riftdesigns

Websites for / Startups & web appsCustom build · from $8,000

Startup websites,
and the app behind them.

A startup usually needs two things at once: a marketing site that explains the product to people who've never heard of it, and the product itself, or at least the first working version. We design and build both, starting with a clickable prototype, and you own everything we write.

What the site needs →See the recommended set-up

01  Your customersWhy they visit

What your customers came to do.

  1. 01

    Understand the product in one screen

    What it does, who it's for and why it beats what they use now, before they scroll.

  2. 02

    See it working

    Real screenshots, a short demo or an interactive preview. People want to see the product, not a stock photo.

  3. 03

    Try it or talk to you

    A trial signup, a waitlist or a demo request, depending on how you sell.

  4. 04

    Check you'll be around

    Investors, partners and early customers look for the team, the pricing, security details and a way to reach a person.

02  Must-haves5 things

What a startup website needs to do.

01

A clickable prototype first

Custom builds start with a prototype you can click through and put in front of users before any code is written. It's the cheapest point to change your mind.

02

Logins for customers and staff

Accounts, roles, password resets and a proper admin, built on Laravel. Plenty of developers know it, so you can hire for it later.

03

Connected to your tools

Payments, email, CRM, analytics or your own API, connected and tested, with every key and account in your name.

04

Load-tested before launch

We load-test the app before it goes live, so you know how it behaves when a launch or a press mention sends a crowd at once.

05

A marketing site your team can change

Pricing, features and changelog pages you edit without a developer, because they'll change often while you find your market.

03  See it workingCase studies · live demos

Work you can look at.

A case study from this kind of business, and demos you can click through right now. The demos run on sample data, so try anything.

Case study · Kestrel Analytics

Kestrel Analytics

A marketing site and product dashboard for a data start-up.

WEB APP · WEB DESIGN Read the case study → Live demo · SaaS product

Northbeam

Clean, confident, product-first. A B2B analytics tool's marketing homepage built to get a trial signup.

Open the demo site → (opens in a new tab) Live demo · Project tracking SaaS

Waypost

A working kanban board built in CSS sits where the screenshot usually goes. A project tracker's product homepage.

Open the demo site → (opens in a new tab)

More designs for other kinds of business are on the templates page.Browse templates →

04  RecommendedFixed prices · USD

What we'd suggest.

A custom build covers the prototype, the app with logins and an admin, your integrations and load testing, all on a fixed quote after a scoping call. A dedicated server gives the app room at peak times.

Only need the marketing site, with the product built elsewhere? Business ($2,500) covers it, on VPS hosting ($39 a month).

Fig. 01 · Recommended set-up6 – 12 weeks
Custom build
from $8,000
Dedicated server, first year
$1,890
First year, from
$9,890

Hosting then $1,890 a year, or $189 a month · final price fixed after a scoping call

Get this quote → Adjust it in the estimator

05  Questions

What founders ask us.

Short answers to what comes up before a project starts.

Ask something else →
01Who owns the code?

You do. The code, design files, domain and hosting accounts are in your name from day one, and there's no license fee to keep using what we built.

02How can a web app have a fixed price?

We fix the price after the scoping call and the prototype, once the features are written down. If you want something new mid-build, we quote that change on its own before starting it, so the total never moves without your say-so.

03Can you build the mobile app too?

Yes. We build Android and iOS apps that run on the same Laravel back end as the web app, so there's one set of data and one admin. The apps page shows what that looks like in practice.

Other businesses6 kinds

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Tell us about your startup.

Send a few lines about what you do and what the site has to handle. You get a fixed, itemized quote back in writing.

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