Frequently asked questions
Custom software development is a significant business strategy element that can help you gain a competitive edge while boosting overall output and efficiency. It offers the following advantages:
- Individuality. Custom software supports your own unique brand identification in the marketplace, which is especially crucial for startups.
- Adaptability and Scalability. You may create an intuitive solution that includes requested features and incorporates technologies of your choosing to enhance your business process. The right software design company can also foresee the user base expansion and ensure organic digital growth of your product and the best performance.
- Modern Approach. You have the opportunity to select cutting-edge technologies and trend-setting solutions to develop your personalized app and make it function as you desire.
- Cost-saving. Businesses should invest wisely in developing custom software because they often end up saving money over time.
- Legal Ownership. When you invest in your own application, you are not constrained by license fees or intellectual property regulations.
- Support. Businesses that use custom software have access to ongoing support from a committed IT development company that can assist with updating and maintaining the software.
- Security. Custom software is more trustworthy because it is created in compliance with the strictest security guidelines and industry-specific technologies. Fintech and healthcare companies typically choose custom software solutions to prevent vulnerable data from leaking.
After you define your enterprise's objectives and resources, you can start searching for a software design company that will cater to your needs. A good agency will:
- Listen to your concerns – The best software engineering company functions as a consultancy firm first, learning about your needs and business in order to deliver services that actually benefit you. Additionally, you want to stay away from "yes-men," who will agree to everything without questioning your demands while having no intention of keeping their commitments.
- Have a Credible Portfolio – Avoid software designing companies that do not demonstrate a sizeable portfolio on their websites.
- Have a Good Reputation – Read the reviews and testimonials from their customers on such well-established and trustworthy platforms as Clutch, GoodFirms, DesignRush, and The Manifest
- Be Product-focused and Innovative - To keep up with the industry's rapid evolution, you need a proactive development team eager to learn and innovate. Typically, this is noticeable on the company's blogs and social media channels.
- Have a Team of Experienced Professionals - You want a seasoned staff handling every last detail, from the app functionalities to its UI/UX design. Ask about their qualifications at the first meeting.
- Be transparent during communication – A reputable software development firm will provide realistic budget and schedule estimates. Additionally, they will openly explain their business processes and vision of your digital product
- Offer ongoing maintenance after the launch – Support services are essential to the long-term success of any digital product. When a bug is discovered you need specialists to address it as soon as possible.
This is an understandable inquiry. There are numerous skilled software design companies in Ukraine alone, and there are many more worldwide. When the bar is set so high, it can be challenging to stand out.
So why LinkUp Studio? The quality of our UX UI design and the development required to create it are the main factors. We design seamless, visually pleasing web and mobile applications that accurately align with your brand idea and business strategy. Then, there is the development team that turns your vision into reality. We assign a multidisciplinary team of senior UX UI designers, developers, and other experts led by our design directors and under supervision by a co‑founder. This ensures our efficiency and reliability.
Our company also applies a product-oriented mindset. This strategy is design-focused, and it entails putting forth the most effort possible to preserve product quality. We believe that this can distinguish our clients from their competitors as users are more likely to buy a product if they notice something noteworthy about it.
A product-oriented approach and innovative creative thinking combined together are the staples of our performance and the guarantee of your product’s success.
Our software engineering agency can offer both selective services to support your business and a full-scale development cycle, where we built your digital product from scratch. Customized software development, product design, web and mobile application development, and similar services are all within our expertise. Our efficient product-oriented software creation process guarantees that everything is completed in a clear and timely manner to deliver the best results. You can book a free consultation on our website to find out more.
The cost of developing custom software is mainly connected to the following:
- project's scope i.e. comprehensive list of all elements that make up a project, including all associated tasks, materials, and project limits;
- timeline i.e. the time limits on how soon the products are expected;
- deliverables i.e. quantifiable products or services that need to be delivered once a project is finished;
- team composition i.e how many employees will work on the projects and their specialization.
Our software engineering company guarantees transparent forecasting and regular status reporting. When the project's scope isn’t fixed, or it is very dynamic, we employ the Agile approach which assumes payment for the time spent. This allows greater flexibility and considerably lowers risks as the project progresses. For fixed‑price agreements, we’ll present you with a detailed proposal once we have learned all the requirements for your digital product.
