# Full text: Magora: software development company, London and UK > The full text of Magora's key pages, generated from the live site on 2026-10-18. Index: https://magora-systems.com/llms.txt # Bespoke Software Development UK | Custom Software Company London | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/bespoke-software-development-uk/ London office · Shoreditch Services / 01 — Bespoke software development ## Bespoke software development for UK businesses Magora is a London bespoke software development company. Since 2010 we have built custom software around how UK businesses actually work: senior in-house engineers, a free working prototype before you commit, and code and IP that belong to you. Updated October 2, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Veolia 322 Mobile app projects 159 Web applications delivered 316 75 Enterprise software solutions ## What is bespoke software development? Bespoke software development is designing and building software for one organisation's own processes, data and users, instead of adapting a product built for everyone. You own the result: the code, the roadmap and the data model. When it pays off ### Your process is the advantage Pricing logic, scheduling, compliance checks or workflows that off-the-shelf tools force you to bend. Bespoke software turns that know-how into a system your team uses every day. When it pays off ### Spreadsheets have hit their limit Several tools stitched together with exports, copy-paste and manual checks. One system with one source of truth removes the rework and the errors that come with it. When it pays off ### Licences cost more than ownership Per-seat SaaS fees that grow with every hire, or features you pay for and never use. A system you own has running costs you control. What we build ## Custom software development for the way you work. Custom business software for UK companies that need it to fit the business, not the other way round. Built for scale, audit and a long life. 01 — Platforms ### Business platforms & portals Customer portals, partner and supplier platforms, booking and ordering systems, with roles, permissions and an admin area your team runs itself. See customer portal development. 02 — Internal ### Internal & operations tools Workflow apps, dashboards and back-office systems that replace spreadsheets and manual hand-offs between teams. 03 — Data ### CRM & customer databases A single customer record shaped around your sales and service process. See customer database software. 04 — Finance ### Finance & accounting systems Billing, reconciliation, reporting and integrations with your accounting package. See bespoke accounting software. 05 — Integrations ### Integrations & APIs Connecting CRM, ERP, payments and third-party data so information moves without re-keying. See API integration services. 06 — Modernise ### Legacy modernisation & AI Rebuilding ageing systems in stages without stopping the business, and adding AI features where they remove real work. See AI agent development. Bespoke vs off-the-shelf ## Build or buy? An honest comparison. Off-the-shelf software is often the right answer. Bespoke makes sense when the way you work is what sets you apart, or when the workarounds cost more than building it properly. | | Bespoke software | Off-the-shelf software | |---|---|---| | Fit | Built around your process, data and users | You adapt your process to the product | | Upfront cost | Higher: a first release typically from £10,000 | Low: subscription from day one | | Running cost | Hosting plus optional support you control | Per-seat licences that grow with the team | | Time to start | A working prototype in 5–10 days, a first release in weeks | Immediate | | Ownership | You own the code, IP and data model | The vendor owns the product and its roadmap | | Integrations | Built for your exact systems | Limited to the connectors on offer | | Best for | Core processes that set you apart | Standard needs: email, payroll, generic CRM | Many clients end up with both: off-the-shelf for the standard parts of the business, a bespoke system for the part that makes them different, and integrations between the two. What it costs ## Bespoke software prices in the UK (2026). Published prices, so you can budget before you call. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Every engagement starts with a free working prototype. £0 A clickable, coded prototype of your core idea in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. from £3,000 Two weeks with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: scope, architecture, a fixed estimate and a roadmap. First release / MVP from £10,000 Most first releases land between £10,000 and £25,000: one or two core workflows in production. £25,000–£60,000 Several roles, an admin area, reporting and integrations with the systems you already run. from £80,000 Multi-role, audit-logged, integration-heavy platforms for regulated sectors. Run & grow from £1,000 /mo Hosting and monitoring, SLAs, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. Want real numbers? We published what 12 of our 2026 project estimates actually cost in Software development cost in the UK (2026), or try the cost calculator for a first rough figure. ## How we build bespoke software. Same senior engineers from kickoff to handover, weekly demos, and a checkpoint at every stage so the budget never surprises you. Step 01 ### Working prototype 5–10 working days · free Send us your brief and we build a clickable, coded prototype of the core workflow, with a senior Product Owner's written analysis. No commitment. Brief Prototype Written analysis Step 02 ### Discovery 2 weeks · from £3,000 We map your process, users and data, agree the scope line by line and hand over an architecture, a fixed estimate and a delivery plan you can take to your board. User roles Feature list Fixed estimate Step 03 ### Design 1–3 weeks Screens and user journeys for each role, tested with the people who will use the system before production code is written. Figma User journeys Usability Step 04 ### Build Working software every sprint, a demo every week and a shared board, so you see progress and can change priorities as you learn. 2-week sprints Weekly demo CI/CD Step 05 ### Testing Every sprint, plus UAT QA engineers test each sprint, run regression before every release and support your team through user acceptance testing on real data. Regression Automated tests UAT Step 06 ### Launch & support Deployment to your cloud account, monitoring and backups, then a support retainer or a clean handover to your own team, whichever suits you. Your cloud Monitoring Handover ## Technologies we build with. Mainstream, well-supported technology, so any competent team can maintain the system after us. We are happy to work inside the stack you already run. Web front end - React · Next.js - Vue.js - TypeScript - Accessible UI - Node.js · NestJS - PHP · Laravel - Python · FastAPI - REST · GraphQL - React Native - Flutter - Swift - Kotlin - PostgreSQL - MySQL - MongoDB - Redis - AWS - Azure - Google Cloud - Docker · CI/CD - Salesforce · HubSpot - Stripe - Xero · QuickBooks - Microsoft 365 - OpenAI · Anthropic - RAG pipelines - AI agents - Vector databases - ISO 27001 practices - SSO · OAuth - Audit logging - UK/EU data residency ## Bespoke software we've built and shipped. Four custom systems we designed and built for organisations including Grant Thornton and AstraZeneca. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used; the full case study is one click away. Professional services · 2023 ### Grant Thornton **Problem** EMI scheme documents were produced by hand: slow, with no automation and no easy way to manage complex cases. **Built** A self-service platform that generates tailored EMI documentation from client-supplied information, with workflow, case management and notifications. **Outcome** Clients and the firm handle complex cases through one guided, automated process, from document creation to closeout. Read the case study → Healthcare · Reporting · 2023 ### AstraZeneca **Problem** Financial-report dashboards lacked customisation options and displayed data in ways that made it hard to interpret. **Built** Configurable widgets for financial statements, automated chart generation, dynamic report customisation, live chat support and real-time updates. **Outcome** A user-friendly platform for in-depth financial analysis, with top managers getting the latest data promptly. Read the case study → Pharma · Field sales · 2018 ### Pharm Card (EGIS) **Problem** Each medical rep filled in hundreds of Excel files on pharmacy visits, and management had no live view of sales and contract performance. **Built** A native iOS app for iPad and a web application for senior staff, with GPS pharmacy lookup and an offline mode that syncs automatically. **Outcome** In daily use by the client's staff, and we continue to add features as the company's needs change. Read the case study → Media · Operations · 2023 ### Casual Films **Problem** Producers and financiers switched between separate tools to run video projects, track expenses and revenue, and work with freelancers worldwide. **Built** A platform built from the ground up: freelancer accounts and invoicing, availability requests, rate cards, project management and a redesigned interface. **Outcome** External services consolidated in one place, with a clear view of project progress and less switching between tools and manual error. Read the case study → Also: UFurniture Logistics (delivery and assembly platform), Rollio (enterprise data in plain language), Retrofit Navigator (ECO4 and Warm Homes: Local Grant eligibility). All projects → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Bespoke software by sector. Regulation, data and workflows differ by sector. These are the ones we build for most often. ### Healthcare software Clinical systems and patient platforms with DTAC and DCB0129 evidence built in. Learn more → Finance ### FinTech Open banking, payments and FCA-aware integrations. Learn more → Property ### Property & real estate Portals, listings and management systems for agents and landlords. Learn more → Logistics ### Transport & logistics Dispatch, tracking and driver tools that fit your operation. Learn more → Education ### Education Learning platforms and administration systems for schools and providers. Learn more → Hospitality ### Hospitality Booking, ordering and guest systems. Learn more → ## A London software house you can hold to account. More about how we work on our London software house page. ### Senior, in-house, UK-based The same senior engineers from kickoff to handover. No offshore rotation and no hand-offs you did not agree to. ### Your code, your IP An NDA on day one and full transfer of source code, designs and IP on payment. The repository is yours from the first commit. ### 75+ verified Clutch reviews, ISO certified In business since 2010, ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified, with verified client reviews on Clutch. ## The honest questions. Choosing between suppliers? These are the twelve questions worth asking before you sign with anyone, including us. **What is bespoke software development?** Bespoke software development is designing and building software for one organisation's own processes, data and users, rather than adapting a product made for everyone. The organisation owns the result, including the code, the data model and the roadmap. **How much does bespoke software cost in the UK?** At Magora a first release starts from £10,000, and most land between £10,000 and £25,000. A full system with several roles and integrations costs £25,000–£60,000, and enterprise platforms from £80,000. Discovery starts from £3,000 and every engagement begins with a free working prototype. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. **How long does it take to build bespoke software?** A working prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery two weeks. A first release typically takes 6–8 weeks with two or three developers; larger systems are delivered in phases over several months. **Is bespoke software better than off-the-shelf?** Not always. Off-the-shelf software is the right choice for standard needs such as email, payroll or a generic CRM. Bespoke pays off when your process is what sets you apart, when workarounds and licences cost more than building, or when you need integrations no product offers. **Can I get a fixed price?** Yes, after Discovery. Discovery turns your brief into a feature list priced line by line, which is what makes a fixed price safe for both sides. If you prefer flexibility, we also work on a time and materials basis or as a dedicated team. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one and transfer ownership of the source code, designs and IP to you on payment. The repository is yours from the first commit. **Can you work with our existing systems?** Yes. Most bespoke projects connect to something already in place: a CRM, an accounting package, an ERP or a legacy database. We integrate through APIs where they exist and build careful data migrations where they do not. **Do you provide support after launch?** Yes. Support and continued development typically costs from £1,000 a month and covers security updates, framework upgrades and new features. Some clients bring the system in-house once their own team is ready, and we hand over cleanly. **Why choose Magora as your bespoke software development company?** Magora is a London software house founded in 2010. Senior in-house engineers stay with your project from kickoff to handover, prices are published, every engagement starts with a free working prototype, and we are ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified, with 75+ verified reviews on Clutch. About the reviewer Consulting Director, Magora Nick is Consulting Director at Magora and runs first calls and Discovery with new clients. He reviews the advice and recommendations on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ### Laravel development company Laravel web platforms, SaaS, APIs and admin panels, from prototype to support. Learn more → ## Custom software on the brief? Send us your brief: a free working prototype of your core idea in 5–10 days, or a 30-minute call with a senior architect who tells you what the build really takes. --- # Software Development Company UK & London Software House | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/software-house-uk/ London office · Pacific room Software development company — London, UK ## A London software house, since 2010. A UK software development company and London software house: custom web platforms, mobile apps and AI products, scoped, designed, built and supported by one senior team from our Shoreditch office. Free working prototype in 5–10 days, MVP from £10,000. Updated October 2, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years as a software house, since 2010 250+ 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch 500+ Clients since 2010 ## What a software development company does for you. A software development company, or software house, designs, builds, tests and supports software for other businesses: web platforms, mobile apps, internal systems and the integrations between them. Magora has done this from London since 2010, with designers, engineers, QA and product owners in one in-house team. ### Free working prototype A clickable, coded prototype of your core idea in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. ### First release in 6–8 weeks After a two-week Discovery from £3,000, a first release typically takes 6–8 weeks. Most MVPs land between £10,000 and £25,000. ### Your code, your IP NDA from day one, code in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transferred to you on payment. What we build ## One software house, the whole product. A software house designs, builds and looks after software for other businesses — the whole product, not a slice of it. Magora is a UK software house with its own senior designers, engineers, QA and delivery leads in London, so strategy, design, code and support sit with one team that answers for the result. 01 — Bespoke software ### Custom business software Internal platforms, portals and workflow tools built around how your business actually runs. See bespoke software development. 02 — Mobile ### iOS and Android apps Native and cross-platform apps, published to the App Store and Google Play under your own accounts. See mobile app development. 03 — Web ### Web platforms and portals Customer portals, marketplaces and admin systems in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. See web development. 04 — Products ### MVPs and SaaS From a first release that proves the idea to a multi-tenant platform with billing. See MVP development and SaaS development. 05 — AI ### AI features and agents Assistants, document extraction, search over your own data and agents that act inside your systems. See AI and ML development and AI agents. 06 — Teams ### A dedicated team Senior engineers who join your roadmap and rituals, scaled month by month. See dedicated development teams. 07 — Integrations ### APIs and connected systems Payment, accounting, CRM and data integrations that make your systems talk to each other. See API integration services, customer database software and accounting software. 08 — Takeover ### Existing and legacy software We take over products built by another supplier, stabilise them and keep them moving, or modernise older systems step by step. See legacy system modernisation. Why a software house ## Why teams choose Magora. The same senior people from the first workshop to launch and beyond. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation. ### One team in London Designers, engineers and QA work together from our office in the Tea Building, Shoreditch — you meet the people who write the code, not an account manager. ### A plan before a quote A short discovery phase turns the idea into a costed scope, architecture and roadmap — so the price you agree is based on the product, not a guess. ### You own everything An NDA on day one, code in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transferred to you on payment. ## Software house, freelancer or offshore agency? Each has its place. The difference is who carries the product: one person, a remote delivery team, or a senior team that designs, builds, tests and supports it from one office. Market rates are from our UK software development pricing guide. | | London software house | Freelancer | Offshore agency | |---|---|---|---| | Who does the work | One senior in-house team: design, engineering, QA and product ownership | One person, or a team you assemble | A delivery team managed through a sales or account contact | | Working hours | UK hours, in-person workshops possible | Depends on the individual | Often a different time zone | | QA and product ownership | Included in the team | Usually yours to arrange | Varies by supplier | | Continuity | The same team builds and supports the product | Tied to one person's availability | Team members can rotate | | Typical hourly rate (UK market) | £45–£90 for London houses; Magora from £49 per developer | £15–£30 for offshore freelancers | £25–£50 for offshore agencies with a UK sales front | | Best for | Products the business depends on | Small, well-defined tasks | Large, well-specified work packages | Not sure which fits? The free working prototype is a low-risk way to see how we work before you commit a budget. Engagement & pricing ## How we work, and what it costs. Our 2026 prices in GBP. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Final price depends on scope, integrations and compliance: see what 12 real 2026 project estimates actually cost, our UK software development pricing or the cost calculator. from £3,000 Two weeks with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: scope, architecture, estimate and roadmap. from £10,000 A production-grade first release, typically 6–8 weeks, with the workflow your first users need. Most land between £10,000 and £25,000. £25,000–£60,000 A complete web and mobile product with admin tools and integrations. from £80,000 Multi-role, audit-logged, integration-heavy platforms for regulated sectors. from £49 /hour Per developer; £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Joins your roadmap and scales month by month. Run & grow from £1,000 /mo Hosting and monitoring, SLAs, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. ## Five steps from idea to live software. Weekly demos on a staging environment you can log in to, so progress is something you use rather than something you are told about. Step 01 ### Discovery 2 weeks Goals, users, integrations and compliance scope, turned into a costed roadmap you can take to your board, investors — or another supplier. ScopeEstimateNDA day one Step 02 ### Architecture & UX Data model, security, hosting and the key screens decided up front, tested with real users before the build starts. Step 03 ### Build in sprints 6–8 weeks Two-week sprints with a working release at the end of each, automated tests and a delivery lead you can call. Step 04 ### Launch Production hosting, monitoring, backups and analytics in place before launch; apps published to the stores under your own developer accounts. Step 05 ### Support & grow Maintenance, security updates and new features on a retainer, with the same team that built the product. ## The stack we work in. Mainstream, well-supported technology, chosen so another team could take the code over if you ever needed them to. - React / Next.js - Vue.js - TypeScript - Swift / SwiftUI - Kotlin - React Native / Flutter - PHP / Laravel - Node.js - Python - PostgreSQL / MySQL - Redis - UK / EU data residency - OpenAI, Anthropic, Google models - Retrieval (RAG) - Agents - AWS, Azure, Google Cloud - Docker & Kubernetes - CI/CD & monitoring ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Software we've shipped. Six from the wider portfolio — more in our work. Professional services · Platform ### Grant Thornton A self-service platform that automates EMI scheme documentation from creation to close-out. See case study → Pharma · Reporting ### AstraZeneca Financial reporting with customised dashboards, automated charts and real-time updates. See case study → Media · Web app ### Casual Films Custom production software for expense tracking, revenue oversight and work with freelancers worldwide. See case study → Insurance · Mobile ### Dayinsure A temporary car insurance app built with one of the UK's leading providers of short-term cover. See case study → Energy · Web platform ### Retrofit Navigator Checks UK households against ECO4 and Warm Homes grant rules, then runs the application from the same screen. See case study → AI · SaaS ### Empath AI A vocal-biomarker SaaS platform that detects caller vulnerability in real time for call centres. See case study → ## Software for your sector. The same team, with domain knowledge where it matters: regulated data, integrations and the rules your sector runs on. ### Healthcare Software for healthcare → Sector ### Fintech Software for fintech → Sector ### Property and real estate Software for property and real estate → Sector ### Transport and logistics Software for transport and logistics → Sector ### Education Software for education → Sector ### Construction Software for construction → Sector ### Hospitality Software for hospitality → Sector ### Retail and e-commerce Software for retail and e-commerce → ## How to choose a software house in the UK. Eight things to check before you sign with any software development company, us included. For the long version, read how to choose a software development company in London. 01 ### Real, checkable work Case studies with named clients, and past clients you can speak to. 02 ### Who writes the code Ask whether the team is in-house or subcontracted, and who you will actually work with. 03 ### A prototype or Discovery first A short paid or free first step that shows how they think before you commit a budget. 04 ### Transparent pricing Published rates or ranges, and a quote broken down feature by feature. 05 ### Your code and IP Code in your repository from day one, and full IP transfer written into the contract. 06 ### QA and product ownership included Testing and a product owner in the team, not extras on a later invoice. 07 ### Support after launch A clear retainer for hosting, security updates and new features. 08 ### Security and compliance Experience with GDPR, and with sector rules such as NHS DSPT or FCA requirements if they apply to you. ## Software house questions. **What is a software house?** A software house is a company that designs, builds and maintains software for other businesses. Unlike a freelancer or a marketing-led digital agency, a software house covers the whole lifecycle with its own team: discovery, UX and UI design, engineering, testing, launch and ongoing support. **What does a software development company in the UK do?** It turns a business need into working software: it scopes the product, designs it, builds the web, mobile or backend parts, tests them, launches them and supports them afterwards. Magora does all of this with one senior in-house team in London. **Where is Magora's London software house based?** Our office is at the Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ. Directions and contact details are on our contacts page. **Do you work with clients outside London?** Yes. We work with clients across the UK and abroad. Workshops can be held in our London office or at yours, and day-to-day collaboration runs on video calls, a shared backlog and weekly demos — so a software house "near me" matters less than one that keeps you in the loop. **How much does a software house charge in the UK?** At Magora a two-week discovery is from £3,000, an MVP from £10,000 (most land between £10,000 and £25,000), a full product £25,000–£60,000 and enterprise platforms from £80,000 (2026 prices, GBP). Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Support after launch is typically from £1,000 a month. See what 12 real 2026 projects cost. **How long does it take to build software with a software house?** A free working prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery two weeks. A first release typically takes 6–8 weeks after that; larger systems are delivered in phases. **Can you take over software another company built?** Yes. We review the code and infrastructure first, fix what is risky, then take over support and new features. See legacy system modernisation. **How do I choose a software house in the UK?** Look for a team that shows real case studies, lets you speak to past clients, puts the code in your repository from day one and is open about who does the work. Our guides how to choose a software development company in London and best software development companies in the UK go through the questions to ask. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the code lives in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. About the reviewer Director of Operations & Business Development, Magora Alex leads operations and business development at Magora. He reviews the prices, terms and commercial commitments published on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Looking for a software house? 30-minute call with a senior Solution Architect. Tell us what you need built — we'll tell you what the first version should be, and what it should cost. --- # App Development Company London | Mobile App Developers UK | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/mobile-application-developers-london/ London office · Shoreditch Services / 02 — Mobile app development ## Mobile app development company, London. Magora is a London app development company. Our senior app developers build native iOS, Android and cross-platform apps for UK startups and businesses, starting with a free working prototype and ending with code you own from the first commit. Updated October 2, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Veolia 322 Mobile app development projects 159 Web applications delivered 316 75 Enterprise software solutions ## What a London app development company does. An app development company designs, builds, tests and publishes mobile apps for iOS and Android, and usually the backend, admin area and integrations behind them. Magora has done this from London since 2010: one senior team takes your app from idea to the App Store and Google Play, and stays on for support. ### Free working prototype A clickable, coded prototype of your core idea in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. You see the app before you commit a budget. ### First release in 6–8 weeks After a two-week Discovery, a first release with one or two core journeys typically takes 6–8 weeks. Most MVPs land between £10,000 and £25,000. ### Your code, your IP Source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. Senior UK engineers, NDA from day one, no offshore rotation. What we offer ## Mobile app development services. Bespoke mobile app development is our top-priority service. We craft native apps for iOS and Android, with deep expertise in Swift and Kotlin, and go cross-platform when shared code pays its rent. 01 — iOS ### iOS app development SwiftUI, UIKit, Combine, Core Data, Apple Pay, CallKit. iPhone and iPad apps built for the latest device generation, supporting back to iOS 15. Hire Swift developers. 02 — Android ### Android app development Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, Hilt, Room, Retrofit, ML Kit, biometrics. From entry-level handsets to foldables. Hire Kotlin developers. 03 — Cross-platform ### Cross-platform development React Native and Flutter when a shared codebase pays its rent, with native modules where it actually matters. React Native · Flutter. 04 — Tablets ### Applications for tablets Responsive layouts that breathe on iPad and large Android tablets: split views, drag-and-drop, keyboard shortcuts. 05 — Backend & integration ### Backend and API integration Payments, identity, mapping, CRM and custom backends, plus the admin area your team runs the app from. See API integration services. 06 — Support ### Maintenance & support OS upgrades, security patches, store-policy compliance and feature work that keep the app alive after launch. We also take over apps built by other teams. How we build mobile apps ## Three pillars, one shipped product. Same engineers from kickoff to handover. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation, no body shop. Pillar 01 ### Discovery Magora business analysts formalise the key demands, choose the appropriate platform and priority devices, and structure your future mobile app's requirements. Pillar 02 ### UI / UX design Leading app designers visualise the user journey. Intuitive functionality wrapped in user-friendly interfaces — the kind that drive both downloads and retention. Pillar 03 ### Development A decade of native iOS and Android experience. Short sprints, transparent process, highly-functional apps shipped reliably to App Store and Play Store. Native vs cross-platform ## Native or cross-platform? An honest comparison. Both are good answers. The right one depends on what the app has to do on the device, how fast you need to reach both stores and who will maintain it. | | Native (Swift, Kotlin) | Cross-platform (React Native, Flutter) | |---|---|---| | Codebases | Two, one per platform | One shared codebase, native modules where needed | | Cost for iOS + Android | Higher: two apps to build and maintain | Lower: most features are written once | | Device features | Full, immediate access to new OS features | Most features; some need a native module | | Performance | Best for graphics, audio, AR and heavy offline work | More than enough for most business and consumer apps | | Best for | Hardware-led, real-time or platform-specific apps | MVPs and products that must launch on both stores quickly | Not sure? The free working prototype is where we make the call with you, using your real features rather than a generic checklist. What it costs ## App development cost in the UK (2026). Published prices, so you can budget before you call. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Every engagement starts with a free working prototype. £0 A clickable, coded prototype of your core idea in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. from £3,000 Two weeks with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: scope, architecture, a fixed estimate and a roadmap. £10,000–£25,000 One or two core journeys, production hosting, authentication and analytics. Typically 6–8 weeks. £25,000–£60,000 iOS and Android, backend and admin area, several user roles and integrations. Enterprise or regulated from £80,000 FinTech, health and logistics apps with compliance evidence and complex integrations. Run & grow from £1,000 /mo OS updates, store compliance, monitoring, SLAs and a steady roadmap of new features. The full breakdown is in our app development cost guide, and the app cost calculator gives a first rough figure for your feature list. For what 12 real 2026 projects cost, see Software development cost in the UK (2026). Apple and Google's own store fees are explained in Apple developer fee. ## Six steps to ship an amazing mobile app. From a fuzzy idea to a store-live product, with a checkpoint at every stage and a weekly demo throughout. Step 01 ### Free working prototype 5 – 10 days Send your brief and we build a clickable, coded prototype of the core idea, with a written analysis from a senior Product Owner. No commitment. Prototype Written analysis No commitment Step 02 ### Discovery 2 weeks User roles, user stories and priorities with your stakeholders; platform choice (native or cross-platform); architecture and a fixed estimate you can defend to a board. User stories Architecture Fixed estimate Step 03 ### Design 1 – 2 weeks UI designs for visual appeal and UX prototypes for real user insight, tested with users before we write production code. Figma Prototype Usability Step 04 ### Build and test 6 – 8 weeks for a first release Two-week sprints, a weekly demo and a shared board. QA engineers test every sprint, with automated coverage and manual exploratory passes. 2-wk sprints XCUITest · Espresso · Detox CI/CD Step 05 ### Store launch about 1 week App Store and Google Play submission, review responses, staged roll-out and monitoring from the first install. Fastlane Play Console App Store Connect Step 06 ### Support and growth OS and framework upgrades, security patches, store-policy changes and new features, on a part-time SLA or as your team grows its own. SLA Analytics Roadmap ## Technologies we work on. The actual stack on most mobile engagements. We'll happily slot into yours if you already have one. - Swift · SwiftUI - UIKit · Combine - Core Data · GRDB - Apple Pay · Wallet - Kotlin - Jetpack Compose - Hilt · Room · Retrofit - ML Kit · Biometrics - React Native - Flutter - Expo - Native modules - Node.js · NestJS - Python · FastAPI - PHP · Laravel - GraphQL · REST - WebSockets - Firebase - Pusher · Ably - Server-sent events - PostgreSQL - MongoDB - Redis - SQLite · Realm - Apple Pay · Google Pay - Stripe · Adyen - PayPal · Braintree - 3-D Secure AI / ML - OpenAI · Anthropic - Core ML - ML Kit · TFLite - Vector DBs ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Partnering with Magora for the development of the messenger was a decision we will never regret.” Chief Business Officer, Easy Report Chatbot & mobile · BI software · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They came through as more of a tech partner rather than just developers for hire.” Researcher & Designer, AlphaRCA Studio iOS & Android app · Education · 2019 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management Who we work with ## Three kinds of partner. We've teamed up with 500+ businesses — fresh-faced startups, established mid-market and global enterprise. ### Startups & MVPs Production-grade MVP in a calendar quarter — see our Startup MVP service. ### Small & medium business Internal tools, customer apps and digital transformation work — the kind that pays for itself within a year. ### Enterprise Compliance-heavy platforms, MDM-managed fleets, audit-ready architecture. SOC 2, GDPR, MHRA passed first time, every time. ## Mobile apps we've shipped. Six from the wider portfolio, across insurance, retail, enterprise and consumer apps. All case studies. Insurance · Mobile ### Dayinsure The app behind Dayinsure, one of the UK's leading providers of short-term car insurance: the easiest way to get temporary cover. See case study → FMCG · iOS+Android ### Danone Product quality control in retail: staff report defects, storage conditions and product placement issues from the shop floor. See case study → Enterprise · Android ### Unilever: Cabinets An Android app integrated with Unilever's CRM that lets personnel manage leased equipment in the field. See case study → Smart buildings · iOS+Android ### Organic Response A web portal plus iOS and Android apps where software and lighting hardware work as one. See case study → Parenting · Connected device ### Sweet Dreamers A mobile app that remotely controls "Misty", a digital nanny device, to keep the right conditions for newborn babies. See case study → Education · iOS+Android ### Symbolab An advanced calculator and semantic search engine for maths symbols, on iOS and Android. See case study → ## App development by industry. Every sector has its own regulation, integrations and user habits. These pages cover what we build for each one. ### Healthcare apps Patient apps, clinician tools and remote monitoring with FHIR and NHS integration. ### FinTech apps Open Banking, payments and FCA-aware onboarding. ### Property apps Listings, tenant and landlord apps, property management. ### Logistics apps Driver, fleet and delivery apps with live tracking. ### Hospitality apps Booking, ordering and loyalty for venues and hotels. ### Education apps Learning platforms, course apps and school tools. ### Construction apps Field reporting, site safety and project tracking. ### Retail and e-commerce apps Shopping, POS and loyalty apps. ## The honest questions. Still comparing agencies? Here are the twelve questions worth asking before you pick one. **Why choose Magora for hiring mobile app developers?** Magora is a London-based custom software house in business since 2010. We field senior mobile app developers who own the work from the first commit, ship in tight feedback loops with weekly demos and hand over code your team can maintain — no offshore rotation, no juniors in disguise. **How much does it cost to build an app in the UK?** A Startup MVP with one or two core journeys typically costs £10,000–£25,000, a production iOS and Android app with a backend and admin area £25,000–£60,000, and enterprise or regulated apps start from £80,000. Discovery is from £3,000 and every engagement starts with a free working prototype. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. **How long does it take to build a mobile app?** After a two-week Discovery, a first release with one or two core journeys typically takes 6–8 weeks. A larger production app usually takes 3–6 months, delivered in releases rather than one launch. **Should my app be native or cross-platform?** Cross-platform (React Native or Flutter) suits most MVPs and business apps that need both stores quickly from one codebase. Native (Swift and Kotlin) is the better choice for hardware-led, real-time, graphics- or audio-heavy apps. We make the call with you during the free prototype, based on your actual features. **Do you build for both iOS and Android?** Yes. We build native iOS apps in Swift, native Android apps in Kotlin, and cross-platform apps in React Native or Flutter, together with the backend, admin area and integrations behind them. **Will you publish the app to the App Store and Google Play?** Yes. We handle submission, review responses and the staged roll-out. The apps are published under your own Apple and Google developer accounts, so you own the listings. **Can you take over an app another team built?** Yes. We start with a review of the code, architecture and release pipeline, tell you plainly what is worth keeping, and then take over maintenance and new features. **Do you provide support after launch?** Yes. We stay on as the maintenance team — security patches, OS / framework upgrades, third-party deprecations, on-going feature work. Most clients keep us on a part-time SLA after launch; some bring the code in-house once their team is ready. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. Magora's IP terms transfer ownership of bespoke work to the client on payment — the repository is licensed to you from the first commit, full stop. We use OSS dependencies but contribute back rather than baking proprietary forks into your codebase. About the reviewer Chief Product Officer, Magora Alexander leads product at Magora. He reviews the scope, product approach and user experience advice on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Got a mobile idea on the table? 30-minute call with a senior mobile architect. We'll review the platform call (native vs cross-platform), scope and constraints — and tell you what we'd actually build if it were us. --- # Web Development Agency London | React & Laravel | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/web-development-agency-london/ London office · Shoreditch Services / 03 — Web development ## Web development agency in London Magora is a web development agency in London. We build fast, accessible, search-friendly web platforms — Next.js, Laravel, Node, Vue — with hand-tuned performance and design that earns its conversion. **Typical timeline** 8 – 16 weeks **Engagement** Fixed-scope or T&M **Team** 3 – 6 senior people **Outcome** Production site live, code in your repo Updated July 18, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Veolia 159 Web applications delivered 316 322 Mobile app projects 75 Enterprise software solutions What we offer ## Web application development services. Fast, accessible, search-friendly web platforms. Next.js, Laravel, Vue, Node — modern stacks, hand-tuned performance, design that earns its conversion. 01 — Marketing ### Marketing sites Headless CMS, fast Core Web Vitals, A/B-test ready — sites that convert and still load in 2 seconds on 3G. 02 — SaaS ### SaaS platforms Multi-tenant architecture, RBAC, billing, design-system fluent — production from day one, not week ten. 03 — E-commerce ### E-commerce Shopify, BigCommerce or bespoke checkout — peak-traffic safe, ERP-integrated, conversion-tuned. 04 — Portals ### Customer portals Account self-serve, support tickets, document vaults — the unglamorous work that reduces support tickets by half. 05 — APIs ### API & integrations Backend services, GraphQL gateways, third-party plumbing — the middle layer that nobody sees and everyone depends on. 06 — Modernise ### Modernisations Legacy Rails / PHP / Java rewrites without rewriting from scratch — strangler-fig migrations that ship every sprint. How we build mobile apps ## How we build shipped web platforms. Same engineers from kickoff to handover. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation, no body shop. Pillar 01 ### Discovery Magora business analysts formalise the key demands, choose the appropriate platform and priority devices, and structure your future mobile app's requirements. Pillar 02 ### UI / UX design Leading app designers visualise the user journey. Intuitive functionality wrapped in user-friendly interfaces — the kind that drive both downloads and retention. Pillar 03 ### Development A decade of native iOS and Android experience. Short sprints, transparent process, highly-functional apps shipped reliably to App Store and Play Store. ## Six steps to ship a web platform. From a fuzzy idea to a store-live product, with a checkpoint at every stage. Step 01 ### User research 1 – 2 weeks Strategic processes that define user roles, set expectations and run up to 10 impactful interviews — swiftly transforming insights into a roadmap. Interviews Personas Roadmap Step 02 ### Product scope 1 week Compelling user stories crafted with stakeholders. Our Product Owner navigates the path to success — clarity, collaboration, adaptability. User stories Priorities Timeline Step 03 ### Design 2 – 3 weeks Robust UI designs for visual appeal and efficient UX prototypes for real user insights. Tested with real users before we write production code. Figma Prototype Usability Step 04 ### Development 6 – 14 weeks Agile development as a dynamic, customer-driven journey. Iterative approach, collaborative mindset, weekly Friday demo, shared Linear board. 2-wk sprints CI/CD Feature flags Step 05 ### QA 2 weeks Rigorous testing in staging — automated test coverage, manual exploratory passes, load testing. QA engineers act as continuous guardians. XCUITest Espresso Detox Step 06 ### Deployment 1 week Planning, version control, testing, cutting-edge strategies like canary releases. Swift, trouble-free installations with continuous monitoring. Fastlane Play Console App Store Connect ## Technologies we work on. The actual stack on most mobile engagements. We'll happily slot into yours if you already have one. - Swift · SwiftUI - UIKit · Combine - Core Data · GRDB - Apple Pay · Wallet - Kotlin - Jetpack Compose - Hilt · Room · Retrofit - ML Kit · Biometrics - React Native - Flutter - Expo - Native modules - Node.js · NestJS - Python · FastAPI - PHP · Laravel - GraphQL · REST - WebSockets - Firebase - Pusher · Ably - Server-sent events - PostgreSQL - MongoDB - Redis - SQLite · Realm - Apple Pay · Google Pay - Stripe · Adyen - PayPal · Braintree - 3-D Secure AI / ML - OpenAI · Anthropic - Core ML - ML Kit · TFLite - Vector DBs ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management Who we work with ## Three kinds of partner. We've teamed up with 500+ businesses — fresh-faced startups, established mid-market and global enterprise. ### Startups & MVPs Production-grade MVP in a calendar quarter — see our Startup MVP service. ### Small & medium business Internal tools, customer apps and digital transformation work — the kind that pays for itself within a year. ### Enterprise Compliance-heavy platforms, MDM-managed fleets, audit-ready architecture. SOC 2, GDPR, MHRA passed first time, every time. ## Web platforms we've shipped. Four from the wider portfolio — the apps that ended up in the hands of millions of end users. E-commerce · Web ### Awnings Bespoke e-commerce portal — full-stack web build with Magora. See case study → Enterprise · Web ### Rollio Multi-tenant web platform for enterprise data automation. See case study → Media · Web ### Casual Films Brand + catalogue web platform for Casual Films. See case study → Property · Portal ### Property Finder Self-serve real-estate portal — listings, valuation, CRM. See case study → ## The honest questions. **Why choose Magora for hiring web developers?** Magora is a London-based custom software house in business since 2010. We field senior web developers who own the work from the first commit, ship in tight feedback loops with weekly demos and hand over code your team can maintain — no offshore rotation, no juniors in disguise. **How long does it take to build a web platform?** It depends on scope, but our typical engagement runs 8–24 weeks from kickoff to production. A discovery sprint at the start (2–4 weeks) gives a fixed timeline you can actually defend to a board, instead of a ten-page Gantt that slips by week three. **What does a web platform cost?** There's no fixed price — it depends on scope, so we start every engagement with a free working prototype and written analysis from a senior Product Owner, no commitment. Our 2026 pricing (GBP): Product Discovery from £3,000, a Startup MVP from £10,000, and a full production web or mobile project at £25,000–£60,000. AI, bespoke enterprise software and CRM platforms are scoped after Discovery. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership, and we transfer full ownership of source code, designs and IP to you on payment. **Do you provide support after launch?** Yes. We stay on as the maintenance team — security patches, OS / framework upgrades, third-party deprecations, on-going feature work. Most clients keep us on a part-time SLA after launch; some bring the code in-house once their team is ready. