Custom software development
- Sheet
- A-030
- Set
- Practice
- Status
- Issued
Custom software development, built around your business.
When off-the-shelf tools no longer fit how your business works, we design and build the software that does. A senior engineer leads the work, the scope and price are fixed before we start, and the code is yours from the first day.
A-030PracticeIssued
What we do
Custom software development services.
Custom software is anything built for one organization's way of working rather than bought as a product. In practice, most of what we are asked to build falls into six kinds of work.
- Web applications and customer portals. Where your customers sign in, book, pay, upload, track or report.
- Internal tools. The system that replaces a tangle of spreadsheets, shared inboxes and copy-and-paste between tools.
- Integrations and APIs. Connecting payments, CRMs, accounting, email and industry systems, with retries and failure cases handled rather than hoped away.
- SaaS platforms. Software many customers share, with each customer's data kept apart by rules in the database itself.
- Data and databases. Schema design and migrations that keep Postgres correct while the product keeps changing.
- Modernization. Taking over existing software: tests first, then changes, then replacing only what has to go.
Build or buy
When custom software is worth it, and when it is not.
Build when an off-the-shelf product would force you to change a process that is part of your advantage, when several tools are held together by spreadsheets and manual work, when you need control of the data, or when the software is the product you sell.
Buy when a product already does what you need and you can live with how it works. A subscription is usually cheaper than a build, and we will say so on the first call if we think that is your situation.
How it works
Scoped, priced, then built in small reviewed steps.
Every engagement is led by a senior engineer and runs through the same reviewed engineering process we use on our own software, including AI-assisted work under human review.
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Discovery
When the work is not yet defined, a short, priced discovery comes first: the people who will use the software, the process it supports, the systems it must connect to and the data it will hold.
You get A written plan with the scope, the architecture, a schedule and a fixed quote.
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Build in small, reviewed steps
We build in your repository, in increments you can try as they land. Every change is reviewed before it merges and tested automatically before it deploys. You have access to the code and the pipeline from the first day.
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Launch
Production kept apart from development and testing, backups, monitoring, and a deploy that can be rolled back. Existing data migrated and checked, if there is any.
You get Software in use, with the notes to run and change it.
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After launch
Ongoing changes and support if you want them, scoped and priced the same way, or a clean handover to your own team.
Timeline and pricing
How long it takes and how we price it.
New software is quoted, not listed. Defined work gets a fixed price and fixed scope. When the work is not defined yet, the discovery is bounded and priced up front too, and it ends with a schedule and a fixed quote for the build.
What moves both the price and the schedule: how many kinds of user and workflow the software serves, the systems it connects to, whether existing data must be migrated, any regulatory constraints on the data, and how much of the first version can wait for the second. Our published prices, for checking, fixing and looking after an app that already exists, are on the pricing page.
Proof
What the founding team has built and runs.
The founding team built and runs a production multi-tenant telehealth platform covering intake, scheduling, virtual visits, clinical documentation, e-prescribing and lab interpretation, and has built a multi-tenant casework platform for the criminal defense bar. Across the systems the founding team built and runs:
- 20,900+ automated tests across the systems the founding team built and runs
- 16,800+ CI runs automated builds and test runs on GitHub Actions
- 940+ merged pull requests across the same codebases
- 2,500+ database migrations in one production healthcare platform
Counted from the repositories and CI history of the systems the founding team built and runs, 22 Sep 2026; each figure rounded down. How we counted
Questions buyers ask
Before you commission custom software.
How much does custom software development cost?
Custom software is quoted, not listed, because the honest answer depends on what the software must do. Defined work gets a fixed price and a fixed scope before it starts. When the work is not defined yet, a short, priced discovery comes first and ends with a fixed quote. We never bill hourly on work nobody has sized. Our published prices.
How long does it take to build custom software?
The plan from discovery gives the schedule, item by item. What decides it is scope: the number of user types and workflows, the integrations, and whether existing data has to move. We would rather launch a smaller first version sooner and add to it than wait for everything at once.
Who owns the code?
The code lives in your repository and your accounts from the first day, not ours. Ownership of what we write for you is set out in the agreement before any work starts.
Can you take over software another team built?
Yes. We read it, add tests around how it behaves today, and only then change it. A rewrite is a decision we make with you, for a stated reason, not a default.
Do you work alongside an in-house team?
Yes. We can own a whole product, or take a defined part of one and work in your repository, your review process and your release schedule.
Where are your engineers?
Oracis Engineering is the brand of Oracis AI LLC, a US company. Our engineering combines US and international engineers, and a senior engineer leads every engagement and owns every merge.
Should we build custom software or buy an off-the-shelf product?
Buy, if a product already does what you need and you can live with how it works. Build when the off-the-shelf tools force you to change a process that is part of your advantage, when you are joining several tools with spreadsheets, or when you need control of the data. We will tell you if we think you should buy.
Tell us what the software has to do.
Who will use it, what it replaces, the systems it must connect to, and your timeline. An engineer reads it.
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