building, we'll tell you that instead of selling you something.
Do I need any technical knowledge?
None. You describe the problem in your own words and we handle the design, the build and the setup. Once it's live you use it the way you use any website: open it, click, get on with your day. There's no prompting to learn and nothing to install.
What happens after I send the form?
We read what you've sent and aim to reply the same or next working day. Then a free exploratory call, up to 30 minutes, where we dig into how you work and agree whether a build is worth it. If it is, you get a written proposal with a fixed price. You can stop at any point along the way.
Is there a catch at the free stage?
No obligation, no fee before work starts and no hard sell. The form, the quick on-screen sketch we can draw from what you send, and the exploratory call are all free. If you take our advice and build nothing with us, that costs you nothing.
Do I even need AI for this?
Not always. A spreadsheet, a cleaner rota or one change to how you work solves a surprising number of problems. Where AI genuinely earns its keep (reading a pile of paperwork, drafting the same reply for the ninth time, watching numbers you'd never have time to watch) we'll use it. Where it doesn't, we'll say so before suggesting a build.
Why can't I just build this myself with AI?
You can start one, and we'll be the first to say so. AI makes a first version easier to reach than it has ever been. What doesn't arrive with it is the judgement underneath. Which process the app should actually follow, what happens when two people enter the same thing at once, who's allowed to see and approve what, how the figures are meant to tie together, and how it talks to your accounting, your mailbox or your calendar without a total quietly coming out wrong. That's business design rather than prompting, and it's what decides whether the thing is still in use in a year.
It isn't a cheap experiment either. The capable tools sit behind monthly subscriptions, and the usage that drives them is billed as you go, so an early attempt can burn through a month's allowance before there's anything you'd trust with real work. We pay for that access ourselves, so we know how quickly it goes.
Scale is the other half. A tool for three people is one job; a tool for three sites, with permissions, data imports, audit trails, integrations and a rollout plan, is a different one. We can build at that scale because it's the work we've done for 38 years: designing end-to-end systems and running multinational operations across logistics, finance, market research, supply chain and strategic planning. We've lived with the version of this that has to survive an audit, a busy Tuesday and a change of staff.
What it can do
Ambitious is welcome.
Most people arrive assuming a private app has to be small. It doesn't. These are the kinds of thing we build most often, and several of them can sit inside one system.
How involved can the app be?
As involved as your operation. A customer relationship system that tracks an enquiry through to signed work, keeps every email and call on the record, raises the quote and the reminder, and shows the pipeline on one screen. Multi-step approvals where different people see, enter or sign off different things. Rotas and labour costs kept honest. Stock, orders and supplier comparisons. All of it designed from scratch for the business that asked for it.
Can it connect to the systems we use today?
Usually, and it's where the biggest time savings come from. Accounting packages, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, calendars and mailboxes, payment processing, spreadsheets and CSV files, and any system that offers a connection we can build against. The awkward ones are the interesting ones: an older system with no modern connection, a supplier who only ever sends one particular file format, video and documents that have to be stored and found again, a device or a till that needs to talk to the app, or two systems that disagree about what a customer is. We work out what's possible before you commit, and the proposal names exactly what is being linked and how. Where a connection genuinely can't be done, we'll say so on the call rather than promise it.
Can it handle photos, video and documents?
Yes. Capture photos and short video on a phone on site, store and search them against the job or the client, and play them back in the browser without anyone downloading anything. It can read paperwork too: pull the figures out of invoices and receipts, file them, and hand back a total. Print and PDF output comes with it, laid out the way you want it.
Can it do the analysis, not just the recording?
That's the point of getting the data in properly. Dashboards for the numbers you'd never have time to watch, forecasts drawn from your own history, cost and margin comparisons, alerts when something drifts, and a weekly report that arrives without you asking. AI can draft the summary of what changed and why, while the figures come from your records and you can see where each one came from.