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. Magora's IP terms transfer ownership of bespoke work to the client on payment — the repository is licensed to you from the first commit, full stop. We use OSS dependencies but contribute back rather than baking proprietary forks into your codebase. About the reviewer Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer, Magora Artem leads an engineering team at Magora and reviews the technical content on this page: architecture, stack choices and delivery estimates. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## Web idea on the brief? 30-minute call with a senior software architect. We'll review your scope, architecture and constraints — and tell you what we'd actually build if it were us. --- # MVP Development Company UK | Startup MVP in 6–8 Weeks from £10k | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/mvp-development-company-uk/ London office · Whiteboard room Services — MVP development ## MVP development company, live in 6–8 weeks. Magora is a London MVP development company. We build production-grade MVPs for UK startups from £10,000 — code you keep and scale, not a throwaway demo. Updated October 13, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch ## MVP development in the UK, at a glance. An MVP (minimum viable product) is the smallest production-ready version of your product that real users can sign up to and pay for, built to answer one question: will people use it? Magora is a London MVP development company that builds MVPs for UK startups and product teams as web, mobile or SaaS products, designed, built, tested and launched by one in-house team. You own the code and the IP. ### From £10,000 A startup MVP starts from £10,000, and Product Discovery from £3,000 turns the scope into a fixed quote. See what 12 real projects cost or estimate yours in the calculator. ### First release in 6–8 weeks A free working prototype in 5–10 working days, a two-week Discovery sprint, then a first release in 6–8 weeks, measured from week one. ### From £49/hour Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. UK rates explained. Beyond the MVP ### One team, start to scale When the MVP works, the same team carries on: a SaaS platform, iOS and Android apps or a bespoke software build. What we offer ## MVP development services. Startup MVP development for founders who need to prove demand, win users or raise a round — mobile, web, SaaS and AI products, built by one senior London team from first prototype to launch. 01 — Mobile ### MVP app development iOS and Android MVPs in React Native or Flutter — one codebase, both stores, native modules where the product needs them. 02 — Web & SaaS ### MVP web and SaaS development Subscription web products with sign-up, billing, roles and an admin panel — the plumbing a SaaS MVP needs before its first paying customer. 03 — AI ### AI MVP development LLM features, retrieval over your own data and agent workflows, built with guardrails and cost limits from the first release. See AI and ML development. 04 — Scope ### MVP scoping & discovery A two-week discovery sprint turns an idea into a prioritised feature list, a costed architecture and a fixed-price quote you can take to investors. 05 — Prototype ### Free working prototype A clickable prototype of your core flow, built from your brief before any paid engagement. You keep it whether or not you go on to build with us. 06 — Grow ### Post-launch iteration Analytics on every key step, weekly releases after launch and a retainer when you need one — the MVP becomes version one of the product, not a demo to rebuild. How we build ## An MVP that proves one thing well. Same engineers from kickoff to launch. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation. Pillar 01 ### Cut to the thesis An MVP answers one question: will people use and pay for this? We argue feature by feature for the smallest release that answers it — founders almost always ask for more than the first version needs. Pillar 02 ### Production-grade, not throwaway Real authentication, a real database, CI/CD and hosting you own. The code that validates the idea is the code you scale, so a good result does not trigger a rewrite. Pillar 03 ### Measured from week one Event tracking on activation, retention and conversion ships with the first release. You see what users actually do, not what they say in interviews. Prototype, PoC or MVP? ## What a minimum viable product actually is. A minimum viable product is the smallest version of a product that real customers can use and pay for, built to test whether the market wants it. It is often confused with two cheaper things. ### Tests the idea A clickable model of the key screens. No backend, no real data. It answers “do people understand it and want it?” in days, and it is what we build for free before you commit. Proof of concept ### Tests the technology A narrow technical spike — can this model, integration or data source do what the product needs? Useful when the risk is technical rather than commercial. ### Tests the market The smallest real product that real users can sign up to, use and pay for. It runs in production, collects data and becomes version one of the product. MVP development cost ## What an MVP costs in the UK, 2026. Our published prices, in GBP. The final figure depends on user roles, integrations, platforms and compliance — discovery turns it into a fixed quote. £0 ### Free working prototype A clickable prototype of your core idea, built before any paid engagement. No commitment. from £3,000 ### Discovery sprint · 2 weeks Senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: scope, architecture, estimate and roadmap. from £10,000 ### Startup MVP · 6–8 weeks Production-grade MVP for UK startups. Most land between £10,000 and £25,000 — see our UK app cost guide or how much an MVP costs in 2026. £25,000–£60,000 ### Full production build When the first release needs to be a complete web, mobile or platform product rather than an MVP. from £1,000 ### Per month, after launch Maintenance retainer: support, SLAs and iterative development once the MVP is live. from £49 ### Per hour, dedicated developers Senior UK developers for teams that already have a product owner — UK rates explained. ## UK software and app development cost. Updated: 13 October 2026. Same figures on our app cost, software cost, UK pricing, MVP and fixed-price pages. | Project type | Typical time | Typical range | |---|---|---| | Free working prototype, with written analysis from a senior Product Owner | 5–10 working days | £0 | | Discovery sprint (scope, architecture, fixed-price quote) | 2 weeks | from £3,000 | | Proof of concept | 2–4 weeks | £2,000–£5,000 | | Startup MVP, one or two core journeys | 6–8 weeks | £10,000–£25,000 | | Production app or web platform, with backend and admin | 3–6 months | £25,000–£60,000 | | Regulated or integration-heavy product (fintech, health, logistics) | 5–8 months | £80,000–£120,000 | | AI proof of concept (scoped after Discovery) | 4–6 weeks | from £15,000 | | Maintenance retainer after launch | monthly | from £1,000 per month | Rates: from £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Each range is for the stage named in its row; the free prototype, Discovery and maintenance are priced separately from the build. ### How we calculate these ranges These are Magora’s published 2026 price bands, not quotes. We check them against our own data: the 12 project estimates we wrote for UK clients in 2026. In those estimates a first release of a new product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and took 6–8 weeks; Discovery cost £1,200–£3,600. The extended version of one app cost £39,758, and a single API integration £2,500–£3,000. Each estimate lists features in story points (about one developer-day each), adds project set-up, regression testing, user acceptance testing and deployment, then adds QA at 30% and product ownership at 20% of development time. Cost is that effort multiplied by our day rates, about £520–£570 per developer-day including QA and product ownership. The other rows are the bands in our UK software development pricing guide. Your own figure depends on platforms, integrations, regulation and design; a fixed price comes from Discovery. For a first number, use the app cost calculator. Fixed price or T&M ## Fixed price or time & materials? Short answer: Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials (T&M) when the product will keep changing or the work will run for months. At Magora a fixed price comes after Discovery, not before it. ### Fixed price - What you pay: an agreed price for an agreed scope. - How it is produced: a free working prototype (5–10 working days), then a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000) that ends in a fixed-price quote for the build. - Best for: a well-defined scope with a fixed end, such as a startup MVP or a defined project. - If the scope changes: it goes through a change request. - Comparison: you can take the Discovery output to another agency for a comparable quote. ### Time and materials (dedicated team) - What you pay: a day rate per engineer, billed monthly. From £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. - Commitment: a minimum of four weeks, then monthly rolling. - Best for: a product or roadmap that runs for months, or a brief that will change along the way. - If the scope changes: the backlog is re-prioritised in any sprint. - After launch: a maintenance retainer from £1,000 a month. Discovery can end in a fixed-price estimate or in T&M brackets, so you see the numbers before you commit to either model. More detail: fixed-price software development in the UK, or dedicated development teams. ## From idea to launch in six steps. Roughly two to three months from the first call to live users, with something you can click at every stage. Step 01 ### Free prototype Before you commit We turn your brief into a clickable prototype of the core flow, so the first conversation is about something you can click rather than a document. Your brief Clickable flow No commitment Step 02 ### Discovery sprint 2 weeks User roles, the one metric the MVP has to move, a prioritised feature list and a costed architecture. You leave with a fixed-price quote. Feature priority Architecture Fixed price Step 03 ### UX & design 1–2 weeks Wireframes and UI design for the MVP scope only, tested with a handful of target users before production code is written. User flows UI kit User testing Step 04 ### Build in sprints 4–6 weeks Weekly sprints with a demo every week. Authentication, payments, admin and analytics come first because every later feature depends on them. Weekly demos CI/CD Code in your repo Step 05 ### QA & launch 1 week Automated and manual testing, App Store and Google Play submission or web release, monitoring and alerts switched on before the first user arrives. Testing Store release Monitoring Step 06 ### Measure & iterate We read the analytics with you, fix what blocks activation and plan the next release from real usage rather than the original wish list. Analytics Iteration Roadmap MVP tech stack ## The stack behind our MVPs. Mainstream, well-supported technology your next hires already know — chosen so the MVP can grow without a rewrite. - React Native - Flutter - Swift · SwiftUI - Kotlin · Jetpack Compose - Expo - React - Next.js - Vue.js - TypeScript - Progressive web apps - PHP · Laravel - Node.js · NestJS - Python · FastAPI - GraphQL · REST - PostgreSQL - MySQL - Redis - Firebase - Vector databases Payments & identity - Stripe - Apple Pay · Google Pay - Open Banking - OAuth · SSO AI & analytics - OpenAI · Anthropic - Open-source LLMs - Mixpanel · Amplitude - GA4 - Sentry ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Products we've designed and shipped. Four products Magora designed and built, from payments and insurance to grant eligibility and a private members' club. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used; the full case study is one click away. Insurance · Mobile · 2023 ### Dayinsure **Problem** Short-term car insurance meant offices, forms and queues, so some drivers put cover off or went without. **Built** An iOS and Android app for a leading UK short-term insurer: cover from one hour to a month in three steps, saved documents and vehicle preferences, and one-button cancellation with a refund for the unused time. **Outcome** Used across the UK for temporary cover, from a borrowed van to learner-driver practice, with the paperwork kept in the app. Read the case study → Fintech · Payments · 2019 ### Abacus Pay **Problem** Sole traders needed a simple, secure way to take card payments, handle reimbursements and reconcile corporate cards. **Built** An iOS app and an Android app for taking card payments with Abacus Pay's mPOS devices, plus an administration system for managing devices and transactions, shaped by a Magora discovery phase. **Outcome** Sole traders and small businesses take payments from one app on either platform, while Abacus Pay manages devices and transactions in one admin system. Read the case study → Energy · Grants · 2026 ### Retrofit Navigator **Problem** Installers checked ECO4 and Warm Homes: Local Grant eligibility by hand, council by council, and mistakes surfaced weeks later as rejected applications. **Built** A web platform where an installer captures a household, sees which schemes it qualifies for and why, and moves straight into the application, with three user roles, global rules and council-level overrides. **Outcome** Eligibility becomes a repeatable, explainable check, and the MVP and full scopes are laid out feature by feature for planning the build. Read the case study → Luxury · Members' app · 2026 ### Superyacht Members' Club **Problem** Superyacht owners had no private place to see who is cruising nearby, be introduced properly or exchange boat time. **Built** A members-only app on desktop and mobile: live yacht map, vetted member directory, private messaging, events, a curated yacht marketplace and an approval-based boat exchange, with privacy controls by default. **Outcome** The client has a working product to put in front of owners and a module-by-module basis for scoping the first release. Read the case study → Also: Family event discovery app, Running community app. All projects → More on pricing ## More on UK software pricing. - App development cost in the UK (2026) — ranges, what moves them, and the FAQ - Software development cost in the UK (2026) — the 12 real project estimates - UK software development pricing — day rates by tier and our published prices - Fixed-price software development in the UK — how a fixed quote is produced - App cost calculator — pick features and see hours and cost Updated: 13 October 2026. ## MVP development questions. **How much does MVP development cost in the UK?** At Magora a startup MVP starts from £10,000, and most land between £10,000 and £25,000. The price is driven by the number of user roles, integrations (payments, banking, third-party APIs), whether you need iOS, Android and web at launch, and any compliance work. We start with a free working prototype, then a discovery sprint from £3,000 that ends in a fixed-price quote. For a quick estimate, try the app cost calculator. **How long does it take to build an MVP?** A typical MVP takes 6–8 weeks of build after a two-week discovery sprint — roughly two to three months from first call to launch. Products with regulated data, several user roles or heavy integrations take longer, and discovery tells you how much longer before you commit. **What is the difference between a prototype, a proof of concept and an MVP?** A prototype is a clickable model that tests whether people understand and want the idea. A proof of concept tests whether a piece of technology can do the job. An MVP (minimum viable product) is the smallest real product users can sign up to, use and pay for — it runs in production and becomes version one of your product. **Will the MVP have to be rebuilt when we scale?** It should not. We build MVPs production-grade — real authentication, a proper database, automated tests, CI/CD and hosting you own — so the code that validates the idea is the code you grow. What changes as you scale is infrastructure and new features, not a rewrite of the foundations. **Should we build our MVP with low-code or no-code instead?** Sometimes, yes. Low-code is a good fit for internal tools and for testing demand quickly when the product logic is simple. It becomes expensive when you need custom logic, integrations, performance or ownership of the code. We compare the two honestly in our guide to low-code MVP development, and we will tell you in discovery if low-code is the cheaper route. **Do you build AI MVPs?** Yes. AI features — an LLM assistant, search over your documents, classification or an agent workflow — are built into the MVP with evaluation, cost limits and data-protection controls from the first release. See AI and ML development for how we approach models and data. **Who owns the code and intellectual property?** You do. The code is committed to your repository as it is written, and full ownership of source code, designs and IP transfers to you on payment. We sign an NDA on day one, before you share the idea. **Can you take over an MVP built by another agency or freelancer?** Yes. We start with a code and architecture review, tell you plainly what can be kept, and fix what blocks launch or growth first. Sometimes the right answer is to keep most of it; occasionally it is to rebuild one part — you get the reasoning in writing either way. **How do I choose an MVP development company in the UK?** Look for published prices rather than a quote you have to chase, a team that shows you working software before you pay, an in-house team rather than resold freelancers, production-grade code that you own, and products that actually went live. At Magora you get a free working prototype in 5–10 working days, an NDA on day one and full IP transfer, so you can judge the team on its work. See the products we have shipped on our London software house page. **What does an MVP include?** Usually sign-up and login, the one core workflow your idea depends on, payments if the business model needs them, a simple admin panel for your team, and the analytics to measure whether the idea works. Everything else waits for the second release. You can price a feature list in the app cost calculator. **Do you work with non-technical founders?** Yes, most of our MVP clients are. A senior Product Owner turns the idea into a written scope during Discovery, decisions are explained in plain English, and you see working software at the end of every sprint rather than at the end of the project. **Should I choose a fixed price or time and materials?** Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials when the brief will change or the work runs for months. At Magora a fixed-price quote comes after a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000). Time and materials and dedicated teams are billed at a day rate per engineer, from £49 an hour, monthly rolling with a four-week minimum. About the reviewer Chief Product Officer, Magora Alexander leads product at Magora. He reviews the scope, product approach and user experience advice on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ### Laravel development company Laravel web platforms, SaaS, APIs and admin panels, from prototype to support. Learn more → ## Have an idea worth testing properly? 30-minute call with a senior product engineer. Tell us the idea and the question it has to answer — we'll tell you the smallest MVP that answers it, and what it would cost. --- # SaaS Development Company UK | Multi-Tenant SaaS from £10k | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/saas-development-company-uk/ London office · Pacific room Services — SaaS development ## SaaS development company, built to scale. Multi-tenant platforms, subscription billing and AI features — designed, built and run by one senior London team since 2010. SaaS MVP from £10,000. Updated October 2, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch ## SaaS development in the UK, at a glance. SaaS development is building software that your customers use in the browser or an app and pay for by subscription, together with the parts a one-customer system never needs: multi-tenancy, subscription billing, self-service sign-up, roles and an admin console. Magora is a London SaaS development company that designs, builds and runs SaaS products for startups and for businesses turning their expertise or existing software into a product. ### SaaS MVP from £10,000 A full multi-tenant platform at £25,000–£60,000, and Product Discovery from £3,000. See what 12 real projects cost or estimate yours in the calculator. ### First release in 6–8 weeks A free working prototype of your core workflow in 5–10 working days, Discovery in two weeks, then a first release your first customers can pay for in 6–8 weeks. ### From £49/hour Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. UK rates explained. ### From MVP to platform Start with an MVP, add AI features, or bring in a dedicated team to grow the roadmap. What we offer ## SaaS development services. Magora is a UK SaaS development company — a senior SaaS development agency based in Shoreditch, London. We design and build software-as-a-service products end to end — product strategy, multi-tenant architecture, subscription billing, integrations, AI features and the operations that keep them running — for startups, SMEs and enterprises. 01 — Strategy ### SaaS product strategy & discovery Who pays, for what, and how the product grows from ten customers to ten thousand. Pricing model, tenancy model, compliance scope and a costed roadmap before a line of production code. 02 — Build ### Custom SaaS application development Web app, admin console, customer portal and mobile companion apps where you need them — one codebase your team can own, in React, Vue, Laravel, Node.js or Python. 03 — Architecture ### Multi-tenant platform engineering Shared schema, schema-per-tenant or database-per-tenant, chosen for your customers rather than by habit. Tenant isolation is tested, not assumed, and enterprise customers can get their own region. 04 — Revenue ### Subscription billing & monetisation Plans, trials, seats, usage-based metering, proration, dunning and UK VAT — built on Stripe Billing and wired to entitlements, so a downgrade actually switches features off. 05 — Integrations ### APIs, SSO & integrations A public API your customers can build on, SSO via SAML and OIDC for enterprise buyers, and the integrations that close deals — CRM, accounting, payments, Slack and Microsoft 365. 06 — AI ### AI SaaS features Copilots, retrieval over your customers' own data, document extraction and agents that act inside the product — with per-tenant data boundaries and cost limits. See our AI and ML development work. Who we build for ## Three routes into SaaS. The same senior SaaS developers from kickoff to handover. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation. ### Launching a new SaaS product A production-grade SaaS MVP in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000: sign-up, billing, the one workflow customers pay for, and the foundations to grow without a rewrite. ### Turning expertise into a product An internal tool, a spreadsheet the whole sector copies, a service you deliver by hand — rebuilt as subscription software other businesses can buy. ### Moving software to SaaS On-premise or single-customer systems re-platformed for many tenants — SSO, audit logs, data residency and a migration that keeps existing customers running. SaaS development cost ## What SaaS development costs in the UK. Our 2026 pricing in GBP. Every engagement starts with a free working prototype and an NDA on day one; source code and IP transfer to you on payment. Final price depends on scope, integrations and compliance — see our UK software development pricing or try the cost calculator. £0 Free working prototype — a clickable version of your core SaaS workflow before any paid engagement. from £3,000 Two weeks with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: scope, tenancy and billing model, architecture, estimate and roadmap. from £10,000 A production-grade MVP for funded startups, typically 6–8 weeks: accounts, billing and the workflow your first customers pay for. Full SaaS platform £25,000–£60,000 A complete multi-tenant web and mobile platform, admin console and integrations, built by our senior in-house team. from £80,000 Multi-role, audit-logged, integration-heavy platforms with SSO, data residency and regulated-sector compliance. Run & grow from £1,000 /mo Maintenance retainer: hosting and monitoring, SLAs, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. ## Six steps from idea to paying customers. Weekly demos on a staging environment you can log in to, so progress is something you use rather than something you are told about. Step 01 ### Free working prototype Before you commit A clickable version of the core workflow, tested with real prospective users. It settles the "is this the right product" question before anyone is paid to build it. Prototype User testing NDA day one Step 02 ### Discovery sprint 2 weeks Pricing and packaging, tenancy model, integration list, compliance scope and a costed roadmap. You leave with a document you can take to investors — or to another supplier. Roadmap Tenancy model Estimate Step 03 ### Architecture & UX Data model, tenant isolation, identity, billing and deployment decided up front, alongside the onboarding and account screens that decide whether a trial converts. Tenant isolation Onboarding UX Cloud design Step 04 ### MVP build 6 – 8 weeks Two-week sprints with a working release at the end of each. Sign-up, billing and the paid workflow first; everything else earns its place in the backlog. Sprints CI/CD Automated tests Step 05 ### Launch & first customers Production hosting, monitoring, backups and product analytics in place before the first invoice goes out — so you can see where trials drop off from day one. Monitoring Analytics Backups Step 06 ### Scale & iterate Enterprise features as the customers who need them arrive — SSO, audit logs, custom roles, data residency — plus performance work as tenants and data grow. Retainer SLAs Roadmap SaaS tech stack ## What every SaaS we build ships with. The unglamorous parts that decide whether a SaaS business survives its first enterprise customer: tenancy, identity, billing and operations. Tenancy & data - PostgreSQL / MySQL - Row-level or schema isolation - Tenant-aware caching - UK / EU data residency Identity & access - SSO — SAML, OIDC - Roles & permissions - MFA - Audit logs - Stripe Billing - Plans, trials, seats - Usage metering - Dunning & UK VAT - React / Next.js - Vue.js - TypeScript - React Native / Flutter apps - PHP 8.3 / Laravel - Node.js / TypeScript - Python - REST & GraphQL APIs Cloud & operations - AWS, Azure, Google Cloud - Docker & Kubernetes - CI/CD pipelines - Monitoring & alerting ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Platforms we've shipped. Four platforms that many organisations or users log in to, from call-centre AI to online learning, a sports marketplace and clinical research. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used. Call centres · Voice AI · 2025 ### Empath AI **Problem** Call-centre agents had no way to pick up undeclared signs of caller vulnerability, such as anxiety or cognitive decline, during a live call. **Built** A SaaS platform that analyses vocal biomarkers in live calls, turns them into guidance prompts shown to the agent inside Microsoft Teams, and adds call management reporting and anonymous diagnosis reporting. **Outcome** Agents get live, empathetic guidance in the tool they already use, and managers see caller and agent-wellbeing trends without exposing individuals. Read the case study → Education · Web platform ### Eurekly **Problem** Quality one-to-one online learning was hard to plan, book and pay for in one place. **Built** A web learning platform where students plan, book and take lessons with experienced professionals and connect with other students, with video conferencing and a payment gateway built in. **Outcome** Learners study online with expert instructors and a community of other students, with scheduling, video and payment handled in one product. Read the case study → Sport · Marketplace · 2023 ### GAIN **Problem** Finding a sports academy, gym or coach meant switching between several apps that each showed little detail. **Built** An app that puts academies, gyms and coaches in one directory with detailed profiles, booking and scheduling, and reviews and ratings. **Outcome** Trainees find and book in one place, and academies gain visibility and can manage their reputation through reviews. Read the case study → Clinical research · Platform · 2023 ### Anova **Problem** There was no single platform where sponsors and research organisations could find each other, so matching sites and participants was slow and costly. **Built** A web platform, Anova OneSource, that coordinates the clinical-trial process between doctors, research organisations and sponsors through standardisation and automation. **Outcome** The first version matches research organisations with sponsors, and we keep adding functionality for biopharma companies, physicians and patients. Read the case study → Also: Rollio, Expensify. All projects → ## SaaS development questions. **What is SaaS development?** SaaS (software as a service) development is building software that customers use in the browser or an app and pay for by subscription, instead of installing it themselves. Besides the product itself, it means building the parts a single-customer system never needs: multi-tenancy (many customers on one platform, with their data kept apart), subscription billing, self-service sign-up, user roles, and hosting that the vendor runs for everyone. **How much does it cost to build a SaaS product in the UK?** At Magora a SaaS MVP starts from £10,000, a full multi-tenant SaaS platform £25,000–£60,000, and enterprise SaaS with SSO, audit logs and regulated-sector compliance from £80,000 (2026 prices, GBP). A two-week discovery sprint is from £3,000, and the first step — a working prototype — is free. Running and developing the product after launch is typically from £1,000 a month. The biggest price drivers are the number of integrations, the billing model and compliance (GDPR, FCA, NHS DSPT) rather than the number of screens. **How long does SaaS development take?** A production-grade SaaS MVP typically takes 6–8 weeks after a two-week discovery sprint. A full platform with admin tooling, integrations and mobile apps takes longer and is planned in phases, so paying customers arrive before the whole roadmap is finished. **Single-tenant or multi-tenant — which does my SaaS need?** Most SaaS products should be multi-tenant: one codebase and one deployment serving every customer, which keeps hosting and maintenance costs flat as you grow. The real decision is how data is separated — a shared schema with row-level isolation, a schema per tenant, or a database per tenant. Customers in regulated sectors sometimes need their own database or region, so we design for that option early even when it is not built on day one. **Can you turn our existing software into SaaS?** Yes. We re-platform on-premise and single-customer systems into multi-tenant SaaS — adding tenant isolation, sign-up, billing and SSO, and migrating existing customers without a big-bang cut-over. Where the old code cannot carry the load, we replace it module by module, as described in our enterprise application development work. **Can you add AI features such as GPT or Claude to a SaaS product?** Yes. We build AI SaaS features on large language models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google — assistants, search over a customer's own documents (RAG), data extraction and agents — with each tenant's data kept separate, usage capped per plan so AI costs cannot outrun revenue, and evaluation tests so quality does not drift between model versions. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the code lives in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment — which matters when investors run due diligence on your SaaS business. **How do you handle security and GDPR for SaaS?** Tenant isolation is covered by automated tests, personal data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and hosting can be kept in the UK or EU. Roles, audit logs and data-export and deletion tools are built in, so answering a customer's security questionnaire or a subject access request does not become a project of its own. **How do I choose a SaaS development company in the UK?** Ask to see SaaS products the team has shipped and still runs, how they keep each customer's data apart, how billing and sign-up are handled, and who supports the platform after launch. Published prices and a working prototype before any paid work make the choice easier: at Magora both come first. See our case studies and London software house. **What technology do you use to build SaaS?** Usually Laravel, Node.js or Python on the back end, React for the web app, and React Native or Flutter when the product needs mobile apps, with hosting in the UK or EU. We choose the stack per product and explain the choice in writing during Discovery, and you own the code. **How much does it cost to run a SaaS product after launch?** Hosting depends on usage and is billed at cost. Development after launch is either a maintenance retainer from £1,000 a month (support, SLAs, security updates and new features) or a dedicated team that keeps building the roadmap. About the reviewer Chief Product Officer, Magora Alexander leads product at Magora. He reviews the scope, product approach and user experience advice on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ### Laravel development company Laravel web platforms, SaaS, APIs and admin panels, from prototype to support. Learn more → ## Building a SaaS product? 30-minute call with a senior Solution Architect. Bring the idea, the spreadsheet or the legacy system — we'll tell you what the first version should be, and what it should cost. --- # AI Development Company UK | AI & ML Development | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/ai-and-ml-development/ London office · Shoreditch AI development company — London, UK ## AI development company UK: AI & ML, production-ready. Magora is a London AI development company for UK businesses. Our AI and ML development services cover LLM-powered apps, RAG search over your own data, AI agents and machine learning models, or AI added to software you already run, with UK / EU hosting options and your data kept out of model training. Free working prototype in 5–10 days, AI MVP from £10,000. Updated: 13 October 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Veolia 38 AI & ML projects shipped 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 8 Fine-tuned open-source models 75 Enterprise software solutions ## What AI development services cover. AI development services turn a business problem into working software that uses AI: choosing the model, connecting it to your data, building the product and integrations around it, testing its accuracy, and keeping it running. Magora does all of this with one senior in-house team in London, from a free prototype to production. **Who** Magora is a London software company that has been building software since 2010, with its office at The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ. **What we build** AI and ML development services: LLM apps and copilots, RAG search over your documents (RAG development), AI agents (AI agent development), document and workflow automation, machine learning models, fine-tuned open-source models, and AI features inside software you already run. **Where** UK businesses, from our London office. We also deliver AI and ML development for clients in the USA, UAE and Australia. **From what price** 2026 prices in GBP: working prototype free; Discovery from £3,000; AI MVP from £10,000 (most between £10,000 and £25,000); AI agents from £20,000; fine-tuned model from £25,000; RAG pipeline with API from £30,000; production LLM application from £40,000. Rates start from £49/hour per developer. See UK software development pricing and the cost calculator. **How long** Working prototype in 5–10 working days, Discovery in two weeks, then a first release typically in 6–8 weeks. **Your data** Built on business API tiers whose terms exclude training on customer inputs by default (checked per project in Discovery), with UK / EU hosting options. Source code, prompts, evaluation sets and IP transfer to you on payment. **Updated** Updated: 13 October 2026 ### Free working prototype A working prototype of your AI idea on a sample of your real data in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. ### First release in 6–8 weeks After a two-week Discovery from £3,000, a first release typically takes 6–8 weeks. Most AI MVPs land between £10,000 and £25,000. ### Your data stays yours Business-tier model APIs that do not train on your inputs, UK / EU hosting options, and code, prompts and IP transferred to you. What we build ## AI & ML development services. Production AI, not demos: each system is measured against your real cases and integrated with the software your team already uses. 01 — LLM apps ### LLM-powered apps and copilots Assistants, chat interfaces and structured-output workflows on OpenAI, Anthropic or Google models, with evaluation tests from the first sprint. 02 — RAG ### Search and Q&A over your data Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) over your documents, tickets or knowledge base, with answers that cite their sources. 03 — Agents ### AI agents Agents that use your tools and APIs to run multi-step work, with guardrails and human sign-off where it matters. See AI agent development. 04 — Automation ### Document and workflow automation Extraction, classification and summarisation that take the manual steps out of intake, review and reporting. 05 — ML & data ### Machine learning software development Prediction, classification, anomaly detection and computer vision, plus the data pipelines they depend on. 06 — Existing products ### AI inside your existing software Search, summaries, assistants or automation added to a product you already run, without a rebuild. See bespoke software. 07 — Fine-tune ### Fine-tuning and open-source models Llama, Mistral or Qwen adapted to your domain and deployed on your infrastructure, with no vendor lock-in. 08 — MLOps ### Evaluation, monitoring and MLOps Test sets, accuracy and cost tracking, drift monitoring and model updates: the parts that keep AI working after launch. ## What UK businesses ask us to build with AI. Seven common requests, the approach that usually fits and where the price starts. Where a price is not fixed in advance, Discovery (from £3,000) produces it. | What you want | Usual approach | Price starts from | See | |---|---|---|---| | Staff or customers get answers from your documents, tickets or knowledge base | RAG with cited sources | RAG pipeline + API from £30,000 | RAG development UK | | A multi-step workflow runs across your CRM, ERP or inbox | AI agent with human sign-off | AI agents from £20,000 | AI agent development UK | | Receipts, invoices or forms are read and the data captured | OCR and document automation | Scoped in Discovery, from £3,000 | Expensify receipt scanning | | Sensitive files are classified where cloud AI is not allowed | Fine-tuned open-source models on your own infrastructure | Fine-tuned model from £25,000 | University of Essex | | Predictions, classification or anomaly alerts from your own data | Custom machine learning model | Scoped in Discovery, from £3,000 | KMA 9x9 | | Live guidance for people on calls, or live captions at events | Real-time AI features | Scoped in Discovery, from £3,000 | Empath AI, Interprefy | | AI added to a product you already run | AI inside existing software, no rebuild | Typically £20,000–£80,000 for an existing application | Bespoke software | ## AI that keeps your data safe. The first question most clients ask is where their data goes. These are the options we design with; the right mix for your project is agreed in Discovery. ### Your data is not training data We build on business API tiers, such as the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock, whose terms exclude training on customer inputs by default. We check the current terms for your use case in Discovery, and switch on zero or limited retention where the provider offers it. ### UK or EU hosting options Application data, vector stores and logs can live in UK or EU cloud regions. Where you need model processing in-region too, we choose a provider and model that offer it. ### Private deployments Models can run through Azure OpenAI or AWS Bedrock inside your own cloud account, or as open-source models self-hosted in your VPC or on your own servers. ### Access, redaction and audit Role-based access to sources, personal data redacted before prompts where needed, and configurable logging so you can see what the system was asked and what it answered. ### GDPR and regulated sectors Data-minimisation review in Discovery, DPIA support, and experience in healthcare, financial services and education, where the rules on data are strictest. ### EU AI Act readiness A risk-tier review before deployment, with the transparency and documentation your system needs if you serve EU users. Choosing an approach ## Which kind of AI does your case need? Most projects combine two of these. The free prototype and Discovery show which one does the job at the lowest running cost. | | Prompting a model API | RAG over your data | Fine-tuning | Custom ML model | |---|---|---|---|---| | Best for | Drafting, summarising, classifying and chat | Answers grounded in your own documents and records | A consistent style, format or narrow domain task | Predictions from your structured data, or vision | | Data you need | Little or none | The documents the answers should come from | Hundreds to thousands of good examples | A labelled historical dataset | | Speed to a first version | Fastest | Fast | Slower | Slowest | | Main trade-off | Knows nothing about your business unless told | Only as good as the content and retrieval | Needs retraining as things change | Needs data work before modelling | More on RAG: how RAG systems are built, secured and priced. ## What AI development costs in the UK. Our 2026 prices in GBP. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. In our study of 12 real 2026 project estimates, live AI processing was one of the three things behind the most expensive first releases, while an AI phase added to one existing product cost £7,598. Estimate your own with the cost calculator or see our UK software development pricing. from £3,000 Two weeks to test the data, choose the model and approach, and cost the build. from £10,000 A first release in 6–8 weeks. Most MVPs land between £10,000 and £25,000. from £20,000 Agents that automate internal workflows with tool use and human sign-off. from £25,000 Llama, Mistral or Qwen adapted to your domain, deployed on AWS, GCP or your own infrastructure. RAG pipeline + API from £30,000 Retrieval over your documents with a vector database, citations and an API your product can call. Production LLM app from £40,000 A production-grade LLM application with evaluations, monitoring and UK / EU data residency. Outside the UK? We deliver AI and ML development for clients in the USA, UAE and Australia from our London team. Related: AI agent development UK · RAG development UK · fixed-price software development UK · UK software development pricing · what 12 real 2026 projects cost · app cost calculator. How to engage us ## Three ways to buy AI development. Start with the free prototype whichever you choose. The right model depends on how fixed the scope is. ### Fixed price after Discovery A free working prototype and a two-week Discovery from £3,000 turn the brief into a costed scope and a fixed-price quote for the build. The Discovery output is yours to keep, whoever builds it. See fixed-price software development. ### Dedicated team, time and materials For work that will keep changing, a dedicated team is billed at a day rate, from £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day), monthly rolling. See dedicated development team. ### Support after launch Monitoring, model updates and fixes on a monthly maintenance retainer from £1,000 a month. All current ranges are on the pricing page. ## From prototype to production AI. Same engineers from the prototype to handover. Weekly demos on a staging environment you can log in to. Step 01 ### Free prototype 5–10 days A working prototype on a sample of your real data, so you see what the model can and cannot do before you commit a budget. Real dataWorking demoNo commitment Step 02 ### Discovery 2 weeks Use case, data sources, model choice, data-protection review and success measures, turned into a costed scope and roadmap. ScopeModel choiceDPIA input Step 03 ### Build 6–8 weeks Two-week sprints with a working release at the end of each: the AI pipeline, the product around it and the integrations with your systems. Step 04 ### Evaluation Test sets drawn from your real cases, measured for accuracy, cost per request and failure modes, so quality is a number rather than an impression. Test setsAccuracyCost tracking Step 05 ### Launch & improve Production hosting, monitoring for drift and cost, and regular updates as models and your data change. MonitoringDrift alertsModel updates Evaluation and monitoring ## How we measure whether an AI system works. Quality is a number agreed before the build, not an impression after it. These are the three points where we measure. Before the build ### Success measures and a baseline Discovery turns your use case into success measures. The free prototype runs on a sample of your real data, so you see what the model can and cannot do before you commit a budget. ### Test sets from your real cases Each release is scored on a test set drawn from your own cases, for accuracy, cost per request and failure modes. If a simpler tool would do the job at lower running cost, we say so. ### Guardrails, monitoring and model updates Personal data redacted before prompts where needed, role-based access, configurable logging of what the system was asked and answered, and human sign-off where it matters. Accuracy, cost and drift are monitored after launch and models are updated as your data and the providers change. Support is a monthly retainer from £1,000. ## The AI stack we work in. Mainstream, well-supported tools, chosen per project so you are not locked into one model provider. - OpenAI · Anthropic Claude - Google Gemini - Llama · Mistral · Qwen - Azure OpenAI - AWS Bedrock · SageMaker - Google Vertex AI - pgvector · Qdrant - Pinecone · Weaviate - Hybrid search · re-ranking - LangChain · LlamaIndex - Tool calling - Bespoke pipelines - Python · FastAPI - Node.js - PHP · Laravel Serving & ops - Docker · Kubernetes - vLLM · Ollama - Evals · monitoring ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Partnering with Magora for the development of the messenger was a decision we will never regret.” Chief Business Officer, Easy Report Chatbot & mobile · BI software · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management Who we work with ## Three kinds of partner. We've teamed up with 500+ businesses — fresh-faced startups, established mid-market and global enterprise. ### Startups & MVPs Production-grade MVP in a calendar quarter — see our Startup MVP service. ### Small & medium business Internal tools, customer apps and digital transformation work — the kind that pays for itself within a year. ### Enterprise Compliance-heavy platforms, MDM-managed fleets, audit-ready architecture. SOC 2, GDPR, MHRA passed first time, every time. ## AI and machine learning we've shipped. Four products with AI at their core: local language models on private data, live captions for events, receipt scanning with OCR and machine-learning analytics on a map. