Can we start small and add to the application later?

Yes, and it is usually the right call. The most common failure in custom software is a first version that tried to do everything anyone mentioned in a meeting. Start with the one process that costs the most time, ship it in a few weeks, let the team use it for a month, then decide what version two should be with real information. Every build is architected so that adding to it later is normal work rather than a rewrite.

Who owns the code for a custom web application?

You do: the code, the repository, the database, the hosting accounts, and the domain, in your name from day one. Everything is built on standard, widely used technology (Node, Next.js, Postgres) so any competent developer can pick it up, and you get documentation and a walkthrough at handoff. There is no proprietary framework and no license that expires when you stop paying.

Get a Fixed Quote →

SVC.02 / APP DRAWING | CUSTOM SOFTWARE

SVC.02 | CUSTOM WEB APPS STACK: NODE / NEXT / POSTGRES / API

Custom web application development, hand-coded and yours to own.

Custom internal tools, client portals, system integrations, and full software products. If your business runs on a spreadsheet somebody rebuilds every Friday, that is the work. We also run five production SaaS products of our own, which is a slower way of saying we ship software, not just proposals.

Hunter Creative Media & Design is a custom web application development studio in Aurora, IL, building custom software for businesses across Illinois and Chicago’s western suburbs. Internal dashboards, client portals, custom web software, WordPress plugins, API integrations, workflow automation, and full SaaS products with every customer’s data kept in its own workspace. All hand-coded, all yours to own.

// STUDIO: Aurora, IL · SERVICE: Custom web application development · STACK: Node / Next.js / Postgres / WordPress / REST & webhook APIs · FOR: healthcare, legal, finance, real estate, logistics, home services, SaaS founders

Start a Build → See Our SaaS

What We Build Internal Tools/ Customer Portals/ SaaS Platforms/ WP Plugins/ API Integrations/ Workflow Automation

What We Build / Custom Software

Six shapes of custom web application work, all hand-coded, all yours to own.

Custom web application development covers a lot of ground. Most real projects combine two or three of the categories below: an internal tool that needs an integration, a customer portal that needs a WordPress custom plugin, a SaaS platform that needs an automation layer. The list is how we describe the shapes; the work is always specific to your business. If you are still working out whether a custom build is the right call, our guide to custom web applications for small business walks through the build-versus-buy decision.

BUILD 01 · INTERNAL TOOLS

Internal Tools & Operations Dashboards

The system your team logs into to run the business. Dispatch boards for service crews, scheduling tools for healthcare practices, project pipelines for professional firms, KPI dashboards for owners, role-based admin panels for ops managers. Replaces the shared spreadsheet that’s been one wrong delete away from disaster for years.

STACK: Next.js · Postgres · Auth · Role-based permissions · Audit logs

BUILD 02 · CUSTOMER PORTALS

Customer & Client Portals

Secure logins for the people you serve: patients booking and reviewing care, clients downloading documents and statements, customers managing their account, members accessing gated content. White-labeled to your brand, integrated with your existing site, no per-seat SaaS fees on top.

STACK: Auth · Document storage · Billing portal · Notifications · Audit logs

BUILD 03 · SAAS PLATFORMS

SaaS Products You Sell to Your Own Customers

Full software products with subscription billing, every customer’s data isolated in its own workspace, user roles, an admin panel, and a marketing site: the entire stack a SaaS founder needs to take an idea to market. We’ve shipped four of our own and we know what breaks at every stage. MVP in 8–12 weeks; we stay on for iteration if it works.

STACK: Next.js · Stripe billing · Per-workspace Postgres · Admin panel · Marketing site

BUILD 04 · WP PLUGINS

WordPress Custom Plugins & Integrations

When the business runs on WordPress but the off-the-shelf plugin ecosystem can’t quite do the thing. Custom post types and admin screens. Membership and gated content. WooCommerce extensions. REST API endpoints that connect WordPress to your CRM, your accounting, or your custom internal tool. Ships clean, updates safely, doesn’t break on the next core release.

STACK: PHP · WordPress hooks · REST API · Custom post types · ACF

BUILD 05 · INTEGRATIONS

API & System Integrations

Connecting the tools you already pay for so they stop being silos. CRM to accounting. Email platform to your CMS. Stripe to your dashboard. Twilio for SMS. Calendars across systems. The MLS feed into your real estate pipeline. The plumbing nobody sees but everyone benefits from, and the alternative to paying $40 per month per Zap forever.