Can our customers or clients see part of it?
Yes, and it's one of the most useful things we build: a portal where each client sees only their own jobs, orders or reports, while your team sees everything. Access is by invitation and you decide what each person can reach. It stays a private tool for the people you invite, not something listed for the general public.
Does it work on a phone, and out in the field?
It opens in a browser on any laptop, tablet or phone, so there's nothing to install and no app-store approval to wait for. Field teams use it on a phone, with the camera and the same live data the office sees. If a job needs to work with no signal, we'll tell you what that takes before you commit.
Can it work in more than one language?
Yes. The screens can run in more than one language, so each person works in the one that suits them while the records underneath stay shared. Names, notes and addresses can be typed and searched in whatever alphabet your people use, reports can come out in the language each reader needs, and AI can carry the translating and the drafting along the way. If your team, your suppliers or your customers work across languages, say so on the call and we'll build it in from the start rather than bolting it on later.
Costs and timing
The money questions, answered with numbers.
Fixed prices for an agreed scope, plus a small monthly fee once you're live. Nothing payable before you've said go.
How much does it cost?
Three guide bands: a Prototype at £350–£750, a Focused App at £950–£2,500, and an Integrated Business App at £2,500–£6,000+. Larger organisations get a proposal quoted properly rather than a box. Your own quote is fixed before work starts, and prices are plus VAT where applicable. Full breakdown on the pricing page.
Which one am I?
The difference is how many jobs the app has to do. One clear job, done properly end to end, is a Focused App. Several jobs that need to talk to each other, with different people seeing, entering or approving different things, is an Integrated Business App. Most projects find their own level on the first call, and nobody gets pushed up a tier for the sake of it.
Why is there a monthly fee on top of the build price?
A live app needs somewhere to run and someone keeping an eye on it: £49 a month for a Focused App, £79 for an Integrated Business App. That covers the hosting and the database, plus management, monitoring, routine maintenance and email support. Usage such as AI calls, SMS or payment fees is billed at cost through accounts in your name. Changes and new work are quoted separately, and your quote confirms the likely figure before you commit.
Do I pay anything before work starts?
Nothing. Work starts when you've seen a fixed quote and told us to go. A 50% deposit then starts the build, with the balance on completion unless your quote says otherwise, and larger builds are split into milestones. Invoices are due within 14 days.
How long does it take?
Most of what we build is live in days, not weeks or months. Start dates depend on our existing commitments, and the schedule depends on the functionality, integrations and testing your job needs. We agree a realistic date with you after scoping rather than promising one before we've heard the job.
What if my job is bigger than the published tiers?
Several sites or departments working in one app, lots of people with different permissions, and security or procurement questions to answer first? That's the enterprise route: a tailored proposal, no fixed box and no per-seat licence.
After launch
What happens once it's in use.
The same team stays with you after launch, which is the point of the whole arrangement.
What does support actually include?
Help so the app genuinely gets used: walkthroughs and refresher sessions until your team is comfortable, answers as people start relying on it day to day, small tweaks to how things display (wording, column order, what shows where, print and PDF layout), and fixes for anything that doesn't work as the quote described. A Focused App comes with 30 days of support, an Integrated Business App with 60.
Does support include new features?
No, and that's deliberate. Your build price covers the agreed scope, so support isn't a quiet allowance of further improvements. Anything that adds capability is separate work, quoted on its own before it starts. There's no automatic monthly support contract and nothing renews without you asking.
Who owns the app once it's built?
You do. Once the project is paid for in full, the app is yours: the code we wrote for you, the design of your screens, and all of your data and content. Hosting and platform accounts are in your name from the start, so you're never locked to us to keep the app switched on.
What if we stop working together part way through?
Either side can end a project by telling the other in writing. You pay for the work done up to that point and receive what exists at that stage, including the code. If we can't finish a job for any reason, we hand over everything built and refund any payment for work not done.