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used. Education · Private AI · 2025 ### University of Essex **Problem** Sensitive files had to be classified by confidentiality level, and cloud AI services were not allowed. **Built** A self-contained AI Orchestrator module running two local models: an LLM (Mistral 7B) that proposes new semantic tags and confidentiality rules for human review, and a fine-tuned entity-recognition model that applies the approved rules and writes a standard YAML file. **Outcome** Classification is automated without sending data to third-party cloud APIs, and the model is retrained as experts review new tags. Read the case study → Events · Real-time AI · 2023 ### Interprefy **Problem** Professional simultaneous interpreters are expensive, and many conference participants do not speak the shared language well enough. **Built** A cloud platform where remote interpreters work from a console, event audio and video are streamed to them, and the translated audio goes to attendees' phones, with AI-powered live captions and subtitles. **Outcome** Any event can offer interpretation on attendees' own phones, with interpreters working from wherever they are. Read the case study → Fintech · OCR · 2023 ### Expensify **Problem** Expense reports needed receipt details typed in by hand. **Built** An optical character recognition (OCR) engine for Expensify's mobile apps that reads the merchant, date and amount from a photo of a receipt. **Outcome** Receipt scanning no longer needs manual data entry in the expense report. Read the case study → Geospatial · Data & AI · 2023 ### KMA 9x9 **Problem** Large volumes of data from many sources had piled up with no way to relate them to a place or process them. **Built** A React.js platform for KMA Tech that divides the map into 9 m by 9 m squares and links data from many sources to each one, with machine-learning analytics to detect events, find relationships and flag anomalies. **Outcome** Users see data and AI analytics on one map. The first version is live and the team keeps adding features. Read the case study → Also: Empath AI, BodySync, Rollio. All projects → ## AI for your sector. Where our clients use AI first, sector by sector, with the data rules each one runs on. ### Healthcare Clinical summaries, triage support and document automation. AI for healthcare → Sector ### Fintech Document checks, fraud signals and customer support. AI for fintech → Sector ### Property and real estate Listing data, valuations and tenant queries. AI for property and real estate → Sector ### Transport and logistics Forecasting, routing and paperwork. AI for transport and logistics → Sector ### Education Tutoring assistants, marking support and content search. AI for education → Sector ### Construction Drawings, specifications and site reports. AI for construction → Sector ### Hospitality Bookings, guest messaging and demand. AI for hospitality → Sector ### Retail and e-commerce Product search, recommendations and support. AI for retail and e-commerce → ## AI development questions. **What do your AI development services include?** Everything needed to take an AI idea to a product people use: a free working prototype, Discovery, the AI pipeline (LLM prompts, retrieval, agents or a custom model), the application and integrations around it, evaluation, launch and support. We build LLM apps, RAG search over your data, AI agents, document and workflow automation, machine learning models, and AI features inside existing software. **How much does AI development cost in the UK?** At Magora a working prototype is free, Discovery is from £3,000 and an AI MVP from £10,000, with most MVPs between £10,000 and £25,000 (2026 prices, GBP). Larger builds start higher: AI agents from £20,000, a fine-tuned model from £25,000, a RAG pipeline with an API from £30,000 and a production LLM application from £40,000. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. See what 12 real 2026 projects cost or try the cost calculator. **How long does it take to build an AI product?** A working prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery two weeks. A first release typically takes 6–8 weeks after that. Larger agent systems and multi-model platforms are delivered in phases. **Will our data be used to train AI models?** Not by us, and not by the model providers we build on by default. We use business API tiers, such as the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock, whose terms exclude training on customer inputs by default, and we check the current terms for your project in Discovery. For the most sensitive data, open-source models can run entirely on your own infrastructure. **Where is our data hosted?** Application data, vector stores and logs can be hosted in UK or EU cloud regions on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. If model processing must also stay in-region, we choose a provider and model that support it, or deploy privately through Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock or a self-hosted open-source model. **Can you add AI to our existing software?** Yes, and it is one of our most common projects: search and summaries over data you already hold, a RAG assistant over your documents, AI agents for internal workflows, or a copilot inside your admin system. We start by reviewing your code and data, then add the AI feature without a rebuild. **Which AI models do you use?** OpenAI, Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini models, plus open-source models such as Llama, Mistral and Qwen for private or on-premise deployments. We choose on accuracy, latency, cost and data-protection needs for your use case, not on brand. **Do we need RAG or fine-tuning?** Most business use cases start with RAG: the model answers from your own documents and records, which stay up to date without retraining. Fine-tuning fits when you need a consistent style, format or narrow task and have good examples to train on. Discovery tells you which one, or which combination, your case needs. See our RAG development page for how these systems are built, secured and priced. **Do you build AI agents?** Yes. We build agents that call your tools and APIs to complete multi-step work, with guardrails, logging and human approval for the steps that matter. More on our AI agent development page. **Who owns the code, prompts and models?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the code lives in your repository as it is written, and source code, prompts, evaluation sets, fine-tuned model weights, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. **What does a machine learning development company do?** A machine learning development company builds software that learns from your data to predict, classify or flag things. At Magora that covers prediction, classification, anomaly detection and computer vision, plus the data pipelines they depend on and the evaluation and monitoring that keep a model accurate after launch. Examples: machine-learning analytics on a map in KMA 9x9, and receipt scanning in Expensify. Custom machine learning needs a labelled historical dataset; if prompting a model API or RAG would do the job at lower cost, Discovery will show that first. **What is the difference between AI development and ML development?** AI development is the wider term: building software that uses AI, including LLM apps, RAG search and AI agents. ML development is the part where a model is trained on your data to predict or classify something. Many business projects need only a model API plus retrieval; some need a custom model. We compare the options in the table above and pick the one that does the job at the lowest running cost. **Is your AI development UK GDPR compliant?** We design for it: a data-minimisation review in Discovery, DPIA support, personal data redacted before prompts where needed, role-based access, configurable logging and UK or EU hosting options. Whether a particular system is lawful depends on your use case and legal basis, which your data protection officer or legal adviser decides; we supply the technical input. See the data safety options above. **How do you measure whether an AI system is accurate enough?** We agree success measures in Discovery, then score every sprint on a test set drawn from your real cases for accuracy, cost per request and failure modes. After launch we monitor accuracy, cost and drift. See how we measure an AI system above. **Do you charge a fixed price or time and materials for AI projects?** Both. A fixed price is quoted after the free prototype and a two-week Discovery from £3,000. For work that will keep changing, a dedicated team is billed from £49 an hour per developer, monthly rolling. Support after launch is from £1,000 a month. See fixed-price software development and UK software development pricing. **Do you only work with companies in London?** Our office is in Shoreditch, London, and we work with UK businesses on projects with weekly demos on a staging environment you can log in to. On-site meetings elsewhere in the UK are available by arrangement. We also deliver AI and ML development for clients in the USA, UAE and Australia. About the reviewer Consulting Director, Magora Nick is Consulting Director at Magora and runs first calls and Discovery with new clients. He reviews the advice and recommendations on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## AI idea worth shipping? 30-minute call with a senior software architect. We'll review your use case, data and constraints — and tell you what we'd actually build if it were us. --- # AI Agent Development Company UK | Custom AI Agents | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/ai-agent-development-uk/ London office · Whiteboard room Services — AI agent development, UK ## AI agent development company UK: agents that do the actual work. Magora is a London AI agent development company for UK businesses. We build custom AI agents that read documents, work across your CRM and ERP, and hand decisions to people when they should. Free working prototype in 5–10 days, AI agents from £20,000. Updated: 13 October 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch ## AI agents at Magora, at a glance. The short answer on who builds our agents, what they cover, what they cost and how long they take. For wider AI work, see our AI development company UK page. **Who** Magora is a London AI agent development company, building software since 2010. **What we build** Document agents, workflow and process agents, customer service and chat agents, internal knowledge copilots (RAG), real-time and voice assistants, and AI inside your existing product. **From what price** 2026 prices in GBP: working prototype free; Discovery from £3,000; AI proof of concept from £15,000; an agent automating one internal workflow from £20,000; knowledge agent (RAG) from £30,000; production LLM application from £40,000. Adding AI to an existing application typically costs £20,000–£80,000; support is from £1,000 a month. See UK software development pricing, fixed-price software development and the cost calculator. **How long** Prototype in 5–10 working days and Discovery in two weeks. A production agent for a single workflow typically ships in 6–8 weeks after Discovery; multi-agent systems run 3–6 months. **Safety and data** Narrowest permissions that do the job, an audit log of every action, human approval where a mistake would be costly, and evaluations on every change. Data stays in UK or EU regions; source code, prompts and evaluation sets transfer to you on payment. **Updated** Updated: 13 October 2026 What we build ## AI agent development services. An AI agent is software that uses a large language model to decide what to do next, calls your tools and systems to do it, and checks the result before moving on. A chatbot answers; an agent acts. These are the six kinds of agent UK businesses ask us for most. 01 — Documents ### Document agents Contracts, invoices, claims, reports and application forms read, checked against your rules, summarised and filed — with the source line quoted beside every extracted value. 02 — Workflows ### Workflow & process agents Multi-step work that crosses systems: reconcile the CRM with the ERP, raise the ticket, update the record, chase the missing field. Built on the same integrations your team already trusts. 03 — Customers ### Customer service & chat agents AI chatbot development that goes past FAQs: agents that look up the order, change the booking and escalate to a person with the whole conversation attached. 04 — Knowledge ### Internal knowledge copilots Retrieval-augmented (RAG) assistants over your policies, tickets and manuals, answering with citations — so staff can check the answer instead of trusting it. 05 — Real time ### Real-time & voice assistants Agents that listen alongside your people and prompt them live — as in Empath AI, which guides call-centre agents inside Microsoft Teams. 06 — Products ### AI inside your product Generative AI features added to the app or platform you already run — search, summaries, drafting, triage — without rebuilding what works. Broader ML and model work lives on our AI & ML development page. Agent or something simpler? ## AI agent, chatbot, RAG or workflow automation? The right answer is often the simplest tool that does the job. This is how the four compare; the free prototype and Discovery show which one your workflow needs. | | Chatbot | RAG assistant | AI agent | Rule-based workflow automation | |---|---|---|---|---| | What it does | Answers questions from a script or the model's general knowledge | Answers from your own documents and cites the source | Plans the steps, calls your systems, checks the result and hands over to a person when it should | Follows fixed if-then rules between systems | | Best for | Simple FAQs and first-line questions | Accurate answers from private or changing content | Multi-step work that varies from case to case | Stable, predictable steps that rarely change | | Acts in your systems? | No | No: it reads and answers | Yes, within the permissions you grant | Yes, only the steps written in advance | | Magora starting point | Scoped after the free prototype | Knowledge agent (RAG) from £30,000 | From £20,000 for one internal workflow | If rules are all you need, we say so | Where agents pay off first ## Use cases by business function. High-volume work that people do by reading, re-typing and chasing is where agents earn their cost first. | Function | Typical tasks | Agent type | |---|---|---| | Finance and back office | Invoices, claims, contracts and forms read, checked against your rules, summarised and filed, with the source line quoted beside each value | Document agents | | Customer service | Look up the order, change the booking and escalate to a person with the whole conversation attached | Customer service and chat agents | | Sales and operations | Reconcile the CRM with the ERP, raise the ticket, update the record, chase the missing field | Workflow and process agents | | People, IT and internal queries | Staff questions answered from policies, tickets and manuals, with citations so the answer can be checked | Knowledge copilots (RAG) | | Contact centres | Live prompts for people during a call, as in Empath AI, which guides call-centre agents inside Microsoft Teams | Real-time and voice assistants | Small business? You do not need a large budget to find out whether an agent is worth building: the working prototype is free and a Discovery sprint starts from £3,000. Read the practical guide what AI agents work best for small business automation and our checklist is your business ready for an internal AI agent?. How we build ## How we build agents you can trust. Same senior engineers from the first workshop to handover. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation. Pillar 01 ### One workflow, measured We start with a single workflow and time it as it runs today. The agent is judged against that baseline — hours saved, error rate, turnaround — not against a demo. Pillar 02 ### Guardrails and a human in the loop Agents get the narrowest permissions that do the job, an audit log of every action, and a person's sign-off wherever a mistake would cost money, a customer or a regulator's attention. Pillar 03 ### Model-agnostic, UK data OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini or open-source models, chosen on accuracy, cost and privacy. Data stays in UK or EU regions, and swapping the model later does not mean rebuilding the agent. ## How much an agent is allowed to do. Autonomy is a design decision, agreed and written down before the build and widened only as the evaluation results justify. Level 1 ### Suggests, a person acts The agent drafts the answer, the record update or the email, and a person approves and sends it. A safe starting point for any new workflow. Level 2 ### Acts on low-risk steps Routine, reversible steps run on their own and every action is written to the audit log. Anything else goes to a person. Level 3 ### Acts, with approval for what matters Anything irreversible or high-value is prepared by the agent and waits for human approval. Corrections feed the test set. ## What an AI agent costs in the UK. Indicative Magora pricing for 2026, in GBP. Every engagement starts with a free working prototype, and the final figure is fixed after Discovery, when the workflow, integrations and data are known. Adding AI to an existing application typically runs £20,000–£80,000; ongoing support is from £1,000 a month. £0 · 5–10 working days ### Working prototype A coded prototype of your agent on your own example documents or data, before you commit to anything. From £3,000 · 2 weeks ### Discovery sprint Workflow map, baseline, risks, data-protection review and a fixed estimate — yours to keep, whoever builds it. From £15,000 · 4–6 weeks ### AI proof of concept The agent running on real data in a controlled pilot, with evaluations that show whether it is good enough to scale. From £20,000 ### AI agent for internal automation One production workflow automated end to end — document, process or triage agent — with guardrails, audit log and monitoring. From £30,000 ### Knowledge agent (RAG) Retrieval pipeline, vector database and API over your document estate, answering with citations and access control. From £40,000 ### Production LLM application Customer-facing or multi-agent systems at production grade. Larger multi-agent programmes typically take 3–6 months. How the price becomes fixed: fixed-price software development UK. Compare ranges across project types on UK software development pricing, estimate your own with the app cost calculator, or see the wider AI and ML development services. ## From workflow to working agent. A production AI agent for a single workflow typically ships in 6–8 weeks after Discovery. Step 01 ### Workflow audit 1 week We sit with the people who do the work, map every step and exception, and record how long it takes today. Some workflows fail this test: a simple automation or an off-the-shelf tool would do, and we say so. Workflow map Baseline Build vs buy Step 02 ### Free prototype 5 – 10 working days A coded agent running on a sample of your real inputs, so the first conversation about accuracy is about evidence rather than promises. Real data sample Model shortlist Step 03 ### Evaluations & guardrails 1 – 2 weeks A test set of real cases with known right answers, run automatically on every change. Permissions, approval steps and data-protection rules are agreed and written down. Evals in CI Permissions GDPR Step 04 ### Build & integrate 4 – 8 weeks The agent is connected to your CRM, ERP, inbox, document store or Teams, with every tool call logged and every failure alertable. Weekly demos on your data. Tool calling Integrations Audit log Step 05 ### Supervised pilot 2 – 3 weeks The agent works alongside your team, who approve or correct its output. Corrections feed the test set; results are measured against the baseline from step one. Human in the loop Baseline comparison Step 06 ### Run & improve Monitoring of accuracy, cost per task and drift; a runbook for your team; and a plan for when the process, the data or the model changes. Monitoring Cost control Support AI agent tech stack ## The stack behind our agents. Chosen per project for accuracy, latency, cost and where your data is allowed to live. - OpenAI GPT models - Anthropic Claude - Google Gemini - Llama, Mistral, Qwen - LangChain - LlamaIndex - OpenAI Assistants - Bespoke orchestration - Tool / function calling - pgvector - Pinecone - Weaviate - Qdrant - Hybrid search & re-ranking - Microsoft Teams - CRM & ERP APIs - Email & document stores - Custom API integration - AWS Bedrock - GCP Vertex AI - vLLM / Ollama self-hosting - UK / EU regions Safety & quality - Evaluations in CI - Guardrails & approvals - Audit logging - GDPR by default - EU AI Act readiness review ## AI we've put into production. Three projects where AI does real work inside a client's operation: live call guidance, clinical treatment plans and private data classification. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used. Call centres · Voice AI · 2025 ### Empath AI **Problem** Call-centre agents had no way to pick up undeclared signs of caller vulnerability, such as anxiety or cognitive decline, during a live call. **Built** A SaaS platform that analyses vocal biomarkers in live calls, turns them into guidance prompts shown to the agent inside Microsoft Teams, and adds call management reporting and anonymous diagnosis reporting. **Outcome** Agents get live, empathetic guidance in the tool they already use, and managers see caller and agent-wellbeing trends without exposing individuals. Read the case study → Healthcare · LLM · 2025 ### BodySync **Problem** Clinicians spent long hours drafting personalised treatment plans by hand and looking up exercises. **Built** A web app that takes structured input (diagnosis, assessment findings, treatment preferences, goals) and drafts a phase-appropriate plan with OpenAI, restricted to pre-defined peer-reviewed clinical sources. Built for HIPAA and GDPR, with one-click send or PDF export. **Outcome** The MVP is in use in UK clinics, and further development is planned. Read the case study → Education · Private AI · 2025 ### University of Essex **Problem** Sensitive files had to be classified by confidentiality level, and cloud AI services were not allowed. **Built** A self-contained AI Orchestrator module running two local models: an LLM (Mistral 7B) that proposes new semantic tags and confidentiality rules for human review, and a fine-tuned entity-recognition model that applies the approved rules and writes a standard YAML file. **Outcome** Classification is automated without sending data to third-party cloud APIs, and the model is retrained as experts review new tags. Read the case study → Also: Rollio, KMA 9x9, Interprefy. All projects → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Partnering with Magora for the development of the messenger was a decision we will never regret.” Chief Business Officer, Easy Report Chatbot & mobile · BI software · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## AI agents: the honest questions. Before you commit, read our checklist is your business ready for an internal AI agent? **How much does AI agent development cost in the UK?** At Magora, an AI agent that automates one internal workflow starts from £20,000. An AI proof of concept starts from £15,000 (4–6 weeks), a knowledge agent with a RAG pipeline from £30,000, and a production LLM application from £40,000. Adding AI to an existing application typically costs £20,000–£80,000. Every project starts with a free working prototype and a Discovery sprint from £3,000, after which the price is fixed. **What is the difference between an AI agent and a chatbot?** A chatbot answers questions. An AI agent takes actions: it plans the steps, calls your systems through their APIs — CRM, ERP, email, document store — checks what came back and either finishes the task or hands it to a person. Many projects start as a chatbot and become an agent once the answers are trusted. **How long does it take to build an AI agent?** A coded prototype takes 5–10 working days and is free. A production agent for a single workflow typically ships in 6–8 weeks. Multi-agent systems and agents spanning several departments run 3–6 months end to end. **Which workflows suit an AI agent first?** High-volume, rules-heavy work that people do by reading and re-typing: document intake and checking, data entry between systems, first-line triage of emails and tickets, and internal questions answered from policies and manuals. Work that needs judgement on every case, or where one mistake is very costly, comes later — with a person approving each decision. **What stops an AI agent from doing something wrong?** Design, not hope. The agent gets only the permissions its task needs, anything irreversible or high-value waits for human approval, every action is written to an audit log, and an evaluation suite of real cases runs on every change so a regression is caught before release rather than by a customer. **Do we need a custom agent, or will Copilot or ChatGPT do?** If the job is drafting and summarising for one person at a time, an off-the-shelf assistant is usually enough, and we will tell you so. A custom agent pays off when the work runs across your own systems, has to follow your rules, needs an audit trail, or has to run without someone typing a prompt. **Which AI models do you use, and where is our data stored?** OpenAI, Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini, or open-source models such as Llama, Mistral and Qwen when data must stay on your own infrastructure. Deployments default to UK or EU regions on AWS or GCP, GDPR compliance is built in, and an EU AI Act readiness review is part of Discovery. **Who owns the AI agent you build?** You do. Source code, prompts, evaluation sets and IP transfer to you on payment, and the agent runs in your cloud account. Because it is model-agnostic, you are not locked to one AI vendor or to us. We sign an NDA on day one. **Can a small business use an AI agent?** Yes, if it has a repeated, high-volume task that people do by reading and re-typing. The working prototype is free and a Discovery sprint starts from £3,000, after which you get a fixed estimate that is yours to keep. If an off-the-shelf tool does the job, we will tell you so. See our guide for small business automation. **Can an AI agent be tricked by text in an email or document?** It is a known risk for any agent that reads content it does not control, often called prompt injection. We design so that a mistake does little damage: the agent gets only the permissions its task needs, anything irreversible or high-value waits for human approval, every action is written to an audit log, and the evaluation suite is run on every change. **How is an AI agent different from workflow automation or RPA?** Rule-based automation follows steps written in advance and stops when the input varies. An agent decides the next step itself, handles variation and hands over to a person when it should. The two are often combined, and if fixed rules are all the workflow needs we will say so. See the comparison above. **How do you test an AI agent before it goes live?** With a test set of real cases with known right answers, run automatically on every change, and then a supervised pilot of two to three weeks in which your team approves or corrects the output. Corrections feed the test set and results are measured against the baseline taken before the build. About the reviewer Consulting Director, Magora Nick is Consulting Director at Magora and runs first calls and Discovery with new clients. He reviews the advice and recommendations on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ### Laravel development company Laravel web platforms, SaaS, APIs and admin panels, from prototype to support. Learn more → ## Have a workflow an agent could run? 30-minute call with a senior AI engineer. Bring one process your team repeats every day — we'll tell you whether an agent is worth building, and what it would cost. --- # RAG Development Company UK | Custom RAG Systems | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/rag-development-uk/ London office · Whiteboard room Services — RAG development, UK ## RAG development company in the UK. Magora is a London software company that builds retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems: AI assistants and search that answer from your own documents, with a cited source for every answer. Updated October 13, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch ## What RAG is and when you need it. Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a way of making a large language model answer from your own documents. The system searches your content for the passages that match a question, hands them to the model, and the model writes an answer from those passages and cites them. You need RAG when people must get accurate answers from information that is private, specific to your business or changing often. What it is ### Search first, then answer A normal chatbot answers from what the model learned in training. A RAG system looks up your documents first, so the answer comes from your content and can link back to it. When you need it ### Private, specific or changing content Staff lose time searching policies, contracts or tickets; customers ask questions your documentation already answers; or you want AI that works from your data without training a model on it. When you do not ### Simpler tools are sometimes enough If the job is drafting or summarising for one person, an off-the-shelf assistant is usually enough. If you have few documents or a fixed set of answers, ordinary search or a FAQ page may do. We will tell you which. What we build ## RAG development services. These are the six kinds of RAG system we build. Each one is measured against your real questions and connected to the systems you already use. 01 — Knowledge ### Knowledge-base assistants A chat assistant over your policies, handbooks, manuals and wikis. Staff ask in plain English and get a short answer with links to the pages it came from. 02 — Documents ### Document Q&A Ask questions of contracts, reports, claims files or technical documents and get answers with the quoted passage beside them, instead of reading hundreds of pages. 03 — Search ### Internal and enterprise search Search that understands meaning as well as keywords, across file stores, tickets and records, with filters and permissions so people only find what they may see. 04 — Support ### Support copilots Suggested replies and answers for your support or sales team, drawn from past tickets and product documentation, with a person approving what is sent. Customer-facing chat agents are built the same way. 05 — Agents ### Agentic RAG An AI agent that decides what to look up, searches several sources, checks what came back and then acts through your systems, with human approval for the steps that matter. 06 — Products ### RAG inside your product Answers, summaries and search added to the software you already run, without a rebuild. See AI & ML development for the wider range of AI work. How it works ## How a RAG system answers a question. Nine parts sit between your documents and an answer. Answer quality depends heavily on the first five, which is why we put as much care into ingestion and retrieval as into the choice of model. 01 — Ingestion ### Connecting your content Connectors read PDFs, Word files, web pages, tickets, emails and database records, extract the text and keep it in sync when documents change. 02 — Chunking ### Splitting for meaning Documents are cut into passages that make sense on their own, keeping headings, tables and metadata such as source, date and owner. 03 — Embeddings ### Turning text into vectors Each passage is converted into a numerical vector that captures its meaning, using an embedding model chosen for your language and subject matter. 04 — Vector store ### Searchable index Vectors are stored in a vector database with the original text and metadata, so the right passages can be found in milliseconds. 05 — Retrieval ### Finding the right passages A question is turned into a search that combines meaning and keywords, then re-ranks the results so the best evidence reaches the model. 06 — Generation ### Answering with citations The language model writes an answer using only the retrieved passages, and each statement links back to its source. 07 — Access control ### Respecting permissions Retrieval is filtered by who is asking, so the assistant never shows a document the person could not open themselves. 08 — Evaluation ### Measuring answer quality A test set of real questions with known answers is run on every change, scoring retrieval and answers so quality is measured rather than assumed. 09 — Guardrails ### Limits and monitoring Refusals when nothing relevant is found, personal data redaction where needed, an audit log of questions and answers, and monitoring of accuracy and cost after launch. RAG tech stack ## The stack behind our RAG systems. Chosen per project for accuracy, latency, cost and where your data is allowed to live. The system is model-agnostic, so swapping the model later does not mean rebuilding the pipeline. - OpenAI GPT models - Anthropic Claude - Google Gemini - Llama, Mistral, Qwen - LangChain - LlamaIndex - Bespoke orchestration - Tool / function calling - pgvector - Pinecone - Weaviate - Qdrant - Hybrid search & re-ranking Sources & integrations - Email & document stores - CRM & ERP APIs - Microsoft Teams - Custom API integration - AWS Bedrock - GCP Vertex AI - vLLM / Ollama self-hosting - UK / EU regions Safety & quality - Evaluations in CI - Guardrails & approvals - Audit logging - GDPR by default - EU AI Act readiness review Security & data residency ## RAG that keeps your data where it belongs. The first question most clients ask is where their documents go. These are the options we design with; the right mix for your project is agreed in Discovery. ### Your documents are not training data We build on business API tiers, such as the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock, whose terms exclude training on customer inputs by default. We check the current terms for your use case in Discovery, and switch on zero or limited retention where the provider offers it. ### UK or EU hosting options Application data, vector stores and logs can live in UK or EU cloud regions. Where you need model processing in-region too, we choose a provider and model that offer it. ### Private deployments Models can run through Azure OpenAI or AWS Bedrock inside your own cloud account, or as open-source models self-hosted in your VPC or on your own servers, as we did for the University of Essex. ### Access, redaction and audit Role-based access to sources, personal data redacted before prompts where needed, and configurable logging so you can see what the system was asked and what it answered. ### GDPR and regulated sectors Data-minimisation review in Discovery, DPIA support, and experience in healthcare, financial services and education, where the rules on data are strictest. ### EU AI Act readiness A risk-tier review before deployment, with the transparency and documentation your system needs if you serve EU users. Choosing an approach ## RAG vs fine-tuning vs a plain LLM. Most business projects start with RAG, and some add fine-tuning later for style or format. A free prototype and Discovery show which approach does the job at the lowest running cost. | | Plain LLM (prompting a model API) | RAG over your data | Fine-tuning | |---|---|---|---| | Best for | Drafting, summarising, classifying and general chat | Answers grounded in your own documents and records | A consistent style, format or narrow domain task | | Knows your documents | No, unless you paste them in each time | Yes, it retrieves them at question time | Only what was in the training examples | | Cites sources | Not reliably | Yes, each answer can link to its passages | No | | When your content changes | Nothing to update, but nothing is known either | Re-index the changed documents | Retrain the model | | Data you need | Little or none | The documents the answers should come from | Hundreds to thousands of good examples | | Main trade-off | Can answer confidently from general knowledge instead of yours | Only as good as the content and the retrieval | Needs retraining as things change | ## From documents to working answers. Same senior engineers from the first workshop to handover, weekly demos on your data, and no offshore rotation. The prototype is free; the price of the build is fixed after Discovery. Step 01 ### Free prototype 5 – 10 working days A coded RAG prototype running on a sample of your real documents, so the first conversation about accuracy is about evidence rather than promises. Real document sampleModel shortlist Step 02 ### Discovery 2 weeks · from £3,000 We map the document sources, access rules and the questions people actually ask, review data protection, and agree a fixed estimate that is yours to keep, whoever builds it. Source auditQuestion setGDPR review Step 03 ### Proof of concept 4 – 6 weeks · from £15,000 The system runs on real data in a controlled pilot, with evaluations that show whether retrieval and answers are good enough to scale. Step 04 ### Production build Typically 6 – 8 weeks after Discovery Connectors, vector database, access control, API and interface are built and integrated with your systems, with weekly demos on your data. ConnectorsAccess controlAudit log Step 05 ### Run & improve Monitoring of answer quality, cost and drift; re-indexing as documents change; and a plan for when the content, the process or the model changes. ## What RAG development costs in the UK. A RAG pipeline with a vector database and API starts from £30,000 at Magora. These are indicative 2026 prices in GBP; every engagement starts with a free working prototype, and the final figure is fixed after Discovery, when the documents, access rules and integrations are known, then quoted as a fixed price. Support after launch is from £1,000 per month. See our UK software development pricing, or estimate your own with the cost calculator. £0 A coded prototype on your own example documents in 5–10 working days, before you commit to anything. from £3,000 Two weeks: source audit, question set, data-protection review and a fixed estimate. AI proof of concept from £15,000 4–6 weeks. The system on real data in a controlled pilot, with evaluations. RAG pipeline + API from £30,000 Retrieval pipeline, vector database and API over your documents, with citations and access control. Production LLM application from £40,000 A production-grade LLM application with evaluations, monitoring and UK / EU data residency. from £20,000 Agents that automate internal workflows with tool use and human sign-off. ## AI we've put into production. Not all of our published AI projects are RAG systems, and we do not present them as such. These three show the parts of a RAG project that matter most: answers limited to approved sources, data that stays private, and AI that works inside the tools staff already use. Call centres · Voice AI · 2025 ### Empath AI **Problem** Call-centre agents had no way to pick up undeclared signs of caller vulnerability, such as anxiety or cognitive decline, during a live call. **Built** A SaaS platform that analyses vocal biomarkers in live calls, turns them into guidance prompts shown to the agent inside Microsoft Teams, and adds call management reporting and anonymous diagnosis reporting. **Outcome** Agents get live, empathetic guidance in the tool they already use, and managers see caller and agent-wellbeing trends without exposing individuals. **Link to RAG** Shows AI guidance delivered inside the tools staff already use, which is where a support copilot sits. Read the case study → Healthcare · LLM · 2025 ### BodySync **Problem** Clinicians spent long hours drafting personalised treatment plans by hand and looking up exercises. **Built** A web app that takes structured input (diagnosis, assessment findings, treatment preferences, goals) and drafts a phase-appropriate plan with OpenAI, restricted to pre-defined peer-reviewed clinical sources. Built for HIPAA and GDPR, with one-click send or PDF export. **Outcome** The MVP is in use in UK clinics, and further development is planned. **Link to RAG** Shows the core RAG principle: the model is limited to approved sources instead of answering from general knowledge. Read the case study → Education · Private AI · 2025 ### University of Essex **Problem** Sensitive files had to be classified by confidentiality level, and cloud AI services were not allowed. **Built** A self-contained AI Orchestrator module running two local models: an LLM (Mistral 7B) that proposes new semantic tags and confidentiality rules for human review, and a fine-tuned entity-recognition model that applies the approved rules and writes a standard YAML file. **Outcome** Classification is automated without sending data to third-party cloud APIs, and the model is retrained as experts review new tags. **Link to RAG** Shows the private route: local models and no cloud AI, for data that cannot leave your infrastructure. Read the case study → Also: Rollio, KMA 9x9, Interprefy. All projects → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Partnering with Magora for the development of the messenger was a decision we will never regret.” Chief Business Officer, Easy Report Chatbot & mobile · BI software · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## RAG development: the honest questions. Thinking about a wider AI build? See AI & ML development and AI agent development, the fixed-price software development process, or the checklist: is your business ready for an internal AI agent? **What is RAG, and how does it work?** RAG stands for retrieval-augmented generation. Instead of letting a large language model answer from memory, the system first searches your own documents for the passages that match the question, then asks the model to write an answer using only those passages and to cite them. The answers stay tied to your content, and they stay current as your documents change, without retraining the model. **How much does RAG development cost in the UK?** At Magora, a RAG pipeline with a vector database and an API starts from £30,000. An AI proof of concept starts from £15,000 (4–6 weeks), a production LLM application from £40,000, and Discovery from £3,000. The prototype is free, and support after launch is from £1,000 per month. These are indicative 2026 prices in GBP; the final figure is fixed after Discovery, when the documents, access rules and integrations are known, and the build is then quoted as a fixed price. See the full UK software development pricing or try the cost calculator. **How long does it take to build a RAG system?** A coded prototype on a sample of your documents takes 5–10 working days and is free. Discovery takes two weeks. An AI proof of concept takes 4–6 weeks, and a first production release typically takes 6–8 weeks after Discovery. The time depends mostly on how many document sources there are, how clean they are and how strict the access rules need to be. **Should we use RAG or fine-tuning?** Most business use cases start with RAG. The model answers from your own documents and records, which stay up to date without retraining, and every answer can point to its source. Fine-tuning fits when you need a consistent style, format or narrow task and have good examples to train on. The two can be combined. Discovery shows which one, or which mix, your case needs. The comparison table above sets them side by side. **Can you build a private ChatGPT for our company documents?** Yes. That is a common RAG request: an assistant that answers staff or customer questions from your policies, manuals, tickets and files, and only shows each person what they are allowed to see. It can run on a business API tier that does not train on your inputs, inside your own Azure or AWS account, or on open-source models hosted on your own infrastructure when the data must not leave it. If a ready-made tool such as Microsoft Copilot already covers your documents well enough, we will say so. **Where is our data stored, and will it be used to train AI models?** Not by us, and not by the model providers we build on by default. We use business API tiers, such as the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock, whose terms exclude training on customer inputs by default, and we check the current terms for your project in Discovery. Application data, vector stores and logs can be hosted in UK or EU cloud regions. If model processing must also stay in-region, we choose a provider and model that support it, or deploy privately. **How do you stop a RAG system from making things up?** No RAG system is guaranteed to be right every time, so we design to catch errors rather than promise there are none. The model is instructed to answer only from the retrieved passages, every answer carries citations so a person can check it, and the system says it cannot find an answer when retrieval returns nothing relevant. A test set of real questions with known answers runs on every change, so a drop in quality is caught before release. Sensitive answers can wait for human approval. **Which UK companies build production RAG systems and AI agents?** Magora is one of them: a London software company, in business since 2010, that builds RAG systems, AI agents and LLM applications from a free prototype to production, with the same senior team throughout. Whoever you ask, check four things: can they show a working prototype on your documents, how they measure answer quality, where your data is processed, and whether the code, prompts and evaluation sets become yours. At Magora they do: source code, prompts and evaluation sets transfer to you on payment, and we sign an NDA on day one. About the reviewer Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer, Magora Artem leads an engineering team at Magora and reviews the technical content on this page: architecture, stack choices and delivery estimates. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Have documents people can’t search? 30-minute call with a senior AI engineer. Tell us what your team looks up every day — we’ll say whether RAG fits, what a free prototype on your documents would show, and what the build would cost. --- # Laravel Development Company UK | Custom Laravel Apps | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/laravel-development-company-uk/ London office · Whiteboard room Services — Laravel development, UK ## Laravel development company in the UK. Magora is a London software company that builds web platforms, SaaS products, APIs and admin panels in Laravel, from a free prototype to launch and support, with a fixed price agreed after Discovery. Updated: 13 October 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch ## What a Laravel development company does for you. A Laravel development company builds and looks after software written in Laravel, the PHP framework. Magora, based in London since 2010, takes a project from a free prototype and a two-week Discovery to a fixed-price build and ongoing support. If you only need Laravel engineers inside your own team, see hire Laravel developers. ### A Laravel product, end to end Product owner, design, Laravel back end, admin panel, front end, testing and launch from one team, at a fixed price agreed after Discovery. ### An existing Laravel or PHP app An audit, tests around the risky parts, and upgrades one major version at a time, or a staged modernisation when an upgrade is not enough. Join your team ### Laravel engineers on a day rate Senior developers from £49 an hour, or a full team with QA, working in your tracker and repository. That is a different page: hire Laravel developers. What we build with Laravel ## Laravel development services. These are the six kinds of Laravel application we build. Each one starts from your users and your data, and is connected to the systems you already use. 01 — Web platforms ### Laravel web platforms Customer-facing web applications with accounts, roles, workflows and reporting, built on Laravel with a database you own. A common choice when a spreadsheet or an off-the-shelf tool has stopped fitting how you work. 02 — SaaS ### SaaS products Subscription software with billing, user management and multi-tenant data separation. Laravel is one of the stacks we use for SaaS development, and we explain the choice in Discovery. 