STACK: REST APIs · Webhooks · OAuth · Job queues · Retry logic

BUILD 06 · AUTOMATION

Workflow Automation

The Friday-afternoon report generated automatically every Friday morning. The new-client onboarding sequence triggered by a single form submission. The reconciliation process running on a cron instead of an intern. The boring, expensive manual work, deleted. Replaces the Zapier-and-spreadsheets stack you’ve been duct-taping together for two years with something durable.

STACK: Cron · Triggers · PDF generation · Email/SMS · Scheduled jobs

// 04: THE PROOF / OUR OWN SAAS

We don’t just build software for clients. We build it for ourselves.

Five SaaS products in production, each born from a real client problem. CampaignCNX+ came from a campaign that needed affordable, TCPA-compliant SMS. Beacon was born watching field crews track work on paper. Alma happened because every small business asked the same question: “Can I get a chatbot without hiring a developer?” CoreCNX exists because those texts, door knocks, and chat leads belong on one contact record, not three. DeadVault exists because email isn’t secure enough for the documents CPAs, attorneys, and healthcare practices send every day. When we say we can build it, we’ve already built it.

SYS.001 / LIVE CampaignCNX+ SMS marketing dashboard SaaS platform built by Hunter Creative Media & Design

CampaignCNX+

SYS.001

SMS & Two-Way Messaging

Bulk SMS and MMS for growing businesses and political campaigns. Two-way unified inbox, segmentation, automation, and full TCPA compliance baked in from the first message.

Bulk send with scheduling

Unified two-way inbox

Built-in TCPA + DNC scrubbing

Visit CampaignCNX+ ↗

SYS.002 / LIVE

Beacon

SYS.002

Field Operations & Canvassing

GPS-tracked field operations platform with AI-powered performance coaching and intelligent route optimization. Available on web, iOS, and Android. Works offline so your crews never lose data.

Real-time GPS tracking

AI-powered performance coaching

Offline-first iOS & Android

Visit Beacon ↗

SYS.003 / LIVE Alma no-code chatbot builder visual flow editor SaaS platform built by Hunter Creative Media & Design

Alma

SYS.003

No-Code Chatbot Builder

Drag-and-drop chatbot platform that deploys across web, Facebook, and Instagram. Visual flow editor, hundreds of templates across dozens of industries, white-label branding included on every plan.

Visual flow builder

Multi-channel deployment

White-label branding included

Visit Alma ↗

SYS.004 / LIVE DeadVault secure information transfer dashboard SaaS platform built by Hunter Creative Media & Design

DeadVault

SYS.004

Secure Information Transfer

End-to-end encrypted document and credential transfer for CPAs, attorneys, and healthcare practices. A real answer to “stop emailing me my Social Security number”: HIPAA-friendly and compliance-ready.

End-to-end encryption

Professional transfer dashboard

HIPAA-friendly & compliance-ready

Visit DeadVault ↗

SYS.005 / LIVE CoreCNX CRM reports dashboard with daily activity by channel and an attribution funnel built by Hunter Creative Media & Design

CoreCNX

SYS.005

CRM & Unified Contact Timeline

The CRM that holds the unified contact record. Every CampaignCNX+ reply, Beacon door knock, Alma chatbot lead, and email event lands on one timeline, tagged by source. Pipeline, email, tasks, and reports are built in, and it runs as a standalone CRM too.

One timeline per contact

Pipeline, email, tasks & reports

Fed by CampaignCNX+, Beacon & Alma

Visit CoreCNX ↗

Free 15-Min Discovery

Have a software idea? Talk to Brian about a free 15-minute discovery call.

Start the Conversation →

Process / How a Custom Build Runs

Custom software is a relationship, not a transaction.

A custom web application project is not a 2-week handoff like a marketing site. It’s a 1–4 month build, then ongoing iteration. Here’s how we run it, from discovery through long-term support.

PHASE I01

Discovery & ScopingWK 01 · 60–90 MIN

A 60–90 minute working session (in person if you’re in Chicagoland, on Zoom if you’re not) where we map your current process, identify the actual problem, and decide whether custom software is even the right answer. Sometimes it isn’t, and we say so. If it is, you get a written fixed-scope proposal within a week.

