Bespoke Web App Development
Built for your process, not bent to fit someone else’s software
Connects to the systems you already pay for
Automates the jobs currently done by hand
Designed, built and supported by the same small team
When the off-the-shelf option nearly fits, but not quite
Customer and staff areas where people see their own documents, orders, bookings or records. One login, the right information, and no more emailing spreadsheets about.
Booking systems, request forms, approvals and job tracking, with the rules your business actually uses built in rather than worked around.
We connect to the accounting, CRM, payment and scheduling tools you already run, so data moves on its own instead of being retyped. AI is used where it genuinely helps and left out where it does not.
What we build most often
Secure areas where customers, members or clients log in to see their own information, download documents, make a request or pay an invoice, without anyone in your office doing it for them.
Appointments, rooms, equipment, classes or engineers. Built around your availability rules, your notice periods and your pricing logic, with the confirmations sent automatically.
Directories, resource libraries and reporting dashboards that turn a spreadsheet nobody can find into something your team and your customers can actually search.
Most projects start with a sentence like "every Friday someone spends four hours doing this". That is usually the best thing to build first.
Built properly, supported afterwards
What you get
A scoping conversation before anyone quotes anything
A bespoke application built around your process
Integration with the systems you already use
Secure UK hosting, SSL and daily backups
Role based logins and permissions
Testing with the people who will actually use it
Training for your team, in plain English
Ongoing support from the people who built it
Changes and improvements as the business changes
Things we are asked for
Customer and staff portals
Booking and appointment systems
Membership and subscription areas
Directories and searchable databases
Resource centres and document libraries
Dashboards and reporting
Quote, order and approval workflows
API and third party integrations
Automation of repetitive admin
Great service, efficient, communicated throughout the process and turned around in little over a week! What more could we ask for
Well, I don't know what to say – it's better than I ever could've imagined!
Amazing customer service and communication throughout, they had it up and running in no time.
I spoke to the David from the very beginning who has been out of this world. Nothing is ever an issue from little niggles to things technical that I have no clue. What a great company. We needed someone we can trust and work long term as I build our business.
Built by the people you speak to
Fruitcake Media is a small design and development team at Glasshouse, Alderley Park in Cheshire, looking after 400+ websites and applications for businesses across the UK. The developer who builds your system is the person who picks up when you ring about it two years later.
No offshore teams, no account managers, no ticket queues.
Bespoke web applications, built around your process
Most businesses reach a point where the software nearly fits. The booking system does not understand your notice periods, the CRM cannot handle the way you quote, or a person spends every Friday afternoon moving information between two systems that will not talk to each other.
That is what Fruitcake Media builds applications for. Not software for the sake of it, but the specific thing your business does that nothing off the shelf does properly.
We start by asking what happens now
Before anyone talks about technology, we go through the job as it is done today, including the parts done by hand, the spreadsheet somebody maintains privately and the step everyone forgets. That conversation usually changes the brief, and occasionally it ends with us telling you an existing product would do it cheaper. We would rather say that early.
Built to connect, not to sit on its own
An application that does not talk to your other systems just creates a third place to type things. We integrate with the accounting, CRM, payment, calendar and scheduling tools you already pay for, so information moves on its own. Where AI genuinely helps, in classifying, summarising or searching messy information, we use it. Where a simple rule would be more reliable, we use that instead and tell you why.
The same people, afterwards
The developer who builds your system is the one who answers the phone about it later. It is hosted on secure UK infrastructure with SSL and daily backups, and it keeps changing as the business does. You own the application and your data.
It often starts as a website
Plenty of this work begins as a website project and grows a logged-in area, a booking engine or a portal. If you are not sure which side of the line you are on, that is a normal place to start from.
Questions we get asked
What is the difference between a website and a web application?
A website mainly presents information. A web application does something: people log in, submit, search, book, calculate or manage records. If you find yourself describing logins, permissions or a process with rules, you are describing an application.
Can you connect it to systems we already use?
Usually yes. If a system has an API we can normally talk to it, and most accounting, CRM, payment and scheduling tools do. Where there is no API there are often other routes. We check this before quoting rather than after.
Do you use AI in what you build?
Where it genuinely helps, such as classifying, summarising or searching messy information. We do not add it to a project so that the proposal sounds current, and we will tell you when a simple rule would do the job more reliably and more cheaply.
Who owns the system you build?
You do. You get the application, your data stays yours, and we will not hold a business hostage over its own tools.
What happens after it launches?
We host it, keep it secure and backed up, fix things and make changes as the business changes. The developer who built it is the person who answers when you ring.
Got a process that needs a system?
Book a call and describe the job as it happens today, including the bits done by hand. We will tell you honestly whether it needs a bespoke build, whether an existing product would do it cheaper, or whether it is a website change rather than an application.
About Us
Fruitcake Media is a family-run web design and digital marketing agency. Our monthly subscription website model enables small businesses across the UK to get online from just £39 a month.
Contact Us
Glasshouse, Alderley Park, Congleton Road, Nether Alderley, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 4TG
enquiries@fruitcakemedia.co.uk
01625724284