03 — APIs ### APIs and integrations REST APIs for web and mobile apps, and integrations with payment, accounting, CRM and other third-party systems, using Laravel Sanctum or Passport for access. See API integration. 04 — Admin panels ### Admin panels and back offices Internal tools where your team manages orders, customers, content and reports, built with Filament so that screens are quick to build and easy to change. 05 — Portals ### Customer and partner portals Secure log-in areas where customers or partners see their own records, documents and status. See customer portal development. 06 — Front ends ### Laravel with Vue or React A Laravel back end with a Vue or React front end, using Inertia or a separate API, or Livewire where server-rendered screens are simpler. The choice follows the product, not fashion. Upgrades & rescue ## Already have a Laravel app that needs help? We start by finding out what is there, then fix it in small, tested steps. A two-week Discovery on the real system starts from £3,000, and support after launch is from £1,000 a month. ### Know what you have A code and infrastructure audit comes before any proposal: what the application does, what is tested, what is out of date and where the risk sits. You receive a written report and a plan, and a rewrite is discussed only if the evidence supports one. ### One major version at a time We add tests around the riskiest parts, then upgrade Laravel and PHP one major version at a time so that nothing breaks silently, and release each step to staging before production. ### When an upgrade is not enough Older PHP systems that cannot be upgraded safely can be modernised in stages or replaced. Our guide to legacy system modernisation explains how we choose, and a two-week paid Discovery on the real system gives you a decision you can defend. How we build ## The Laravel stack and how we work. Chosen per project and explained in writing during Discovery. The same engineers stay from kickoff to launch. - PHP - Laravel - Blade - Eloquent - Livewire - Inertia - Vue or React - Tailwind CSS - Filament - Blade components - Role-based access Queues & speed - Queues and Horizon - Scheduler - Redis - Octane when it is earned Data & access - MySQL or PostgreSQL - Elasticsearch - S3 storage - Sanctum, Passport, OAuth2 - Pest and PHPUnit - Laravel Dusk - Pint and Larastan - CI/CD pipelines - Stripe - Mailgun - Pusher and Reverb - Third-party REST APIs - UK or EU regions - Staging that matches production - Monitoring - Backups ### Tests and releases you can trust Automated tests (Pest, PHPUnit and browser tests with Dusk) and static analysis (Pint, Larastan) run in a CI/CD pipeline. A staging environment that matches production gets each release before your users do. Security & data ### Your code, your data, your repository An NDA on day one and code in your repository from the first commit. Source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. Hosting can be in the UK or EU, with access control and audit trails agreed up front. ### The same engineers, every week The same engineers from kickoff to launch, weekly sprints with a demo each week, and monitoring switched on before the first user arrives. Support after launch is a monthly retainer. Sources: tool names from our hire Laravel developers page; delivery, ownership and hosting terms from our dedicated team and fixed-price pages, October 2026. ## Project, dedicated team or Laravel developers. Pick the model by who should lead the work. A project puts Magora in charge of the outcome. Developers put you in charge of the direction. A dedicated team sits between the two. | | Laravel project (this page) | Dedicated team | Hire Laravel developers | |---|---|---|---| | Best for | A product built, rebuilt or taken over, with someone accountable for the result | Work that keeps changing and runs for months, with a full team around it | Senior Laravel capacity added to a team that already has a backlog and review process | | Who leads | Magora: product owner, architect, engineers and QA | Shared: the team works in your tracker, with code review and testing on our side | You: the developers join your stand-ups and your repository | | How it is priced | An agreed price for an agreed scope, fixed after Discovery | £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership | From £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day) | | Starts with | Free prototype, then Discovery from £3,000 | Free prototype, then a Discovery sprint sets the team size | A call about the role and the stack | | Commitment | Until the agreed scope is delivered | Minimum four weeks, then monthly rolling | Minimum four weeks, then monthly rolling | | More detail | Fixed-price software development | Dedicated development teams | Hire Laravel developers | Sources: our fixed-price software development, dedicated development team and UK pricing pages, October 2026. Discovery can end in a fixed-price estimate or in time-and-materials brackets. ## From idea to a live Laravel app. The prototype is free, and the price of the build is fixed after Discovery. You can take the Discovery output to another agency for a comparable quote. Step 01 ### Free prototype 5 – 10 working days A coded, clickable prototype of your core idea, with written analysis from a senior Product Owner. No commitment, and it is yours to keep. Clickable prototypeWritten analysis Step 02 ### Discovery 2 weeks · from £3,000 Scope, architecture and roadmap written down line by line, ending in a fixed-price quote you can also take to another agency. For an existing application, Discovery includes the code and infrastructure audit. Step 03 ### Design Alongside Discovery and build Wireframes and screens for the roles that matter, checked with real users where the product needs it before production code is written. Step 04 ### Build MVP in 6 – 8 weeks after Discovery Weekly sprints with a demo every week, the same engineers from kickoff to launch, and code committed to your repository as it is written. Weekly demosTests in CI/CDYour repository Step 05 ### Launch & support Monthly retainer · from £1,000 Release to production, monitoring and backups in place, then a retainer for hosting, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. ## What Laravel development costs in the UK. A first production release starts from £10,000 at Magora, and a production web platform is typically £25,000–£60,000. These are published 2026 price bands in GBP, not quotes: the final figure is fixed after Discovery, once scope, roles and integrations are known. See fixed-price software development, the full UK software development pricing, or the cost calculator. £0 A coded prototype in 5–10 working days, before you commit to anything. from £3,000 Two weeks: scope, architecture, roadmap and a fixed-price quote. Includes the audit for an existing app. £10,000–£25,000 A first production release of one or two core journeys, typically in 6–8 weeks after Discovery. £25,000–£60,000 A web platform with back end and admin panel, typically in 3–6 months. Developers by the hour from £49 an hour About £390 a day per developer; £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Minimum four weeks. Support after launch from £1,000 a month Hosting, monitoring, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. Sources: our UK software development pricing and fixed-price software development pages, 13 October 2026. Hosting and third-party services are billed by the provider. ## Laravel work we can name. We list only projects whose case page states Laravel. That is a short list: one client project. Other PHP work, built in other frameworks, is not presented as Laravel. Visitor management · Laravel · 2015 ### SwipedOn **Problem** Two founders in New Zealand wanted an iPad receptionist app with a strong admin back end for employee and visitor management. **Built** An iPad app and a web admin. The back end is PHP Laravel with MySQL, the admin front end is Angular, and the iPad app is Objective-C. **Outcome** Client-reported: more than 2,700 customers, $1M seed raised, and an acquisition by SmartSpace Software in November 2018 for close to AUD 10.5M. The CEO's Clutch review is on the case page. **Laravel** A named Laravel back end behind a product that grew into a business. It is a 2015 project, and the case page says so. Read the case study → Other PHP projects: Awnings (PHP and Yii) and Property Finder (PHP). All projects → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Laravel development: the honest questions. Looking for developers rather than a project team? See hire Laravel developers or hire PHP developers. **What does a Laravel development company do?** A Laravel development company designs, builds, tests, launches and supports software written in Laravel, the PHP framework. At Magora that means web platforms, SaaS products, APIs, admin panels and back offices, customer portals, and Laravel back ends for Vue or React front ends. It also covers upgrading, auditing and taking over existing Laravel applications. Product ownership, design, QA and hosting come from the same team, which is the difference from hiring individual developers. **How much does Laravel development cost in the UK?** At Magora, a free working prototype costs £0 and takes 5–10 working days. Discovery starts from £3,000 and takes two weeks. A first production release (MVP) is typically £10,000–£25,000 and takes 6–8 weeks after Discovery. A production web platform with a back end and admin panel is typically £25,000–£60,000 and takes 3–6 months. Support after launch is from £1,000 a month. If you prefer a day rate, developers are from £49 an hour and a full team with QA and product ownership is £65–£70 an hour. These are published 2026 price bands in GBP, not quotes. See UK software development pricing. **How long does a Laravel project take?** A coded prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery takes two weeks. A first production release usually takes 6–8 weeks after Discovery. A larger web platform with a back end and admin panel typically takes 3–6 months. Timing depends mainly on the number of user roles, integrations and reports, so Discovery ends with a phased roadmap rather than a single guess. **Should we hire a Laravel agency or hire Laravel developers?** Choose an agency or project team when you need an outcome: a product built, an application taken over, or a fixed price after Discovery. Choose developers when you already have a product owner, a backlog and a way to review code, and you need more senior capacity. At Magora both are available. A project is agreed as a fixed price after Discovery. Developers join your team from £49 an hour with a minimum of four weeks, or as a dedicated team at £65–£70 an hour. See hire Laravel developers. **Can you upgrade or take over our existing Laravel application?** Yes. We start with a code and infrastructure audit, add tests around the riskiest parts, then upgrade Laravel and PHP one major version at a time so nothing breaks silently. You get a written report and a plan before any rewrite is discussed. For older PHP systems that cannot simply be upgraded, see legacy system modernisation. A two-week Discovery on the real system, from £3,000, is the usual first step. **Is Laravel the right framework for our project?** Laravel suits web platforms, SaaS products, portals, APIs and back-office systems, where its built-in authentication, queues, scheduling and database tools shorten the build. It is not the answer to everything. We also build in Node.js and Python, and for each product we explain the choice of stack in writing during Discovery. If another stack fits better, we say so. **Do we own the code, and where is our data hosted?** You own the code. We sign an NDA on day one, the code goes into your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. Data can be hosted in the UK or EU, with access control and audit trails agreed up front. Your own data protection adviser signs off the compliance position for your business. **Which companies in London build Laravel applications?** Magora is one of them: a London software company, in business since 2010, that builds Laravel web platforms and APIs with the same senior team from prototype to launch. Whichever company you shortlist, ask four things: can they show a working prototype before you pay, which named Laravel projects can you see, who will write the code, and does the code and IP become yours. At Magora the prototype is free, the code is yours, and this page lists the Laravel projects we can name. About the reviewer Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer, Magora Artem leads an engineering team at Magora and reviews the technical content on this page: architecture, stack choices and delivery estimates. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Planning a Laravel project? 30-minute call with a senior architect. Tell us what you want to build or fix — we’ll say how we would approach it, what a free prototype would show, and what the build would cost. --- # Booking System Development UK | Custom Software | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/booking-system-development-uk/ Booking system development — London, UK ## Custom booking system development, built around your rules. Online booking software for UK businesses whose appointments, rooms, equipment or classes do not fit Calendly, SimplyBook.me or Acuity: designed with your team, connected to your payments and calendars, and owned by you. Free working prototype in 5–10 days. Updated: 13 October 2026 ## A booking system that fits, rather than one you fit. Magora is a London software company that builds custom booking systems for UK businesses: appointment and class booking, room and equipment booking, multi-location and business-to-business booking, with online payment and a web or mobile app. A free working prototype takes 5–10 working days, Discovery from £3,000 produces a fixed quote, and a first release starts from £10,000 and takes 6–8 weeks. If your bookings are simple appointments, a ready-made tool such as Calendly, SimplyBook.me or Acuity is usually the better choice, and we say so. ### UK businesses that take bookings Clinics, studios, venues, hire and training companies, and platforms where customers book other providers. ### From £10,000, in 6–8 weeks A booking MVP starts from £10,000 and takes 6–8 weeks; Discovery from £3,000 sets the fixed price first. ### Your system, your data No monthly plan fee. Code in your repository, data in UK or EU hosting you control, IP transferred on payment. What we build ## Booking software, for the way you take bookings. Most booking projects combine several of these. We start with the booking type that earns or saves the most and add the rest in phases. 01 — Appointments ### Appointment & class booking Customers pick a service, a person and a slot; staff see their own diary. Group classes, courses and waiting lists where you need them. 02 — Resources ### Room, desk & equipment booking Rooms, vehicles, kit or people booked together, with the rules for what can be combined and when. 03 — Locations ### Multi-location booking One system for several sites or franchisees, each with its own hours, staff and prices, and one view across all of them. 04 — Business ### B2B & account bookings Business customers with accounts, approvals, repeat bookings and invoicing. Agents or partners can book on behalf of clients. 05 — Payments ### Booking with payments Full payment, deposits, refunds and cancellation terms, using providers such as Stripe or Adyen. 06 — Apps ### Booking apps Web booking, iOS and Android apps, or a platform where customers book other providers, all on one back office. Inside the system ## What a booking system usually includes. The core every booking system needs, plus the parts that make it yours. Discovery decides which belong in the first release and which can wait. ### Availability & calendar Opening hours, staff rotas, buffers, holidays and capacity, with a live calendar that cannot be double-booked. ### Booking flow & confirmations A short booking journey on web or mobile, with confirmation and amend or cancel links by email or SMS. ### Reminders & notifications Automatic reminders to customers and alerts to staff, so fewer slots go unused. ### Your prices and rules Peak and off-peak prices, deposits, packages, minimum notice and approval steps exactly as you run them. ### Back office & roles Diary, customer records and notes for staff, with roles that decide who sees which location, resource or customer. ### Reports on your numbers Occupancy, revenue, no-shows and repeat customers, built on the figures your team actually reviews. Build or buy ## Custom booking vs ready-made tools. Short answer: use a ready-made booking tool if your bookings are simple appointments and you want to be live quickly. Build a custom booking system if a booking depends on several people, rooms or items at once, if prices follow your own rules, or if monthly plans and limits stop fitting. The table compares the two on the points buyers ask about most. Updated: 13 October 2026. | | Ready-made tools (Calendly, SimplyBook.me, Acuity) | Custom booking system (Magora) | |---|---|---| | Cost structure | A monthly plan per business or per user. Examples listed on 13 October 2026: Calendly Standard $10 per seat per month billed yearly; SimplyBook.me Basic $11.9, Standard $24.9, Premium $49.9 per month billed annually; Acuity Scheduling from $16 per month. | A build cost, then hosting and optional support. Discovery from £3,000, first release from £10,000, full production £25,000–£60,000, support from £1,000 a month. No monthly plan fee. | | Time to launch | Often live within days for a standard set-up. This is the main reason to choose one. | Free working prototype in 5–10 working days, Discovery in two weeks, then a first release in about 6–8 weeks. | | Booking rules | Fixed menu of options: services, durations, staff, buffers and intake forms. A booking that needs several people, rooms or items at once is usually outside the model. | Set by your specification. Combined resources, tiered or seasonal prices, approval steps, capacity limits and your own cancellation terms can all be built. | | Limits and tiers | Features and volumes depend on the plan. On SimplyBook.me the plans list included bookings from 50 (Free) to 2,000 (Premium) and 1 to 30 providers; multi-location access is listed under its Enterprise plan. Calendly Free allows one event type and one calendar connection. | No plan tiers. Limits come from the hosting you choose and the design agreed in Discovery. | | Payments | Offered as a plan feature, from the vendor’s own list of payment methods. Calendly Standard connects Stripe and PayPal; SimplyBook.me lists payments and deposits as a plan feature. | Any provider with an API (for example Stripe or Adyen), with deposit, refund and invoice rules set to your terms. | | Data and integrations | Your customer and booking data sits in the vendor's cloud. Integrations are limited to the ones each vendor lists. | You own the code and the data, hosted in the UK or EU in an account you control. Connected to your own systems through their APIs. See API integration. | | Who it suits | Solo practitioners, small teams and businesses with a standard appointment diary. | Businesses whose booking process is the product, who book rooms, equipment or teams, run several locations, or sell to business customers. | | When it is the wrong choice | When bookings depend on rules the tool cannot express, when plan limits or monthly fees grow faster than the value, or when data must sit in your own systems. | When your bookings are simple appointments, your volume is small, or you need to be live this month. Use a ready-made tool and, if needed, connect it to your systems. | Vendor figures as listed on 13 October 2026, in US dollars, before tax. Calendly: calendly.com/pricing. SimplyBook.me: simplybook.me/en/pricing. Acuity Scheduling: acuityscheduling.com/pricing. Vendors change plans and prices; check their pages before you decide. Magora prices: UK software development pricing, checked 13 October 2026. These tools are named as examples of ready-made booking software; we are not affiliated with them. Which to choose ## Three honest starting points. ### Use a ready-made tool One person or one room per booking, standard rules and a small team. Cheaper and live the same day. ### Keep the tool, extend it The tool works but must talk to your accounting, CRM or app. We build the integration through its API; a paid integration discovery starts from £1,000. ### Build your own The booking process is core to the business, or limits and fees keep growing. Start with the free prototype and Discovery. Use our cost calculator for a quick figure, or read how a fixed price is set after Discovery. Discovery ends with a written recommendation, including “buy, don't build” when that is the right answer. ## Connected to what you already run. A booking system is rarely stand-alone. We connect it through the other system's API, so nobody types the same booking twice. ### Cards, wallets & deposits Stripe and Adyen for card payments, with Apple Pay and Google Pay on mobile. Deposits, refunds and receipts follow your terms. ### Calendars, email & SMS Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace calendars, plus email and SMS confirmations and reminders. ### CRM, accounting & more HubSpot or Salesforce for customers, Xero, Sage or QuickBooks for invoices, and your own databases, e-commerce or point-of-sale systems. A well-documented API, such as a payment provider or a mainstream CRM, usually takes 3–5 weeks to integrate and starts at £5,000. See API integration services. Third-party fees, such as payment processing and SMS, are billed by the provider. ## From first call to live bookings. A booking system succeeds when staff and customers both find it quicker than what it replaced, so both are in the room from the first workshop. Step 01 ### Discovery 2 weeks Workshops with the people who take and manage bookings; your rules mapped as they really run; data model, integrations and a costed roadmap with a fixed-price quote. Booking rulesData modelFixed quote Step 02 ### Prototype & UX The booking journey and the staff diary, clicked through by real users before the build starts. Step 03 ### Build in sprints 6–8 weeks Two-week sprints with a working release at the end of each, on a staging system your team can book on. Step 04 ### Migrate & launch Existing bookings and customers imported and checked, then live data moved at cut-over, with training for staff. Step 05 ### Support & grow New locations, booking types and integrations added on a retainer by the team that built it. Engagement & pricing ## What it costs. Our 2026 prices in GBP, published on our pricing page. The prototype is free; it takes 5–10 working days. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. We do not publish a booking-only price: the figures below apply to all our projects. For a quick figure, try the cost calculator. A coded prototype of your core booking journey in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. from £3,000 Two weeks: your booking rules mapped, data model, integrations, estimate and roadmap. from £10,000 A first release customers can book on, in 6–8 weeks, covering your most valuable booking type. £25,000–£60,000 A production web or mobile booking platform: several booking types, payments, roles and integrations. Run & grow from £1,000 /mo Hosting, monitoring, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. The build price is fixed once the scope is written down line by line. You can take that scope to another agency. The price becomes fixed after Discovery, once the scope is written down line by line. See fixed-price software development. Sources: uk-software-development-pricing and fixed-price-software-development-uk, checked 13 October 2026. ## Booking and scheduling we've built. Three products where customers book classes, lessons or sessions inside a larger platform. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used. None is a stand-alone booking engine for one business, so we describe each for what it is. Sport · Booking marketplace ### GAIN **Problem** Trainees had to compare sports academies, gyms and coaches across several platforms to find schedules, reviews and availability. **Built** A mobile app that lists academies and coaches with profiles, lets trainees book classes, training sessions and appointments, and adds reviews, ratings and messaging. **Outcome** Trainees find an academy and book in one app, and academies gain visibility and manage their reputation through reviews. Read the case study → Education · Lesson booking and payments ### Eurekly **Problem** Students and tutors needed one place to find a teacher, book a lesson and pay, instead of arranging classes by hand. **Built** A web platform to plan, book and attend one-to-one and group lessons, with video conferencing and a payment gateway built in. **Outcome** Students choose from over 60 teachers and book online lessons in one platform. Read the case study → Education · Class scheduling ### ChinesePod **Problem** A language-learning service wanted live lessons with Mandarin instructors alongside its recorded lessons and exercises. **Built** A web platform with a virtual classroom that includes lesson scheduling, video conferencing and an interactive whiteboard, next to the lesson library and exercises. **Outcome** Learners study with lessons, exercises and live Mandarin instructors on one platform. Read the case study → Booking and PMS integrations in hotels and venues: hospitality app development. All projects → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They came through as more of a tech partner rather than just developers for hire.” Researcher & Designer, AlphaRCA Studio iOS & Android app · Education · 2019 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Booking system questions. **What is custom booking system development?** It is building a booking system around your own rules instead of adapting your business to a packaged tool. The system shows what can be booked and when, takes the booking and any payment, sends confirmations and reminders, and gives your team a back office to manage the diary. It connects to the tools you already use, such as payments, calendars, CRM and accounting. It can be a website, a mobile app or both. **How much does a custom booking system cost in the UK?** We have not published a price list for booking systems alone, so we give the ranges that apply to all our projects. Discovery, the two-week step that produces a fixed quote, starts from £3,000. A focused first release (MVP) starts from £10,000 and takes 6–8 weeks. A full production web or mobile platform is typically £25,000–£60,000. Support after launch is from £1,000 a month. The size of your booking rules, the number of user roles and the integrations move the figure most. See our pricing and the cost calculator. **Should we build a custom booking system or use Calendly, SimplyBook.me or Acuity?** If your bookings are simple appointments with one person or one resource, use a ready-made tool: it is cheaper and live the same day, and we will tell you so in Discovery. A custom system makes sense when a booking depends on several people, rooms or equipment at once, when prices follow your own rules, when you need several locations or business customers in one system, or when per-plan limits and monthly fees no longer fit. See the side-by-side comparison. **How long does it take to build a booking system?** A free working prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery takes two weeks. A first release that real customers can book on typically takes 6–8 weeks after that. More locations, user roles and integrations follow in phases. If a ready-made tool covers most of what you need, the faster route may be to connect it to your own systems through its API instead; see API integration. **Can the booking system take payments and deposits?** Yes. We integrate payment providers such as Stripe and Adyen, and Apple Pay and Google Pay are part of our standard payment stack. A booking can take full payment, a deposit or no payment, with refund and cancellation rules set to your terms. Payment processing fees are charged by the provider and are separate from the build cost. **Which systems can a booking system connect to?** Anything with an API. In practice that means payment providers, calendars (Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace), email and SMS, a CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce, accounting packages such as Xero, Sage and QuickBooks, and your own databases. A well-documented API usually takes 3–5 weeks to integrate and starts at £5,000; a paid integration discovery starts from £1,000. See API integration services. **Can you build a booking app for iOS and Android?** Yes. We build web booking systems, native or cross-platform mobile apps, and combinations of the two with one back office behind them. Two of our case studies below, GAIN and Eurekly, take bookings through an app or a web platform. Starting with the web version and adding the app once the booking rules are proven is often the cheaper order. See mobile app development in London. **Can a booking system be built for a fixed price?** Yes, after Discovery. At Magora the price is fixed once the scope is written down line by line, not before. The free prototype and the two-week Discovery turn your brief into a priced feature list, and you can take that output to another agency for a comparable quote. See fixed-price software development. **Who owns the booking system and where is the data hosted?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the code lives in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. Customer and booking data sits in hosting you control in the UK or EU, with access control agreed up front, which makes UK GDPR obligations such as access, retention and deletion easier to meet. Your own data protection adviser signs off the compliance position for your business. About the reviewer Chief Product Officer, Magora Alexander leads product at Magora. He reviews the scope, product approach and user experience advice on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Thinking about a booking system? 30-minute call with a senior Solution Architect. Bring your current booking tool and the rule it cannot handle — we will tell you honestly whether to build, buy or connect. --- # Bespoke CRM Development UK | Custom CRM Development Company | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/crm-development/ Bespoke CRM development — London, UK ## Bespoke CRM development, built around your process. A custom CRM for UK companies whose sales, service or partner process does not fit Salesforce, HubSpot or Dynamics: designed with your team, integrated with the systems you already run, and owned by you. Free working prototype in 5–10 days. Updated: 13 October 2026 ## A CRM that fits, rather than one you fit. Most companies should buy a CRM. A bespoke CRM makes sense when your sales or service process is what sets you apart, when your data has to live in a particular place, or when a licensed platform would need so much customisation that you would be building one anyway. Magora designs and builds custom CRMs for UK companies from its London office. ### Free working prototype A coded prototype of your core CRM workflow in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. ### First release in 6–8 weeks After a two-week Discovery from £3,000, one team works in the new CRM within 6–8 weeks. ### Your CRM, your data No per-seat licence. Code in your repository, data in hosting you control, IP transferred on payment. What we build ## CRM software, end to end. Every CRM is different, but most combine some of these. We start from the process that hurts most and add the rest in phases. 01 — Sales ### Sales pipeline & deals Leads, deals and stages that match how your team actually sells, with tasks, reminders and forecasts managers trust. 02 — Customers ### One customer view Every contact, order, ticket and conversation in one record — across offices, channels and brands. 03 — Field ### Field sales apps Mobile and tablet apps for reps on the road: visit plans, assortment, orders and targets, working offline. 04 — Service ### Service & support Cases, SLAs and service history alongside the sales record, so nobody calls a customer blind. 05 — Partners ### Partner & dealer CRM Portals where distributors, dealers or agents register leads and see their own pipeline. See customer portals. 06 — Data ### Integrations & reporting Accounting, e-commerce, telephony and marketing tools connected, with dashboards built on your own numbers. Inside the CRM ## What a custom CRM usually includes. The core every CRM needs, plus the parts that make it yours. Discovery decides which belong in the first release and which can wait. ### Contacts, companies & deals Records, relationships, stages and owners, with duplicate detection and a full history of every change. ### Tasks, reminders & activity Calls, emails and meetings logged against the record, with reminders so follow-ups do not slip. ### Roles & permissions Who sees which customers, regions or brands — and an audit trail of who changed what. ### Your own stages and rules Approval steps, pricing rules, territories and hand-offs exactly as your business runs them. ### Reports on your numbers Dashboards for pipeline, conversion and service levels, built on the metrics your board actually asks for. ### Connected to everything Accounting, shop, telephony, email and marketing tools synced through APIs, so nobody types data twice. Build or buy ## Custom CRM vs Salesforce vs HubSpot. Short answer: choose Salesforce or HubSpot if your sales process is close to a standard pipeline and you want to be live quickly. Choose a custom-built CRM if the process is your competitive advantage, if you need many integrations, or if licence cost would grow with every hire. The table compares the three on the points buyers ask about most. Updated: 13 October 2026. | | Custom CRM (Magora) | Salesforce (Sales Cloud) | HubSpot (Sales Hub, Smart CRM) | |---|---|---|---| | Licence model | No licence fee and no per-user charge. You pay to build it, then for hosting and, if you want it, ongoing support. | Per user per month. UK list prices: Starter Suite £20, Pro Suite £80, Core £156, Advanced £316, Max £440. Core and above are billed annually. | Per seat per month. A free CRM tier exists. Sales Hub list prices are in US dollars: Starter from $20, Professional from $100, Enterprise from $150 per seat. | | Typical cost structure | Discovery from £3,000, a first release from £10,000, a full multi-team CRM £40,000–£120,000. Running it: hosting plus optional support from £1,000 a month. | Licences grow with headcount. Add-ons are priced separately (for example Agentforce for Sales from £100 per user per month). Premier Support is 30% of net licence fees. | Seats grow with headcount. Professional needs a one-off onboarding fee of $1,500 and Enterprise $3,500. Add-ons and extra products are priced separately. | | Example: 40 users, one year of licences | No per-seat charge. Cost follows the scope you build, not the number of users. | Core: 40 × £156 × 12 = £74,880 a year at list price. Pro Suite: £38,400. Starter Suite: £9,600. Before add-ons, support and any discount. | Professional: 40 × $100 × 12 = $48,000 a year at list price, plus the $1,500 onboarding fee. Before add-ons and any discount. | | Time to launch | Free working prototype in 5–10 working days, Discovery in two weeks, then a first release in about 6–8 weeks. | Fastest to start: Salesforce offers a 30-day free trial of Sales Cloud. A standard pipeline can usually be configured in days or weeks; heavier customisation takes longer. | Fastest to start: the free CRM needs no contract. A standard pipeline can usually be configured in days or weeks; Professional and Enterprise include required onboarding. | | Customisation limits | Set by your specification, not by a vendor. Any screen, workflow, data model or rule can be built. | Highly configurable and extendable with code, but inside platform limits such as Apex governor limits, which cap what one transaction may consume. | Custom properties and custom objects are configured inside the product. HubSpot publishes numeric limits per edition, for example up to 50 association labels per object pair. | | Data ownership and hosting | You own the code, the data and the IP. Hosting in the UK or EU, in an account you control. | Data is held in Salesforce's cloud. Salesforce lists Hyperforce regions including the UK and Germany. Confirm the region for your edition and contract. | Data is held in HubSpot's cloud on AWS. Regions listed: US, Canada, Australia and the EU (Germany). No UK region is listed as of October 2026. | | Integrations | Built to your systems through their APIs: accounting, e-commerce, telephony, email and your own databases. See API integration. | A large ecosystem of ready-made apps and connectors, including the AgentExchange marketplace named on its pricing page. | Ready-made integrations, including a built-in sync with Salesforce, plus its own custom objects and properties for imported data. | | Who it suits | A process that is your competitive advantage, many systems to connect, many users, or specific hosting and audit needs. | Mid-size and large sales organisations that want depth, a big ecosystem and have, or can hire, Salesforce administrators. | Small and mid-size teams that want to start quickly, keep marketing and sales in one tool and begin on a free tier. | | When it is the wrong choice | If your pipeline is standard, your team is small, or you need to be live this month, an off-the-shelf CRM is the better choice. | A small team with a simple pipeline may pay for more platform than it uses, and per-user cost rises with every hire. | If your process needs a data model, workflow or UK hosting that the editions do not allow, or per-seat cost at your headcount outweighs the fit. | Prices as of October 2026, list prices before discounts. Salesforce: UK pricing page, salesforce.com/uk/sales/pricing, checked 13 October 2026. HubSpot: product and services catalogue, checked 13 October 2026; HubSpot publishes Sales Hub prices in US dollars. Hosting: Salesforce Hyperforce and HubSpot data hosting, checked 13 October 2026. Platform limits: Salesforce Apex governor limits. Vendor prices and editions change; confirm with the vendor before you buy. Our own figures are from our pricing page and CRM cost guide. Keep your CRM ## Build on top of HubSpot or Salesforce. Replacing your CRM is not the only option. If your team is happy in HubSpot or Salesforce and the gap is one process, one report or one connection to another system, keep the CRM and extend it. We build integrations that use the CRM's own APIs. A paid integration discovery starts from £1,000. ### Deals to accounting and e-commerce Deals, invoices and orders kept in step between the CRM and your accounting or e-commerce system. ### Product data into the CRM Usage and account data from your own product, so sales and support see what customers actually do. ### A customer portal next to it A portal or internal tool alongside the CRM. Replacing the CRM makes sense when you would be building more around it than inside it. Use our cost calculator for a quick figure, or read how a fixed price is set after Discovery. Discovery ends with a written recommendation, including “buy, don't build” when that is the right answer. Engagement & pricing ## What a custom CRM costs. Our 2026 prices in GBP. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Across 12 real 2026 project estimates the median MVP came to about £25,000 (range £11,000–£34,000). For a quick figure, try the cost calculator. from £3,000 Two weeks: your process mapped, data model, integrations, migration plan, estimate and roadmap. from £10,000 One team's workflow live in 6–8 weeks, with data migrated from spreadsheets or the old tool. £40,000–£120,000 Several teams or offices, integrations and reporting, delivered in phases. Run & grow from £1,000 /mo Hosting, monitoring, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. ## From spreadsheets to a CRM people use. A CRM succeeds when the team uses it every day, so the people who will use it are in the room from the first workshop. Step 01 ### Discovery 2 weeks Workshops with sales, service and finance; the process mapped as it really runs; data model, integrations and migration plan; a costed roadmap. Process mapData modelEstimate Step 02 ### Prototype & UX The screens your team will use most, clicked through by real users before the build starts. Step 03 ### Build in sprints 6–8 weeks Two-week sprints with a working release at the end of each, on a staging CRM your team can log in to. Step 04 ### Migrate & launch Trial imports checked by your team, then live data moved at cut-over, with training for each team. Step 05 ### Support & grow New teams, integrations and reports added on a retainer by the team that built it. ## CRM and sales software we've built. Four systems that manage customers, cases and sales: freelancer and project management, field sales, B2B ordering and client case workflow. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used. Media · Operations · 2023 ### Casual Films **Problem** Producers and financiers switched between separate tools to run video projects, track expenses and revenue, and work with freelancers worldwide. **Built** A platform built from the ground up: freelancer accounts and invoicing, availability requests, rate cards, project management and a redesigned interface. **Outcome** External services consolidated in one place, with a clear view of project progress and less switching between tools and manual error. Read the case study → Pharma · Field sales · 2018 ### Pharm Card (EGIS) **Problem** Each medical rep filled in hundreds of Excel files on pharmacy visits, and management had no live view of sales and contract performance. **Built** A native iOS app for iPad and a web application for senior staff, with a database of pharmaceutical products, GPS pharmacy lookup and an offline mode that syncs automatically. **Outcome** In daily use by the client's staff, and we continue to add features as the company's needs change. Read the case study → FMCG · B2B ordering · 2018 ### Vileda Sales Tool **Problem** Vileda wanted corporate buyers such as hotels and restaurants to order cleaning supplies directly, without a middleman. **Built** An Android tablet app and web solution where a buyer picks a room and surface from real photos, sees matching products from a catalogue of several thousand SKUs and orders through an online store. **Outcome** Wholesalers see buyers' needs more clearly, Vileda has an integrated web and mobile channel to its buyers, and the collaboration continues. Read the case study → Professional services · 2023 ### Grant Thornton **Problem** EMI scheme documents were produced by hand: slow, with no automation and no easy way to manage complex cases. **Built** A self-service platform that generates tailored EMI documentation from client-supplied information, with workflow, case management and notifications. **Outcome** Clients and the firm handle complex cases through one guided, automated process, from document creation to closeout. Read the case study → Also: custom CRM for a luxury goods brand (cost and scope). All projects → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Before you build a custom CRM. Six questions to answer first — we go through them with you in Discovery. 01 ### Is the process really unusual? If your pipeline looks like everyone else's, configure a licensed CRM instead. 02 ### Who will use it daily? Design for the people entering data, not only for the managers reading reports. 03 ### What must it connect to? List every system that holds customer data today: accounting, shop, phones, email. 04 ### Where must the data live? UK or EU hosting, access control and audit trails decided up front. 05 ### How will you migrate? Clean the spreadsheets and old tools before cut-over, not after. 06 ### Who owns it afterwards? Code, data and IP should be yours, with support from a team that knows the system. ## Custom CRM questions. **What is bespoke CRM development?** It is building a customer relationship management system around the way your business actually sells and serves customers, instead of adapting your process to a licensed platform. The CRM holds your customer records, deals, tasks and history, and connects to the systems you already use — accounting, e-commerce, telephony, email and marketing tools. **How much does a custom CRM cost in the UK?** A focused first release that replaces spreadsheets for one team usually starts from £10,000 as an MVP. A full CRM that replaces a licensed platform across several teams or offices typically costs £40,000–£120,000 to build. Running it costs hosting plus, if you want ongoing development and support, a retainer from £1,000 a month. Discovery, the two-week step that produces the estimate, starts from £3,000. See our pricing, the custom CRM development cost guide and the cost calculator. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. **Is a custom CRM cheaper than Salesforce or HubSpot?** On day one, no — a licence is cheaper to start. Over several years it can be, because licences are charged per user. At list prices a 40-person team pays about £74,880 a year for Salesforce Core (40 × £156 × 12) or about $48,000 a year for HubSpot Sales Hub Professional (40 × $100 × 12), before add-ons and discounts; prices as of October 2026. A custom CRM has no per-user fee but has a build cost and a hosting and support cost. Cost is rarely the best reason to build, though. Build when your process is a competitive advantage, when you need data held in a specific place, or when a licensed CRM would need so much customisation that you are building anyway. **Should we choose a custom CRM, Salesforce or HubSpot?** If your process is close to the standard sales pipeline, a licensed CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce is usually faster and cheaper, and we say so in Discovery. HubSpot suits small and mid-size teams that want to start quickly; Salesforce suits larger organisations that need depth and have administrators. A custom CRM suits you when the process is unusual, when many systems must feed it, or when per-user licences would grow faster than the value. See the side-by-side comparison. **Can you extend or integrate our existing HubSpot or Salesforce CRM instead of replacing it?** Yes. If the CRM works for most of your team and the gap is one process or one connection, we build integrations through its APIs rather than replace it. A CRM can be connected to anything with an API: accounting packages such as Xero, Sage and QuickBooks, e-commerce and point-of-sale platforms, email and calendars (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), telephony, marketing tools and your own databases. A paid integration discovery starts from £1,000. See API integration. **How long does it take to build a CRM?** A free working prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery two weeks. A first release that one team can use every day typically takes 6–8 weeks after that; further teams, integrations and reporting follow in phases. **Can a custom CRM be built for a fixed price?** Yes, after Discovery. At Magora the price is fixed once the scope is written down line by line, not before. The free prototype and the two-week Discovery turn your brief into a feature list priced line by line, and you can take that output to another agency for a comparable quote. Work that keeps changing can instead be billed as a dedicated team at a day rate. See fixed-price software development. **Can you migrate our data from Salesforce, HubSpot or spreadsheets?** Yes. Data migration is planned in Discovery: we map your current fields, from spreadsheets or from a Salesforce or HubSpot export, to the new data model, clean up duplicates, run a trial import your team checks, and move the live data at cut-over so nobody works in two systems for long. **Who owns the CRM and its data, and where is it hosted?