Custom software development in Manchester.

• Manchester digital agency

  On UK hours all day, able to sit in your building and pitch you a full brand-to-build service. You are buying proximity and breadth. Best when the work is stakeholder-heavy or spans brand, design and build together.

• Freelance or contract developer

  One person billed into your own process. You are buying capacity, and architecture, code review and release management stay with you or your internal lead. Best when you already have engineering leadership with bandwidth to direct someone.

• Remote engineering partner

  A small senior team that owns a defined build, works your morning from outside the country, and hands over the repository at the end. No local entity, so the contract and the security questionnaire have to be handled properly at the start. Best when you know what the system must do and want it built well the first time.

We are the third. Where one of the first two is the better answer for you, we say so on the first call rather than after the deposit.

• Hire a remote partner when

  • ✓You can describe what the system has to do, and someone on your side can decide without convening a committee.
  • ✓The work is a defined build or a defined rebuild rather than an open-ended programme with a moving sponsor.
  • ✓Six hours of live contact each day is enough, and the rest of your day can run on a written handover.
  • ✓You want the source, the deployment pipeline and the documentation in your own hands when it is finished.
  • ✓The build is mostly software and integration work, rather than brand, design and a public launch bundled together.

• Hire locally instead when

  • ✓Your procurement rules, or a clause in one of your own client contracts, require a supplier based in the United Kingdom.
  • ✓The engagement is really a brand-led launch that needs an agency in the room every week for stakeholder workshops.
  • ✓Your security policy forbids any access to production data from outside the country and the work cannot be done against masked data.
  • ✓Delivery has to run inside one time zone all day because the stakeholders who decide are only reachable in the afternoon.
  • ✓The engagement is really staff augmentation under your own architect, in which case a contractor will serve you better and cost you less management.

• 01

  The "No" rows are the point.

  A comparison table where one supplier wins every row is a brochure. Rows above are reasons to hire someone else, and you should find them here rather than in month four of a contract you cannot exit cleanly.

• 02

  A rebrand or a customer launch usually wants an agency.

  Where the work is brand, design and a public launch together, a Manchester agency with people in the room every week genuinely is the stronger fit, and we will say so rather than scope around it.

• 03

  A single contractor is capacity, not a delivery team.

  One freelance developer is a person added to a process you already run. If nobody on your side is holding architecture, code review and release quality, that capacity produces code faster than it produces a working system.

• 04

  Work-location clauses are binary.

  If a client flow-down or a procurement rule requires the work to be performed in the United Kingdom, no amount of engineering quality substitutes for it. Ask us at the first call and the answer comes back the same day.

• Platforms

  Operations platforms and internal systems

  The system that runs the business: intake, approvals, scheduling, exceptions and reporting, built around your process rather than a template.

• Media

  Media and content operations tooling

  Asset management, scheduling and metadata tooling for broadcast and content teams, built to fit around the systems a production already runs.

• SaaS

  SaaS products and MVPs

  Multi-tenant products with billing, roles, usage limits and an audit trail, shaped for a founding team that needs paying users before the next raise.

• Fintech

  Fintech portals and reporting tools

  Onboarding, reconciliation and reporting screens for finance teams, with card data kept out of your systems entirely by tokenising at the processor.

• Mobile

  Mobile apps for people away from a desk

  One Flutter codebase across iOS and Android for couriers, members and field staff, built offline-first because the signal on a delivery round is not their problem to solve.

• Integrations

  APIs and integration engineering

  Wiring a payments provider, a CRM or a broadcast system to the tools around it, with queues, retries and a reconciliation view so a failed message is visible rather than silent.

1. Discovery and written scope

   One call to walk through how work moves through your product or your operation today, who touches it and where it breaks, then a written scope with the exclusions named. The document is yours whether or not you hire us.

   A scope, a first-phase price range and the name of the engineer who would lead the build.

   48 hours

2. Prototype and architecture

   A clickable prototype in week one, so your product or operations lead argues with real screens instead of a requirements document. Alongside it: the data model, access control and hosting region, agreed in writing before anyone opens an editor.

   Approved screens and an architecture your CTO or technical adviser can read.

   1-2 weeks

3. Build in fortnightly slices

   Working software demoed every two weeks, live in your morning, against real data rather than dummy data. Each slice is checked against the scope in front of you.

   Working modules validated against real scenarios, and a backlog you have shaped as you went.

   6-14 weeks, scope-dependent

4. Harden, then release

   Permissions, load behaviour, backups, monitoring and a tested rollback are signed off before anything reaches your users.

   A release your security or compliance reviewer can accept, with the evidence attached rather than described.