PHASE II02

Spec & ArchitectureWK 01–02 · WIREFRAMES + DATA MODEL

Wireframes, data model, integration plan, and a clickable prototype where it helps. You see the screens before we write the code. Anything you change here costs hours; anything you change after the build costs days. We earn our keep in this phase.

PHASE III03

Design & Build in SprintsWK 03+ · 1–2 WK SPRINTS

Working features delivered every 1–2 weeks against a staging environment you can poke at from day one. No three-month silence ending in a surprise demo. You’re seeing real software within the first sprint and giving feedback while it’s cheap to incorporate.

PHASE IV04

QA, Launch & Hand-offWK N · PRODUCTION + DOCS

Full QA pass, production deployment, data migration if needed, staff training, and written documentation. You get the source code, the database schema, the deployment scripts, and admin access to everything. No vendor lock-in: you could fire us tomorrow and another developer could pick it up.

PHASE V05

Ongoing Support & IterationPOST-LAUNCH · OPTIONAL RETAINER

Most clients keep us on a small monthly retainer for security patches, bug fixes, and feature additions as the business evolves. No long contracts. Cancel any month. The relationship continues only as long as it’s worth it for both sides, and we keep it that way on purpose.

Custom vs Off-the-Shelf / Honest Framing

When custom is the right call, and when it honestly isn’t.

We’re not in the business of selling custom software development to people who don’t need it. Off-the-shelf SaaS is a remarkable thing: someone else has already solved a hard problem, written the documentation, hired the support team, and built the integrations, and they amortize all of that across thousands of customers so you can rent it for $50 a month. When the SaaS fits, the SaaS wins. We will tell you that on the discovery call.

Where custom web application development starts to make sense is when the math flips. Your business doesn’t quite fit the SaaS data model, so you’re maintaining shadow spreadsheets next to it. You’re paying $300+ per seat per month for software where your team uses three of the forty features. The integration you actually need isn’t on the SaaS company’s roadmap and won’t be. The vendor’s price-per-seat is climbing every year and the export options are quietly shrinking. Or the workflow is genuinely yours (a real competitive advantage), and renting somebody else’s version of it is leaving leverage on the table.

The other reason teams build custom is ownership. Custom software is a depreciating asset on your books, but it’s still an asset, one you control, one you can hand to a different developer if we ever stop being the right fit, one that doesn’t quietly become unaffordable when the SaaS company gets acquired and the per-seat price doubles. Web design is one project, deliverable in weeks. Custom software is a longer relationship and a deeper investment, and it deserves an honest conversation up front about whether the investment is right for your business.

// LEAN CUSTOM WHEN… SVC.02

+ Your business doesn’t fit the SaaS data model. You’re maintaining a shadow spreadsheet next to the SaaS just to make the numbers reconcile.

+ You’re paying $300+ per seat per month for software where your team uses three of the forty features.

+ You need an integration the vendor won’t build. Their roadmap doesn’t list it, and you’ve stopped asking.

+ You want to own the asset. Source code in your repo, database in your account, no vendor lock-in.

+ The workflow is yours. It’s a real competitive advantage, not a generic process.

+ You’ve outgrown Zapier and spreadsheets. The duct tape is starting to fray at exactly the wrong time of year.

Discovery · No Pitch

Not sure if you need custom or off-the-shelf? That’s the discovery call.

Book the Call →

Rates / What Custom Software Costs

Custom web software is quoted as a fixed number, not an hourly meter.

Almost every custom software shop answers this question with “it depends,” which is true and useless. Here is the actual shape of it. Custom work starts at $3,000 and is quoted as one fixed number after the discovery call, in writing, before any code is written. If the scope changes later, that is a new number you approve, not a surprise on the invoice.

TIER I01

One Process, Replaced$3,000 – $8,000 · 3–6 WEEKS

The single spreadsheet, paper form, or email thread that eats a day a week. An intake form that feeds a real database instead of a PDF somebody retypes. A scheduling board. A quoting calculator. An inventory count that two people can update at once. This is where most custom projects should start, and where the return is easiest to see, because you can measure the hours it gives back.