All estimates are calculated based on the hourly rates and the estimated number of hours to complete the tasks set. For time and materials engagements, we would create a custom rate card for you based on the development team composition. We also offer discounted rates for eligible startups.
To give you an accurate estimate any IT development company must first create a clear project scope and a budget. The timeline will depend mainly on your app’s complexity and whether you have any particular requirements. Here are the vital steps we take to ensure correct estimation:
- Accurately comprehend the project and what it requires.
- Divide the project into more manageable stages. Usually, those are called sprints and can occur as frequently as every 1-2 weeks.
- Include a buffer - 10-20% extra time to tackle unpredictable risks.
If you want to know how much time your software development project is going to take, you can contact us directly and book a free consultation with our Business Analysts.
Software development is the process of creating a digital product. It includes the discovery stage, design stage, development stage, testing and deployment stage, marketing, and other services related to the creation and maintenance of software applications. Therefore, it consists of not only writing code in a particular programming language but also a variety of other activities to ensure that necessary results are achieved. Although there are many types of software, 4 main groups can be defined:
- applications - this is the most common group, which is essentially programs that common users need to perform any task that they might have. For example, sports trackers, streaming platforms, games, etc.
- systems - these include essential services e.g. networks, hardware drivers, and databases.
- development tools - those are instruments made by engineers for other engineers to make the process of building programs easier.
- embedded programs - this is the software utilized to operate various machinery like smartphones, cars, or robots.
- Software developing companies mainly employ programmers or engineers to work on the project, but other specialists may also be involved depending on the requirements of the task. For instance, business analysts usually work closely with the client throughout the cooperation to ensure understanding between the parties.
Custom software development companies can address the specific needs of a particular customer or enterprise and decide on the team appropriate for the task.
The SDLC, or software development life cycle, is an organized, step-by-step method for creating software starting with its conception and ending with after-launch maintenance. It is applied to streamline the developers' work and clarify the structure for their clients, and typically includes the following stages:
- Planning and discovery phase. To establish the goals for creating new digital products, the software engineering firm defines the issue, system and user requirements, and scope of the current systems. Market research might also be carried out to ascertain the feasibility of the product. The product's advantages, disadvantages, and prospects should also be discussed. After that, a project schedule and budget are decided. Next, all of the specifications for the software, hardware, and network requirements needed to build the custom software are included in the Software Requirement Specification document.
- Design and prototyping phase. To make the best design solutions for a digital product that is in line with the product strategy, the dedicated IT software development company first outlines the details of the overall application as well as the specific aspects of design - databases, UI, UX, system interfaces, network, and network requirements. These are all then described in the Design Specification Document (DSD). This procedure decreases the likelihood of errors and delays in the end product by giving developers and testers a template.
- Software development and testing phase. This is the actual creation of the product. The custom code in a chosen programming language is created by a skilled development team, who then test it to identify any bugs or flaws that need to be fixed.
- Operations and maintenance phase. Once the web or mobile application is launched, it requires ongoing maintenance and updates to function properly. Furthermore, the software should be updated over time as user needs constantly evolve. Therefore, to stay ahead of the game one needs to continuously monitor the application’s performance and adapt it to the changing world.
The market of information technologies is constantly growing and evolving at a rapid pace. New advancements happen every month and our LinkUp Studio’s developers make sure to keep up. It is essential for us to provide a full range of up-to-date services. Here are some of the technologies currently utilized on the projects:
- A toolkit for building applications for mobile, desktop, and the web called Flutter enables our developers to use the same code across all platforms, speeding up the creation of products.
- Another platform that guarantees cross-platform compatibility is Ruby on Rails. It is quick, scalable, and simple to maintain.
- ReactNative is an open-source UI framework that enables developers to create beautifully designed applications without sacrificing the user experience.
- An open JavaScript library called React.js makes it simple to create user interfaces that are seamless and appealing.
- The open-source, cross-platform .Net allows developers to create a wide variety of applications. With .Net, programmers can create for the web, mobile, desktop, games, and more using a variety of languages, editors, and libraries, which means catering fully to the clients' demands.
- The PHP web application framework Laravel features expressive and beautiful syntax and helps the team to avoid technical vulnerabilities, thus, making a reliable and secure product.
At the start of our cooperation, we will sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with you to guarantee the total security and privacy of your project and information. A further level of confidentiality is created by the NDA restrictions that all our employees must abide by according to their employment contracts.