Customer-facing applications
Ordering, scheduling, onboarding and self-service tools your customers use directly.
A custom web application is software your team and your customers use in a browser, built for your specific process instead of the average one. True Cedar builds most in two to five weeks, and a single-workflow application in as little as five business days, deploys it to your own cloud account, and hands you the source code.
Timelines are examples, not commitments. Every engagement is governed by its own written statement of work and agreement.
It is a question that gets confused constantly, and the difference decides how a project is priced and built. A website presents information to visitors. An application lets people do work: it has user accounts, it stores and changes data, and it enforces rules about who can see and do what.
A lot of buyers approach a firm asking for one when they need the other. If what you need is a marketing site that brings in qualified leads, that is a different engagement, covered on our websites and digital advertising page. If people need to log in and get something done, you need an application.
For most internal and client-facing business software, a responsive web application is the right answer. It reaches every device with no install, there is no app store review standing between you and a bug fix, and you maintain one codebase instead of three.
There are honest exceptions. Choose native mobile when you need:
If that is you, our MVP development page covers the mobile track.
Ordering, scheduling, onboarding and self-service tools your customers use directly.
Authenticated access to documents and reporting, with an audit trail.
Intake, approvals and tracking that replace a spreadsheet-and-email process.
Multi-step processes with roles, handoffs and a record of every decision.
Reporting that assembles itself from the systems you already run.
Search, summarization, document intelligence and decision support, built on leading AI models.
We build on React and Next.js with TypeScript, a PostgreSQL database, usually through Supabase, and Tailwind for styling. Where an application uses AI, we integrate leading AI models.
None of it is chosen for novelty. It is chosen because it is mainstream, well documented, and widely known. That is a practical decision on your behalf: if you and we ever part ways, any competent developer can pick up your application and keep going.
| Project | Typical timeline | Typical budget |
|---|---|---|
| One clearly defined workflow, one or two user roles, up to two integrations | About 5 business days | Under $10,000 |
| Multi-role application with integrations and reporting | 2–5 weeks | $18,000–$45,000 |
| Compliance scope, legacy data migration, or complex permissions | 5–10 weeks | $45,000–$90,000 |
Prices and timelines here are examples to help you plan, not a quote, an offer, or a contract. Every engagement is governed by its own written statement of work and agreement.
The full pricing page covers every tier and the seven variables that change a quote.
You own the source code, the data, and the infrastructure accounts. The code lives in a repository you control, the data sits in your own database, and the application runs in your own cloud accounts. There is no license, no platform lock-in, and no scenario where leaving True Cedar means losing the software.
What the workflow is, who uses it, what it connects to, whether data has to come along, and what compliance applies. We will tell you on that call if you should buy something instead, and if the scope you have in mind does not fit the date you have in mind.
Within a few business days of that call, with a delivery date on it. Fixed price rather than hourly, so the risk of the work taking longer is ours rather than yours. If we deliver late, monetary penalties apply, on terms set out in your statement of work.
You see the software working rather than described, typically twice a week. You should never have to ask where the project stands.
Deployed to your infrastructure, with a walkthrough, written handover, and the source code in a repository you control. Stephen sees every engagement through to this point personally. Nothing is handed off at eighty percent.
All the work is done by the True Cedar team and completed by US-based resources. We do not outsource any of the work. This describes how we typically work; each engagement's terms are set out in its own written statement of work and agreement.
A single-workflow web application costs under $10,000 and ships in about five business days. A multi-role application with integrations runs $18,000 to $45,000 over two to five weeks. Compliance requirements or legacy data migration push it higher. These are examples; each project's price is set in its statement of work.
A website presents information. A web application lets people do work: it has user accounts, it stores and changes data, and it enforces rules about who can see and do what. They are priced and built differently, and many businesses asking for one of them actually need the other.
For most business software, a responsive web application reaches every device for less and updates instantly without app store review. Choose native when you need the camera, GPS, real offline use, push notifications, or a consumer-grade mobile experience.
React and Next.js with TypeScript, a PostgreSQL database usually through Supabase, and Tailwind for styling, with leading AI models where an application uses AI. It is mainstream and widely known, so any competent developer can maintain it.
Yes. You own the source code, the data, and the infrastructure accounts. The code lives in a repository you control, with no license and no platform lock-in.
Find out whether an idea works before investing in the full build.
Give clients secure access to their own documents and reporting.
Replace the spreadsheet your team maintains by hand.
Describe the work, not the software. We will tell you whether it needs a custom web application, and roughly what it would take.