What Is Custom Web App Development A Complete Guide

Custom web application development involves creating, developing and supporting browser based applications that are designed specifically to support the work flow, data and user requirements of an organization, as opposed to using a general purpose product. A business will need this type of development if their core business processes, integration needs, or growth requirements cannot be supported by current tools without extensive workarounds. When your team is changing how they operate based on the software they use as opposed to the other way around, then a custom web application should be considered

A website primarily provides information. Visitors can view pages, watch videos, or submit contact forms; however, the information provided will generally appear the same to each visitor. An interactive application that runs in the browser is known as a Web Application. When users log into an application they can create and modify data, execute business processes, and receive results based upon their roles/accounts.

Customer portals, booking platforms, internal operations dashboards, marketplaces and SaaS products are each a different type of web application. All of these use the same four layers.

• Frontend: what people look at and use to work on things.
• Backend: server-side programming (the application of business logic).
• Database: A database is a location that contains all of your data, or records. This is also where you will perform queries on those records.
• APIs: interfaces that allow applications to connect to payment systems, CRM systems, analytical tools, etc.

"Custom" is about designing the layer based upon your specific needs, rather than setting up a layer that was created within another organization's product. The logic, the data models and the future direction of the layer will be yours.

Off-the-shelf software and SaaS (Software as a Service) products provide organizations with immediate access to affordable solutions that can be implemented quickly. These types of solutions can be successful if you have a workflow that aligns with how the product's creator believes businesses function. However, there will be drawbacks to using this type of software or service at some point in the future.

• Workflow fit: either change your work flow to match the capabilities of the software program; or buy additional programs (add-ons) to try and make up for what the software program cannot do.
• Integration limits: data is transferred via connector tools or manual export, rather than being moved through an API specifically designed for transferring data.
• Per-seat pricing: cost is based on number of employees (headcount) regardless of how many employees actually utilize the system.
• Vendor dependency: The pricing, features and data access of your software are in the hands of another party.

Custom developed software requires more initial investment (of money) and takes longer to reach its initial release. However, it will be developed to fit your specific business processes; will allow you to scale based on what works best for you; and will ultimately become a valuable asset for you. Neither option is necessarily superior in all circumstances; therefore, the most relevant question is which option would work best in your particular situation.

The majority of businesses should begin using existing tools. Custom development may make sense if one or more of the following conditions exist.

• Your process is a competitive advantage. When your quoting, scheduling, fulfillment, or customer service processes differ from other businesses, then forcing them into a standardized format removes this distinction.
• You are stitching together too many tools. When you use so many different tools to accomplish tasks, there's always the risk of having to manually enter information into multiple systems, creating opportunities for error and requiring a significant amount of time. A single software system can help eliminate those risks and save you hours of work each day.
• You are building a product. The most important part of your business will be the product. When you are selling a software-based solution, such as an e-commerce platform or a marketplace, it is essential that you control both the source code and the product development process.
• Compliance or data requirements are specific. Regulated industries will typically have a requirement for a high level of control on how users can access data, what types of audits are conducted, and where data is stored.
• Scale will outgrow the licence model. Scale has the potential to exceed the capacity of a licensing arrangement. The use of per-seat or per-transaction cost models may ultimately be more costly than owning the software outright.

A good rule of thumb is: Adopt a SaaS solution when it meets approximately 80% of your business requirements, without requiring you to do excessive manual tasks to get around the limitations of the solution. When the remaining 20% of your requirements are the most important aspects for increasing revenue or improving efficiency, then this is the area in which custom development will provide a return on investment.

Good design will match the design to the issue, therefore adding complexity only when there is no other way to do so. This is what makes these choices the most important.

Monolith or microservices? where there are several internal modules that make up a single deployed application, is suitable for many early stage applications as well as internally developed tools. A monolithic application can be built, tested and deployed much easier than a microservice-based architecture. Microservices allow for the creation of independent services that can be individually deployed. This allows for individual teams to own their respective domain within the system, or for individual components of the system to scale at different rates. However, with the increased complexity of a microservice-based architecture comes an increase in operational costs. Therefore, it is generally recommended to start with a modular architecture and then transition to microservices if necessary.