   2-3 weeks

5. Run and extend

   Monitoring, a support window that matches UK hours, and the next slice of roadmap chosen from what people actually use.

   A platform that keeps earning its place, and a team that can hand it to yours whenever you want it.

   Monthly, 30 days notice

• First build

  Replacing the spreadsheet that runs the company

  Operations held together by workbooks, a shared inbox and one person who knows the exceptions, rebuilt as a system with roles, approvals and a history of who did what. For operations, finance and content teams at growing companies.

• Modernisation

  Rebuilding software you have outgrown

  An early web application or a legacy platform rebuilt as a maintainable product, without losing a decade of data or retraining everybody in a weekend. For companies stuck on a system nobody supports any more.

• MVP

  A first product that has to win a paying customer

  A scoped first version, one platform and the core journey, with a clickable prototype in week one and a live demo every two weeks after that. For founders who need traction before the next funding conversation.

• Extension

  Extending what you already own

  Custom modules, portals, dashboards and integrations layered on top of a CRM, a payments platform or a broadcast system, so you keep the system of record and lose the retyping around it. For companies extending rather than replacing a core system.

• Media, broadcast and content

  Asset management, scheduling and metadata tooling for teams working around the broadcast and production hub at MediaCityUK. Rights and delivery deadlines drive most of the workflow, so the data model has to make a piece of content findable and its clearance status obvious.

• Fintech and financial services

  Onboarding, reconciliation and reporting tools for finance teams and payments businesses, with approval chains, an audit trail and card data kept off your systems entirely by tokenising at the processor.

• Retail and e-commerce

  Order, inventory and fulfilment systems for retailers whose online channel now moves as much stock as a store once did, integrated with the warehouse and carrier systems behind it.

• Sport and sports technology

  Data and reporting tools for clubs and sports organisations turning match, training and ticketing data into a decision a coach or a commercial team can act on, rather than a spreadsheet nobody opens twice.

• Professional and legal services

  Case and matter management, client portals and reporting for firms whose growth has outpaced a shared inbox, with the access controls a client review now expects.

• Higher education and research

  Internal tools, data pipelines and the first commercial platform a university spin-out builds when a tool made for itself turns out to be worth extending for others.

If your sector is not on that list, the question we will ask first is the same one: what does a day of this work look like, and where does it break?

1. 01

   UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018

   Personal data processed by a Manchester business is governed by UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, enforced by the Information Commissioner's Office. It requires a lawful basis for processing, data minimisation, rights of access, correction and deletion, and notification of a qualifying breach to the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of it. The engineering consequence is a design decision, not a policy one: a data inventory, consent state where it applies, deletion that reaches backups, and access logs detailed enough to scope a breach quickly. Whether a given process is in scope, and what a lawful basis should be, is a question for your data-protection contact or counsel. We build the machinery: the inventory, the request workflows and the logging behind it. Sources: UK General Data Protection Regulation · Data Protection Act 2018 · Information Commissioner's Office.

   General

2. 02

   FCA-regulated firms and third-party oversight

   An FCA-authorised Manchester firm using an outsourced software supplier is expected to maintain oversight of that arrangement under the FCA's outsourcing and operational resilience rules: a documented understanding of what the supplier does, tested continuity arrangements, and the ability to exit the arrangement without disrupting the business. We support that with a written description of what we run, tested backup and restore, staged releases with rollback, and monitoring your operations team can see directly rather than take on trust. Whether an arrangement is material outsourcing, and what your firm must record or notify to the FCA, is for your compliance function to decide. We produce the operational evidence behind that decision. Sources: FCA SYSC 8 (Outsourcing) · FCA Operational Resilience Policy Statement PS21/3.

   Financial services

3. 03

   PCI DSS scope, kept out of your code

   The cheapest way to handle card data is to never hold it. We tokenise at the processor, so the card number is captured by the processor's own hosted field and your platform stores a token, the last four digits and a brand. Your application never sees, transmits or stores a primary account number, which keeps the bulk of PCI DSS scope out of the code we write for you. Your PCI obligations remain yours, and the right self-assessment questionnaire depends on how you take payments. We build to keep the scope small and say plainly when a requested feature would widen it. Sources: PCI DSS v4.0.1 · PCI Security Standards Council.

   Payments

4. 04

   SOC 2 vendor questionnaires

   Most Manchester buyers of any size will send a vendor security questionnaire before a contract is signed. We complete it ourselves rather than returning a brochure, and we answer with what we operate: named access with least privilege, change management through pull request and review, environment separation, logging and retention, tested backups, staged releases and a documented offboarding step when an engineer rolls off. Where an answer is no, it is written as no with the compensating control next to it. A questionnaire padded with paragraphs is how a supplier gets removed from a shortlist late. If your policy requires an attestation report from the supplier itself, raise it at the first call. We will tell you our current position plainly. Sources: AICPA Trust Services Criteria for Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality and Privacy.

