A web application is a product, not a website: it has user accounts, workflows, data and an API behind it, and it is used by customers, employees or a client's customers for hours at a time. We build them end to end, from product strategy and interface design through the backend, the database and the operations after launch.
Building custom software involves making thousands of decisions, often with imperfect information. When you work with CodeStringers, your primary point of contact – your engagement manager – is a senior executive who has managed the development of dozens of products and is able to provide strategic guidance to ensure you make the best decisions possible.
The user experience and interface (UX / I) design, as much as software quality, determines the success of any software product. As the saying goes, simple is hard, and hard is easy. And if it’s not simple, it’s not successful.
The back end of a web app is the part that users do not see but that which enables every feature of the application. In well-architected micro-service web applications, the front end of the application is “dumb”, meaning that it has no business logic or functionality. Its only role is to be the presentation layer that allows users to interact with functionality enabled by the backend. This part of the application is where all intelligence – business logic and features – is enabled.
CodeStringers can help you harness the power of AI and ML to improve your user experiences, exploit the value of data, analyze unstructured data to identify potential relationships, and more.
Software quality assurance (QA) is integral to the short- and long-term success of a software product. Too many organizations skimp on testing resources under the theory that good software engineers self-test their work by writing unit tests or doing their own “smoke testing” of functionality. That approach is guaranteed to result in a growing accumulation of defects that will, at some point, adversely impact customer acquisition and retention, deteriorate the value of your brand, and overwhelm your software development organization when they reactively attempt to address the problem.
The ultimate success of a software product, regardless of the measures of success, depends upon having a solid plan prior to writing the first line of code. Unlikely other software development partners who will charge for “discovery”, CodeStringers will develop your custom software product plan at no charge. Our reasons for doing this are straight forward. We believe you need to know how long it will take to build the first version and. how much it will cost. Without a plan, we can’t answer those questions honestly.
The front end of a web application is, as the name implies, the part that users see and with which they interact in their web browser. User experience is a direct result of the design and implementation of the front end.
Application programming interfaces (APIs) are the “brain” of a cloud software product. They not only connect the frontend to backend databases and services, but they enable all business logic and functionality for end-users.
A Database is the backbone of any web application, storing all information viewed and manipulated by end-users via the frontend application. Virtually every web application employs a relational database that has tables for each unique type of data (companies, contacts ,etc.), columns for each unique field each data type includes (company name, website, address, etc.), and relationships to other tables (i.e. one company can have multiple related contacts).
In practice
MasterControl RapidOnboarder: MasterControl partnered with CodeStringers to build a customer onboarding web application using the outsourced software product development customer engagement model . The result is a sophisticated set of data loading functions capable of handling 20,000 plus unique data records without pagination.
The service
The terms “website” and “web application” are often used interchangeably, but they refer to different things in the realm of the internet. Here are the key differences:
Understanding these differences is important for businesses and developers when planning their online presence and services, as the design, development, and maintenance efforts can vary significantly between a website and a web application.
Depending upon the needs of your users, you may or may not want your web application to be accessed on tablets and smartphones in addition to desktop and laptop computers. In many cases, software products have a web application for use on computers and mobile applications for use on tablets and phones. In other cases, the web application needs to support all screen sizes. If so, most are implemented to be “responsive”, which means that the content on each page adjusts to the size of the screen. Some, however, are built to be “adaptive”, which means that there’s actually different frontend web applications for different screen sizes.
Microservice architectures build each discrete function of a web application as an independent component. By doing so, each component can scale independently of the others. For example, your frontend web application may be capable of supporting 10,000 simultaneous user sessions on a server while your relational database may only be able to support 2,000 running on a server with identical specifications. At low scale, multiple services may be hosted on the same server to save cost, but as the volume of usage increases, a microservice architecture allows you to run each service on a dedicated servers with specifications specific to each service. Some services use more processing power and less memory. Others are the reverse. There are some that use a lot of both.