What happens if something breaks?
The monthly fee includes monitoring, so we tend to hear about most problems before you do, and routine maintenance is part of it. For anything that needs a person, email support@weareappy.co.uk and a real person picks it up rather than a ticket queue.
Can you show me what a proposal looks like before I commit?
Yes. There's a shortened example, prepared for an invented bakery with illustrative figures, at the sample proposal. It shows the shape and the level of care, not the full detail your own would contain.
Your data and AI
Confidentiality, and what the AI does with your information.
This is the part most AI marketing glosses over, so it's spelled out here.
Will my data be used to train AI?
No. We don't type your details, your figures or your customers' information into a public chatbot. We use business arrangements with AI providers, with the setting that asks the provider not to store the input or use it for training, and the AI services a project uses are named in the proposal before you commit.
Can the AI act on its own?
No. There are no autonomous agents doing things behind your back. It drafts, a person approves. Every action your app takes is one you've designed and signed off, and you can always see where a figure or a sentence came from before it goes anywhere.
Is what I send you confidential?
Yes. We'll sign an NDA before you share anything sensitive, and access to enquiries is limited to the small team who work with you. We don't sell or rent your information, and the only advertising cookies on this site are Facebook's and Google's, and they only run if you say yes on our cookie banner.
How long do you keep my enquiry?
If we're not working together, up to 12 months after we last speak, then it's deleted. Ask us to keep it longer, or to delete it sooner, and we will. The privacy notice covers the rest.
What can I ask you to do with my information?
Anything data-related, and a person will handle it: see what we hold about you, correct it, delete it, stop using it for a particular purpose, or hand it over in a usable format. Email hello@weareappy.co.uk and we'll deal with it, normally within one month.
Who we are
The people you'd actually be dealing with.
Are you a UK team?
UK-based, and everything is designed, built and supported in-house. Nothing is outsourced or handed to an overseas agency, and the people who take your call are the people who build and support the app.
Who is behind Appy?
Dawn and Arno, with 38 years in blue-chip companies behind us: designing end-to-end systems and running multinational operations across logistics, finance, market research, supply chain and strategic planning. We also run our own portfolio of businesses and build apps to help us do it, so we know what it's like to be the one signing off every pound.
Do you work with sole traders, or only larger firms?
Both ends: from sole traders running the whole job alone to multinational organisations. Most of what we build is for a business, a team or an organisation, and we take on personal and household jobs too when the need is real and someone will genuinely use it. If that sounds like you, we'll have a chat.
Do you keep the apps you build, or reuse them for other clients?
Every build is designed from scratch around the client who asked for it. Nothing you commission is a template, and nothing we build for you is handed to anyone else. The screens on this site are examples of past work, some with invented figures, and they're clearly labelled as such.
How do I get in touch?
Email hello@weareappy.co.uk for anything at all, support@weareappy.co.uk if you're already using an app we built, or book a free call straight from the site. We aim to reply the same or next working day.
Something we haven't covered
Ask a person, not a search engine.
There's no phone line to be held on and no chatbot to talk to. Email reaches the two people who would do the work, and a call is free and yours to end.
Prefer the small print? Terms and conditions and privacy notice.
Straight talking
What we promise before you spend a penny.
No obligation
The exploratory call is free, and it's yours to end whenever you like.
No fee before work starts
Nothing is payable until you've seen a fixed quote and told us to go.
No hard sell
One honest conversation. If you're not interested, say so once and we'll leave it there.
Honest, pragmatic advice
We'll tell you when an app is the right answer, and when something simpler would serve you better.
Got a job you wish would just do itself? Tell us what you need and you'll be Appy.
Fill in a quick, friendly form (about 5 minutes) and we'll get back to you the same or next working day. Or skip the form and book a free, no-pressure call straight away.
No obligation. No fee before work starts. No hard sell, just honest feedback and a pragmatic approach.
Here's to appy days.