Frontend approach. Single page apps provide an experience similar to native apps with dynamic updates. Server side rendered pages have a faster load time than single page apps and are more easily optimized for search engines. Many developers today use a combination of both; they will render a page on the server side so it can load quickly and then use client side rendering to make the interactive elements of that page work.

Database design. For businesses with organized data, Relational Databases (such as PostgreSQL) have become the standard for managing that data; they provide consistency in the way the data is stored and allow for complex queries to be run on the data. However, there are times when other types of databases will need to be used, such as Document Stores (such as MongoDB) or Caches (such as Redis). These types of databases can be utilized to address specific issues, such as allowing for flexibility in schema design or providing faster access to the data.

Authentication and authorization. Identity is a fundamental design issue. Sign-in, role based access control, session management and single sign-on must be considered during the initial stages of development; adding these elements later will prove to be difficult and potentially dangerous.

Cloud and delivery. When a team uses containerized deployments, automated testing and CI/CD pipelines, they can make many small changes to their product more often and with less risk. Also, the infrastructure used to host your application will have a big impact on what it costs to run your application; therefore, you should decide how you are going to use the infrastructure as part of designing your application.

Multi-tenancy for SaaS. When multiple clients will be using a single system, how you choose to isolate their data (i.e., whether you use a single database with a client ID, separate schemas within that same database, or completely separate databases) has a direct impact on your security, costs, and performance right out of the box.

Teams develop applications faster and users find them easier to operate when there are consistent component designs and logical user flow patterns. As such, most development teams have a corresponding design system. We provide UI/UX design services to help you create your own design system.

All three of these characteristics determine if your app will be successful when used in "real life," and all three are significantly less expensive to implement initially than they are to add after the fact.

Security. There is an increasing amount of attention being focused on web application security. According to Verizon's 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, 43% of data breaches were caused by attacks against web applications, which is more than double the percentage from the previous year. You should check the most recent version of this report before publication to obtain the current percentage. The practical lessons remain unchanged.

• Validate and clean up all input from users in order to protect against injection attacks.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and least privilege access must be enforced.
• Maintain patches for your software dependencies and check for known security flaws in each dependency.
• Protect your information when you transmit it or when you store it.
• Keep track of who logs into your system and check for suspicious activity. This way you will know right away when someone has done something they shouldn't have.

Performance. Speed is critical to whether users stay on your site (conversion), return to your site (retention), and how well you rank in search engines. There are several ways to improve your site's performance:

• Optimize the way you query your database.
• Index your data.
• Use a caching system.
• Deliver your static content via a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
• Compress and load your media items when they are needed.
• Monitor real-world performance metrics like Core Web Vitals.

Scalability. Build a scalable system, but do not build so much of it that you over-build. Horizontal scaling of stateless application servers will help accommodate your growing user base; a background queue can handle large amounts of traffic in short periods of time; and, either read replicas or caching will reduce database usage. Load testing prior to launch will reveal the most significant bottlenecks in your architecture.

A reliable, custom-built system has a logical sequence of steps.

• Discovery. Prior to writing any code, it is important to clearly identify the issue at hand; who the user will be; what limitations exist; and how you will measure whether or not the project was successful.
• Scoping and architecture. The selection of the technology and the creation of a prioritized plan of action based on those selections.
• Design. Create user flow diagrams, and then develop wireframes and interface designs to test with real users.
• Iterative development. Iterative development is building in small steps and showing working software often. This allows you to get feedback quickly.
• Testing and security review. Automated tests, manual QA, performance testing and a security assessment can be combined for the testing and security review of your application.
• Launch and iteration. Start the deployment, monitor the application, collect user activity data and continuously improve.

With a Minimum Viable Product (the smallest possible product) as the baseline for your business, you can reduce the amount of financial exposure, and use the user feedback to determine what additional investments will be needed. This same methodology applies to our custom web application development services.

A good first step in evaluating custom development vs. off-the-shelf software would be to discuss your requirements. This can help define what the software needs to do, and therefore, whether a custom solution or an existing tool will best meet those needs. To find out more about how we develop custom applications, or to learn more about the Hadrus Digital team and how we work, visit our website.