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the code lives in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. The data sits in hosting you control in the UK or EU, with access control and audit trails agreed up front, which makes UK GDPR obligations such as access, retention and deletion easier to meet. Your own data protection adviser signs off the compliance position for your business. **What does support cost after launch?** Ongoing support and development is a monthly retainer from £1,000. It covers hosting, monitoring, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. You can also take the system in-house, because the code is yours. **Can you add AI to a CRM?** Yes, where it saves time: call and email summaries, suggested next steps, lead scoring from your own history, and search across customer notes. See AI development. About the reviewer Chief Product Officer, Magora Alexander leads product at Magora. He reviews the scope, product approach and user experience advice on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Thinking about a custom CRM? 30-minute call with a senior Solution Architect. Bring your current tools and the process that hurts most — we will tell you honestly whether to build, buy or extend. --- # Customer Portal Development UK | Bespoke Client Portals | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/customer-portal-development/ Customer portal development — London, UK ## Customer portals people actually use. Secure self-service portals for your customers, clients, partners and suppliers: documents, orders, applications and account information in one place, connected to the systems behind them. Designed and built in London; free working prototype in 5–10 days. Updated October 2, 2026 ## Self-service that saves your team time. A good portal takes routine questions off your team's inbox: customers find their documents, track their orders and send requests themselves, and your staff deal with the exceptions. Magora designs and builds customer, client and partner portals for UK companies, connected to the systems you already run. ### Free working prototype A coded prototype of your portal's core journey in 5–10 working days, before any paid work. ### First release in 6–8 weeks After a two-week Discovery from £3,000, your first users log in within 6–8 weeks. ### Your portal, your IP Code in your repository from day one; source code, designs and IP transferred on payment. What we build ## Portals for every side of your business. The same building blocks — secure login, roles, documents, workflows, integrations — arranged around who is logging in. 01 — Customers ### Customer self-service portals Accounts, orders, invoices, bookings and support requests without a phone call. 02 — Clients ### Client portals Secure document exchange, approvals and case progress for accountancy, legal, financial and property clients. 03 — Partners ### Partner & dealer portals Dealers, installers and resellers register leads, check eligibility, order and track their own pipeline. 04 — Suppliers ### Supplier & contractor portals Jobs posted, accepted and completed, with documents and invoices in one place. 05 — Members ### Member & learning portals Content, courses, events and payments for members, students or communities. 06 — Internal ### Employee portals Policies, requests and the internal tools staff use every day, behind single sign-on. Build or buy ## Portal software or a bespoke portal? Off-the-shelf portal products are quick to start and fine for simple needs. A bespoke portal earns its cost when it has to reflect your own rules and data. | | Bespoke portal (Magora) | Off-the-shelf portal product | Your CRM's built-in portal | |---|---|---|---| | Up-front cost | From £10,000 for a first release | Low: subscription | Usually included or an add-on | | Ongoing cost | Hosting plus support | Per user or per seat | Per seat of the CRM | | Your rules and workflows | Built in | Within the product's settings | Within the CRM's settings | | Data from several systems | Yes, through integrations | Limited to supported connectors | Mostly the CRM's own data | | Best for | A portal that is part of your service | Standard document sharing or ticketing | Customers who only need their CRM records | Not sure which fits? Discovery ends with a recommendation, including when an existing product is the better answer. ## Secure by design, not by afterthought. A portal opens your systems to people outside the company, so security is decided in Discovery and tested on every release. ### Role-based access Every user sees only their own records, documents and organisation — tested automatically on each release. ### Two-factor authentication One-time codes or authenticator apps, and single sign-on for staff through Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. ### Encryption & UK or EU hosting Data encrypted in transit and at rest, hosted in the UK or EU on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. ### Audit trails A log of who viewed, downloaded or changed what, for your own records and for GDPR requests. ### Privacy built in Data minimisation, retention rules and subject-access exports planned with you up front. ### Monitoring & backups Uptime monitoring, alerts and tested backups in place before the first user logs in. Engagement & pricing ## What a customer portal costs. Our 2026 prices in GBP. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Across 12 real 2026 project estimates the median MVP came to about £25,000 (range £11,000–£34,000). For a quick figure, try the cost calculator. from £3,000 Two weeks: users and roles, journeys, integrations, security and a costed roadmap. from £10,000 One user type and its core self-service tasks, live in 6–8 weeks. Most MVPs land between £10,000 and £25,000. £25,000–£60,000 Several user roles, integrations and admin tools, delivered in phases. Run & grow from £1,000 /mo Hosting, monitoring, security updates and new features. ## Five steps to a live portal. Weekly demos on a staging portal you can log in to, with real users testing the journeys before launch. Step 01 ### Discovery 2 weeks Who logs in, what they need to do and which systems hold the data — turned into roles, journeys and a costed roadmap. Step 02 ### UX & security design Key screens tested with real users; access rules, authentication and hosting decided up front. Step 03 ### Build in sprints 6–8 weeks Two-week sprints with a working release at the end of each, and automated tests on every access rule. Step 04 ### Launch Pilot group first, then all users, with monitoring, backups and analytics in place. Step 05 ### Support & grow New user types, integrations and features on a retainer, by the team that built it. ## Portals we've built. From our case studies — more in our work. Professional services · Client portal ### Grant Thornton A self-service platform that automates EMI scheme documentation for the firm's clients, from creation to close-out. See case study → Energy · Partner portal ### Retrofit Navigator A portal for UK retrofit installers to check households against ECO4 and Warm Homes grant rules and run the application from the same screen. See case study → Logistics · Supplier portal ### Delivery Management System A web portal where courier companies register and post jobs, with mobile apps for their couriers. See case study → IoT · Customer portal ### Organic Response A web portal and iOS and Android apps for configuring and monitoring a smart lighting system. See case study → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## What makes a portal work. Six things we get right before the first line of code. 01 ### One clear first job Launch with the task users need most, not every feature at once. 02 ### The right people see the right data Roles and permissions designed and tested before anything else. 03 ### Live data, not copies Integrations with the systems that own the data, so the portal is never out of date. 04 ### Easy sign-in Two-factor authentication without making every login a chore. 05 ### Works on a phone Most users will open it on a phone at least some of the time. 06 ### Measured after launch Analytics on which journeys are used, and which still end in a phone call. ## Customer portal questions. **What is a customer portal?** A customer portal is a secure website or app where your customers log in to help themselves: see their account, documents and orders, submit requests or applications, and talk to your team. A client portal does the same for professional-services clients, and a partner portal for dealers, installers or suppliers. **How much does customer portal development cost in the UK?** A focused first release — one type of user, the core self-service tasks and one or two integrations — starts from £10,000 as an MVP; across 12 real 2026 estimates the median MVP was about £25,000. Larger portals with several user roles and integrations are delivered in phases. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. **How long does it take to build a portal?** A free working prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery two weeks. A first release typically takes 6–8 weeks after that. **Should we build a portal or buy portal software?** If your customers only need to see invoices or tickets from one system, that system's own portal or an off-the-shelf portal product is usually enough. Build when the portal has to pull from several systems, follow your own rules, or become part of the service you sell. **How do you keep a portal secure?** Role-based access so each user sees only their own data, two-factor authentication, encrypted data in transit and at rest, audit logs of who saw and changed what, and UK or EU hosting. We plan GDPR requirements in Discovery and test access rules automatically on every release. **Can the portal integrate with our CRM, ERP or accounting system?** Yes. Most portals are a front end to systems you already run — CRM, ERP, accounting, document storage — connected through their APIs. See API integration and bespoke CRM development. **Will it work on mobile?** Yes. Portals are built responsive by default, and where users need offline access, push notifications or a camera — engineers on site, drivers, installers — we add native or cross-platform apps. See app development. **Who owns the portal?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the code lives in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. About the reviewer Chief Product Officer, Magora Alexander leads product at Magora. He reviews the scope, product approach and user experience advice on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Planning a customer portal? 30-minute call with a senior Solution Architect. Tell us who the portal is for and what they need to do — we will tell you what the first version should be, and what it should cost. --- # Hire a Dedicated Development Team UK | Developers from £49/h | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/dedicated-development-team-uk/ London office · Shoreditch Services — Dedicated teams ## Dedicated development teams, without the hiring. Senior engineers who join your roadmap, your stand-ups and your repository — as a complete dedicated team, or to augment the one you have. From £49/hour (about £390 a day), monthly rolling. Updated October 2, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch ## Dedicated development teams, at a glance. A dedicated development team is a group of engineers, with QA and a tech lead or Product Owner when you need them, who work only on your product, in your tools and to your roadmap, on a monthly rolling contract. Magora provides dedicated teams and individual developers from its own in-house London team, not from recruiters. ### From £49/hour Per developer, about £390 a day; £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. UK rates explained. ### About £7,800 per developer A full-time developer for 20 working days at about £390 a day. Monthly rolling, minimum four weeks, full- or part-time. ### Free working prototype first See the team's work in 5–10 working days before any paid engagement; a Discovery sprint from £3,000 sets the team size. ### Fixed scope, fixed quote For a defined product, compare an MVP and a bespoke build, or estimate it in the calculator. The short answer ## What is a dedicated development team? A dedicated development team is a group of software engineers who work exclusively on your product for as long as you need them, billed monthly rather than per project. Magora provides dedicated teams and individual senior engineers (IT staff augmentation) to UK companies from its London office, from £49 per engineer per hour (about £390 a day), with a minimum of four weeks and full IP transfer on payment. | | Dedicated team | Staff augmentation | Fixed-price project | |---|---|---|---| | Who manages the work | Magora (tech lead / Product Owner) | Your engineering lead | Magora | | Best for | A product or roadmap that runs for months | An existing team that needs more senior capacity or a missing skill | A well-defined scope with a fixed end | | How it is priced | Day rate per engineer, monthly | Day rate per engineer, monthly | Agreed price for an agreed scope | | Changing scope | Re-prioritise the backlog any sprint | Your backlog, your call | Change request | | Commitment | Minimum four weeks, monthly rolling | Minimum four weeks, monthly rolling | Until the scope is delivered | Not sure which model fits? The difference between contractors, outsourced teams and in-house hiring is set out in IT contractors vs outsourcing teams. What we offer ## Dedicated teams and staff augmentation. Whole teams when you need an outcome delivered; individual senior engineers when you already have the process and need more hands inside it. Either way they are Magora's own engineers — not candidates we still have to find. 01 — Team ### Dedicated product team A self-contained team — engineers, QA and a tech lead or Product Owner — that owns delivery of your product end to end and reports progress in weekly demos. 02 — Augment ### IT staff augmentation One or more senior engineers joining your existing team: your backlog, your stand-ups, your code review. Seniority you would otherwise wait months to hire. More on IT staff augmentation. 03 — Mobile ### Mobile app developers iOS / Swift, Android / Kotlin, React Native and Flutter engineers who have shipped apps through the store review, not just built screens. 04 — Web ### Web & back-end developers Laravel and PHP, Node.js, Python, and React, Vue or Angular on the front end. 05 — Quality ### QA & DevOps Test engineers and DevOps who keep releases boring: automated tests, CI/CD pipelines, staging that matches production, and monitoring your team can read. 06 — AI ### AI & data engineers Engineers from our AI & ML practice for LLM features, RAG pipelines, agents and data work — added to a team for as long as the AI work lasts. How we work ## Staff augmentation, without the body shop. The risk with any outsourced development team is that you are buying CVs. These three rules are how we make sure you are buying a team. Pillar 01 ### Our engineers, not recruits Everyone we propose already works at Magora and has shipped with us. You meet the actual people before the contract, and the people you meet are the people who start. Pillar 02 ### Your process, our standards The team works in your tracker, your repository and your ceremonies — while code review, testing and seniority stay our responsibility, with weekly demos you can hold us to. Pillar 03 ### Nothing locked in NDA on day one, code in your repository from the first commit, IP transferred on payment and a monthly rolling agreement. You stay because it works, not because leaving is hard. ## What a dedicated team costs in the UK. Published rates, not a quote you have to chase. A full-time developer from £49/hour comes to about £7,800 a month, and a full team with QA and product ownership is £65–£70/hour; the exact figure depends on roles, seniority and full- or part-time allocation. More detail on our UK software development pricing page. ### From £49 / hour Rate set by seniority, not by language. Minimum four weeks, monthly rolling, full-time or part-time — about £390 a day, or about £7,800 a month full-time. Full team with QA and product ownership: £65–£70/hour. ### £0 A real, clickable working prototype of your core idea before any paid engagement — the fastest way to judge a team is to see its work. ### From £3,000 Two weeks with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: scope, architecture, estimate, and the team size you actually need. About Discovery. ### from £1,000 / month A maintenance retainer when the build is done: support with SLAs and iterative development, without keeping a full team on. ## How to hire a dedicated team. From a first call to engineers committing to your repository — and the prototype that lets you judge them before you pay. Step 01 ### Scoping call 30 minutes A free call with a senior engineer: what you are building, what your team already covers, and whether you need a whole team or two extra pairs of hands. Free Senior engineer NDA on request Step 02 ### Free working prototype 5 – 10 working days Before you pay anything we build a working prototype of your core flow — so you judge the engineers on real code, not on CVs. Clickable No commitment Real code Step 03 ### Team proposal Named engineers, their roles and seniority, the day rate for each, and how the team plugs into your process — written down, not promised on a call. Named people Rate card Ways of working Step 04 ### Discovery sprint (optional) 2 weeks When the scope is still open, a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect turn it into an architecture, a backlog and an estimate first. From £3,000. Architecture Backlog Estimate Step 05 ### Onboarding Access to your repository, tracker and chat; the team joins your ceremonies or runs its own. Code lands in your repository from the first commit. Your repo Your tools Weekly demos Step 06 ### Scale and review Monthly rolling: add a specialist for a release, step up before a launch, or move to a maintenance retainer once the product is live. Monthly rolling Full or part-time Retainer Roles we provide ## Who can join your team. Senior engineers across mobile, web, back end, QA, DevOps and product — combined into a team or added one at a time. - iOS / Swift - Android / Kotlin - React Native - Flutter - React / Next.js - Vue.js - Angular - TypeScript - PHP / Laravel - Node.js - Python - REST & GraphQL APIs - Manual & exploratory QA - Automated tests - Regression suites - Release checks DevOps & cloud - AWS - Google Cloud - Docker - CI/CD pipelines - Monitoring - Product Owner - Solution Architect - Business analysis - UX / UI design When it fits ## When a dedicated team is the right call. It is not the answer to everything. This is how we would decide if we were in your seat. ### A roadmap, not a one-off Your product has months of work ahead and priorities that will change. A team that stays with it learns the domain once and gets faster every sprint. ### A gap in your own team You run engineering already but are missing a skill — iOS, DevOps, AI — or need senior capacity for a launch without a hiring cycle. ### A small, fixed scope If the job is well defined and ends, a fixed-price MVP or project is simpler. For a few days of help, a contractor is cheaper than our four-week minimum. ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Products our teams have built. Four products built and extended by a Magora team working alongside the client, across Apple platforms, IoT, geospatial data and pharma sales. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used. Fintech · Personal finance · 2023 ### MoneyWiz **Problem** A personal-finance product had to work the same way on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. **Built** A suite of Swift apps for mobile, watch, Mac and tablet, with Fastlane and Jenkins automating certificates, provisioning and builds, and features such as reports, a widget dashboard, cloud sync and data import. **Outcome** One product across four Apple platforms: mobile, watch, Mac and tablet. Read the case study → IoT · Sport · 2024 ### SmartBall **Problem** A cricket ball with an embedded chip needed an app that turns its data into something players and coaches can use. **Built** An iOS app that connects to the SmartBall, records speed and revolutions at stages of the ball's flight, shows analytics, and adds challenges and leaderboards. **Outcome** Players, coaches and fans get data-driven insight into performance, for personal use or professional coaching. Read the case study → Geospatial · Data & AI · 2023 ### KMA 9x9 **Problem** Large volumes of data from many sources had piled up with no way to relate them to a place or process them. **Built** A React.js platform for KMA Tech that divides the map into 9 m by 9 m squares and links data from many sources to each one, with machine-learning analytics to detect events, find relationships and flag anomalies. **Outcome** Users see data and AI analytics on one map. The first version is live and the team keeps adding features. Read the case study → Pharma · Field sales · 2018 ### Pharm Card (EGIS) **Problem** Each medical rep filled in hundreds of Excel files on pharmacy visits, and management had no live view of sales and contract performance. **Built** A native iOS app for iPad and a web application for senior staff, with a database of pharmaceutical products, GPS pharmacy lookup and an offline mode that syncs automatically. **Outcome** In daily use by the client's staff, and we continue to add features as the company's needs change. Read the case study → Also: Dayinsure, Abacus Pay. All projects → ## The honest questions. **What is the difference between a dedicated development team and staff augmentation?** A dedicated development team is a complete, self-contained product team — engineers, QA and a tech lead or Product Owner — that works only on your product and takes responsibility for delivering it. Staff augmentation adds individual engineers to a team you already run: they join your stand-ups, work from your backlog and report to your engineering lead. Both are billed on the same day rates. The choice is about who manages the work: pick a dedicated team when you need an outcome delivered, and augmentation when you already have the process and need more senior hands inside it. **How much does a dedicated development team cost in the UK?** Magora's published rate for a developer is from £49 an hour (about £390 a day), set by seniority rather than language, with a minimum engagement of four weeks. At 20 working days that is about £7,800 a month per full-time developer, and a full team with QA and product ownership is £65–£70 an hour. Part-time allocation is available. Before any paid work you get a free working prototype, and if the scope is still open a two-week Discovery sprint from £3,000 turns it into a written plan and team size. Full benchmarks are on our UK software development pricing page. **How quickly can a dedicated team start?** The first step is a free 30-minute call with a senior engineer. We then build a free working prototype of your core idea — usually in 5–10 working days — so you see how the proposed engineers think and code before you sign anything. The paid engagement starts once you have approved the team and the plan. Because the engineers are Magora's own staff rather than candidates we still have to recruit, there is no sourcing period in between. **Who owns the code and the intellectual property?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the work is committed to your repository as it is written, and full ownership of source code, designs and IP transfers to you on payment. Nothing is held back in a vendor account or delivered as a zip at the end. **Can we scale the team up or down?** Yes. Engagements are monthly rolling, full-time or part-time, so you can add a specialist for a release, move from two engineers to five for a launch, or step down to a maintenance retainer (from £1,000 a month) once the product is live. **Where is Magora based and whose contract do we sign?** Magora is a UK software development company — Thinking Fish Ltd, registered at Companies House (03637036) — with its office in Shoreditch, London, and has been delivering software since 2010. You contract with the UK company, work in UK business hours, and UK or EU data residency is available for regulated projects. **What does a dedicated developer cost per month in the UK?** At Magora a developer is from £49 an hour, about £390 a day, which is about £7,800 a month full-time over 20 working days. A full team with QA and product ownership is £65–£70 an hour. For whole-project figures see what 12 real projects cost. **Is a dedicated team better than hiring developers in-house?** It depends on how long you need them. Hiring in-house suits a permanent core team you can recruit and manage. A dedicated team suits a roadmap that has to start now: no recruitment fees or notice periods, engineers who have worked together before, and the option to scale up or down month by month. **How do you keep quality high in a dedicated team?** Every change goes through code review and automated tests, QA engineers test each release, and the team works in your process and tools with our engineering standards. You see working software every sprint and can review the code at any time. About the reviewer Co-Founder & Managing Director, Magora Pavel co-founded Magora in 2010 and runs the company. He reviews how the teams and delivery processes described on this page are set up and run. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ### Laravel development company Laravel web platforms, SaaS, APIs and admin panels, from prototype to support. Learn more → ## Need engineers who can start on your roadmap? 30-minute call with a senior engineer. Tell us what your team covers today — we'll tell you whether you need a dedicated team, two extra engineers, or neither. --- # IT Staff Augmentation UK | Senior Developers for Your Team | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/it-staff-augmentation-uk/ IT staff augmentation — London, UK ## Senior engineers, inside your team. IT staff augmentation for UK companies: experienced Magora developers, QA and DevOps engineers join your existing team, work in your backlog and your stand-ups, and scale up or down month by month. From £49/hour per developer. Updated October 2, 2026 ## More capacity, without a hiring round. Staff augmentation suits teams that already have an engineering lead and a process, and need more senior hands or a skill they lack — for a launch, a migration or a backlog that keeps growing. Magora's own engineers join your team from its London office, billed monthly. ### From £49/hour per developer About £390 a day per developer; £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. ### Four weeks, then monthly Minimum four weeks, then monthly rolling — scale up or down month by month. ### Your code, your IP NDA on day one; engineers commit to your repository and IP transfers on payment. When it fits ## When staff augmentation makes sense. Staff augmentation works best when you already know what needs building and who decides priorities. Typical reasons UK teams add engineers: ### A launch date that will not move Extra senior capacity for the months before a release, without a permanent hire. ### A skill your team lacks iOS, DevOps, test automation or AI for as long as the work needs it. ### A backlog that keeps growing More hands on features and fixes while your own team stays on the core. ### A migration or upgrade Framework upgrades, cloud moves and legacy rewrites that would otherwise stall the roadmap. See legacy modernisation. ### While you recruit Senior engineers in the seat while a permanent hire is found and onboarded. ### Cover for absence Capacity while a team member is on extended leave. Who we provide ## The roles you can add. Engineers who have shipped production software, not candidates we still have to find. 01 — Web ### Web & back-end developers PHP and Laravel, Node.js, Python, and React or Vue on the front end. 02 — Mobile ### Mobile developers iOS / Swift, Android / Kotlin, React Native and Flutter engineers who have been through store review. 03 — Quality ### QA engineers Manual and automated testing that slots into your release process. 04 — Ops ### DevOps engineers CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, and monitoring. 05 — Design ### UX / UI designers Product designers who work in your design system and with your developers. 06 — AI ### AI & data engineers LLM features, retrieval (RAG) and data pipelines from our AI practice. ## Staff augmentation, dedicated team or contractor? Three ways to add engineering capacity. The right one depends on who manages the work and how long you need it. More in IT contractors vs outsourcing teams. | | Staff augmentation | Dedicated team | Freelance contractor | |---|---|---|---| | Who manages the work | Your engineering lead | Magora (tech lead / Product Owner) | You | | Best for | An existing team that needs more senior capacity or a missing skill | A product or roadmap that runs for months | A few days or weeks of a specific skill | | Commitment | Four weeks, then monthly | Four weeks, then monthly | Usually by the day or week | | Scaling | Add or release engineers monthly | Grow into a larger team | Find another contractor | Need the whole outcome delivered rather than more hands? See the dedicated development team. Engagement & pricing ## What staff augmentation costs. Our 2026 prices in GBP. Billed monthly for the hours worked; no recruitment or placement fee. from £49 /hour About £390 a day. Depends on role and seniority. £65–£70 /hour Developers with QA and product ownership included, if you need more than hands. 4 weeks Then monthly rolling, scaled up or down month by month. A working prototype of a piece of your product in 5–10 working days, so you judge the engineers on real code. ## From first call to first commit. Step 01 ### Brief Skills, seniority, time zone overlap, tools and how long you need the engineers. Step 02 ### Shortlist Matched to the brief Engineers from our team whose experience fits your stack and domain. Step 03 ### Meet & prototype Before you commit You meet the engineers; if you want, they build a free working prototype in 5–10 working days. Step 04 ### Onboard Access to your repository, tools and ceremonies; first tickets in the first sprint. Step 05 ### Review & scale A monthly check-in on fit and workload; add or release engineers as the work changes. ## Staff augmentation, without the body shop. The risk with any augmented team is buying CVs. These are the ways we keep the work at the standard of your own engineers. ### Magora's own engineers Engineers from our team, not candidates we still have to find or subcontract. ### Real code before you sign A free working prototype in 5–10 working days shows how they think and code. Backed by a team ### Senior support behind them Architects, QA and other specialists at Magora they can turn to when a problem needs more than one person. ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They came through as more of a tech partner rather than just developers for hire.” Researcher & Designer, AlphaRCA Studio iOS & Android app · Education · 2019 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Making staff augmentation work. What we ask clients to have in place, and what you should expect from us. 01 ### A named lead on your side Someone who sets priorities and reviews the work. 02 ### A written definition of done So external engineers deliver to the same standard as your own. 03 ### Access on day one Repository, tickets, chat and environments ready before the start date. 04 ### Overlapping hours Agreed working hours that overlap with your team's day. 05 ### Honest monthly reviews A regular check on fit and workload, so problems surface early. 06 ### A plan for knowledge Documentation and code reviews, so nothing leaves with the engineer. ## Staff augmentation questions. **What is IT staff augmentation?** IT staff augmentation means adding external engineers to your own team for a period of time. They work in your backlog, your tools and your stand-ups, and your engineering lead directs the work. It fills a skill or capacity gap without a permanent hire. **How is staff augmentation different from a dedicated team?** With staff augmentation you manage the engineers and own delivery. With a dedicated development team, Magora provides a self-contained team with its own tech lead or Product Owner and is responsible for delivering the outcome. Many clients start with one model and switch later. **How much does IT staff augmentation cost in the UK?** Our rates start from £49/hour per developer (about £390 a day), and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. The rate depends on the role and seniority; there is no recruitment fee. **What is the minimum engagement?** Four weeks, then monthly rolling. For a few days of help, a freelance contractor is usually cheaper. **Which roles can you provide?** Web and back-end developers (PHP, Laravel, Node.js, Python, React), mobile developers (Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Flutter), QA engineers, DevOps engineers, UX/UI designers and AI engineers. **How do we know the engineers are good?** You meet the proposed engineers before they start, and we can build a free working prototype of a piece of your product in 5–10 working days so you see how they think and code before you sign anything. **Who owns the code they write?** You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the engineers commit to your repository, and IP transfers to you on payment. **Can we scale the team up or down?** Yes, month by month: engagements are monthly rolling after the first four weeks. If the work grows into a whole product, the same engineers can become a dedicated team. About the reviewer Co-Founder & Managing Director, Magora Pavel co-founded Magora in 2010 and runs the company. He reviews how the teams and delivery processes described on this page are set up and run. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## Need more hands on your team? 30-minute call with a senior engineer. Tell us the gap — skill, seniority, how long — and we will tell you who could fill it. --- # Enterprise App Development UK | Integrated Systems | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/enterprise-application-development/ London office · Shoreditch Services / 08 — Enterprise apps ## Enterprise apps, built to last. Internal tools, integrations and platforms that scale with your org — Spring, Laravel, Node, AWS and Azure. SSO, role-based access, audit, the boring parts done well. **Typical timeline** 16 – 36 weeks **Engagement** Fixed-scope or T&M **Team** 5 – 10 senior people **Outcome** Production platform, integrated, owned Updated June 24, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Veolia 75 Enterprise software solutions 38 22 Legacy migrations completed 159 Web applications delivered What we offer ## Enterprise application services. Internal tools, integrations and platforms that scale with your org — Spring, Laravel, Node, AWS and Azure. SSO, role-based access, audit, the boring parts done well. 01 — Platforms ### Internal platforms Workflow systems, ops dashboards, approval flows — built for hundreds of users and audit-trail-grade compliance. 02 — ERP/CRM ### ERP / CRM customisation Salesforce, SAP, Dynamics, NetSuite — custom modules and integrations that fit your actual process. 03 — SSO ### Identity & SSO Okta, Azure AD, Ping — RBAC, SCIM provisioning, audit logs from week one. 04 — Integrations ### System integrations Middleware, ESB modernisation, event-driven architectures — connecting the systems nobody wants to touch. 05 — Modernise ### Legacy modernisation COBOL, classic ASP, Oracle Forms — strangler-fig migrations that ship value every sprint, no big-bang rewrites. 06 — Support ### Long-term support 24/7 SLA, dedicated SRE rotation, security patches — the post-launch work enterprises actually need. How we build mobile apps ## How we build enterprise software. Same engineers from kickoff to handover. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation, no body shop. Pillar 01 ### Discovery Magora business analysts formalise the key demands, choose the appropriate platform and priority devices, and structure your future mobile app's requirements. Pillar 02 ### UI / UX design Leading app designers visualise the user journey. Intuitive functionality wrapped in user-friendly interfaces — the kind that drive both downloads and retention. Pillar 03 ### Development A decade of native iOS and Android experience. Short sprints, transparent process, highly-functional apps shipped reliably to App Store and Play Store. ## Six steps to ship an enterprise system. From a fuzzy idea to a store-live product, with a checkpoint at every stage. Step 01 ### User research 1 – 2 weeks Strategic processes that define user roles, set expectations and run up to 10 impactful interviews — swiftly transforming insights into a roadmap. Interviews Personas Roadmap Step 02 ### Product scope 1 week Compelling user stories crafted with stakeholders. Our Product Owner navigates the path to success — clarity, collaboration, adaptability. User stories Priorities Timeline Step 03 ### Design 2 – 3 weeks Robust UI designs for visual appeal and efficient UX prototypes for real user insights. Tested with real users before we write production code. Figma Prototype Usability Step 04 ### Development 6 – 14 weeks Agile development as a dynamic, customer-driven journey. Iterative approach, collaborative mindset, weekly Friday demo, shared Linear board. 2-wk sprints CI/CD Feature flags Step 05 ### QA 2 weeks Rigorous testing in staging — automated test coverage, manual exploratory passes, load testing. QA engineers act as continuous guardians. XCUITest Espresso Detox Step 06 ### Deployment 1 week Planning, version control, testing, cutting-edge strategies like canary releases. Swift, trouble-free installations with continuous monitoring. Fastlane Play Console App Store Connect ## Technologies we work on. The actual stack on most mobile engagements. We'll happily slot into yours if you already have one. - Swift · SwiftUI - UIKit · Combine - Core Data · GRDB - Apple Pay · Wallet - Kotlin - Jetpack Compose - Hilt · Room · Retrofit - ML Kit · Biometrics - React Native - Flutter - Expo - Native modules - Node.js · NestJS - Python · FastAPI - PHP · Laravel - GraphQL · REST - WebSockets - Firebase - Pusher · Ably - Server-sent events - PostgreSQL - MongoDB - Redis - SQLite · Realm - Apple Pay · Google Pay - Stripe · Adyen - PayPal · Braintree - 3-D Secure AI / ML - OpenAI · Anthropic - Core ML - ML Kit · TFLite - Vector DBs ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management Who we work with ## Three kinds of partner. We've teamed up with 500+ businesses — fresh-faced startups, established mid-market and global enterprise. ### Startups & MVPs Production-grade MVP in a calendar quarter — see our Startup MVP service. ### Small & medium business Internal tools, customer apps and digital transformation work — the kind that pays for itself within a year. ### Enterprise Compliance-heavy platforms, MDM-managed fleets, audit-ready architecture. SOC 2, GDPR, MHRA passed first time, every time. ## Enterprise systems we've shipped. Four from the wider portfolio — the apps that ended up in the hands of millions of end users. Enterprise · Automation ### Rollio Enterprise data automation — pulls from ERP/CRM and summarises for ops teams. See case study → Pharma · Enterprise ### AstraZeneca Enterprise reporting platform — multi-country trial enrolment, MHRA-grade. See case study → FinTech · Enterprise ### GAIN Bespoke enterprise solution for the GAIN team — decisioning, compliance, audit. See case study → Field sales · Enterprise ### PharmCard Enterprise software for field sales and management — territory and KPI control tower. See case study → ## The honest questions. **Why choose Magora for hiring enterprise engineers?** Magora is a London-based custom software house in business since 2010. We field senior enterprise engineers who own the work from the first commit, ship in tight feedback loops with weekly demos and hand over code your team can maintain — no offshore rotation, no juniors in disguise. **How long does it take to build an enterprise system?** It depends on scope, but our typical engagement runs 8–24 weeks from kickoff to production. A discovery sprint at the start (2–4 weeks) gives a fixed timeline you can actually defend to a board, instead of a ten-page Gantt that slips by week three. **What does an enterprise system cost?** There's no fixed price — it depends on scope, so we start every engagement with a free working prototype and written analysis from a senior Product Owner, no commitment. Our 2026 pricing (GBP): Product Discovery from £3,000, a Startup MVP from £10,000, and a full production web or mobile project at £25,000–£60,000. AI, bespoke enterprise software and CRM platforms are scoped after Discovery. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership, and we transfer full ownership of source code, designs and IP to you on payment. **Do you provide support after launch?** Yes. We stay on as the maintenance team — security patches, OS / framework upgrades, third-party deprecations, on-going feature work. Most clients keep us on a part-time SLA after launch; some bring the code in-house once their team is ready. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. Magora's IP terms transfer ownership of bespoke work to the client on payment — the repository is licensed to you from the first commit, full stop. We use OSS dependencies but contribute back rather than baking proprietary forks into your codebase. About the reviewer Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer, Magora Artem leads an engineering team at Magora and reviews the technical content on this page: architecture, stack choices and delivery estimates. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## Enterprise build on the runway? 30-minute call with a senior software architect. We'll review your scope, architecture and constraints — and tell you what we'd actually build if it were us. --- # API Integration Services UK | REST & GraphQL | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/api-integration-services/ London office · Pacific room Services — API integration ## API integration, built to hold. Payments, CRM, ERP, carriers, legacy back-ends — connected with integrations that retry, log, and survive the vendor's next change. Updated September 11, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch What we offer ## API integration services. Most integration work is not hard because the protocol is hard. It is hard because the other side is undocumented, rate-limited, occasionally down, and owned by somebody else. That is the part we do. 01 — Third-party ### Third-party API integration Payments, accounting, CRM, carriers, identity, mapping, calendars and booking systems. We read the vendor's docs, find where they are wrong, and build against what the API actually returns. 02 — Build ### API design & build REST or GraphQL, OpenAPI-first, versioned from day one — so your own API can change without breaking the clients already using it. 03 — Legacy ### Legacy system integration SOAP, fixed-width files, a database somebody else owns, an ERP with no API at all. We wrap it in something modern rather than rewriting it. 04 — Events ### Webhooks & event pipelines Idempotent handlers, signature verification, replay for the day the queue backs up — webhooks you can lose a message from and still be consistent. 05 — Data ### Data sync & migration Two systems, one truth. Reconciliation you can run on demand, conflict rules agreed with your team rather than guessed at by ours. 06 — Operate ### Monitoring & support Alerting on the integration, not just the server. When a vendor deprecates an endpoint you hear it from us, not from a customer. How we build ## How we build integrations that hold. Same engineers from kickoff to handover. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation, no body shop. Pillar 01 ### Contract first The integration is agreed on paper before it is written — endpoints, payloads, error cases, who retries and how often. Most integration failures are disagreements, not bugs. Pillar 02 ### Assume the network fails Timeouts, retries with backoff, idempotency keys, dead-letter queues. An integration that only works while both sides are up is not finished. Pillar 03 ### Observable by default Every call logged with a correlation id, every failure alertable, a dashboard your team can read without us. Handover means you can run it. ## Six steps to ship an integration. From a vendor's PDF and a promise, to something in production with alerts on it. Step 01 ### Discovery & API audit 1 week We read every system's documentation and then call it, because the two rarely agree. Rate limits, sandbox quality, auth model and the gap between promised and actual behaviour all land in one document. API audit Rate limits Sandbox Step 02 ### Integration contract 1 week Payload shapes, field mapping, error taxonomy and retry policy, written down and signed off by both sides. This is the document that settles arguments six months later. OpenAPI Field mapping Error model Step 03 ### Build against a stub 1 – 3 weeks A recorded stub of the vendor's API lets us build and test without waiting on their sandbox — and lets us reproduce their outages deliberately instead of hoping they never happen. Contract tests Recorded fixtures Fault injection Step 04 ### Live integration 1 – 3 weeks Real credentials, real data, one environment at a time. Reconciliation runs beside the integration from the first day so nobody has to trust it on faith. Staging first Reconciliation Secrets handling Step 05 ### Monitoring & alerts 3 – 5 days Dashboards for throughput, latency and failure rate; alerts on the integration's own health, not just the host's. Your team gets the runbook and the access. Dashboards Alerting Runbook Step 06 ### Handover & care Documentation, a walkthrough with your engineers, and an agreement on who watches the vendor's changelog. Integrations rot when nobody owns them — we say out loud who does. Docs Walkthrough Support Integration tech stack ## The actual integration stack. What goes into a Magora integration — typed clients, queues that survive deploys, and enough observability that the first person to notice a problem works for you. - REST / JSON - GraphQL - Webhooks - SOAP & XML - gRPC - SFTP & flat files - OAuth 2.0 - OIDC - JWT - HMAC signing - mTLS - API keys, rotated - RabbitMQ - Kafka - AWS SQS / SNS - Redis queues - Dead-letter queues - PHP 8.3 / Laravel - Node.js / TypeScript - Python - Java / Kotlin - Go - Contract tests - Recorded fixtures - Fault injection - Reconciliation jobs - OpenTelemetry - Grafana - Sentry - Correlation ids - Structured logs ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Integrations we've shipped. Four from the wider portfolio, each of which lives or dies on talking to somebody else's system. Fintech · Payments ### Abacus Pay Payment flows where a retry has to be safe and a duplicate charge is not an option. See case study → Insurance · Platform ### Dayinsure Quote and policy journeys built on top of insurer systems the platform does not own. See case study → Healthcare · Enterprise ### PharmCard Enterprise healthcare software joined to existing back-office and card systems. See case study → Enterprise · Data ### Rollio Enterprise data automation — moving records between systems without losing them. See case study → ## The honest questions. **What does an API integration project actually cost?