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Bespoke web apps for schools and small organisations
Some organisations outgrow spreadsheets and email before they can justify an agency. For them I build small, focused web apps: registers, customer portals, bookings and card payments. Each app runs on the same UK platform as my hosting, and I look after it in the same way.
How I build
I use AI tools to write code faster, which keeps the cost of a small app within reach. I decide how the app works, I review every change and test it before it goes live, and I’m the person you talk to when something needs to change. Money, personal data and sign-in are the parts I check most closely.
Most apps share tested parts I have already built: card payments through Stripe or Square, UK address lookup, PDF documents, branded emails, spam protection on public forms and secure sign-in. That means your budget goes on the parts that are specific to you.
Sign-in for each kind of user
An app usually has three kinds of user.
Members of the public see the open pages, such as a sign-up form, with no account at all. Your customers, parents or members sign in to a portal with a one-time code sent to their email or phone, so there is no password to forget. I can add Google or Microsoft sign-in for them too. Your own staff sign in with their Google accounts behind the same protection as the WordPress admin pages.
All three live on one web address, and each person only sees what they’re allowed to see.
Worked example: a performing-arts school
The largest app I have built runs the office of a performing-arts school.
Staff manage families and children, classes and termly enrolment in one place. Registers work on screen and on paper, and there is a fire register for the building. At the end of term the app produces each family’s statement as a PDF and emails it. Staff can email a whole class or year group and see which messages were delivered.
Parents sign in to their own portal with a one-time code to see their account and statements. They can tell the office they’ve paid, and the office matches those payments against the bank. Families can spread fees across a payment plan, and the app sends each payment request and reminder. The app records every change to the money in an audit trail that staff can’t edit.
Students sign in and out at a kiosk using a key fob.
The stage school app was the real surprise. I had a clear picture in my head of how our office should run: enrolments, fees, who has paid and who still owes, all checked against the bank. Within days that was a working system our staff could use. WPops.land took the way I think about the school and built software that works the same way, and when something didn’t quite fit, it was changed the next day.
Dan Cowtan, Director, BPA Academy
Other builds
For a theatrical hire business I built a staff-only stock app linked to its WooCommerce shop. I have also built a box office for a community theatre group that sells tickets from the group’s own website.
Pricing
Every app is different, so I scope and quote each one on its own. Hosting, backups and monitoring are included in the quote, and so is my support.
The first conversation
We start with a call about how you work now: the spreadsheets, forms and email threads the app would replace, and who needs to see what. I don’t need a specification. Afterwards I write up what I’d build first, how long it would take and what it would cost, and you decide whether to go ahead. If an off-the-shelf product would suit you better, I’ll say so.
Get in touch
Tell me what your site does and where it’s hosted now. I’ll reply within 24 hours with what moving it would involve and what it would cost. If you’d rather talk, call 020 3422 9767.
Christian Ashby
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