Web app development for Irish businesses

When a web app beats a spreadsheet

Irish firms usually reach this point in one of three ways. A professional practice wants clients to upload documents and see status without email chains. A trades or services company wants quotes, jobs and invoices in one place. A growing business wants one dashboard across its sales, stock and accounts packages. If a ready-made tool covers eighty percent of the need, we say so, because custom work should cover the gap, not repeat what exists.

See our build vs buy comparison for the same logic applied to AI, and the web app cost guide for budget ranges.

Another useful test is the number of people affected. A tool used by two staff once a week may not justify a build, while one that every customer touches daily usually does. We put rough numbers on time saved and errors avoided, so the decision rests on figures you can check rather than enthusiasm for new software.

Data protection built into the design

A web app is where the personal data lives, so GDPR choices show up in the database. The Data Protection Commission enforces the rules in Ireland under the Data Protection Act 2018, and the ePrivacy Regulations 2011 cover cookies and electronic marketing. These are the decisions we make in the first design week.

• Roles and permissions: staff see only the records they need, and every view of sensitive data is logged.
• Retention: each record type has a delete or archive date, and a job runs it.
• Export and erasure: one screen to produce a person's data and one to remove it, so a subject access request takes minutes.
• Encryption in transit and at rest, with keys in a managed vault.
• Hosting in an EU region. Several major cloud providers have Dublin regions, which also keeps response times low for Irish users.

Be careful with the Personal Public Service Number. Only certain bodies may ask for it, and in most cases a business should not hold it. If a form asks for a PPSN, check with your solicitor first. Health, financial and children's data raise the bar further.

Accessibility, logins and integrations

Apps that deliver consumer services, such as online shopping, banking or booking, fall under the European Accessibility Act, in force since 28 June 2025, unless the provider is a very small business. Internal staff tools are not covered in the same way, but accessible tools also help staff with different needs. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA and test forms and tables by keyboard.

For logins we favor passkeys or an established identity provider with multi-factor authentication, rather than home-made password code. Integrations commonly include Xero, QuickBooks, Microsoft 365, Stripe and email or SMS gateways. Each external service gets a short note in the privacy documentation.

Reports and exports are worth planning early. Accountants, auditors and regulators ask for data in set formats, and a clean CSV or PDF export saves hours at year end. We also set up automatic backups with a restore test, so you know the copy actually works.

How the build runs

1. DiscoveryTwo sessions with the people who do the work today, then a written scope with screens and data.
2. First release in weeksThe smallest version that replaces the spreadsheet for one team.
3. IterateFortnightly releases to a staging site, with your feedback in a single list.
4. Harden and hand overBackups, monitoring, access review, a runbook and recorded training.

One project lead is your point of contact. In winter, Ireland is on GMT and India is 5.5 hours ahead, so your 09:30 call is our 15:00. In summer the gap is 4.5 hours. Both sides get a written summary after every demo.

After handover you can keep us on a small monthly block of hours for fixes and new features, or take the code to another team. The runbook and architecture notes are written so that a new developer can start within a day.

Price and ownership

Projects start at $1,500, with extra hours at $30. A small internal tool with a few screens sits near the start, while a multi-role portal with payments, document handling and integrations costs more. The fixed quote splits the work into milestones, and you see working software at each one.

You own the code, the database and the hosting accounts. Running costs for hosting and third-party services are paid by you, and we list the expected monthly amount in the quote. Our web app development service page has more detail.