How do you decide between custom and a platform?

We ask whether the problem fits a CMS shape or a commerce shape. If it does, we use the platform. If it doesn't, custom is honest. We won't sell you on custom just because we like the work.

Can you work alongside our in-house team?

Yes — usually we pair with one or two of your engineers from week two onwards. Knowledge transfer happens during the build, not in a handover meeting.

What if requirements change mid-build?

Architecture decisions are written down before they're coded. Changes get a rewrite of the decision doc and a delta estimate — not silent scope drift.

Do you do native mobile apps?

Native iOS / Android is outside our scope. We ship responsive web and PWAs. For native, we'll point you to people we trust.

All services

Services / What we ship

03 · Bespoke product · Owned codebase

Custom JavaScript

When neither Payload nor Medusa is the right answer.

Custom JavaScript here means Next.js systems, internal tools, and integrations built when Payload or Medusa is not the right fit.

Sometimes the right system isn't a platform at all. We build custom JavaScript applications — internal tools, marketplaces, niche commerce, B2B portals — when off-the-shelf doesn't fit. Stack: TypeScript, Next.js, Postgres, your auth, your infra.

Typical scope · scoped per project

Symptoms we recognise

You should talk to us if…

Your team is building something neither Shopify nor a CMS can model honestly.
You're paying enterprise SaaS prices for software you use 20% of.
The off-the-shelf you bought turned into 12 months of custom integration.
You have a clear product vision and need senior engineers, not seat licenses.

What ships

/ 04 deliverables

Concrete deliverables, not vague promises.

Bespoke product

An application designed around your real operations.

Internal tools, marketplaces, B2B portals, niche commerce — built around how you work, not how SaaS thinks you should.

TypeScript front-to-back

One language, one type system.

Same TypeScript on frontend, API, worker, migrations. Refactors travel safely across the stack. No JS-to-Python rubicon.

Postgres of record

Your data, in your shape.

A Postgres schema you can read. Views, indexes, foreign keys — not vendor table magic. SQL you can audit at 2am.

Owned codebase

Source code we hand back, not a tenant we host.

GitHub, your environment, your deploy. We pair with your team during build and step away cleanly. No license you keep renting.

How this engagement runs

Four phases. No bench.

Week 1 · Discovery & spike

Map the domain. Ship the hardest unknown.

One week to model the domain. We ship a thin vertical slice of the gnarliest piece — auth, billing, the workflow nobody wants to own — before scoping the rest.

Week 2 · Architecture in writing

System diagram, data model, deploy story.

Decisions written down before code lands. Reviewed with your team. Trade-offs in the open.

Build · Vertical slices

Each sprint ships an end-to-end feature.

Not horizontal layers. You see real users in real flows, weekly. The thing that ships in week 3 still works in week 12.

Hand off · Step away

Pair sessions, operations docs, clean source.

Knowledge transfer happens during the build, not at the end. We're a phone call away, not a dependency.

Stack we ship against

TypeScript · Next.js App Router
Postgres · your auth provider
Your infra (Vercel, AWS, GCP)

We pass when

The brief is undefined, or you need a vendor to staff tickets instead of a team that ships product.

Field questions

Honest answers.

How do you decide between custom and a platform?
We ask whether the problem fits a CMS shape or a commerce shape. If it does, we use the platform. If it doesn't, custom is honest. We won't sell you on custom just because we like the work.
Can you work alongside our in-house team?
Yes — usually we pair with one or two of your engineers from week two onwards. Knowledge transfer happens during the build, not in a handover meeting.
What if requirements change mid-build?
Architecture decisions are written down before they're coded. Changes get a rewrite of the decision doc and a delta estimate — not silent scope drift.
Do you do native mobile apps?
Native iOS / Android is outside our scope. We ship responsive web and PWAs. For native, we'll point you to people we trust.

From the principal engineer

The discipline of custom is saying no to everything that isn't the product. Every dependency added is a dependency you'll inherit.

Related work

A trilingual storefront for Baden-Baden's award-winning nail and PMU studio

Discovery

Pick a door. Or describe what's broken.

We pitch the problem, not the platform.

Start a conversation Or emailkresimir.galic@fronttribe.com

Reply within one business day · No discovery deck tax