Custom software development for London businesses
London software development agencies bill at GBP 80 to 150 per hour, and the typical mid-size custom software project at those rates reaches a number that is difficult to justify against the internal problem it solves. Codalyst Tech builds internal tools, SaaS products and enterprise workflow systems for London businesses under fixed-scope, fixed-GBP agreements. The contract is B2B with full IP assignment — not a contractor arrangement subject to IR35 — and the timezone alignment with the UK is the best we have with any client market. When London opens, our team is already mid-afternoon.
At a glance
Fixed-price agreement · IP fully assigned · NDA on request
Local market
Custom software in the London market
London generates more custom software requirements than any other UK city, across a wider range of sectors than most. The patterns that arrive most frequently fall into a few distinct categories.
Internal tools and operational dashboards: businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets and are running operations on a patchwork of disconnected systems. The requirement is usually a purpose-built internal tool that consolidates the data, removes the manual steps, and gives managers a view they can act on. These projects have a defined scope and a measurable return, which makes them the most straightforward category to scope and the most reliably delivered.
SaaS products and platforms: London has a substantial product startup and scale-up ecosystem, and many of those businesses need a development partner for the build phase before they have the internal team to take it over. The build requirement is a codebase that can be handed to an internal engineering team without a rewrite — which is a scoping decision made at the start, not a refactor at the end. We build in React, Next.js and TypeScript specifically because handover is a normal expected outcome.
Enterprise workflow systems: larger London organisations with workflow automation requirements that off-the-shelf software does not serve well. These projects are more complex to scope, involve more stakeholders, and take longer. We require a proper discovery engagement before quoting them.
For all of these, the IR35 question is resolved the same way: the contract is B2B between Codalyst Tech (the registered company) and your organisation. Off-payroll compliance obligations do not arise. This is a meaningful practical advantage over engaging individual offshore contractors.
Why offshore
- Fixed scope, fixed price, written before work starts
- Company contract and NDA — not a freelancer arrangement
- IP fully assigned to you on final payment
- 70–85% below local agency rates
- Proposal and cost estimate within 24 hours
Working hours
Working with London hours
Timezone
GMT / BST
UTC+0 (UTC+1 during British Summer Time, late March to late October)
Overlap window
9:00am to 3:00pm GMT
PKT working window
2:00pm to 8:00pm PKT
1:00pm to 7:00pm PKT
Pakistan Standard Time is UTC+5. GMT is UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 during British Summer Time. The gap is five hours in winter, four during BST — the narrowest offset Codalyst Tech has with any market it serves. For custom software projects, which involve more iterative conversation than a static web build — sprint reviews, technical architecture discussions, stakeholder demos, scope refinement sessions — the quality of the overlap window matters significantly. London businesses get five or more hours of live overlap daily, all within normal working hours on both sides. A London team can run a 9am standup, iterate through the morning with live feedback, and pick up outputs the following morning. This is the collaboration pattern most London teams are used to from working with local developers, and we can sustain it from Pakistan in a way that teams in North America or even Australia cannot match for UK clients.
Industry context
Industries we serve in London
Fintech and financial operations
London's fintech and financial services sector produces a consistent supply of internal tool and workflow automation requirements: trading desk tools, regulatory reporting systems, reconciliation pipelines, client portfolio dashboards, and compliance workflow management. These are not consumer products — they are operational systems for internal users with high accuracy requirements and no tolerance for downtime. We scope them accordingly, with particular attention to data handling, audit trail requirements and the distinction between what we build and what must be handled by FCA-regulated providers.
Health tech and NHS supply chain
London is the UK's largest health tech cluster, with NHS Digital, the Integrated Care Boards and dozens of health tech companies requiring custom clinical and operational software. Requirements typically include appointment and pathway management, clinical decision support tools, staff rostering systems and data reporting against NHS frameworks. We are not a regulated medical device developer and will not imply otherwise, but the engineering requirements for health administration and operational tooling sit well within our scope.
Professional services and legal tech
Law firms, accountancy practices and management consultancies in London run on matter management, document workflows and client portal requirements that off-the-shelf software handles poorly. Bespoke internal tools built for a specific firm's workflow carry a meaningful productivity return, and the IP stays with the firm rather than residing in a vendor's platform. These projects tend to be straightforward to scope because the manual process they replace is well understood.
Pricing in GBP
What it costs
Internal tool or admin dashboard
From GBP 3,500
4 to 8 weeks
SaaS product or platform
GBP 7,000 to 22,000
8 to 20 weeks
Enterprise workflow system
GBP 15,000+
Scoped per project
In-house build
Analytica Dashboard
Analytica is an in-house multi-page SaaS analytics dashboard built in Next.js and TypeScript, demonstrating the data visualisation, user management and reporting patterns that most internal tool and SaaS product builds require. It is a product demo rather than client work, and we label it as such.
View build detailsStart a project
Describe what you need. We will scope it and send a fixed-price proposal within 24 hours. No retainer required at this stage.
Get free estimateSend us a briefAlternative model
Need ongoing capacity rather than a project?
The engagement above is scoped project and programme delivery. If you need a dedicated developer working inside your London team on an ongoing basis, the hire-staff model is a better fit.
Frequently asked questions
- Does IR35 apply when engaging Codalyst Tech for a software project?
- No. Codalyst Tech is a registered company — Codalyst Tech (SMC-Private) Limited — and every engagement is a B2B service contract between your organisation and ours. IR35 governs off-payroll working by individuals through intermediaries; it does not apply to a contract between two companies for a defined software deliverable. You do not need to conduct an IR35 status determination or make a working practices assessment. This is a meaningful practical difference from engaging individual offshore contractors.
- Can you build software that integrates with our existing London systems?
- Yes, and integration is usually the largest cost variable in a custom software build. Tell us at brief stage what systems the new software needs to talk to: which ones have documented APIs, which ones do not, and what the access constraints look like. Systems without documented APIs add discovery time and sometimes make clean integration impossible — we would rather surface that at scoping than discover it in week six.
- We are a London startup building a SaaS product. Can you hand the codebase to an internal team later?
- Yes, and for product builds you should plan for it. You receive the source repository with a documented README, full IP assignment, and deployment credentials. We build in React, Next.js and TypeScript specifically because hiring a developer to take over a well-structured codebase in those frameworks is straightforward in the London market. Handover is a normal expected outcome, not a complication.
- What does post-launch support look like?
- The project scope covers delivery to production-ready state including a handover period. Ongoing support — bug fixes, feature additions, dependency updates — is available on a monthly retainer with no lock-in, or on a per-task basis. We recommend agreeing a support arrangement before launch. A system without a support agreement in place tends to accumulate deferred maintenance until it causes a problem at the worst time.
- How do you handle data security for a London financial or legal client?
- We address security requirements at architecture stage rather than as a retrofit. That includes authentication and authorisation model, data encryption at rest and in transit, audit logging, and dependency vulnerability management. We do not hold ISO 27001 certification or Cyber Essentials Plus, and we will not imply otherwise. If your project requires a supplier with those certifications, you should verify that requirement before engaging us rather than after.
Other locations
Locations we serve
Related services
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