Monoliths, on the other hand, intertwine the frontend and backend code such that they must be hosted on the same server. A Monolith may still have a role, though. Internal tools that will not have a large volume of usage may be better suited for a monolith architecture because it’s easier to maintain the code and faster to develop.
Frontend web application development, also known as client-side development, involves creating the part of the website or application that users interact with directly. It’s everything that users experience visually on the screen.
Common technologies used in frontend development include HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and JavaScript. Frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js are also popular.
Backend web application development, or server-side development, is focused on the part of a website or application that users don’t see. It involves managing the database and server-side applications, and it’s responsible for the functionality and logic behind the elements that the frontend interacts with.
Backend developers use server-side languages like PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, and .Net. They also work with database systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server.
User Experience (UX) design is a critical aspect of web application development, playing a key role in determining the success and effectiveness of the application. Here’s why UX design is so important:
Good UX design focuses on creating a seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable experience for users. When users find a web application easy to use and navigate, their overall satisfaction increases, leading to a positive perception of the brand or service.
An application with a well-thought-out UX design encourages users to spend more time on it and explore its features. This increased engagement can lead to higher conversion rates, whether that’s in terms of sales, sign-ups, or other targeted actions.
Improves Accessibility. UX design isn’t just about aesthetics; it also involves making the web application accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. This inclusivity can broaden the user base and is also often a legal requirement.
Reduces Development Costs. Investing in UX design in the early stages of development can save money in the long run. It helps in identifying potential issues and user needs early, reducing the need for costly changes and revisions after the application is developed.
Enhances Brand Perception. The user experience is often the user’s first impression of a brand. A positive experience can enhance the brand’s reputation and credibility, while a negative experience can harm it.
Facilitates User Retention. In a competitive market, retaining users is as important as acquiring new ones. A web application with excellent UX design makes users more likely to return and continue using the service.
Supports Business Goals. UX design aligns the user’s needs with the business’s objectives. By focusing on the user, businesses can achieve various goals, such as increasing sales, improving customer engagement, and building brand loyalty.
Improves Usability. UX design emphasizes usability. By making an application easy to understand and use, users are less likely to experience frustration or confusion, which can lead to abandonment of the application.
Increases Conversion Rates. A well-designed UX can guide users towards desired actions, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading content. This effectiveness in guiding user actions directly impacts conversion rates.
UX design is an iterative process that involves understanding and integrating user feedback. This continuous improvement ensures that the application evolves according to user needs and expectations.
In summary, UX design is not just about making a web application look attractive; it’s a comprehensive approach to ensuring that the application is user-friendly, efficient, and effective in meeting both user needs and business goals. As such, it’s an indispensable part of web application development.
The points above are the practices we hold every web application to. Decide the architecture before the first screen is built, because a monolith and a set of microservices are built, deployed and paid for differently. Support every screen size from the start rather than adapting a desktop layout later. Keep the presentation, the application logic and the data layer separable, so each can change without rewriting the others. Design for the fewest steps a user needs to finish a task, and test the application the way its users will use it before it ships. Each of these is cheaper to get right at the beginning than to retrofit after launch.
Enterprise portals, e-commerce platforms, REST APIs and microservices with a long service life.
Component-based front ends and single-page applications for web products and internal tools.
TypeScript single-page applications where the codebase is large and the team is too.
Cross-platform web applications, content systems and APIs on the open-source .NET platform.
Event-driven backends, REST APIs, real-time features and content systems in server-side JavaScript.
Cloud migration, infrastructure setup, DevOps automation, security and cost optimisation on AWS.
Custom database design, migrations and upgrades, and performance tuning on PostgreSQL.
The capability these pages belong to: how we build custom software, and when we do not.
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Our own CRM rebuild in October 2026: 21 shared picklists, 3 modules, 88 fields, 7 layouts, 23 workflow rules and 16 actions, built through code in 22 verified runs, every step read back.
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