01
Discovery & scoping
Two weeks. We sit with the people who will use the thing, then write the specification, the estimate and the risk list. The document is yours to take anywhere.
from £2,400
Software development & IT consultancy — Bedford, MK42
Most business software dies at eighty per cent. The demo goes well, the budget thins out, and the team drifts back to the spreadsheet they were promised they would never open again. We price that last fifth of the work before anyone starts, not after.
Built for
One screen, not eleven tabsJobs, engineers, parts and invoices in a single view — the shape most of our first builds take.
The company
Who you would be hiring
Homeswipe is a two-person development company in Elstow, on the south edge of Bedford. Between us we have spent eleven years building line-of-business software inside other people's companies, and we started this one because we were tired of watching good briefs die in committee.
Adam and Nick. Every line of code on your project is written by one of the two people in this photograph.
The turning point was a job in 2023 that neither of us owned. A lettings firm in Bedfordshire had paid a London agency a six-figure sum for a property management platform. Eighteen months in, the staff were still keying the same tenancy details into the new system and the old spreadsheet, because nobody had ever asked them how a Tuesday actually works. We were brought in to add a reporting screen. We spent the first week in the office watching, instead, and the report we wrote was not the one we had been hired for.
That firm now runs on software we rebuilt in eleven weeks. The lesson stuck: the expensive part of a build is almost never the code. It is the gap between what a system was specified to do and what the people using it need on a busy afternoon. So we close that gap first, in writing, for a fixed fee, before a repository exists.
We registered Homeswipe Limited in 2025 to do only that kind of work. Small teams, direct access to the people building the thing, and a written spec you own whether or not you go on to hire us.
Discovery before code
Fixed fee, written spec
The spec is yours to keep
Direct access to the builders
No work under £2,500
What we turn down
We do not build marketing websites, we do not sell SEO retainers, and we say no to anything under about £2,500. Below that figure an off-the-shelf tool will serve you better than a custom build, and we would rather name the tool on the call than take the work.
An opinion we hold
Discovery is a document, not a deliverable you rent
Nearly every studio in this trade sells a discovery phase and then keeps the output hostage inside the engagement. Ours runs two weeks, costs a fixed fee, and ends with a specification, a build estimate and a written list of the things most likely to go wrong. It is yours on the day it is finished. Take it to another developer if their number is better — several clients have, and two of them came back.
It costs us work occasionally. It also means nobody has ever signed a build with us without knowing exactly what they were buying.
What we build
Seven ways in
Most engagements start with the first line and stop there for a fortnight. Everything below is a starting figure for a small-to-mid UK business; the fixed quote comes after the scoping call.
02
Web application build
A full custom application: accounts, permissions, the workflow your business actually runs on, and a deployment you own. Two-week cycles, working link at the end of each.
from £16,500
03
Internal tools & dashboards
The spreadsheet that runs a department, rebuilt as something several people can open at once without breaking it. Usually the fastest money a business gets back from us.
from £8,900
04
Integrations & API work
Getting your accounting package, CRM, booking system and warehouse to agree on the same numbers. Includes the unglamorous part: error handling and a log somebody can read.
from £4,600
05
Project rescue & audit
For a build that has stalled. We review the code, the hosting and the contract position, then tell you plainly whether it is worth finishing or worth restarting. Written up in ten working days.
from £2,850
06
Support & maintenance
Patching, backups, monitoring and a named person who answers. Monthly, cancellable with thirty days' notice, and never a condition of the build.
from £820 / month
07
IT consultancy
Day-rate advice for businesses choosing a system, replacing one, or arguing with a supplier. No commission from any vendor, ever.
£790 / day
Every figure above is a starting point. You get a fixed written quote after the scoping call and it holds for 30 days. Prices exclude VAT. Payment is by invoice — nothing is taken on this website.
How it runs
Four stages, no surprises
You will always know which stage you are in, what it costs, and what lands at the end of it.
01
The call
Forty minutes, free, no slide deck. Bring the process that annoys you most. We will tell you on the call if we think you should buy something off the shelf instead.
02
Scoping
Two weeks, fixed fee. We watch the work happen, then write the specification, the estimate and the risk list. You own the document either way.
03
Build
Two-week cycles. At the end of each one there is a link you can click and use, not a progress report. Change your mind between cycles; that is what they are for.
04
Handover
Your repository, your hosting accounts, your data, plus written documentation and a month of support included. If you never call us again, the software still works.
Scoping in progress. The shapes get rearranged a great deal before anyone writes code.
Book a consultation
Forty minutes, and bring the spreadsheet you hate most
Tell us what the process looks like today and roughly what it costs you in wasted hours. If custom software is the wrong answer, we will say so and point you at what is not.
Telephone
07848 457 128Hours
Monday to Friday, 9:00–17:30
Closed Saturday and Sunday
Thank you — that has landed with us. We read every enquiry ourselves and reply within one working day, usually the same afternoon. If it is urgent, ring 07848 457 128.