TIER II02

An Internal Tool With Users and Roles$8,000 – $25,000 · 6–12 WEEKS

A real application: logins, permissions, a dashboard your team works out of, records that relate to each other, notifications, and reporting that used to be a monthly export. Client portals live here too. So do integrations that keep two systems you already pay for in step with each other, which is usually cheaper than replacing either one.

TIER III03

A Product You Sell$25,000+ · 8–12 WEEKS TO MVP

Software as the business, not the back office: subscription billing, each customer’s data isolated in its own workspace, an admin panel, onboarding, and the marketing site that sells it. We have shipped four of these for ourselves, which mostly means we can tell you which parts of an MVP are load-bearing and which ones founders build too early.

DRIVERS04

What Moves the NumberIN ROUGH ORDER OF IMPACT

What actually moves the number, in rough order: how many distinct user roles need different views, how many outside systems have to be integrated (each one is its own small project), whether anything has to be migrated out of an old system, and how much of the process is genuinely settled versus still being argued about internally. That last one is free to fix and the most expensive to skip. See the full rate card for how this sits next to the studio’s website tiers.

Questions / Before the Discovery Call

What owners ask before they commit to custom.

Q01

What is a custom internal tool, exactly?

Software built for one company’s process instead of a market’s average process. In practice it looks like the spreadsheet your operations manager rebuilt into something with logins, validation, and a history: a job board, an intake queue, a scheduling grid, a quoting calculator, an inventory count. It is not a smaller version of enterprise software. It is the six screens your team actually uses, without the two hundred they do not, which is why a custom internal tool is often cheaper over three years than the per-seat product that almost fits.

Q02

Should we build or buy?

Buy, if something off the shelf fits your process at eighty percent or better and you are willing to change your process for the other twenty. That is a genuinely good outcome and we will tell you when we see it. Build when the mismatch is the part that makes you money, when you are paying per seat for a product you use a tenth of, when three tools are being held together by a person copying data between them, or when the workflow is your competitive advantage and a vendor’s roadmap now owns it. The custom web applications guide works through this decision in more depth.

Q03

What does a custom web application cost?

From $3,000, quoted as a fixed number after discovery. Replacing one process typically runs $3,000 to $8,000. A real internal tool with logins, roles, and reporting runs $8,000 to $25,000. A product you intend to sell starts around $25,000 to a working MVP. Those are ranges rather than a price list because scope genuinely varies, but the quote you get is a single number in writing, not an hourly estimate that drifts.

Q04

Can we start small and add to it later?

Yes, and it is usually the right call. The most common failure in custom software is not a bad build, it is a first version that tried to do everything anyone mentioned in a meeting. Start with the one process that costs you the most time, ship it in a few weeks, let your team use it for a month, and then decide what version two should be with real information instead of guesses. Every build here is architected so that adding to it later is normal work rather than a rewrite.

Q05

Who owns the code, and what if you disappear?

You own all of it: the code, the repository, the database, the hosting accounts, the domain, in your name from day one. Everything is built on standard, widely used technology (Node, Next.js, Postgres) specifically so that any competent developer can pick it up. You get the documentation and a walkthrough at handoff. There is no proprietary framework and no license that expires when you stop paying us, because a tool your business depends on should never have a single point of failure wearing a person’s name.

Q06

Can you integrate with the software we already run?

Usually, yes, and integrations are a large share of the work that comes through the door. If your system has an API or can send a webhook, it can be connected: CRMs, accounting, scheduling and field-service platforms, payment processors, e-signature, email and SMS. Where a system has no API, there are still options (scheduled exports, a database connection, sometimes a small bridge), and part of the discovery call is finding out which of those you are dealing with before anyone quotes anything.

Where We Build / Service Areas

Custom web application development, across the Aurora region.

The studio is in Aurora, IL. Most of our custom web application work is for clients across the Fox Valley, Will County, the northwest suburbs, and the city of Chicago, though the work itself is remote-friendly and we ship for clients across the country. Direct city-level pages below, starting with custom web application development in Aurora.

Fox Valley

Will County / I-55

All Areas

All Service Areas →

Start a Build / Discovery Call

Tell us about the process you keep meaning to fix.

A short note is plenty: what your business does, what the workflow looks like today, what you wish it did. We respond within one business day with honest feedback, including telling you when off-the-shelf software is genuinely the better answer. No pitch deck, no pressure.

Start a Project → See Web Design