** It depends far more on the other system than on ours. A well-documented modern API with a working sandbox — a payment provider, a mainstream CRM — is usually 3–5 weeks and starts at £5,000. An undocumented legacy system, or one where the sandbox behaves differently from production, can be three times that, and the difference is discovery work rather than code. That is why we start with a paid integration discovery from £1,000 rather than a quote: after it you have a written integration contract and a real estimate, and you are free to take both elsewhere. **Can you integrate with a system that has no API?** Usually, yes — but the honest answer is that the method matters. A database replica, a nightly file drop over SFTP, or a thin service in front of the legacy application are all sound. Screen-scraping a UI is not, and we will say so rather than sell it: it breaks on the vendor's next release and takes your business process with it. Where the system genuinely cannot be reached safely, replacing or wrapping it is enterprise work in its own right, and we would scope it as such. **What happens when the third party changes their API?** It will, so the build assumes it. Contract tests run against recorded fixtures and against the live sandbox, so a breaking change shows up in CI rather than in production. Version pinning, a translation layer at the boundary and alerting on error-rate shifts mean the blast radius is one adapter rather than the whole application. Handover names who watches the vendor's changelog. If that is us, it is a support agreement; if it is your team, they get the runbook. What does not work is nobody. **Who owns the code, and can our own team maintain it?** You do. Source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment, and the work lands in your repository as it is written, not in a zip at the end. The integration is built in the language your team already runs — PHP and Laravel, Node.js, Python, Java or Go — precisely so that maintaining it does not require us. **How do you handle credentials and sensitive data?** Secrets live in your vault or your cloud's secret manager, never in the repository and never in a ticket. Access is least-privilege and time-boxed, rotation is part of handover, and logs are written so that a correlation id is enough to trace a request without a payload full of personal data sitting in them. We sign an NDA on day one, and for regulated work the data-handling model is agreed in Discovery before any credential changes hands. About the reviewer Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer, Magora Artem leads an engineering team at Magora and reviews the technical content on this page: architecture, stack choices and delivery estimates. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## Two systems that need to talk? 30-minute call with a senior integration engineer. Bring the vendor's documentation — we'll tell you what it leaves out, and what we would actually build if it were us. --- # Bespoke Accounting & Financial Software UK | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/accounting-software-uk/ ## Bespoke accounting software, UK We’ve been designing custom accounting software at our UK base since 2010 and have wide-ranging experience in creating sophisticated financial, brokerage and accountancy systems. Bespoke accounting software is worth building when an off-the-shelf package — Xero, Sage or QuickBooks — leaves your team working in spreadsheets around it: unusual billing rules, several companies or currencies to consolidate, approvals, or finance data that has to flow into your own systems. Often the best result is not a new ledger but a custom layer that keeps the package as the book of record and automates everything around it. A first release usually takes 6–8 weeks; our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. ## What UK finance teams ask us to build - Xero, Sage and QuickBooks integrations — two-way sync of invoices, contacts, payments and journals, so nobody re-types data. - Making Tax Digital — digital records and VAT data handled through MTD-compatible software, as HMRC requires. - Bank feeds and reconciliation — transactions via Open Banking providers, matched to invoices by your own rules. - Custom billing — time-based, usage-based, recurring or milestone invoicing that packages cannot express. - Multi-entity and multi-currency — group consolidation, inter-company transactions and exchange-rate differences. - Approvals and audit trail — purchase orders, expenses and payment runs with a record of who approved what. - Management reporting — cash flow, debtor days and margin by client or project, live rather than at month end. - Client portals — statements, invoices and online payment through Stripe or GoCardless. ## Off-the-shelf, integrated or fully bespoke? | Approach | Best for | Trade-off | |---|---|---| | Package only (Xero, Sage, QuickBooks) | Standard bookkeeping, VAT and statutory accounts | Your process bends to the package; workarounds live in spreadsheets | | Package + bespoke layer | Custom billing, approvals, portals, reporting on top of a trusted ledger | Two systems to keep in sync — the integration has to be built well | | Fully bespoke system | When the accounting is your product, or your rules cannot fit a package | Highest cost; you own compliance changes, including MTD | ## What it costs In our 2026 estimates, a first production release (MVP) of a custom web or mobile product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000 — see what 12 real UK projects cost. Discovery, which turns your requirements into a costed plan and a fixed-price quote, starts from £3,000. For a rough number on your own feature list, try the cost calculator. Related: bespoke software development · fintech app development · UK software development company · Discovery phase ## Financial Software ### Business Software Such solutions provide users with the widest range of functions for performing accounting tasks. You can use this software to both write and submit reports and check for new changes in the law, and the review process is simple. Sage, Xero and QuickBooks are the best-known examples in the UK. ### Corporate Accounting Software Enterprises deal with large volumes of data and accounting departments usually choose ready-made solutions in order to work separately from other corporate data. This leads to manual handling of import/export operations and potentially a number of technical mistakes. As a result, the cost of production, business efficiency and ROI cannot be immediately calculated without a data update. ## Classification by Type of Development ### Ready-made Financial Systems This refers to software with a common set of features that can be tailored to a specific industry, yet such examples have many limitations. Due to their overall complexity and the fact that many users do not need many of the features, it is often difficult to deal with third-party systems. Our Achievements: 322 App Development ProjectsCustom Software 413 Mobile Applications 75 Enterprise Software Solutions ### Custom Software If you don’t want to spend time figuring out how third-party services work, it's best to create a custom software service based on all your specific needs. We deliver custom accounting applications in the UK and around the world that help our clients get a more productive experience with financial documents. The custom software is easy to use, offers high performance and can compete with existing software on the market. The main advantage of custom accounting software is the possibility of integration with other systems and corporate data. As a result of this, you can see all outlays, costs and profits in the course of production. You get a single database, reporting and any custom forms necessary for both multi-currency accounting and for exchange rate differences, cross-balance transactions and parallels for foreign trade activities. ### Our Services in the UK Magora specialises in the development of custom accounting software to provide high-quality solutions for companies of all sizes. In our work, we employ modern technology and time-tested methods to handle each project. The solutions we offer are: - Personalised - A professional solution developed for your organisation that considers all the features of your business. - Secure - A powerful protection algorithm to prevent your information from being stolen or misused. - Easy to use - A simple, clear interface that allows you to focus on your work and reduce your training costs - Functional and flexible - at the initial stage we discuss your overall wishes and how the program should grow with the company. The architecture of your program will answer this idea of future scalability, providing you with a convenient solution even when your enterprise advances to a further stage. How we Work We have established strategic alliances with many clients in the UK and abroad. We use a flexible service model to tailor our services to the specific needs of our customers and always implement state-of-the-art technology and advanced delivery models. Our relationships with various global companies have allowed us to acquire deep knowledge across multiple industries. We work with our customers to determine their requirements and then design solutions based upon them. We acquire knowledge in the the financial field through long-term customer relationships, which helps us in turn to develop customer-specific systems. To remain competitive in a market characterised by rapid technological development and low customer loyalty, we’re always trying to introduce new finance solutions and to modify and improve existing ones, providing faster and more flexible systems. ## How Your Business will Benefit from Bespoke Accounting Software If you’re still in doubt about whether to order your own solution, read on to learn about the key benefits of using accounting software. Cash Flow Management Opting for a bespoke solution will really help you save a lot of time compared to manual bookkeeping or ready-made programs. This package handles front-end documents and back-end transactions. For example, you write a cheque in a program, create a bank deposit and prepare a customer invoice, and the software records all transactions. In ordinary accounting, most of the work is done at the end of the fiscal year, when records are prepared for administration and tax purposes. But with the right application, you can continue to create and maintain financial records and get detailed reports at any time. This allows company management to continually monitor the financial records of the business and resolve issues as early as possible, i.e. before a serious issue arises. You can record and track payable and receivable accounts. This gives an idea of ​​current and future cash flow status. For example, you enter an invoice and its due date and obtain a careful report stating whether the receivable is sufficient to cover your future invoice. In addition, you can maintain a record of invoices and bills, which will help you avoid penalties for overdue payment and overdraft fees. Small business owners generally do not have the time to learn how to use new software. Fortunately, with an accounting system tailored to your requirements, the learning curve is short and easy. Therefore, even non-professional users learn how to use the system effectively. This helps minimise reconciliation issues and related errors. Most leading vendors in the UK provide adequate training and customer support to help small businesses use their software effectively; however, only a bespoke product gives you access to overall support and training if needed. Manual accounting increases the likelihood of miscalculations. You can avoid this by integrating software that performs all calculations accurately and automatically. This is a great benefit, especially if you need to prepare a detailed invoice where specific items or hours of work are billed at different rates. Simply select the item you want to bill, enter the required data and the system will pause it for you. We always take into account the growing needs of our clients’ businesses. We deliver systems with scalable architecture and advanced features such as marketable databases and complex customisations. Startups and small companies can be sure that these solutions will grow and expand together with their businesses. When expanding into other countries, UK companies that use home-based employees and have customers in different locations can use cloud-based accounting software to access these solutions on any device connected to the Internet, anytime, anywhere. ## Computerised Billing With invoice-focused accounting software, you get the latest reports on customer payments. These reports provide details of what the customer owes you and the amount paid. This can help you manage and control your finances effectively. You may ask a customer to speed up a payment and minimise the loss. As a result, accounting software provides reliable information on accounts payable and helps increase profits. #### Clients ## Streamlined Organisation Manual invoices are easily lost. On the other hand, accounting applications store all data and information securely in one place. You can view, reprint, and re-bill if necessary. In addition, you can easily search the software for invoices containing numbers, names etc. and the DB does the work. As the system organises all input data correctly, the process is quick and easy. ## Tracking Inventory Based on recent trends in accounting software, your bespoke solution will be able to track inventory of products and provide updated details about inventory levels. You will get the opportunity to automatically track inventory even when processing product orders. Most importantly, the program can predict when you might be out of stock so you can order more items in advance. Therefore, this inventory tracking feature provides accurate data and helps you save time. - Action Report - Immediacy - Mobility Advantage The accounting system can provide detailed reports on business processes and help you control the flow of funds within your organisation. This allows you to have a clear idea of ​​your costs and revenues at any time. This in turn can help you calculate your profits more easily and understand which customers are bringing the most benefit to your company. We build a program for you to provide detailed and actionable reports and their scope depends only on the type of information you enter into it. In short, these reports can help you make informed decisions and run your business more efficiently. With top-notch accounting software, you will be forced to maintain the latest status of your data entry. This can help you keep track of your company's financial situation. As a result, you can quickly identify customers who have credit problems and are not paying on time, as well as other, similar problems that can cause cash flow failures. Therefore, using accounting software is a better option than simply storing manual invoices and receipts in a single file for later trading at the end of the fiscal year. As the leading mobile app developer, Magora offers mobile apps for Android and iOS devices, so you can take your books with you. These applications can be used for a number of efficient tasks, such as the sending of invoices, viewing of invoice information and costs, immediate recording of additional expenses, control over payable time, importing of new customer details directly from the information stored on your phone and more. Accounting products help you centralise key business processes and tasks such as customer relationship management, billing, payroll, inventory management and more. - Instead of investing in a separate solution for each process, you can order a single package to perform all of these tasks. As a result, a complete accounting package can help you save a great deal of time and money and make your business processes easier and more efficient. ### Simplify Tax Compliance The accounting platform can calculate the tax amount that needs to be paid for each invoice. - In addition, you can get a detailed report on the amount of tax your company pays for a specific time period. As a result, you get all the information you need to prepare and submit government-defined tax forms. An advanced system even allows you to submit tax returns electronically from within the product. You are one step away from your business optimisation. Contact us today to take your accounting software to the next level. ## Bespoke accounting software: frequently asked questions ### How much does bespoke accounting software cost in the UK? In our 2026 estimates, a first production release of a custom web or mobile product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000 (12 real UK project estimates). Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Discovery, which turns your requirements into a costed plan and a fixed-price quote, starts from £3,000. ### How long does it take to build? A first release usually lands in 6–8 weeks after Discovery. We build in phases: the workflow that costs your team the most time goes first, integrations and reporting follow, so the system is earning its keep before the full scope is done. ### Should we replace Xero, Sage or QuickBooks, or integrate with them? Usually integrate. A package such as Xero, Sage or QuickBooks stays your book of record and handles statutory accounts and VAT, while a bespoke layer handles what the package cannot: your billing rules, approvals, client portal, consolidation or reporting. A fully bespoke ledger makes sense only when the accounting itself is your product or your rules cannot be expressed in a package. ### Can bespoke accounting software work with Making Tax Digital? Yes. HMRC's Making Tax Digital requires digital records and submission through MTD-compatible software. A bespoke system can either pass its records to a recognised package that submits for you, or submit directly through HMRC's MTD APIs, which needs registration with HMRC and their production approval. We recommend the first route unless direct submission is central to your product. ### Will we own the source code? Yes. IPR in bespoke software shall, without prejudice to our rights in pre-existing IPR, be transferred to you on payment of the requested amount relating to such work. English-law contract with Thinking Fish Ltd (trading as Magora), Companies House 03637036. ### How do you keep financial data secure? We design for UK GDPR from the start: encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access so staff see only what their role needs, an audit log of who changed what, and hosting in a UK or EU region of your choice. Bank and payment data goes through regulated providers (Open Banking, Stripe, GoCardless) rather than being stored by the application. Let’s talk about your product --- # Product Discovery Sprint UK — From £3,000 | Magora London Source: https://magora-systems.com/discovery-phase/ London office · Shoreditch Services / 05 — Discovery & strategy ## Discovery, de-risked. A 2–4 week discovery sprint that turns a fuzzy brief into a fundable plan. User research, technical scoping, prototype, board-ready estimate. **Typical timeline** 2 – 4 weeks **Engagement** **Team** 2 – 3 senior people **Outcome** Scope, prototype, fixed-price estimate Updated June 24, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Veolia 80+ Discovery sprints delivered 4 Average weeks to plan 92% Move into build 75 Enterprise software solutions What we offer ## Discovery services. A 2–4 week discovery sprint that turns a fuzzy brief into a fundable plan. User research, technical scoping, prototype, board-ready estimate. 01 — Research ### User research Up to 10 user interviews, JTBD framing, opportunity mapping — the work that kills bad assumptions before they become code. 02 — Scope ### Product scope User stories, edge cases, acceptance criteria — the spec we can hand to engineering and they say «we can build this». 03 — Architecture ### Technical architecture Stack decisions, scaling assumptions, integrations mapped — the diagram the CTO needs to defend the budget. 04 — Prototype ### Clickable prototype Mid-fidelity Figma flows — enough to put in users' hands and watch what breaks. 05 — Estimate ### Costed plan Phased delivery plan with fixed-price estimate or T&M brackets — board-ready, defensible numbers. 06 — Risks ### Risk register What can kill this product, ranked by likelihood and cost — including the «we should kill it» option. How we build mobile apps ## How we run a discovery sprint. Same engineers from kickoff to handover. Weekly demos. No offshore rotation, no body shop. Pillar 01 ### Discovery Magora business analysts formalise the key demands, choose the appropriate platform and priority devices, and structure your future mobile app's requirements. Pillar 02 ### UI / UX design Leading app designers visualise the user journey. Intuitive functionality wrapped in user-friendly interfaces — the kind that drive both downloads and retention. Pillar 03 ### Development A decade of native iOS and Android experience. Short sprints, transparent process, highly-functional apps shipped reliably to App Store and Play Store. ## Six steps from fuzzy brief to plan. From a fuzzy idea to a store-live product, with a checkpoint at every stage. Step 01 ### User research 1 – 2 weeks Strategic processes that define user roles, set expectations and run up to 10 impactful interviews — swiftly transforming insights into a roadmap. Interviews Personas Roadmap Step 02 ### Product scope 1 week Compelling user stories crafted with stakeholders. Our Product Owner navigates the path to success — clarity, collaboration, adaptability. User stories Priorities Timeline Step 03 ### Design 2 – 3 weeks Robust UI designs for visual appeal and efficient UX prototypes for real user insights. Tested with real users before we write production code. Figma Prototype Usability Step 04 ### Development 6 – 14 weeks Agile development as a dynamic, customer-driven journey. Iterative approach, collaborative mindset, weekly Friday demo, shared Linear board. 2-wk sprints CI/CD Feature flags Step 05 ### QA 2 weeks Rigorous testing in staging — automated test coverage, manual exploratory passes, load testing. QA engineers act as continuous guardians. XCUITest Espresso Detox Step 06 ### Deployment 1 week Planning, version control, testing, cutting-edge strategies like canary releases. Swift, trouble-free installations with continuous monitoring. Fastlane Play Console App Store Connect ## Technologies we work on. The actual stack on most mobile engagements. We'll happily slot into yours if you already have one. - Swift · SwiftUI - UIKit · Combine - Core Data · GRDB - Apple Pay · Wallet - Kotlin - Jetpack Compose - Hilt · Room · Retrofit - ML Kit · Biometrics - React Native - Flutter - Expo - Native modules - Node.js · NestJS - Python · FastAPI - PHP · Laravel - GraphQL · REST - WebSockets - Firebase - Pusher · Ably - Server-sent events - PostgreSQL - MongoDB - Redis - SQLite · Realm - Apple Pay · Google Pay - Stripe · Adyen - PayPal · Braintree - 3-D Secure AI / ML - OpenAI · Anthropic - Core ML - ML Kit · TFLite - Vector DBs ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Partnering with Magora for the development of the messenger was a decision we will never regret.” Chief Business Officer, Easy Report Chatbot & mobile · BI software · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management Who we work with ## Three kinds of partner. We've teamed up with 500+ businesses — fresh-faced startups, established mid-market and global enterprise. ### Startups & MVPs Production-grade MVP in a calendar quarter — see our Startup MVP service. ### Small & medium business Internal tools, customer apps and digital transformation work — the kind that pays for itself within a year. ### Enterprise Compliance-heavy platforms, MDM-managed fleets, audit-ready architecture. SOC 2, GDPR, MHRA passed first time, every time. ## Discoveries we've run. Four from the wider portfolio — the apps that ended up in the hands of millions of end users. FinTech · Discovery ### Abacus Pay Discovery-led payment SaaS — scope, regulatory map, architecture decisions. See case study → Healthcare · Discovery ### Empath AI Discovery + product strategy for an AI clinician copilot — evals model defined before code. See case study → Enterprise · Discovery ### Rollio Discovery for enterprise data automation — process map, integrations, ROI model. See case study → Logistics · Discovery ### UFurniture Logist Discovery sprint that scoped the dispatch console and driver app for logistics. See case study → ## The honest questions. **Why choose Magora for hiring product strategists?** Magora is a London-based custom software house in business since 2010. We field senior product strategists who own the work from the first commit, ship in tight feedback loops with weekly demos and hand over code your team can maintain — no offshore rotation, no juniors in disguise. **How long does it take to build a discovery sprint?** It depends on scope, but our typical engagement runs 8–24 weeks from kickoff to production. A discovery sprint at the start (2–4 weeks) gives a fixed timeline you can actually defend to a board, instead of a ten-page Gantt that slips by week three. **What does a discovery sprint cost?** There's no fixed price — it depends on scope, so we start every engagement with a free working prototype and written analysis from a senior Product Owner, no commitment. Our 2026 pricing (GBP): Product Discovery from £3,000, a Startup MVP from £10,000, and a full production web or mobile project at £25,000–£60,000. AI, bespoke enterprise software and CRM platforms are scoped after Discovery. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership, and we transfer full ownership of source code, designs and IP to you on payment. **Do you provide support after launch?** Yes. We stay on as the maintenance team — security patches, OS / framework upgrades, third-party deprecations, on-going feature work. Most clients keep us on a part-time SLA after launch; some bring the code in-house once their team is ready. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. Magora's IP terms transfer ownership of bespoke work to the client on payment — the repository is licensed to you from the first commit, full stop. We use OSS dependencies but contribute back rather than baking proprietary forks into your codebase. About the reviewer Consulting Director, Magora Nick is Consulting Director at Magora and runs first calls and Discovery with new clients. He reviews the advice and recommendations on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## Idea worth de-risking first? 30-minute call with a senior software architect. We'll review your scope, architecture and constraints — and tell you what we'd actually build if it were us. --- # Healthcare Software Development UK | DTAC, DCB0129 | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/healthcare-software-development-uk/ London office · Engineering floor Healthcare software development — UK ## Healthcare software, built to pass assurance. Custom healthcare software for UK providers and healthtech teams — clinical systems, patient platforms and FHIR integration, with DTAC and DCB0129 evidence built in. Updated September 29, 2026 Trusted by AstraZeneca Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch What we build ## Custom healthcare software development services. Magora is a London healthcare software development company. We design and build custom clinical systems, patient platforms, telehealth and remote-monitoring tools, and the FHIR, HL7 and GP Connect integrations that connect them to the records already in place — with the DTAC, DCB0129 and UK GDPR evidence an NHS or private buyer will ask for produced alongside the code. 01 — Clinical ### Clinical and care-management systems Caseload, referrals, triage, notes, handover and scheduling for clinics, providers and care teams — built around a working day with the number of taps counted, and an audit trail on every record. 02 — Patients ### Patient portals and engagement Appointments, results, care plans, questionnaires and secure messaging, designed for people who are unwell rather than people testing software. Accessible by default. 03 — Remote care ### Telehealth and remote monitoring Video consultation, wearables and home devices feeding a clinical dashboard, with alerting rules a clinician can tune rather than a black box. 04 — Interoperability ### FHIR, HL7 and GP Connect integration Reading and writing records in the systems already in place — EMIS, SystmOne, a trust PAS — through HL7 FHIR R4, HL7 v2 and GP Connect, with SNOMED CT and dm+d coding. 05 — Data ### Health data, reporting and AI Outcome tracking, service dashboards, data exports for research, and AI where it earns it — summarisation, triage support, analysis — always with a human in the loop. 06 — Regulated ### Medical device and SaMD support Intended purpose written down in week one, the UK MDR question answered with your advisor, and the software-lifecycle evidence a regulated product needs produced as the features land. Who we build for ## Healthcare organisations we work with. The same discipline, different pressures: a startup needs to survive procurement, a provider needs adoption, a life-science team needs data it can trust. ### Clinics and healthcare providers Private clinics, diagnostic services and provider groups replacing spreadsheets and disconnected tools with one auditable system. ### Healthtech and digital health startups Founders who need an MVP that will survive an NHS buyer's first questions — DTAC, clinical safety, data residency — without a rewrite later. ### Pharma and life-science teams Field and commercial tools for pharmaceutical companies — as in Pharm Card, built for the sales branch of an international pharma group. More on our pharma app development work. ### Medical technology companies Data platforms around a clinical product, like the web application we built with Focalyx to track prostate cancer focal-treatment outcomes across partner clinics. ### Care, wellbeing and mental health Home care, wellbeing and mental-health services where privacy, safeguarding and accessibility come before features. ### Healthcare administration Cost modelling, operational reporting and back-office tools — the category of InnovoCare, a calculator of the true cost of care pathways. Compliance, built in ## Clinical safety is not a phase at the end. Three questions decide whether healthcare software reaches patients. All of them are cheaper to settle in week one than in month six. Pillar 01 ### Is it a medical device? Software that supports a diagnostic or treatment decision can fall under UK MDR and need UKCA marking. The boundary turns on intended purpose and wording, so we raise it in the first fortnight — a product that crosses the line quietly is a product that stops at procurement. Four worked examples are in the table below. Pillar 02 ### DTAC, DCB0129 and DSPT The evidence a buyer asks for shapes the architecture: audit logging, role separation, data residency, failure behaviour. We write the DTAC technical responses and keep the DCB0129 hazard log live through the build, so the answers are true on the day you submit them. Pillar 03 ### UK GDPR and patient data Patient data stays yours and in the UK or EU by default. We act as processor under your controllership, with a DPIA, data-flow documentation and least-privilege access agreed before a single record moves. ## Is my product a medical device? Four common products and where MHRA guidance usually places them. The answer turns on intended purpose and on what the product claims to do, not on the technology behind it. | Product | What it does | Status | Why, in MHRA’s terms | What would change it | |---|---|---|---|---| | Mood tracker | Logs mood, sleep and habits and shows the user their trends | Usually not a device | MHRA says monitoring general fitness, health and wellbeing “is not usually considered to be a medical purpose”. | It claims to diagnose, screen for or treat a condition, or advises on treatment. MHRA has separate guidance on digital mental health technology. | | Patient portal | Books appointments, shows records and results, secure messaging | Usually not a device | Software that books appointments, requests prescriptions or hosts a virtual consultation is unlikely to be a device if its function is only administrative, and a record that replaces a paper file is not one. | It interprets results, calculates a risk score or dose, or tells the patient what to do clinically. | | Symptom checker | Patient enters symptoms; the software suggests conditions or next steps | Likely a device | MHRA’s symptom-checker appendix lists software that outputs matching conditions, indicates likelihood or recommends treatment as examples that may be devices. Class I, or Class IIa if it allows direct diagnosis. | Only signposting (“see your GP”), or reference information in a fixed order such as alphabetical, is unlikely to be a device. | | Skin-lesion analysis app | Assesses photos of skin and flags lesions for follow-up | Likely a device | MHRA lists apps that “diagnose/assess/monitor the skin by use of images” as examples that may be devices. Class I is self-declared; a higher class needs a UK Approved Body. | A general-purpose app that only records images, with no analysis, is unlikely to be a device. | This is not regulatory advice. It is a general illustration; the answer for your product depends on its intended purpose and on how it is described to users. Magora is not your regulatory advisor, so confirm with a specialist or the MHRA, and check the current guidance, which is updated from time to time: MHRA, medical devices: software applications (apps). For more examples, see our SaMD guide. ## From clinical workflow to live software. The same process we run on every engagement, with the healthcare questions asked early rather than discovered late. Step 01 ### Clinical workflow research 1 – 2 weeks We sit with the people who will use it — clinician, patient, administrator, carer — and map the day as it is, not as the org chart describes it. Step 02 ### Regulatory and safety scoping 1 week Intended purpose written down, the medical-device question answered with your advisor, DTAC and DCB0129 obligations identified, data flows and residency agreed. Intended purposeUK MDR checkHazard log Step 03 ### Free working prototype 5 – 10 days A running prototype of the core journey before any paid engagement — the fastest way to find out whether we understood you. ClickableNo commitmentYours to keep Step 04 ### Integration spike 1 – 3 weeks The hardest integration proven end to end against a real endpoint or sandbox — FHIR, HL7 v2, GP Connect, a trust PAS — before the build is priced. FHIR R4GP ConnectSandbox proof Step 05 ### Build in two-week slices 8 – 24 weeks Weekly demos, a working build at the end of every sprint, and the safety documentation written as features land rather than reconstructed at the end. Weekly demosLiving hazard logAudit trail Step 06 ### Assurance, handover and support DTAC responses and technical evidence handed to your team, full IP transfer on payment, then SLAs, patches and feature work for as long as it is useful. DTAC packFull IP transferSLA options ## Healthcare software development cost. 2026 prices in GBP. Every engagement starts with a free working prototype and an NDA on day one, and ownership of source, designs and IP transfers to you on payment. Integration depth and assurance scope are what move a healthcare estimate — discovery is where both are priced properly. £0 ### Free working prototype A running prototype of your core clinical or patient journey, built from your brief in 5–10 working days. Yours to keep, no commitment. from £3,000 ### Product Discovery Two weeks with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: workflow research, intended purpose, integration map, architecture, estimate and roadmap. from £10,000 ### Startup MVP A production-grade MVP for a funded healthtech startup — one core pathway, built to be assessed, typically 6–8 weeks. £25,000–£60,000 ### Full production build A full custom web, mobile or platform build by a senior in-house team, with the assurance pack written alongside the code. from £80,000 ### Bespoke enterprise platform Multi-role, audit-logged, integration-heavy platforms for providers and life-science organisations. from £1,000 / month ### Support and evolution SLAs, security patching, framework upgrades and iterative feature work after launch — for as long as it is useful. For health founders ## A health MVP from £10,000. A funded founder usually needs two things at once: something real enough for a pilot, and answers an NHS or clinic buyer will accept. This is what each part covers. Build · from £10,000 ### What the MVP buys One core patient or clinician pathway, built to production standard by an in-house team, typically in 6–8 weeks. Most Startup MVPs land between £10,000 and £25,000, and the code and IP are yours on payment. If the product turns out to be a medical device (SaMD), the budget is higher, typically £80,000 and up. More on MVP development. Assurance · scoped, not guessed ### What compliance work adds The intended-purpose statement and medical-device check, DTAC technical responses, a DCB0129 hazard log kept live through the build, and a DPIA with data-flow documentation. Its size depends on your product and your first buyer, so Discovery sets it out in writing. We do not quote a flat percentage. Outside our quote ### What sits with you and others A named Clinical Safety Officer, your regulatory advisor, and any UK Approved Body or independent testing a medical device needs are priced by those parties, not by us. Regulatory submissions stay with you. Not sure which side of the line your product sits? Start with the free working prototype and a two-week Product Discovery from £3,000. ## The healthcare engineering stack. Interoperable, auditable and boring where boring is a virtue. - HL7 FHIR R4 - HL7 v2 - GP Connect - SNOMED CT · dm+d - REST & webhooks - Node.js · NestJS - Python · FastAPI - PHP · Laravel - .NET Web & mobile - TypeScript · React - Next.js · Vue - Swift · Kotlin - React Native · Flutter - Accessible by default Data & hosting - PostgreSQL - Encrypted at rest - UK / EU data residency - Audit logging - Role-based access - Apple HealthKit - Google Health Connect - BLE wearables - Home monitoring kit - DTAC responses - DCB0129 hazard log - DSPT alignment - UK GDPR · DPIA - Human-in-the-loop AI ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “We were very happy with the overall experience.” AI MVP · Financial services · 2025 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.” Senior Digital Project Manager, Digital Transformation Co Mobile MVP · 2022 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## Healthcare and life-science software we've shipped. Four healthcare and pharma projects: clinical outcome tracking, AI-drafted treatment plans, field sales for a pharma group and a cost calculator for medical centres. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used. Medtech · Clinical data · 2023 ### Focalyx **Problem** Focalyx needed to gather patient data, medical history, AI analysis results and treatment outcomes across clinics to establish how effective prostate cancer focal treatment is. **Built** A web application where carers, doctors and clinic staff upload patient information and AI analysis results, track treatment outcomes and export data with SQL queries, shaped by a discovery phase with user interviews. **Outcome** Focalyx and its partner clinics manage patient information and treatment outcomes in one place. Read the case study → Healthcare · LLM · 2025 ### BodySync **Problem** Clinicians spent long hours drafting personalised treatment plans by hand and looking up exercises. **Built** A web app that takes structured input (diagnosis, assessment findings, treatment preferences, goals) and drafts a phase-appropriate plan with OpenAI, restricted to pre-defined peer-reviewed clinical sources. Built for HIPAA and GDPR, with one-click send or PDF export. **Outcome** The MVP is in use in UK clinics, and further development is planned. Read the case study → Pharma · Field sales · 2018 ### Pharm Card (EGIS) **Problem** Each medical rep filled in hundreds of Excel files on pharmacy visits, and management had no live view of sales and contract performance. **Built** A native iOS app for iPad and a web application for senior staff, with a database of pharmaceutical products, GPS pharmacy lookup and an offline mode that syncs automatically. **Outcome** In daily use by the client's staff, and we continue to add features as the company's needs change. Read the case study → Healthcare · Finance · 2017 ### InnovoCare **Problem** Hospital administrators had no tool to calculate the true cost of complex healthcare services across the whole pathway. **Built** A web calculator that structures costs stage by stage, built first as a working prototype and then as a full app with projects and groups, shareable exported reports and admin monitoring. **Outcome** Top managers can work out ROI for any work period, and the prototype drew interest from investors. Read the case study → Also: Anova, Empath AI, Doctor OTC, Medical Tourism App. All projects → ## Healthcare software questions, answered. **What does custom healthcare software development cost in the UK?** It depends on scope and, in healthcare, on two things that make the same product cost more than in other sectors: how much integration it needs and how much assurance evidence a buyer will ask for. Our 2026 pricing (GBP): a free working prototype first, Product Discovery from £3,000, a Startup MVP from £10,000, a full production build at £25,000–£60,000, and multi-role, integration-heavy enterprise platforms from £80,000. Support retainers run from £1,000 a month. A discovery ends with a written scope, architecture and estimate that you own and can take elsewhere. For a quick range, try the app cost calculator or our UK software development pricing guide. **How long does it take to build healthcare software?** A working prototype of the core journey lands in 5–10 working days. A production build typically runs 8–24 weeks from kickoff, and healthcare sits at the longer end whenever a real integration is involved. That is why we prove the hardest integration in a spike before we quote the build, rather than discovering it in month three. **Is my healthcare software a medical device?** Possibly, and it is the first question worth settling. Under UK MDR, software intended to support a diagnostic or treatment decision can be a medical device (Software as a Medical Device, SaMD) that needs UKCA marking; administrative, wellbeing and information products usually are not. The line turns on intended purpose and on how results are worded to the user. Magora is not your regulatory advisor. What we do is raise it in the first fortnight, write the intended-purpose statement with you, and build to whichever answer your advisor gives. Our guide to software as a medical device (SaMD) has more examples, and the table earlier on this page shows four common cases. **Can you produce DTAC, DCB0129 and DSPT evidence?** Yes, as the supplier side of it. We produce the technical responses a DTAC (Digital Technology Assessment Criteria) assessment asks for, maintain the DCB0129 hazard log through the build, and align hosting and access controls with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit. The system is structured so that the answers about audit logging, data residency and role separation are true rather than aspirational. DCB0129 also requires a named Clinical Safety Officer — a clinical role that sits with you or with a specialist we work alongside. The deploying organisation then carries its own obligations under DCB0160. **Do private clinics need DTAC?** Not by law. DTAC (the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria) is NHS England’s framework for assessing digital health technology used in the NHS and adult social care. NHS guidance describes it as best practice that is not legally required, but NHS buyers review it during procurement, so in practice it decides whether a product is bought. A private clinic that does not work with the NHS is not obliged to complete one. Many still use its five areas — clinical safety, data protection, technical security, interoperability, and usability and accessibility — as a due-diligence checklist, and a clinic that treats NHS-funded patients may be asked for it. UK GDPR, and the medical-device rules if they apply, bind you either way. Check the current version of DTAC on the NHS England website before you rely on it. **How much does compliance add to a health MVP?** We do not quote a flat percentage, because it depends on things that differ for every product: whether it turns out to be a medical device, how much assurance evidence your first buyer asks for, and how many systems it must integrate with. For the build itself, a Startup MVP starts from £10,000 and most land between £10,000 and £25,000 (see MVP development). The compliance work on top is a matter of scope rather than a fixed fee: an intended-purpose statement and medical-device check, DTAC technical responses, a DCB0129 hazard log kept live through the build, and a DPIA with data-flow documentation. Product Discovery (from £3,000) ends with a written scope, architecture and estimate, so you see it before you commit. Costs charged by others, such as a Clinical Safety Officer or a UK Approved Body for a medical device, are separate. **Do we need HIPAA as well as UK GDPR?** If you serve patients in the UK, UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 are the law that applies, and HIPAA is not required. HIPAA is a US law for US covered entities, such as health plans and healthcare providers, and for the business associates that handle protected health information on their behalf. You need HIPAA safeguards as well if you will sell to US providers or insurers, who typically ask for them and for a business associate agreement. We can design for both from the start, as in BodySync, which was built for HIPAA and GDPR. Moving personal data between the UK and the US is a restricted transfer under UK GDPR: the ICO lists adequacy regulations, including the UK Extension for the US, and safeguards such as the IDTA and the Addendum. Magora is not your legal advisor, so take advice on both regimes. **Can you integrate with EMIS, SystmOne or an NHS trust system?** The technical routes are well travelled and we build to them: HL7 FHIR R4, HL7 v2, GP Connect, and SNOMED CT and dm+d for clinical coding. What decides the timeline is usually access rather than engineering — partner agreements, sandbox access and assurance sign-off from the system supplier or the trust. We scope that honestly at the start, including the parts that are not in our gift. For integration-heavy work outside healthcare, see our API integration services. **Who owns the code and the patient data?** You own both. Source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment, and the repository is yours from the first commit. Patient data stays yours throughout and in the UK or EU by default; we work as processor under your controllership, with a DPIA and data-flow documentation under UK GDPR. We sign an NDA on day one. **What is the difference between healthcare software and a healthcare app?** A healthcare app is usually one patient- or clinician-facing product on a phone or tablet. Healthcare software is the wider system around it: the clinical back office, the integrations with records systems, the reporting and the audit trail that let a provider actually adopt it. Most of our healthcare projects are both. If you are building a patient or clinician app first, see healthcare app development. **Do you use AI in healthcare software?