Practical, honest writing on custom software — what it costs, how it's built, and what small businesses need to know before they start. No jargon, no sales pitch.
Short, focused pieces from the team that actually builds the software. Updated as we publish — no filler, no weekly posts for the sake of it.
What adding AI to small-business software costs to build and to run — five use cases priced from the vendors' published rates, what changed since 2024, how to pilot one safely, and the three risks worth planning for.
Unclear scope, no ongoing owner, wrong technology choices, poor handoff, and skipping the maintenance conversation — what each failure looks like, the red flags to watch for, and a checklist to run before you sign.
What May 2025 federal wage data says about software developer pay in Rochester versus New York City and Boston — why a wage isn't a billing rate, what projects actually cost, and when hiring a developer nearby is worth it.
When an accounting or bookkeeping firm should build custom software and when to keep buying — the three pain points worth checking, why the ledger and the tax package usually stay, and where the Finlock API fits.
How the QuickBooks Online, Stripe, HubSpot, and Salesforce APIs actually behave — sandboxes, OAuth tokens, webhooks, and rate limits — plus the retry, idempotency, and data-mapping traps that decide whether the numbers still match six months after launch.
Five questions that pick between a responsive web app, a native mobile app, and a PWA — with what each costs on Pythn's published pricing and what the app stores actually charge. Plus the four cases where native mobile genuinely earns its keep.
Plan on 15–20% of the build cost per year — $450–$8,000 for builds of $3,000–$40,000 — plus hosting and monitoring. The four cost buckets, three worked scenarios, and what to hold if your developer goes out of business.
Seven questions to ask before you hire a developer, from who owns the code to your escape hatch. Each one comes with what a good answer sounds like, the red flags, and a common way it goes wrong.
The eight questions we ask in a free 30–45 minute discovery call, the three things worth preparing, and what you walk away with — a written summary within 48 hours, with fixed scope and fixed price agreed later, at design.
A 2026 guide for wineries, lake-house operators, ag, tourism, and small professional firms across Geneva, Canandaigua, Penn Yan, Newark, Seneca Falls, Waterloo, Victor, and Rochester — what gets built, what it costs, and why local matters.
Real 2026 timelines by project size — from 1–2 weeks for a simple informational site to 2–6 months for a full platform — and why the quoted number almost never matches reality.
A unit-economics framework for deciding between a subscription and software you own — with three real scenarios (HVAC, accounting firm, franchise) and a 36-month total-cost comparison.
Honest 2026 price bands for small-business software — from under $1,000 for simple informational sites up to $50,000+ for full platforms — and the four variables that drive every quote.
If there's something about custom software you wish someone would actually explain — cost, process, trade-offs, whatever — drop a note and we'll consider it for a future post.
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