   Vendor risk

We build systems that produce this evidence natively rather than bolting a compliance module onto software that resists it. Where a regulatory deadline or an investor review is driving your timeline, that date is where we start planning backwards from.

1. 01

   The contract

   We sign your master services agreement under English law, with the jurisdiction, liability and termination clauses your counsel prefers. We do not ask clients to contract under the law of another country, and we do not run engagements on an exchange of emails.

   Governing law

2. 02

   Tax paperwork and invoicing

   We are a non-UK entity, and invoices are issued in pounds sterling against the milestones or the monthly rate written into the contract, with the purchase order reference your finance system needs on them. Whatever VAT treatment applies to a supply from outside the UK is a question for your accountant.

   Invoicing

3. 03

   Intellectual property

   Code, designs, documentation and infrastructure definitions are assigned to you as they are created, not on final payment. Repositories, cloud accounts and domains are opened in your name from the first commit.

   Assignment

4. 04

   Confidentiality

   An NDA is in place before you share anything sensitive. Use yours or use ours, either is fine, and mutual is the normal case. Nothing about your project or your name is used as a reference without your written agreement.

   NDA

5. 05

   Insurance and security questionnaires

   Certificates of insurance are provided on request. Security questionnaires are completed by the people who would do the work, not by a sales team, and the answers describe what we actually operate.

   Vendor risk

6. 06

   No local entity, and what that rules out

   QalbIT has no UK entity, no Manchester office and nobody who can be in your building on Tuesday. Where a procurement rule or a client contract requires a domestic supplier or work performed in the UK, we are not eligible, and you will hear that on the first call rather than after a proposal.

   The limit

None of that is a reason to avoid a remote partner. It is a reason to handle the paperwork properly at the start instead of assuming it away. We raise this before the estimate, not after the contract.

• Backend and business logic

  • ✓Laravel (PHP 8) for modular business systems with strong audit trails.
  • ✓Node.js and NestJS where integrations and event-driven flows dominate.
  • ✓Queues, schedulers and retries for syncs, alerts and report generation.

• Interface and usability

  • ✓Next.js and React, server-rendered where search traffic matters.
  • ✓Keyboard-first data entry for screens people live in all day.
  • ✓Flutter for one mobile codebase across iOS and Android, offline-first.

• Data and integrations

  • ✓PostgreSQL and MySQL with constraints that protect financial integrity.
  • ✓Versioned records and append-only audit trails where evidence is required.
  • ✓REST and GraphQL integrations with CRMs, processors and content systems.

• Security and delivery

  • ✓AWS accounts in your name, defined in Terraform rather than by hand.
  • ✓Least-privilege access, logged, with break-glass reviewed after use.
  • ✓Staged releases through GitHub Actions, every one reversible.

• A note on sourcing

  A note on sourcing

  We do not quote market figures on this page: not local salary bands, not agency rates, not the failure-rate statistics that circulate without a traceable primary source. The only numbers here are our own, and each one names where it comes from. If a figure matters to your decision, ask for the source and we will send it or withdraw the claim.

1. 01

   Building this kind of software since 2018

   120+ engagements delivered for 50+ clients since 2018, across web, mobile and platform work. Clutch 5.0 from 8 reviews, Google 4.9 from 18 reviews, and 100% job success on Upwork. Those are the four figures we can evidence, and they are the four we quote.

2. 02

   We work your mornings, properly

   Six hours of live overlap every working day, 09:00 to 15:00 UK time. Calls, demos and decisions happen in that window, and a written handover lands before our day closes so nothing waits for a status meeting.

3. 03

   We say what we are

   No Manchester office, no UK staff, no United Kingdom entity and no implied presence anywhere on this site. The compliance and paperwork sections exist because we would rather lose a deal at the scoping call than at a vendor review.

4. 04

   The named engineers are the ones who build it

   Whoever appears in the proposal writes the code. No part of your build is handed to another firm, nobody is quietly swapped mid-sprint, and you can reach the founder without going through an account manager.

5. 05

   We will tell you to hire locally

   When a Manchester agency is genuinely the better answer, for example a brand-led launch that needs people in the room every week, you hear it on the first call. It costs us a project and saves you a year.

• Services

  • Custom Software Development→
  • SaaS Product Development→
  • Mobile App Development→

• Case studies

  • CyberFind · 500+ Verified CISOs→

• How we would run it

  • Fixed-Scope Projects→
  • Staff Augmentation→

• Plan your project

  • Our Process→