** Where it earns its place — triage support, document summarisation, coding assistance, analysis of uploaded data — and always with a human in the loop. AI that influences a clinical decision is exactly the case that can turn a product into a medical device, so we settle that question before the model is chosen, not after. See our AI and ML development work, including Empath AI. ## Guides for healthcare buyers. Longer reading on the regulatory and technical questions behind the answers above. Guide · SaMD ### Software as a medical device: examples and trends What counts as SaMD, with examples and the trends shaping medical software. Read the guide → Guide · IoMT ### Internet of Medical Things: remote healthcare systems How connected devices and remote monitoring fit into healthcare systems. Read the guide → Guide · Cost ### How much does healthcare software cost in the UK? What moves the price of healthcare software, by type of product. Read the guide → Guide · NHS compliance ### DTAC, DCB0129 and DSPT for software suppliers What UK suppliers need before selling software to the NHS. Read the guide → About the reviewer Consulting Director, Magora Nick is Consulting Director at Magora and runs first calls and Discovery with new clients. He reviews the advice and recommendations on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ### Laravel development company Laravel web platforms, SaaS, APIs and admin panels, from prototype to support. Learn more → ## Healthcare software on the brief? 30-minute call with a senior architect who has shipped healthcare products. We'll go through the integration, the medical-device question and the evidence an NHS buyer will ask you for — and tell you what we would actually build. --- # Fintech App Development UK | FCA, PSD2, Open Banking | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/fintech-app-development/ London office · Strategy room ## FinTech, FCA-friendly. Open Banking, FCA-aware integrations, KYC/AML pipelines, custodial and non-custodial wallets, lending platforms and white-label trading. Built to survive a regulator's audit. Trusted by Lloyds Tide Wise Plaid Stripe TrueLayer 34 FinTech projects shipped 18 9 Open Banking integrations 75 Enterprise software solutions What we do ## FinTech software we ship. Open Banking, FCA-aware integrations, KYC/AML pipelines, custodial and non-custodial wallets, lending platforms, white-label trading. Built to survive a regulator's audit. 01 — Banking ### Open Banking apps TrueLayer, Plaid, GoCardless integrations — account aggregation, payments, scoring. 02 — KYC/AML ### KYC & AML Onfido, Sumsub, Jumio — identity flows that satisfy compliance without losing customers at signup. 03 — Payments ### Payments & cards Stripe, Marqeta, Adyen — bespoke checkout, virtual cards, BNPL, PCI-DSS-scoped architectures. 04 — Lending ### Lending platforms Decisioning engines, document workflows, servicing portals — for prime, near-prime and SME credit. 05 — Wallets ### Crypto wallets Custodial & non-custodial — Bitcoin, Ethereum, L2 — institutional-grade key management. 06 — Trading ### Trading & investments White-label brokerage, robo-advisors, portfolio platforms — FCA-friendly, latency-aware. How we build ## How we build successful FinTech platforms. From the start of the journey we ensure transparency. Plan, roadmap, weekly demos. You're in the room at every stage. Pillar 01 ### Product development consultation Transparency from day one. We discuss the plan of action and build a precise app deployment roadmap. At each stage of development, we encourage you to participate in discussions. Pillar 02 ### User-oriented design A talented team of designers creates an accurate user-journey map — predicting intuitive nature and functionality. User-friendly interfaces built on extensive research. Pillar 03 ### Agile development A decade of experience in Web, iOS and Android development. Customised bespoke solutions, delivered in a collaborative environment — your boldest ideas, realised. ## A regulator-ready FinTech app, in six steps. The same six-stage process we run on every engagement, adapted to fintech constraints: FCA expectations, PSD2 and Open Banking, KYC and AML, and an audit trail that has to hold up. Step 01 ### User research 1 – 2 weeks Strategic processes define user roles — driver, dispatcher, warehouse worker, ops manager — and run up to 10 impactful interviews. Insights become a guaranteed roadmap. Field interviews Personas Roadmap Step 02 ### Product scope 1 – 2 weeks We determine feature priority, set timelines, design interactions and define the logistics behind the app. Basic prototype first — adding functionality later. User stories Carrier APIs Compliance Step 03 ### Design 2 – 3 weeks Software architecture schemes, UI mockups, graphic imagery — reflecting your business identity. Interactive prototype for testing and presentation. Figma Driver UX Dashboards Step 04 ### Development 10 – 20 weeks Agile development transforms the process into a customer-driven journey. Iterative approach, collaborative mindset, change embraced seamlessly. CI/CD Trunk-based Feature flags Step 05 ### Testing 2 – 3 weeks From feature-rich development to rigorous staging. Each step a precision move toward a seamless user experience. QA as continuous guardians. Playwright k6 · load Pen-test Step 06 ### Deployment 1 week Planning, version control, testing, cutting-edge strategies like canary releases. Swift, trouble-free installations with continuous monitoring. Canary Runbooks SRE on call ## Technologies we work on. The actual stack on FinTech engagements — regulated, observable, and built to survive an audit. - TypeScript - Python - Java · Kotlin - Solidity (web3) - Swift · SwiftUI - Kotlin · Compose - React Native - Flutter - WebSockets - Kafka · NATS - SSE - FIX protocol - Node.js · NestJS - Python · FastAPI - Java - .NET - PostgreSQL · TimescaleDB - ClickHouse - Redis · Kafka - S3 · Parquet AI / ML - Fraud · risk models - OpenAI · Anthropic - PyTorch · scikit-learn - pgvector · RAG - FCA · PSD2 - Open Banking · SCA - PCI-DSS · 3-D Secure - SOC 2 · ISO 27001 - Stripe · Adyen - Plaid · TrueLayer · Tink - Modulr · Currencycloud - KYC vendors (Onfido · Veriff) ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management ## FinTech platforms we've shipped. Four from the wider portfolio: fintech products running today in personal finance, payments and Open Banking. Personal finance · Mobile ### MoneyWiz Personal finance management app — multi-currency, budgets, reporting. See case study → Payments · Mobile ### Expensify Mobile expense tracking + virtual card — corporate spend on iOS and Android. See case study → FinTech · Web ### GAIN Bespoke FinTech solution for the GAIN team — automated advisory and decisioning. See case study → Open Banking · API ### Abacus Pay Bespoke payment platform — Open Banking integrations and ledger reconciliation. See case study → ## More FinTech case studies. ### Grant Thornton A self-service platform that automates EMI share-scheme documentation for the firm and its clients. Read the case → ### Hedge fund comparison A web app for searching and analysing hedge funds with live graphs, portfolios and benchmark tracking. Read the case → ### Trade blotter A tablet app for a brokerage to run and analyse stock-exchange operations, with widgets and live graphs. Read the case → ### Rumine Asset An intranet web application for gathering and editing analytics for a Swiss financial company. Read the case → All FinTech case studies → ## The honest questions. **Why choose Magora for hiring FinTech developers?** Magora is a London-based custom software house in business since 2010. We field senior FinTech developers who own the work from the first commit, ship in tight feedback loops with weekly demos and hand over code your team can maintain — no offshore rotation, no juniors in disguise. **How long does it take to build a FinTech platform?** It depends on scope, but our typical engagement runs 8–24 weeks from kickoff to production. A discovery sprint at the start (2–4 weeks) gives a fixed timeline you can actually defend to a board, instead of a ten-page Gantt that slips by week three. **What does a FinTech platform cost?** There's no fixed price — it depends on scope, so we start every engagement with a free working prototype and written analysis from a senior Product Owner, no commitment. Our 2026 pricing (GBP): Product Discovery from £3,000, a Startup MVP from £10,000, and a full production web or mobile project at £25,000–£60,000. AI, bespoke enterprise software and CRM platforms are scoped after Discovery. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership, and we transfer full ownership of source code, designs and IP to you on payment. **Do you provide support after launch?** Yes. We stay on as the maintenance team — security patches, OS / framework upgrades, third-party deprecations, on-going feature work. Most clients keep us on a part-time SLA after launch; some bring the code in-house once their team is ready. **Who owns the code and IP?** You do. Magora's IP terms transfer ownership of bespoke work to the client on payment — the repository is licensed to you from the first commit, full stop. We use OSS dependencies but contribute back rather than baking proprietary forks into your codebase. About the reviewer Director of Operations & Business Development, Magora Alex leads operations and business development at Magora. He reviews the prices, terms and commercial commitments published on this page. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## FinTech idea on the brief? 30-minute call with a senior architect who has shipped payment rails, Open Banking integrations and regulated fintech products before. We'll review your constraints and tell you what we'd actually build if it were us. --- # Hire PHP Developers UK from £49/hour | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/hire-php-developers/ London office · senior PHP team Hire PHP developers in the UK ## Hire PHP developers in the UK. Senior Laravel, Symfony and WordPress developers from our London team, from £49/hour (about £390 a day). Join your team as a dedicated developer or as a full team with QA, on a monthly rolling contract after the first four weeks. NDA on day one, and the code and IP are yours. **Developer rate** From £49 / hour **First commit** 2 to 5 working days **Commitment** 4 weeks, then monthly **Free prototype** 5 to 10 working days Updated October 2, 2026 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton 16 Years shipping software, since 2010 250+ 97% Delivered on time 75+ Verified reviews on Clutch You can hire a senior PHP developer from Magora from £49/hour (about £390 a day), or a full team with QA and product ownership at £65-£70/hour. Laravel, Symfony, WordPress and native PHP; first commit usually 2 to 5 working days after the offer. The minimum engagement is four weeks, then monthly rolling. NDA on day one, code in your repository from the first commit, and IP transfers to you on payment. Who you get ## Senior PHP developers, from our own team. Magora's own engineers, managed from our London office and backed by architects, QA and a Product Owner. Not freelancers we still have to find. 01 · Laravel ### Laravel and Filament Web platforms, APIs and admin panels in Laravel, with Filament, Livewire or Inertia, queues and Horizon. See our Laravel development company page or hire Laravel developers. 02 · Symfony ### Symfony for long-lived products API Platform, Doctrine and Messenger for regulated and enterprise products that have to stay easy to extend for years. 03 · WordPress ### WordPress and Drupal Custom plugins, Gutenberg blocks, headless WordPress, performance and security hardening. Drupal for large, multilingual content estates. 04 · Native PHP ### Modern PHP 8 Framework-free PHP for libraries, packages and lean services: enums, typed properties, readonly classes and PSR standards. 05 · Upgrades ### Legacy upgrades and takeovers An audit, tests around the risky parts, then upgrades one step at a time (PHP version, framework, packages) while the application stays live. See legacy system modernisation. 06 · Audit ### Security and performance review Static analysis with PHPStan or Larastan, a review against the OWASP Top 10, a dependency audit and a written, prioritised fix list. ## Three ways to hire PHP developers. Pick the model by how settled your scope is. Detail on each is on our pages for dedicated development teams and IT staff augmentation. | | Dedicated team | Staff augmentation | Fixed-price project | |---|---|---|---| | What you get | PHP developers, QA and a tech lead or Product Owner, working only on your product | One or more senior PHP developers inside your own team | Magora's team delivering an agreed scope | | Who manages the work | Magora (tech lead / Product Owner) | Your engineering lead | Magora | | Best for | A product or roadmap that runs for months | An existing team that needs more senior capacity or a missing skill | A well-defined scope with a fixed end | | Price | From £49/hour per developer; £65-£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership | From £49/hour per developer (about £390 a day) | Discovery from £3,000, then an agreed price for an agreed scope | | Commitment | Minimum four weeks, then monthly rolling | Minimum four weeks, then monthly rolling | Until the scope is delivered | | Changing scope | Re-prioritise the backlog any sprint | Your backlog, your call | Change request | | First step | Free prototype, then a Discovery sprint if the scope is still open | Brief, shortlist, then meet the engineers (prototype optional) | Free prototype, then a two-week Discovery | Not sure which fits? Book a call and we will say whether you need a team, two extra developers, or neither. Rates and pricing ## What it costs, published. These are Magora's published 2026 prices in pounds sterling. The exact figure depends on roles, seniority and full- or part-time allocation. From £49 / hour ### One PHP developer About £390 a day, or about £7,800 a month full-time over 20 working days. Minimum four weeks, then monthly rolling. £65-£70 / hour ### Full team with QA Developers plus QA and product ownership, for a product that needs an outcome delivered, not just extra hands. £0 ### Free working prototype A clickable, coded prototype of your core idea in 5 to 10 working days, before any paid work. From £3,000 ### Two-week Discovery Scope, architecture and a fixed-price quote when the brief is still open. You can take the output to another agency. No recruitment fee. For the wider market, read our UK software development pricing guide, see what 12 real UK projects cost, or try the cost calculator. Vetting and process ## How you hire and how we vet. You see the people and the code before you commit, and the work runs inside your repository, your tracker and your code review. Pillar 01 ### Senior by default Senior PHP engineers in front of you, with architects, QA and a Product Owner behind them for problems that need more than one person. Pillar 02 ### Meet them first You meet the proposed engineers before they start. The team proposal names the people, their roles and seniority, and the rate for each, in writing. Pillar 03 ### Judge real code A free working prototype in 5 to 10 working days shows how they think and code before you sign anything. Step 01 ### Brief Skills, seniority, time-zone overlap, tools, and how long you need the developers. NDA on day one. Step 02 ### Shortlist Matched to the brief PHP developers from our own team whose experience fits your stack and domain, with CVs and availability. Laravel · SymfonyCVsAvailability Step 03 ### Meet and prototype Before you commit You meet the engineers. If you want, they build a free working prototype in 5 to 10 working days. Step 04 ### Onboard Access to your repository, tools and ceremonies, with first tickets in the first sprint. Weekly demos, code review and documentation throughout. Your repoYour toolsWeekly demos PHP tech stack ## The actual PHP stack. What goes into a Magora PHP build: typed services, queues that survive deploys, and a domain model your team actually wants to extend. - PHP 8.x - SQL - JavaScript - TypeScript - Laravel - Symfony - Slim - Phalcon - WordPress - Drupal - October CMS - Headless / decoupled - DDD - Hexagonal - Service + Repository - Bounded contexts - Queues · Horizon - RabbitMQ - Messenger - Octane - Eloquent - Doctrine - PostgreSQL · MySQL - Redis · Elasticsearch - Sanctum - Passport · OAuth2 - Stripe · GoCardless - Webhooks · SSE - Pest - PHPUnit - Behat - Larastan · PHPStan ## PHP projects we have shipped. Three PHP projects from the portfolio, with the stack as stated on each case page. Workplace software · Laravel ### SwipedOn iPad receptionist app with a web admin for a New Zealand start-up. The back end is PHP Laravel with MySQL. See case study → E-commerce · PHP and Yii ### Awnings A European awnings retailer's portal rebuilt in pure PHP and the Yii framework, with a configurator for size, colour and fabric. See case study → Real estate · PHP ### Property Finder Magora PHP developers worked alongside the in-house team of a UAE property portal on PHP and system architecture. See case study → Laravel ### More Laravel work The Laravel projects we can name, how a build is priced, and how an existing application is audited and upgraded. Laravel development company → ## What clients say. Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews. 5.0 “Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.” CEO & Founder, LEASA Backend platform · Car leasing · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.” COO, Casual Films Web app · Media production · 2023 Verified review on Clutch → 5.0 “Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.” President, Anova Enterprises, Inc. Web development · Clinical technology · 2020 Verified review on Clutch → ISO/IEC 27001Information security ISO 9001Quality management Before you hire ## What to check before you hire a PHP developer. Whoever you hire, whether us, a freelancer or another agency, these six checks separate production PHP from code you will pay to rewrite. - PHP 8.x, not 7.x habits - Current Laravel / Symfony releases - Typed properties and enums - Composer, not copied vendor code Tests in every PR - PHPUnit or Pest - Feature tests on the money paths - CI runs them on every push - Ask to see a real PR - PHPStan or Psalm in CI - A coding standard (PSR-12) - Rector for upgrades - No suppressed warnings - OWASP Top 10 awareness - composer audit on dependencies - Secrets outside the repo - UK GDPR data handling - Code in your repository - IP transfers to you on payment - English-law contract - NDA from day one - README and setup scripts - Deployment documented - Your team can run it alone - No lock-in to one engineer ## The honest questions. **How much does it cost to hire a PHP developer in the UK?** At Magora a PHP developer is from £49/hour (about £390 a day), which comes to about £7,800 a month full-time over 20 working days. A full team with QA and product ownership is £65-£70/hour. The rate is set by seniority, not by language, and there is no recruitment fee. The minimum engagement is four weeks. For a fixed-scope project we start with a Discovery from £3,000 and then quote a fixed price. See the UK software development pricing guide or 12 real UK project estimates. **What is the notice period, and can I scale the team up or down?** Engagements run for a minimum of four weeks, then monthly rolling, full-time or part-time. You can add a developer for a release, step up before a launch or move to a maintenance retainer, month by month. Unlike hiring a permanent developer, there is no recruitment fee and no candidate notice period to wait out. We will go through the contract terms with you on the call. **Which time zone do your PHP developers work in?** The team is managed from our London office and works to UK time, with agreed working hours that overlap with your team's day. Developers join your stand-ups, your tracker and your repository, and give a weekly demo. **Who owns the code, and do you sign an NDA?** We sign an NDA on day one. Developers commit to your repository as they write the code, and full ownership of the source code, designs and IP transfers to you on payment, under an English-law contract. Magora is the trading name of Thinking Fish Ltd, Companies House 03637036, and has been delivering software from London since 2010. **What happens if a developer does not work out or leaves?** Tell us straight away. We replace the developer at no extra cost, usually within a week. Replacement engineers come from Magora's own team, which includes architects and QA, and you meet them before they start. Because the code is in your repository from the first commit, and documentation and code review are part of the work, knowledge does not leave with one engineer. **How quickly can a PHP developer start?** The first commit usually lands 2 to 5 working days after the offer. You meet the proposed engineers first and, if you want, see a free working prototype built in 5 to 10 working days before you sign anything. For larger team builds (3 or more engineers) allow 5 to 10 working days of ramp-up. To discuss it, book a call. Related: Laravel development company · hire Laravel developers · dedicated development team · IT staff augmentation · UK software development pricing guide About the reviewer Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer, Magora Artem leads an engineering team at Magora and reviews the technical content on this page: architecture, stack choices and delivery estimates. Reviewed 13 October 2026 ## Need senior PHP engineers now? A free 30-minute call with a senior engineer. Tell us your stack, scope and team, and we will say which developers we would put on the project, at what rate, and from which week. --- # Software Development Cost UK 2026: What 12 Real Projects Cost Source: https://magora-systems.com/software-development-cost-uk-2026/ Business Updated 13 Oct 2026 12 min read ## Software development cost in the UK (2026): what 12 real project estimates actually cost Want a price for your project? Free working prototype in 5–10 days Co-Founder & Managing Director office desk with smartphone and financial charts Updated 13 Oct 2026 What 12 real UK software project estimates cost in 2026: first releases £11,000–£34,000 (median about £25,000), discovery £1,200–£3,600, 6–8 weeks to build, plus where the money goes and UK rates. Short answer. In our 2026 estimates, a first production release of a custom web or mobile product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and typically takes 6–8 weeks to build with a team of two to three developers. Discovery before the build cost £1,200–£3,600 (median about £1,800). A second phase typically added 30–70% of the first release. Small, well-defined jobs, such as one third-party API integration into an existing product, came in at £2,500–£3,000. Most "how much does software cost" articles quote ranges from industry surveys. This one uses our own numbers: the 12 estimates we wrote for UK clients between July and October 2026, at the rates we actually charge. They are not a price list — every project is scoped individually — but they show where real budgets land and why. Updated: 13 October 2026. Price ranges on this page follow the summary table. ## The data: 12 real estimates from 2026 All figures are in GBP, exclude VAT, and include development, QA and product ownership. Design is included only where the project needed a designed interface rather than a component library. "Dev effort" is in story points; one story point is about one developer-day. | # | What was being built | Discovery | First release / MVP | Later phases | Dev effort | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Marketing website rebuild for an established brand | — | ≈ £11,600 | — | — | | 2 | Conference networking app (iOS, Android, organiser CMS) | — | £24,900 | — | 44 | | 3 | Same app, extended: attendee web app, invite-only accounts, organiser roles | — | £39,758 | — | 67 | | 4 | Face-to-face lead marketplace: tablet capture, matching engine, admin, company portal | £1,954 | £25,828 | £9,714 | 45 | | 5 | Personalised wellbeing practice platform (grant-funded) | £19,430 in total | priced separately | — | | | 6 | Health-product interaction checker (scan a product, check it against regulated data) | £1,524 | £18,206 | £12,408 | 30 | | 7 | Show and session allocation system for a visitor attraction | £1,700 | £31,652 | £14,404 | — | | 8 | AI meeting assistant (live prompts, meeting scoring, follow-up drafts) | £3,636* | £32,718 | £8,751 | — | | 9 | Pricing platform for law firms (multi-tenant SaaS) | £1,758 | £25,057 | £17,685** | 48 | | 10 | Tenant rent-record verification via open banking | £2,464 | £34,299 | — | 60 | | 11 | Scheduling pilot around a third-party game platform | £1,192 | £11,127 | £3,275 | 22 | | 12 | Vehicle-data API integration into an existing marketplace | — | £2,575–£2,783 | — | — | Rows 2 and 3 are the same product scoped twice. * Row 8's discovery includes a proof of concept; its later phase is the difference between the full scope (£45,105) and discovery plus MVP. ** Row 9's later phases are a self-serve pricing phase (£10,087) and an AI phase (£7,598). ### What the numbers say - First releases cluster around £25,000. Of the nine new-product builds (rows 2 and 4–11), the median first release was about £25,100; the middle of the range was roughly £19,000–£32,000. - Discovery is small but not optional. £1,200–£3,600 bought a scoped feature list, an architecture, a fixed estimate and a delivery plan. - Scope moves the price more than technology. The same conference app cost £24,900 or £39,758 depending on whether attendees also got a web app and organisers got their own role. - Integrations, AI and regulated data are where budgets grow. The three most expensive first releases (rows 10, 8 and 7) were dominated by open-banking data that had to be verified rather than just displayed, by live AI processing, and by a booking engine with real-world constraints. - Phase two is usually 30–70% of phase one. Planning for it up front is cheaper than discovering it after launch. Real UK prices What would your project cost? Pick your features in our calculator for a ballpark, or send us your brief for a free estimate. Developers from £49/hour; a full team with QA and product ownership £65–£70/hour. ## UK software and app development cost: summary table Updated: 13 October 2026. Same figures on our app cost, software cost, UK pricing, MVP and fixed-price pages. | Project type | Typical time | Typical range | |---|---|---| | Free working prototype, with written analysis from a senior Product Owner | 5–10 working days | £0 | | Discovery sprint (scope, architecture, fixed-price quote) | 2 weeks | from £3,000 | | Proof of concept | 2–4 weeks | £2,000–£5,000 | | Startup MVP, one or two core journeys | 6–8 weeks | £10,000–£25,000 | | Production app or web platform, with backend and admin | 3–6 months | £25,000–£60,000 | | Regulated or integration-heavy product (fintech, health, logistics) | 5–8 months | £80,000–£120,000 | | AI proof of concept (scoped after Discovery) | 4–6 weeks | from £15,000 | | Maintenance retainer after launch | monthly | from £1,000 per month | Rates: from £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Each range is for the stage named in its row; the free prototype, Discovery and maintenance are priced separately from the build. ### How we calculate these ranges These are Magora’s published 2026 price bands, not quotes. We check them against our own data: the 12 project estimates we wrote for UK clients in 2026. In those estimates a first release of a new product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and took 6–8 weeks; Discovery cost £1,200–£3,600. The extended version of one app cost £39,758, and a single API integration £2,500–£3,000. Each estimate lists features in story points (about one developer-day each), adds project set-up, regression testing, user acceptance testing and deployment, then adds QA at 30% and product ownership at 20% of development time. Cost is that effort multiplied by our day rates, about £520–£570 per developer-day including QA and product ownership. The other rows are the bands in our UK software development pricing guide. Your own figure depends on platforms, integrations, regulation and design; a fixed price comes from Discovery. For a first number, use the app cost calculator. ## Where the money goes At our 2026 rates, every day of development carries the QA and product ownership needed to ship it. For one developer-day (one story point): | Role | How it is sized | Share of cost | |---|---|---| | Development | The estimate itself, in developer-days | ≈ 75% | | QA (manual testing, regression, UAT support) | 30% of development time | ≈ 13% | | Product owner (scope, priorities, acceptance) | 20% of development time | ≈ 12% | That works out at about £520–£570 per developer-day, including QA and product ownership (the upper figure when project management is added). Design, where needed, is estimated separately. The first releases above needed between about 20 and 70 developer-days. ## UK rates in 2026: what you are paying for | Who you hire | Typical hourly rate | What changes | |---|---|---| | Offshore freelancers | £15–£30 | Lowest price; you manage scope, QA and continuity yourself | | Offshore agencies with a UK sales front | £25–£50 | Process exists; time-zone and hand-over cost | | London product-engineering houses (Magora's tier) | £45–£90 | Senior UK-based team, QA and product ownership included | | Boutique London digital agencies | £60–£140 | Often design-led | | Tier-1 consultancies | £120–£250 | Enterprise programmes, governance overhead | Market bands as on our UK pricing page. On the projects above, Magora's rate works out at about £65–£70 an hour including QA and product ownership, or £520–£570 per developer-day. ## How to keep the first release under £25,000 - One user journey, done properly. The cheapest estimates above had one core flow and an admin area, not five flows. - Use a component library, not bespoke UI. Several of the estimates above had no design stage at all: the interface was built from a clickable prototype on a standard component library. - Put integrations in phase two unless the product does not work without them. - Hand-run the rare cases. Manual invoicing or manual approvals for the first months was one of the levers we offered to bring a first release inside a fixed budget. - Agree the calculation rules before the build for anything that prices, scores or allocates — that logic is where rework costs most. ## How we estimated Each estimate lists features by platform in story points (about one developer-day each), adds supporting work — project set-up, regression testing, user acceptance testing and deployment — then derives QA at 30% and product ownership at 20% of development. Cost is effort multiplied by our day rates. The figures above are the totals in the estimate documents as sent; where a client chose between options, the base scope is shown. ## Fixed price or time & materials? Short answer: Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials (T&M) when the product will keep changing or the work will run for months. At Magora a fixed price comes after Discovery, not before it. ### Fixed price - What you pay: an agreed price for an agreed scope. - How it is produced: a free working prototype (5–10 working days), then a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000) that ends in a fixed-price quote for the build. - Best for: a well-defined scope with a fixed end, such as a startup MVP or a defined project. - If the scope changes: it goes through a change request. - Comparison: you can take the Discovery output to another agency for a comparable quote. ### Time and materials (dedicated team) - What you pay: a day rate per engineer, billed monthly. From £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. - Commitment: a minimum of four weeks, then monthly rolling. - Best for: a product or roadmap that runs for months, or a brief that will change along the way. - If the scope changes: the backlog is re-prioritised in any sprint. - After launch: a maintenance retainer from £1,000 a month. Discovery can end in a fixed-price estimate or in T&M brackets, so you see the numbers before you commit to either model. More detail: fixed-price software development in the UK, or dedicated development teams. ## More on UK software pricing - App development cost in the UK (2026) — ranges, what moves them, and the FAQ - UK software development pricing — day rates by tier and our published prices - MVP development company UK — startup MVPs from £10,000 - Fixed-price software development in the UK — how a fixed quote is produced - App cost calculator — pick features and see hours and cost Updated: 13 October 2026. ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does it cost to build an MVP in the UK in 2026? In our 2026 estimates, a first production release cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000. See how much an MVP costs in the UK in 2026 for the breakdown by type of product. ### How long does it take to build an MVP? Typically 6–8 weeks for a first release with two or three developers, including testing and launch, after a two-week Discovery sprint. ### Why do quotes for the same brief differ so much? Mostly scope, not rate: the same app in our data cost £24,900 or £39,758 depending on two decisions. Ask every supplier what is in and out of their number. ### Can I get a fixed price for custom software? Yes, after discovery. A short discovery turns a brief into a feature list priced line by line, which is what makes a fixed price safe for both sides. ### What does software cost after launch? Support and continued development is typically from £1,000 a month, plus hosting and third-party services. ### Should I choose a fixed price or time and materials? Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials when the brief will change or the work runs for months. At Magora a fixed-price quote comes after a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000). Time and materials and dedicated teams are billed at a day rate per engineer, from £49 an hour, monthly rolling with a four-week minimum. Want a number for your own project? Send us your brief — a senior engineer replies within one working day with a realistic scope, price and timeline. Or try the app cost calculator for a first rough figure. ### Pavel Shevtsov Co-Founder & Managing Director Pavel Shevtsov is a seasoned professional in the field of software development, currently serving as the Managing Director at Magora, a leading software development company known for its innovative solutions. With a passion for leveraging technology to solve complex business challenges, Pavel has played a pivotal role in Magora's growth and success. ## Build it with Magora. [ 01 / 03 ] ### Mobile app development — iOS, Android & React Native Get a quote → [ 02 / 03 ] ### Web application & web development agency Get a quote → [ 03 / 03 ] ### Bespoke & custom software development Get a quote → ## Continue reading. [ 01 / 03 ] ### How much does an MVP cost in 2026? (UK prices from 12 real estimates) 13 Oct 2026 [ 02 / 03 ] ### OpenAI API pricing in 2026: what an AI feature costs per user 13 Oct 2026 [ 03 / 03 ] ### How much does healthcare software cost in the UK in 2026? 13 Oct 2026 --- # App Development Cost UK 2026: MVPs From £10,000 | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/app-development-cost-uk/ Business Updated 13 Oct 2026 18 min read ## App Development Cost UK 2026: Real Ranges and What Moves Them Need an app built for your business? Free working prototype in 5–10 days person holding black android smartphone Updated 13 Oct 2026 How much does an app cost in the UK in 2026? A Startup MVP starts from £10,000 and takes 6–8 weeks; a full production build is £25,000–£60,000. Developers are from £49/hour. The ranges are below, or try the free app cost calculator for your own number. In the UK in 2026 an app MVP typically costs £10,000–£25,000 and a production app with a backend and admin £25,000–£60,000. In our own 12 estimates from 2026, a first release cost £11,000–£34,000 with a median of about £25,000, and took 6–8 weeks. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. For a number for your own app, use the free app cost calculator. Updated: 13 October 2026. Price ranges on this page follow the summary table. ## Table of Contents Estimate your own app cost What 12 real UK estimates cost The five things that move the number Where money is genuinely wasted What the cheaper quote is missing Costs people forget A quick way to sanity-check any quote Where to go from here App development cost: frequently asked questions App development cost in the UK runs from about £10,000 for a lean MVP with simple features to £80,000+ for an enterprise app with a complex backend, an admin system and multiple integrations. Anyone quoting a single figure without asking questions first is fortune telling. This page gives the ranges, then explains what moves you between them — because the difference between £15,000 and £50,000 is rarely the app you can see. ## The ranges Updated: 13 October 2026. Same figures on our app cost, software cost, UK pricing, MVP and fixed-price pages. | Project type | Typical time | Typical range | |---|---|---| | Free working prototype, with written analysis from a senior Product Owner | 5–10 working days | £0 | | Discovery sprint (scope, architecture, fixed-price quote) | 2 weeks | from £3,000 | | Proof of concept | 2–4 weeks | £2,000–£5,000 | | Startup MVP, one or two core journeys | 6–8 weeks | £10,000–£25,000 | | Production app or web platform, with backend and admin | 3–6 months | £25,000–£60,000 | | Regulated or integration-heavy product (fintech, health, logistics) | 5–8 months | £80,000–£120,000 | | AI proof of concept (scoped after Discovery) | 4–6 weeks | from £15,000 | | Maintenance retainer after launch | monthly | from £1,000 per month | Rates: from £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Each range is for the stage named in its row; the free prototype, Discovery and maintenance are priced separately from the build. ### How we calculate these ranges These are Magora’s published 2026 price bands, not quotes. We check them against our own data: the 12 project estimates we wrote for UK clients in 2026. In those estimates a first release of a new product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and took 6–8 weeks; Discovery cost £1,200–£3,600. The extended version of one app cost £39,758, and a single API integration £2,500–£3,000. Each estimate lists features in story points (about one developer-day each), adds project set-up, regression testing, user acceptance testing and deployment, then adds QA at 30% and product ownership at 20% of development time. Cost is that effort multiplied by our day rates, about £520–£570 per developer-day including QA and product ownership. The other rows are the bands in our UK software development pricing guide. Your own figure depends on platforms, integrations, regulation and design; a fixed price comes from Discovery. For a first number, use the app cost calculator. These are UK agency rates with senior talent and AI development practices. An offshore team quotes 40–60% less and the gap is real, but so is the reason for it — see below. The working prototype in the first row is free. We build it, you keep it, there is no commitment attached — so the first thing you would actually pay for is the Discovery sprint. ## Estimate your own app cost The ranges above are for typical projects. To see where your own app lands, our app cost calculator lets you pick the features you need — sign-up, payments, admin panel, integrations — and shows the estimated hours and cost straight away, priced at our full-team rate. You can email yourself the full feature-by-feature breakdown, and it takes about two minutes. ## What 12 real UK estimates cost We published the numbers behind 12 real UK software project estimates from 2026, anonymised. A first production release (MVP) of a custom web or mobile product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and the first release took 6–8 weeks. That article also shows where the money goes by feature and role. ## Fixed price or time & materials? Short answer: Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials (T&M) when the product will keep changing or the work will run for months. At Magora a fixed price comes after Discovery, not before it. ### Fixed price - What you pay: an agreed price for an agreed scope. - How it is produced: a free working prototype (5–10 working days), then a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000) that ends in a fixed-price quote for the build. - Best for: a well-defined scope with a fixed end, such as a startup MVP or a defined project. - If the scope changes: it goes through a change request. - Comparison: you can take the Discovery output to another agency for a comparable quote. ### Time and materials (dedicated team) - What you pay: a day rate per engineer, billed monthly. From £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. - Commitment: a minimum of four weeks, then monthly rolling. - Best for: a product or roadmap that runs for months, or a brief that will change along the way. - If the scope changes: the backlog is re-prioritised in any sprint. - After launch: a maintenance retainer from £1,000 a month. Discovery can end in a fixed-price estimate or in T&M brackets, so you see the numbers before you commit to either model. More detail: fixed-price software development in the UK, or dedicated development teams. ## The five things that move the number ### 1. How many journeys, not how many screens Screens are the appearance; the cost is in the logic. A journey that fills in a simple form is cheaper than one with multiple steps, branches and checks. “Twenty screens” tells a developer nothing. “Sign up, verify identity, take a payment, issue a refund” tells them almost everything. ### 2. What it has to talk to An app with its own database is a known quantity. An app that must read from a twelve-year-old ERP over a nightly file drop is a different project. Most of the cost sits in the integration, and in the failure modes of the system you do not control. ### 3. How it will be used in the real world Edge cases, offline mode, support for old devices, mobile bandwidth, a separate tablet experience. Each one is cheap to say and not cheap to build. ### 4. What happens after launch Apps are not a one-time purchase; they are a subscription to your own product. Budget for a maintenance retainer of from £1,000 per month covering OS updates, dependency maintenance, store policy changes and improvements. Teams that skip this line pay it anyway, in emergencies. ### 5. How the app is actually developed AI-assisted development with proper human oversight brings the price down when the saving is passed on. AI maturity is now the biggest single pricing factor: expect to pay 1.5–2× more from a team that only uses AI to proof-read its emails. ## Where money is genuinely wasted Building every feature from day one. A minimum viable product answers the only question that matters — will anyone use it — for half the money. Custom where a service exists. Authentication, verification, payments, push, analytics and search are solved problems. Custom versions cost weeks and earn nothing. Ignoring AI coding tools. Not every project suits AI coding agents, but not using them where they fit adds cost for no return. Contracts on unclear scope. The price reflects the vendor’s picture of the product rather than yours, and the gap usually surfaces after most of the budget is spent. App development · London Planning a mobile app? We design and build iOS and Android apps for UK businesses and start-ups, from prototype to the App Store. First release in 6–8 weeks; developers from £49/hour. ## What the cheaper quote is missing An offshore quote at £15,000 for the same brief is usually missing four things: a senior engineer on the project full time, QA as a discipline rather than a final week, clear deliverables, and someone who will still be there in month nine. Sometimes that trade is right — for a throwaway prototype it often is. For a product a business depends on, the saving tends to be repaid with interest during the first serious incident. For context, this is what the UK market charges by tier: | Who you are hiring | Typical rate | |---|---| | Offshore freelancers | £15 – 30 / hour | | Offshore agencies with a UK sales front | £25 – 50 / hour | | London product-engineering houses | £45 – 90 / hour | | Boutique London digital agencies | £60 – 140 / hour | | Tier-1 consultancies | £120 – 250 / hour | ## Costs people forget Store accounts. Apple charges $99 a year for the Developer Program and Google Play $25 once — small, but you need both before launch. See Apple developer fee explained. Hosting and third-party services. Cloud hosting, email and SMS, maps and payment processing are billed by the provider every month and grow with your users. Maintenance. A maintenance retainer from £1,000 per month covers OS updates, store policy changes and fixes, as above. Your own team’s time. Someone on your side has to answer questions, test releases and make decisions every week. ## A quick way to sanity-check any quote Ask for the estimate broken into specific features and clear areas of work: discovery, design, iOS, Android, backend, admin, QA, release and post-launch. If a supplier cannot produce that breakdown, you cannot know what the number is based on. Then ask what happens in month four if a core assumption turns out to be wrong. The answer tells you what kind of contract you are actually signing. ## Where to go from here If you want a number for your own brief rather than a range, our mobile app development company page describes how we scope and what we charge. For anything that is more system than app, bespoke software development covers the same ground for platforms, CRMs and internal tools. For a first number without a call, try the app cost calculator, or read what 12 real UK projects cost. ## More on UK software pricing - Software development cost in the UK (2026) — the 12 real project estimates - UK software development pricing — day rates by tier and our published prices - MVP development company UK — startup MVPs from £10,000 - Fixed-price software development in the UK — how a fixed quote is produced - App cost calculator — pick features and see hours and cost Updated: 13 October 2026. ## App development cost: frequently asked questions ### How much does it cost to build an app in the UK in 2026? In 2026 a Startup MVP at Magora starts from £10,000 (most land between £10,000 and £25,000) and takes 6–8 weeks. A full production mobile or web build is £25,000–£60,000, and bespoke enterprise platforms from £80,000. Developers are from £49/hour, or £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. A free working prototype (5–10 days) and a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000) come first, so you see a fixed price before you commit. ### What's a typical day rate for app developers in the UK? Five clear tiers: offshore freelancers £15–30/h; offshore agencies with a UK sales front £25–50/h; London product-engineering houses (Magora sits here) £45–90/h; boutique London digital agencies £60–140/h; tier-1 consultancies £120–250/h. Magora's rate starts from £49/h per developer, or £65–70/h for a full team with QA and product ownership. ### Is offshore app development cheaper? Cheaper per hour, usually more expensive across an 18-month lifecycle. When an offshore agency quotes 60% less for 'the same project', they have removed 80% of the senior Product Owner time and 50% of the QA cycle. The build ships, but it ships the wrong thing — or breaks at the first production load. ### How long does a UK app project take? A coded prototype lands in 5–10 working days. A Startup MVP ships in 6–8 weeks. A full production mobile or web project runs 3–6 months. Bespoke enterprise platforms typically 6–12 months. Compressing a 16-week timeline into 10 weeks adds about 30% to the price for overtime and parallelisation overhead. ### Can I get a fixed-price quote? Yes — after Discovery. Any agency that fixed-prices a vague brief is either padding by 40% to cover unknowns or will run out of money halfway through. Magora's standard model: free working prototype, £3,000 Discovery sprint, then fixed-price quote for the build. You can take the Discovery output to another agency for comparison. ### What's the cheapest realistic UK app project? The free working prototype + Discovery sprint at £3,000 gives you a coded prototype and a roadmap. The cheapest paid production build is the Startup MVP at £10,000: one or two flows, one platform, production hosting, auth, analytics, 30 days post-launch maintenance. Below £10,000 you are buying offshore freelance dressed up in a UK invoice. ### Why is UK app development more expensive than offshore? You pay for in-house senior delivery, English-law contracts, GDPR and EU AI Act compliance by default, and a single accountable legal entity. Across an 18-month project lifecycle the UK premium usually pays back through fewer rebuilds, fewer compliance incidents, and a real Product Owner who pushes back when the scope drifts. ### Do you take payment in stages? Yes. Standard Magora payment model is based on sprints: you pay a small part upfront, then every two-three weeks on delivery. ### What does an MVP include for £10,000? The £10,000 Startup MVP covers one or two core flows fully working, production hosting on AWS or DigitalOcean with monitoring, authentication and user management, baseline analytics, and mobile or web experience. 30 days of post-launch maintenance included. Additional flows, third-party integrations, AI features and admin panels are quoted as add-ons. ### Will I own the source code? Yes. IPR in bespoke software shall, without prejudice to our rights in pre-existing IPR, be transferred to you on payment. Source code, designs and IP all transfer in full — English-law contract, Companies House 03637036. No retained rights on 'non-competing' projects. ### Is there a free app cost calculator for the UK? Yes. Our app cost calculator lets you pick the features you need and shows the estimated hours and cost straight away, priced at our full-team rate of £65–£70/hour. You can email yourself the full breakdown. ### What did real UK app projects cost in 2026? In 12 real UK estimates from 2026, a first production release (MVP) of a custom web or mobile product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and took 6–8 weeks. ### How much are the Apple and Google developer fees? Apple charges $99 a year for the Apple Developer Program; Google Play charges a one-off $25 registration fee. Both are separate from the cost of building the app — see Apple developer fee explained. ### Should I choose a fixed price or time and materials? Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials when the brief will change or the work runs for months. At Magora a fixed-price quote comes after a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000). Time and materials and dedicated teams are billed at a day rate per engineer, from £49 an hour, monthly rolling with a four-week minimum. ## Build it with Magora. [ 01 / 03 ] ### Mobile app development — iOS, Android & React Native Get a quote → [ 02 / 03 ] ### Web application & web development agency Get a quote → [ 03 / 03 ] ### Bespoke & custom software development Get a quote → ## Continue reading. [ 01 / 03 ] ### How much does an MVP cost in 2026? (UK prices from 12 real estimates) 13 Oct 2026 [ 02 / 03 ] ### OpenAI API pricing in 2026: what an AI feature costs per user 13 Oct 2026 [ 03 / 03 ] ### How much does healthcare software cost in the UK in 2026? 13 Oct 2026 --- # UK Software Development Pricing 2026: Day Rates | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/uk-software-development-pricing/ ## UK Software Development Pricing — 2026 Day Rates and Project Costs If you are scoping a build in 2026 and trying to figure out UK software development pricing, you are walking into a market that ranges from £15 per hour for offshore freelancers to £250 per hour for tier-1 consultancies. The honest answer is: most published numbers are misleading, the cheapest option is usually the most expensive over 18 months, and the difference between a £50,000 project and a £150,000 project is rarely the quality of the code. This page is what Magora's senior team tells founders, CTOs and procurement leads when they ask "what does software development cost in the UK actually look like?" It includes our own pricing — published openly so you can use it as a benchmark against any other agency. ## TL;DR — 2026 UK software development pricing benchmarks Updated: 13 October 2026. Price ranges on this page follow the summary table. | Engagement | Typical UK range | Magora | |---|---|---| | Hourly day rate (product-engineering house) | £45-90 | from £49 | | Coded prototype | £3,000-15,000 | Free (+ written analysis from senior PO) | | Discovery sprint (2 weeks) | £8,000-30,000 | From £3,000 | | Startup MVP | £25,000-80,000 | From £10,000 | | Full production mobile or web project | £50,000-300,000+ | £25,000–£60,000 | | AI / ML production build | £40,000-250,000+ | Scoped after Discovery | | Bespoke enterprise CRM | £80,000-500,000+ | Scoped after Discovery | | Monthly maintenance retainer | £2,000-12,000 | from £1,000 | Numbers above assume in-house, senior-led delivery from a London-based UK-registered agency. Offshore and tier-1 consultancies are covered separately below. ## What our 2026 estimates actually cost In the 12 estimates we wrote for UK clients between July and October 2026, a first production release (MVP) of a custom web or mobile product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and typically took 6–8 weeks with two to three developers. Discovery before the build cost £1,200–£3,600 (median about £1,800), and a second phase usually added 30–70% of the first release. That is about £520–£570 per developer-day, including QA and product ownership. The full table, with what each project was and where the money went: Software development cost in the UK (2026): all 12 estimates. ## UK software and app development cost: summary table Updated: 13 October 2026. Same figures on our app cost, software cost, UK pricing, MVP and fixed-price pages. | Project type | Typical time | Typical range | |---|---|---| | Free working prototype, with written analysis from a senior Product Owner | 5–10 working days | £0 | | Discovery sprint (scope, architecture, fixed-price quote) | 2 weeks | from £3,000 | | Proof of concept | 2–4 weeks | £2,000–£5,000 | | Startup MVP, one or two core journeys | 6–8 weeks | £10,000–£25,000 | | Production app or web platform, with backend and admin | 3–6 months | £25,000–£60,000 | | Regulated or integration-heavy product (fintech, health, logistics) | 5–8 months | £80,000–£120,000 | | AI proof of concept (scoped after Discovery) | 4–6 weeks | from £15,000 | | Maintenance retainer after launch | monthly | from £1,000 per month | Rates: from £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Each range is for the stage named in its row; the free prototype, Discovery and maintenance are priced separately from the build. ### How we calculate these ranges These are Magora’s published 2026 price bands, not quotes. We check them against our own data: the 12 project estimates we wrote for UK clients in 2026. In those estimates a first release of a new product cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000, and took 6–8 weeks; Discovery cost £1,200–£3,600. The extended version of one app cost £39,758, and a single API integration £2,500–£3,000. Each estimate lists features in story points (about one developer-day each), adds project set-up, regression testing, user acceptance testing and deployment, then adds QA at 30% and product ownership at 20% of development time. Cost is that effort multiplied by our day rates, about £520–£570 per developer-day including QA and product ownership. The other rows are the bands in our UK software development pricing guide. Your own figure depends on platforms, integrations, regulation and design; a fixed price comes from Discovery. For a first number, use the app cost calculator. ## Where the money actually goes A £100,000 UK software project typically breaks down as: - Senior engineering (50-60%) — the people writing production code. - Senior Product Owner + Project Management (10-15%) — scoping, sequencing, blocker-removal. - Design (UX + UI, 10-15%) — wireframes, prototypes, full mocks. - QA (5-10%) — automated tests, regression, manual. - DevOps + infrastructure setup (5-10%) — CI/CD, cloud, security baseline. - Project administration + risk buffer (5-10%) — contracts, contingency, hand-off. When an offshore agency quotes you 60% less for "the same project", they have removed 80% of the Product Owner time and 50% of the QA time. The code ships, but it ships the wrong thing — or breaks at the first production load. ## UK software development pricing by tier The UK market sorts into five clear tiers. Pick the right one for your project type and risk tolerance: ### Tier 1 — Offshore freelancers (£15-30 / hour) - Solo developers on freelance platforms or direct contracts in India, Pakistan, Eastern Europe, Philippines. - Strength: raw hourly cost is unbeatable for narrow, well-specified work. - Weakness: no Product Owner, no QA cycle, no compliance, no UK legal accountability. Time-zone drag adds 30% to delivery time. - Right for: small tasks where you (or your in-house team) can specify exactly what is needed and review every commit. ### Tier 2 — Offshore agencies with a UK sales front (£25-50 / hour) - UK-based sales and account management, with delivery by an offshore team. - Strength: a UK point of contact at a lower hourly rate. - Consider: quality depends on the team assigned, so check who will actually build the product. - Right for: medium-complexity builds where you can tolerate variance and have a strong in-house Product Owner pushing back. ### Tier 3 — London-based product-engineering houses (£45-90 / hour) ← Magora - UK-registered, in-house teams of 30-300, English-law contracts, senior PO on every project. Magora's rate: from £49 / hour per developer, £65–£70 / hour for a full team. - Strength: consistent quality, full accountability, compliance by default, senior-led delivery from a single team. - Weakness: higher hourly rate than offshore. - Right for: exploratory product work, regulated industries (FinTech, healthcare, education), AI builds, anything where the brief will evolve mid-build. ### Tier 4 — Boutique London digital agencies (£60-140 / hour) - 5-30 person agencies, often design-led, branding crossover. - Strength: beautiful UI, strong design opinion. - Weakness: engineering depth varies wildly. Many subcontract backend work. - Right for: consumer-facing apps where design is the differentiator and backend complexity is low. ### Tier 5 — Tier-1 consultancies (£120-250 / hour) - Global consulting groups offering enterprise digital programmes. - Strength: programme delivery at scale, hundreds-of-millions budgets, board-level reporting. - Weakness: the £200/hour rate is mostly hierarchy. Junior consultants do most of the work. - Right for: enterprise digital transformation programmes ≥ £1M, not product builds. ## Magora's pricing — published openly ### Free working prototype + senior Product Owner analysis A senior Product Owner will scope the core flow with you, and we will ship a coded prototype — yours to keep, whether you hire us or not. Cost: £0. No commitment, no charge. Typically 5-10 working days from kickoff. This exists because most engagements that fail, fail at scope — not at code. The free prototype phase de-risks the scope question for both sides before either spends real money. ### Discovery sprint — from £3,000 Two weeks of senior Product Owner and Solution Architect time. Output: - Validated problem statement and user-journey map. - Costed architecture and stack choice. - Working prototype of the riskiest flow. - Phased delivery roadmap with realistic timelines. - Fixed-price quote for the next phase. You can take the Discovery output to another agency for a comparable quote — we have had clients do this. The Discovery output stays useful even if you choose someone else. Book a Discovery sprint → ### Startup MVP — from £10,000 Production-grade product in users' hands inside a calendar quarter (6-8 weeks). Scope: - One or two core flows, fully working. - Production hosting (AWS or GCP) with monitoring. - Authentication, user management, baseline analytics. - One mobile platform (iOS or Android) OR one web platform. - 30 days of post-launch maintenance included. Above £10,000, additional flows, second mobile platform, third-party integrations and AI features are quoted as add-ons. Read more about MVP development → ### Full production mobile or web project — £25,000–£60,000 End-to-end build for a real production audience. Typical scope: - Multi-platform delivery (iOS + Android + web). - Backend, admin panel, analytics, third-party integrations. - Full QA cycle, automated testing, security audit. - Cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, monitoring. - Three months of post-launch maintenance included. A production build with a backend and admin typically costs £25,000–£60,000 and takes 3–6 months; regulated or integration-heavy products run £80,000–£120,000. Larger enterprise builds, AI products, regulated platforms and bespoke CRMs are scoped individually after Discovery. ### AI development Scoped after Discovery. Indicative pricing: - AI proof of concept (4-6 weeks): from £15,000. - LLM-powered application (production-grade): from £40,000. - RAG pipeline + vector database + API: from £30,000. - Custom fine-tuned open-source model: from £25,000. - AI agents for internal automation: from £20,000. All AI work is GDPR-compliant by default, with an EU AI Act readiness review before deployment. Read more about AI and ML development → ### Bespoke enterprise software / CRM Scoped after Discovery. Typical range £80,000-£500,000+. Engagements usually include domain modelling and integration with legacy systems, multi-role authentication, audit logging, GDPR data-subject tooling, bespoke workflows and automation tailored to the client's operations, and phased rollout to internal users with training and handover. Read more about bespoke software development → ### Ongoing maintenance retainer — from £1,000 / month Post-launch, products need constant attention to stay competitive and secure. Magora's maintenance covers: - Bug fixes (severity-tiered SLA). - Product Backlog management from user feedback. - Library and dependency updates. - Security monitoring and patch cycle. - Quarterly enhancement releases. ## What changes the price Five factors move a UK software project up or down the price scale: - Number of platforms. iOS + Android + web is roughly 1.8× a single platform. iOS + Android + web + admin panel is roughly 2.3×. - Regulatory burden. FinTech with FCA permissions, healthcare with NHS integration, or anything touching Open Banking adds 25-40% for compliance work that an unregulated build does not need. - Third-party integrations. Each external system (Stripe, Twilio, HubSpot, Salesforce, custom legacy API) adds 5-15% depending on documentation quality. - AI features. Bolting AI onto an existing app is cheap (LLM API integration). Building an AI-native product with custom models, RAG and agents is a separate engineering discipline that adds £20,000-£100,000+. - Time pressure. Compressing 16-week delivery into 10 weeks adds 30% for overtime and parallelisation overhead. ## Common pricing pitfalls The "fixed price on a vague brief" trap. If an agency quotes you a flat number without Discovery, they have either inflated the price by 40% to cover unknowns or they will run out of money halfway through. Both end badly. The best UK software development companies insist on Discovery first. The "we'll match the offshore quote" trap. A London agency that matches a £30,000 offshore quote on a £100,000 brief is cutting senior PO time, QA cycle and post-launch maintenance. The build ships; the product fails at first contact with real users. The "we own a percentage of the IP" trap. Read the IP-transfer clause carefully. Some agencies retain rights to reuse code on "non-competing" projects — definition of "competing" buried in legal fine print. The "junior team after sales" trap. The senior architect you meet at sales does not deliver the project. Ask in writing: "Confirm that the team meeting me today is the team delivering the work." ## Fixed price or time & materials? Short answer: Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials (T&M) when the product will keep changing or the work will run for months. At Magora a fixed price comes after Discovery, not before it. ### Fixed price - What you pay: an agreed price for an agreed scope. - How it is produced: a free working prototype (5–10 working days), then a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000) that ends in a fixed-price quote for the build. - Best for: a well-defined scope with a fixed end, such as a startup MVP or a defined project. - If the scope changes: it goes through a change request. - Comparison: you can take the Discovery output to another agency for a comparable quote. ### Time and materials (dedicated team) - What you pay: a day rate per engineer, billed monthly. From £49 an hour per developer (about £390 a day); £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. - Commitment: a minimum of four weeks, then monthly rolling. - Best for: a product or roadmap that runs for months, or a brief that will change along the way. - If the scope changes: the backlog is re-prioritised in any sprint. - After launch: a maintenance retainer from £1,000 a month. Discovery can end in a fixed-price estimate or in T&M brackets, so you see the numbers before you commit to either model. More detail: fixed-price software development in the UK, or dedicated development teams. ## How to get an accurate quote from Magora The fastest path is the free working prototype. We scope the core flow on a 30-minute call, then within two weeks you have a coded prototype in your hands and a written analysis from a senior PO. No charge, no commitment. From that point, Discovery (£3,000) gives you a fixed-price quote for the full build. Or you take the Discovery output to another agency for comparison — both options are fine with us. 📞 +44 20 7183 5820 · ✉️ sales@magora.co.uk · 📍 The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ Book a discovery call → ### Want these numbers against your own brief? Tell us what you are building. You get a working prototype and a written analysis from a senior Product Owner — no charge, no commitment. ## More on UK software pricing - App development cost in the UK (2026) — ranges, what moves them, and the FAQ - Software development cost in the UK (2026) — the 12 real project estimates - MVP development company UK — startup MVPs from £10,000 - Fixed-price software development in the UK — how a fixed quote is produced - App cost calculator — pick features and see hours and cost Updated: 13 October 2026. ## FAQ — UK software development costs ### What is the average cost of software development in the UK? Median project size across London product-engineering houses sits around £60,000-£120,000. MVPs from £10,000, full production £25,000–£60,000, enterprise from £80,000+. Magora publishes full pricing above. ### Why is UK software development more expensive than offshore? You pay for in-house senior delivery, English-law contracts, GDPR and EU AI Act compliance by default, and a single accountable legal entity. Over an 18-month project lifecycle, the UK premium usually pays back through fewer rebuilds and fewer compliance incidents. ### Can I get a fixed-price quote in the UK? Yes — after Discovery. Any agency that fixed-prices a vague brief is either padding by 40% or will run out of budget. Magora's standard model: free prototype → £3,000 Discovery → fixed-price quote for the build. ### Do you take payment in stages? Yes. Standard Magora payment model: 25% on Discovery sign-off, 25% at the design milestone, 25% at the production-ready milestone, 25% on go-live. Adjustable for specific cash-flow constraints — speak to sales@magora.co.uk. ### What is the cheapest realistic UK software development project? The free working prototype + Discovery sprint at £3,000 gives you a working prototype and a roadmap. The cheapest production build starts at £10,000 for a Startup MVP. Below that, you are looking at offshore freelance, not a UK agency. ### Should I choose a fixed price or time and materials? Choose a fixed price when the scope is defined and has an end; choose time and materials when the brief will change or the work runs for months. At Magora a fixed-price quote comes after a Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000). Time and materials and dedicated teams are billed at a day rate per engineer, from £49 an hour, monthly rolling with a four-week minimum. Let’s talk about your product --- # App Cost Calculator UK 2026: Instant Estimate | Magora Source: https://magora-systems.com/app-cost-calculator/ London office · Whiteboard room Free tool — App cost calculator ## App cost calculator, UK prices for 2026. In 2026 a UK app costs from £10,000 for a Startup MVP (6–8 weeks) and £25,000–£60,000 for a full production build. Pick the features your app needs for an instant estimate at £65–£70 per hour, then email yourself the full breakdown. Built by Magora, a London app development company since 2010. Updated October 13, 2026 **Features to choose** 34 app & admin features **Rate used** £65–£70 per hour, all-in **Your estimate** Instant, and by email **Fixed quote** After a discovery sprint, from £3,000 Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Grant Thornton ## How much does it cost to develop an app? Select the features your app needs. Each feature carries the typical number of development hours it takes us; the estimate updates as you go. £0 0 hours · 0 features + set-up and launch Range at our £65–£70 all-in hourly rate: £0–£0 - Pick features on the left to start. A rough guide, not a quote. Startup MVPs at Magora start from £10,000; a discovery sprint from £3,000 turns this into a fixed price. How the estimate works ## Hours per feature, times a UK rate. The app cost estimator adds up the typical build hours for the features you pick and multiplies them by a blended UK rate. It is a starting point for a budget conversation, not a fixed price. Step 01 ### Typical hours per feature Each feature carries the hours it usually takes us — for example e-mail login 12 hours, a shopping cart 40, a content management system 40. Your selection is summed, and we add 80 hours for project set-up, testing and launch. Step 02 ### An all-in £65–£70 per hour Total hours are multiplied by £70 per hour — development, QA and product ownership included — the same rate used in the breakdown we email you. A developer alone is from £49 per hour; the range shows the same hours at £65–£70. Step 03 ### From estimate to fixed price Real cost depends on design, platforms, integrations and compliance. We start with a free working prototype, then a two-week discovery sprint from £3,000 that ends in a fixed-price quote. ## Go deeper on app costs. ### App development cost UK UK app development pricing for 2026: day rates, project bands and what changes the price. Read the guide → Service ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. See MVP prices → Service ### Discovery sprint Two weeks with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect: scope, architecture, estimate and roadmap. How discovery works → Guide ### Software development cost UK Price bands, day rates and cost drivers for web, SaaS and custom software in 2026. Read the guide → ## More ways we can help. ### Dedicated development teams Senior engineers who join your roadmap — as a full team or to augment yours. Learn more → ### MVP development Production-grade MVPs for UK startups in 6–8 weeks, from £10,000. Learn more → ### SaaS development Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with billing, SSO and AI features. Learn more → ### AI agent development AI agents and LLM apps that work inside your systems. Learn more → ### Healthcare software Clinical systems, FHIR/GP Connect integration, DTAC evidence. Learn more → ### Healthcare app development Patient and clinician apps for iOS and Android. Learn more → ### Bespoke software Custom business software built around how your team works. Learn more → ### Web development Web platforms and portals in React, Vue, Laravel and Node.js. Learn more → ## App cost calculator questions. **How much does it cost to develop an app in the UK?** It depends on the features, platforms and integrations. At Magora a startup MVP starts from £10,000 and typically takes 6–8 weeks, a full production build costs £25,000–£60,000, and enterprise platforms from £80,000. Use the calculator above for a feature-by-feature estimate, or read our UK app development cost guide. **How accurate is this app cost calculator?** It is a rough guide. It adds up typical build hours per feature and does not know your design, platforms, integrations or compliance needs, which is where real projects differ. A discovery sprint from £3,000 turns the estimate into a fixed-price quote. **How is the app development cost estimate calculated?** Each feature has the number of hours it typically takes us to build, for example 12 hours for e-mail login, 40 for a shopping cart and 40 for a content management system. The calculator sums the hours for your selection, adds 80 hours for project set-up, testing and launch, and multiplies the total by £70 per hour, which includes development, QA and product ownership. The range shown uses £65–£70 per hour. **What happens when I email myself the estimate?** You receive the feature-by-feature breakdown and total by email. A copy goes to our team, who may get in touch to offer a free consultation; you are under no obligation. **How long does it take to build an app?** At Magora a coded prototype takes 5–10 working days, a Discovery sprint 2 weeks, a Startup MVP typically 6–8 weeks and a full production build 3–6 months. Integrations, approvals and app store review are what usually stretch a schedule. **Can I get a fixed-price quote for my app?** Yes. We start with a free working prototype built from your brief, then a two-week discovery sprint from £3,000 with a senior Product Owner and Solution Architect. It ends in a fixed-price quote, an architecture and a roadmap. ## Want a real number, not an estimate? 30-minute call with a senior engineer. Tell us what the app has to do — we'll tell you the smallest version worth building and what it would cost. --- # Apple Developer Fee 2026: $99 Is the Smallest Launch Cost Source: https://magora-systems.com/apple-developer-fee/ Development 04 Aug 2026 13 min read ## Apple Developer Fee 2026: $99 Is the Smallest Launch Cost Want a price for your project? Free working prototype in 5–10 days iPhone home screen held in a hand next to a keyboard 04 Aug 2026 Apple charges $99 a year and Google Play $25 once. What each fee covers, what launching an app really costs, and the setup to do before you pay. ## The short answer | Store account | Fee | Notes | |---|---|---| | Apple Developer Program | $99 a year | Individual or organisation. Shown in local currency (GBP in the UK) at enrolment; tax added where applicable | | Google Play Console | $25 once | One-off registration for the life of the account | | Apple Developer Enterprise Program | $299 a year | Internal apps only, organisations with 100+ employees. Not for the public App Store | Sources: Apple, enrolment, Apple, Enterprise Program, Google Play Console Help. Checked September 2026. Those are the only fixed prices in launching an app, and the smallest. The rest of this guide covers what the fees include, what they do not, and the setup that trips teams up before the first release. ## What's next: what the app itself costs The $99 is the smallest line in a launch budget. The real cost is building the app. These are Magora's published 2026 ranges for UK projects: | What you build | Typical budget | Time | |---|---|---| | Proof of concept | £2,000–£5,000 | 2–4 weeks | | MVP: iOS + Android, one core journey | £10,000–£25,000 | 6–8 weeks | | Production app: iOS + Android, backend, admin | £25,000–£60,000 | 3–6 months | | Regulated or integration-heavy (fintech, health, logistics) | £80,000–£120,000 | 5–8 months | | Running the app after launch | from £1,000 per month | ongoing | Source: Magora, App development cost UK 2026. In our own 12 estimates from 2026, a first release cost £11,000–£34,000, with a median of about £25,000. App development cost UK 2026What moves the price, with real UK ranges.Read the guide → App cost calculatorA first figure for your own feature list in a few minutes.Estimate your app → UK development ratesHourly rates from £49 per developer, and what a team costs.See the rates → Want a number for your idea? Book a free 30-minute call: we'll estimate it and set up the Apple and Google accounts in your company's name as part of the build. ## What the $99 includes The right to publish on the App Store, for as many apps as you like. TestFlight: up to 100 internal testers from your own team, and up to 10,000 external testers (Apple). App Store Connect, certificates, provisioning profiles and push notification services. Access to beta OS releases and to the developer forums. The membership runs for a year. If it expires, Apple says your apps are no longer available for download and you cannot submit updates, although copies already installed keep working (Apple, renewal). Expiring certificates are the more common day-to-day failure: a build signed with an expired certificate cannot be installed by testers, even though the app on the store keeps working. ## The fee is the easy part If you are pricing a first app, the $99 is the one line you can pay in a minute. The money goes on building the product: design, the iOS and Android apps, a backend and an admin panel, testing, and a round or two of store review. Our app development cost guide sets out real UK ranges and what moves them, and the app cost calculator gives a first figure for your own feature list in a few minutes. Before anyone pays Apple, five pieces of setup decide how smoothly the launch goes: Company or individual account. An individual account shows your personal name on the App Store as the seller. A business should enrol as an organisation, in the company's legal name. D-U-N-S number. Organisations need one so Apple can verify the legal entity. It is free; Apple says to allow up to 5 business days to receive it from Dun & Bradstreet and up to 2 more for Apple to see it (Apple). The legal name must match exactly, and Apple also asks for a working company website and a work email on its domain. Privacy policy and privacy labels. Every App Store submission needs a public privacy policy URL and the privacy “nutrition label” answers in App Store Connect (Apple). Write them from what the app actually collects, including third-party SDKs. TestFlight and Google's closed test. Beta testing is where review surprises are found cheaply. New personal Google Play accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 days before applying for production access (Google). App Review. Apple reviews 90% of submissions in under 24 hours on average (Apple), but an incomplete submission is delayed or rejected. Budget engineer time for at least one rejection on a first release. Planning your first app? ### Free 30-minute call: we'll estimate it and tell you what to set up before you pay Apple. Magora sets up the Apple and Google developer accounts in your company's name and publishes your app to the App Store and Google Play for you, as part of the build. You own the accounts and the app from day one. See how we work: MVP development · mobile app development Real UK prices What would your project cost? Pick your features in our calculator for a ballpark, or send us your brief for a free estimate. Developers from £49/hour; a full team with QA and product ownership £65–£70/hour. ## How the Apple Developer Enterprise Program compares The Enterprise Program is $299 a year and exists for proprietary, internal-only apps distributed to employees of one organisation, which must have at least 100 employees (Apple). It cannot be used to ship to the public, and Apple runs a verification interview and ongoing evaluation. Choosing it because “we are an enterprise” is a common mistake: for public apps, or custom apps for clients, Apple directs organisations to the standard programme. ## Individual or organisation account? An individual account is fast: an Apple Account with two-factor authentication and a card. Your legal name appears on the store as the seller. An organisation account needs a D-U-N-S number, legal binding authority for the person enrolling, a public website on the company domain and a work email on it (Apple). Apple does not accept trading names or branches as the legal entity. Working with Magora, the client owns the app, so we set up and publish from the client’s own accounts. Moving an app between accounts later is possible but fiddly: TestFlight has to be switched off and Xcode Cloud data removed first, Apple Pay merchant IDs do not move, and users of apps with keychain sharing have to sign in again (Apple, app transfer). It is better to publish from the right account in the first place, which is one of the things an experienced iOS development partner sets up on day one. ## What is not in the fee For anything that sells, the commission matters more than the membership. Apple takes 15% under the App Store Small Business Program (up to $1m in proceeds in the prior year) and its standard rate above that. A subscription app turning over £10,000 a month at 15–30% pays Apple £1,500–£3,000 in the same month, which is why the $99 is rarely the decision that costs money. | Cost | Typical | Notes | |---|---|---| | Apple annual fee | $99/yr | Per account, not per app | | Google Play | $25 once | Per account | | Apple commission | 15–30% of in-app revenue | 15% under the Small Business Program | | Google commission | 15–30% | Similar tiers | | Push, analytics, crash tools | Free tiers first | Paid plans grow with users | | Backend hosting | Monthly | Depends entirely on the product and traffic | | Code signing on CI | Included | Engineer time to configure it is not | | App review rejections | Engineer days | We budget for one or two rounds on a first release | ## The UK specifics Apple lists the fee in local currency at enrolment and adds tax at your region's rate where applicable (Apple). You need a bank account in the entity’s name to receive payouts, plus tax forms in App Store Connect. For digital goods sold to consumers, Apple handles VAT as the marketplace in most territories, but not everywhere and not for every product type. Take advice before assuming. ## Renewal, and the trap in between In the UK, auto-renewal can be switched on in your membership details, and memberships bought in the Apple Developer app renew as a subscription (Apple). The trap is a card that expires in the same month as the membership: the charge fails, the membership lapses and the apps stop being available for download until someone notices. Two habits prevent it: a calendar reminder 30 days before renewal, and a payment method owned by the company rather than by whoever set the account up three years ago. ## Apple Developer fee: frequently asked questions ### How much is the Apple Developer fee in 2026? The Apple Developer Program is $99 a year, shown in local currency at enrolment with tax added where applicable. The Apple Developer Enterprise Program is $299 a year. Google Play charges a one-off $25. ### Do I need an Apple Developer account to write iOS code? No. Xcode is free from the Mac App Store, and you can build and run apps in the simulator without paying Apple. The paid programme is needed to distribute apps through the App Store or TestFlight. ### Can I test an iOS app on my own iPhone without paying? Yes. Sign in to Xcode with a free Apple Account, connect the device and install the build. Free provisioning is limited: builds expire after a few days, and capabilities such as push notifications, iCloud and Sign in with Apple need the paid programme. ### What is the difference between the standard and Enterprise programmes? The $99 programme distributes apps to the public through the App Store and to up to 10,000 external TestFlight testers. The $299 Enterprise programme is for proprietary internal apps distributed to your own employees, for organisations with 100+ employees, and cannot publish to the App Store. ### Is the $99 Apple Developer fee one-time or annual? Annual. If the membership expires, your apps are no longer available for download and you cannot submit updates; apps already installed keep working. ### Is the Apple Developer fee tax-deductible in the UK? For a UK business it is normally an allowable business expense. Check VAT treatment and reclaim with your accountant. ### Can I transfer my Apple Developer account? Not the account itself, but you can transfer individual apps between accounts. Ratings and reviews move with the app; TestFlight must be switched off first, and Apple Pay merchant IDs do not transfer. ### What is the App Store Small Business Program? Developers with up to $1m in proceeds in the previous calendar year, and new developers, can qualify for a 15% commission on paid apps and in-app purchases. ### How long does App Store review take? Apple says at least 50% of submissions are reviewed in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours. Incomplete submissions take longer or are rejected. ### Can Magora set up the developer accounts and publish the app for us? Yes. We set up the Apple and Google developer accounts in your company's name, configure App Store Connect and Google Play Console, and publish the app for you. Ownership stays with you from day one, which keeps the IP, reviews and analytics under your control. Ready to launch? ### Free 30-minute call: we'll estimate your app and tell you what to set up before you pay Apple. - A first estimate and timeline for your feature list - Developer accounts set up in your company's name - App Store and Google Play submission handled by us Read more: MVP development · mobile app development company · app development cost UK ## Build it with Magora. [ 01 / 03 ] ### Mobile app development — iOS, Android & React Native Get a quote → [ 02 / 03 ] ### Web application & web development agency Get a quote → [ 03 / 03 ] ### Bespoke & custom software development Get a quote → ## Continue reading. [ 01 / 03 ] ### How much does an MVP cost in 2026? (UK prices from 12 real estimates) 13 Oct 2026 [ 02 / 03 ] ### Firebase Pricing 2026: Where the Free Plan Ends and What It Costs 10 Oct 2026 [ 03 / 03 ] ### App Store Small Business Program 2026: 15% or 30% commission? 07 Oct 2026 --- # About Magora — UK Software Development Company in London since 2010 Source: https://magora-systems.com/about/ London office · Engineering floor About Magora · since 2010 ## What we do. Our mission is to help you achieve value through bespoke software and apps — whether that means pushing you to the front of your industry, earning you greater profits as a market leader, or helping you realize long-standing projects and plans. **Founded** London · 2010 **Legal entity** Magora is the trading name of Thinking Fish Ltd (Companies House 03637036, incorporated 1998) **Team** 120+ senior engineers, designers, PMs **Engagement** Time & materials · fixed-scope · embedded **Languages** ## We understand both technology and business, so we apply the approaches of both fields to our process. 01 / Approach — A · Strategy Together with the customer, we determine the proper solution for our client's problem. We build an app or software, and then implement it while sticking to our collaboratively developed strategy, which seeks to maximize desired value and ROI, as well as equip our client with the full set of instruments to attract more clients and commerce. — B · Solutions Our solutions take as many forms as they serve functions, increasing sales or reaching new markets. Whatever form our solutions take — optimization of an existing process, launching a start-up or the development of a completely new set of services — they turn into clear, tangible benefits. And what's more, they turn into profits. — C · Technology Just as we understand business, we understand technology. Our specialists develop mobile applications on iOS and Android, in addition to web and software services. Regardless of what medium we are working in though, our priorities rest in full security and quality assurance by default. 02 / The team behind your project ## Meet our professional team. We at Magora can boast a brilliant team of website designers, developers, project managers, testers, marketing specialists and other experts. All together we are one strong team, proud of what we do and motivated to be the best of the best. [ 01 ] AE Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer [ 02 ] PS Co-Founder & Managing Director [ 03 ] AG Director of Operations & Business Development [ 04 ] AB Chief Product Officer [ 05 ] VD Co-Founder & CTO [ 06 ] NS 03 / Technology ## Technology. We develop native mobile apps for iOS & Android using Objective-C, Swift, Android SDK, AIDE, Android NDK, etc. For special requests we can also provide cross-platform Xamarin development. For the backend, we utilise PHP, Node.JS, Java, .NET. For the frontend — React.JS, Angular.JS and JS. We provide adequate safety and quality assurance by default. 04 / Our history ## From two young developers to an international team. We have come a long way from our origins as two young developers to become an international corporation with professional staff and offices in the USA, UK and Australia. That path is what has made us who we are today. And we've certainly learned a lot from our own mistakes made along the way. Each misstep has matured us from the small, local team we were eight years ago. We tried offering minimal pricing, but quickly understood that low costs led to low quality. We tried bending over backwards to meet every one of our clients' wishes, but we realized that our time (and our clients') was better spent in dialogue to identify and work on their real needs. And we tried dressing up our ideas with magnificent visuals that caught the eye, but fail to transform that into real profits. All said and done, we possess our own values, which might seem unusual to some. We spend the lion's share of our time in discussions, prototyping and architecture development. We are constantly testing and improving. That is our secret to making our projects successful and our clients happy. We like to work when we know we are doing something useful, something with purpose. 05 / Our values ## We strive to fully understand our customers and their businesses. Our aim is not to maximize a budget. We offer you all the bells and whistles only if we know they are vital and valuable to you and your business. It's not a question of ethics, but one of common sense. You want to pay for what you need and we want to give that to you, so we are always straightforward with you and look for a win-win solution. 01 ### Technology At the end of the day, we are driven by the desire to create great products. On time. To do so we have to go through every stage of the technological process — through every nook and cranny in design, UX, QA and project management. We push to get your product running as quickly as possible and then it's merely a matter of fine tuning. This MVP can immediately begin generating value, feedback, and advancement in the right direction, while we add more layers of functionality. 02 ### Communication We treat each project as a process with many steps along the way. At each of those steps we want and need your feedback, so you can expect us to keep the lines of communication very open. We promise to do all the heavy lifting, but we know our undertaking is important to you, and as a result we expect to hear from you, and we will reach out to you, throughout the project. A solid, successful effort is always the result of close, collaborative work. ## We know what we are doing We have seen businesses succeed and we have seen them fail, so we bring those lessons to every project. We share that experience with our clients and use it to avoid the missteps others have taken. Sometimes that means we have to push back, especially when our experience has shown us the counterintuitive approach is the correct one. We will tell you what we see, giving you the extra set of eyes and perspective we bring to the table. 03 ### We are humble We never doubt your expertise in your sphere, just as we believe in our expertise in our own. The same way we want you to ask us lots of questions, we will honestly defer to you when we come across topics we do not understand. After all, we need each other to reach the best solution. 04 ### Postproduction Ultimately, the best products are the ones that succeed in the long run. However wonderful a product might be, if no one uses it within the company or it remains unknown to potential clients, it's nothing more than a waste of time, energy and resources. We place particular attention on marketing, promotion and user acquisitions from the very start of every project, ensuring that long-term success. 05 ### We ask a lot of questions We only see ourselves as successful once you see yourselves that way. It's why we ask so many questions and why we try to understand each nuance and intricacy of your ideas and the problems you face. We especially ask, "Why?" We don't only want to know what we have to do — we want to know how each feature creates value for you and impacts your sales, internal processes and ROI. --- # Contact Magora — UK Software Development Company in London Source: https://magora-systems.com/contacts/ London office · Reception ## Talk to a senior engineer. Join us for an informal chat about your project over a barista-made coffee in our Shoreditch office. Full address sits below in the directions block. **Phone** 020 7183 5820 **Email** info@magora.co.uk **Sales** sales@magora.co.uk **Office** The Tea Building · Shoreditch ## Join us for an informal chat over a barista-made coffee. Our full address is Unit 4.01, 4th Floor, The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High St, London E1 6JJ. Please note that there are 2 entrances: from Red Church Street and from Shoreditch High St. When you get inside, approach the reception and say that you are visiting Magora. Use the staircase to the left to get to the lifts (buttons are on the column in the middle of the hall). Go to the 4th floor — Unit 4.01 is to the left. Tell them you are visiting Magora. ## How to get here. Closest stations are Shoreditch High Street (Overground, 3 min walk) and Liverpool Street (11 min walk). Both work well from anywhere on the Tube. ### From Old Street - LinesNorthern Line · National Rail - Bus№ 135, 205, 55 — 7 min - Walk13 min ### From Liverpool Street - LinesCentral · Circle · Hammersmith & City · Metropolitan · Overground · National Rail - Bus№ 149, 242, 388, 8 — 7 min - Walk11 min ## Tell us about the project. Five minutes — no marketing follow-ups. sales@magora.co.uk Senior product team rotates the inbox. Most replies within 4 hours during UK office hours. +44 20 7183 5820 London, Mon – Fri, 09:00 – 18:00 GMT/BST. The Tea Building Office 4.01, 4th Floor 56 Shoreditch High St London E1 6JJ — Also in Miami · Sydney See about for full addresses. ## Three offices, one standard. UK working hours by default. London is HQ — Miami and Sydney are how we reach clients face-to-face without a transatlantic flight. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · HQ ### London Shoreditch Office 4.01, 4th Floor The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High St London E1 6JJ +44 20 7183 5820 info@magora.co.uk Mon – Fri · 09:00 – 18:00 GMT/BST 🇺🇸 United States ### Miami 17001 Collins Avenue Sunny Isles Beach FL 33160, USA ### Sydney 3 AMP Tower 50 Bridge Street Sydney NSW 2000 AEST / AEDT ## From form to first call in 48 hours. No marketing nurture sequences, no SDR follow-ups, no AI-written replies. A senior product owner reads it personally. 01 / You send the form #### Five minutes, no nurture sequence. We read it personally. Your inbox stays clean — no auto-replies, no drip emails, no calendar links you didn't ask for. 02 / We reply within 24h #### A senior product owner picks it up. Usually within 4 hours during UK office hours. They suggest a 30-minute call slot. No deck, no pitch — just questions to understand what you're building. 03 / One-page write-up #### Yours to keep, hire us or not. Within 48h of the call, you get our take on scope, team and a rough estimate. If we're not the right fit, we'll suggest three competitors who are.