Our Services

For most projects, we can begin work within 1-2 weeks after contract signing. Emergency projects can sometimes start within 48 hours if resources are available.

Yes, absolutely. We're happy to sign NDAs and work-for-hire agreements. All code and intellectual property created for your project belongs to you.

For fixed-price projects, we absorb any overruns. For time & materials projects, we communicate proactively if scope changes might affect timeline or budget, giving you full control over decisions.

Yes, check our portfolio page for detailed case studies. Many projects are under NDA, but we can discuss relevant experience during our consultation call.

Rails offers unmatched productivity through 19 years of battle-tested conventions and mature ecosystem. You get rapid development without sacrificing code quality, proven scalability (powers GitHub, Shopify, Airbnb), and significantly lower long-term maintenance costs. Rails conventions mean less time debating architecture and more time building features. The strong community, extensive gem library, and excellent AI tooling support (GitHub Copilot works brilliantly with Rails) make development faster and more reliable than alternatives.

For new projects in 2025, we recommend Rails 8 - it brings Solid Queue for background jobs, Solid Cache for caching, and a built-in authentication system, eliminating external dependencies like Redis and saving infrastructure costs. For existing applications, Rails 7 remains excellent and widely supported. We'll assess your specific needs during consultation, considering factors like hosting environment, team experience, and deployment requirements to recommend the optimal version.

Our upgrade process is methodical and low-risk: First, we establish comprehensive test coverage to catch regressions. Then we use gradual migration strategies with compatibility layers, allowing old and new code to coexist safely. We implement zero-downtime deployments with rollback plans. Typical timeline is 3-4 weeks for major version upgrades (e.g., Rails 6→7), depending on application complexity. We've successfully upgraded dozens of applications from Rails 4 through Rails 8 without customer-facing issues.

Security is built into our process from day one. We conduct regular security audits using Brakeman for static analysis, apply security patches immediately (usually within 24-48 hours of disclosure), monitor dependencies with Dependabot and Bundle Audit, follow OWASP Top 10 best practices, implement proper authentication and authorization patterns, ensure GDPR compliance for EU projects, and use secure coding practices including parameter sanitization, SQL injection prevention, and XSS protection. Every project includes a security review before launch.

Absolutely. We have extensive experience integrating Rails applications with payment gateways (Stripe, Mollie, PayPal), CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot), ERP platforms, cloud services (AWS, Azure, GCP), marketing tools, and custom APIs. We handle both REST and GraphQL APIs, implement proper webhook handling with retry logic, manage rate limiting, build robust error recovery, and set up comprehensive monitoring. Our integrations are production-ready with proper error handling and logging.

Yes, we're experienced with building GraphQL APIs using the graphql-ruby gem. Our GraphQL implementations include thoughtful schema design, N+1 query prevention with efficient data loading, authorization using Pundit or CanCanCan, real-time subscriptions via Action Cable, and seamless integration with Apollo Client or other GraphQL clients. GraphQL is excellent for mobile apps and modern SPAs that need flexible data fetching.

We follow a comprehensive testing approach: RSpec or Minitest for unit and integration tests, Capybara with headless Chrome for full-stack feature testing, FactoryBot for test data, VCR for API mocking, and SimpleCov for coverage tracking. We target 80%+ code coverage with focus on critical business logic. All tests run in CI/CD pipelines, and we practice TDD for complex features. This approach catches bugs early and enables confident refactoring.

Our performance optimization toolkit includes: database query optimization with bullet gem to eliminate N+1 queries, strategic caching (Russian doll caching, fragment caching, HTTP caching), background job processing with Solid Queue or Sidekiq for expensive operations, asset optimization and CDN integration, database indexing and query analysis, and proactive monitoring with New Relic or Scout APM. We profile before optimizing to focus on actual bottlenecks, not premature optimization.

Yes, we've built Rails applications serving 100,000+ daily users. Our scaling strategies include: horizontal scaling with load balancers and multiple app servers, database read replicas for query distribution, Redis for session storage and caching, background job processing to offload heavy operations, CDN integration for global asset delivery, database connection pooling, and comprehensive performance monitoring. We design for scalability from the start, making it easy to add capacity as you grow.

Our standard toolkit includes proven gems: Devise or Rodauth for authentication, Pundit for authorization, Solid Queue or Sidekiq for background jobs, RSpec and Capybara for testing, Administrate or ActiveAdmin for admin panels, Pagy for pagination, SimpleForm for forms, Grape or jsonapi-serializer for APIs, Shrine or ActiveStorage for file uploads, and many others. We select gems based on your specific needs, preferring well-maintained libraries with strong communities and active development.

An MVP with 3-5 core features that demonstrates your key value proposition. Examples: simple booking system, content platform with admin panel, API integration with user dashboard, basic e-commerce functionality. The goal is to validate your idea with real users, not to build the final product.

You own all the code and can continue development independently, hire another team, or work with us on Phase 2. We provide complete documentation and handoff. Many clients choose to continue with our maintenance plans or iterative development packages.

We use comprehensive testing and staged rollouts to minimize risk. Our process includes: full test coverage before changes, feature compatibility testing, gradual migration strategies, and rollback plans. Most upgrades complete without customer-facing issues.

Typically zero to minimal. We use blue-green deployments or rolling updates to maintain service availability. Any required downtime is scheduled during low-traffic periods and communicated well in advance.

Site completely down, data breach, critical security vulnerability, severe performance degradation affecting users, or any situation where every hour of downtime has significant business impact.

For true emergencies, we can typically begin investigation within 2-4 hours during business hours, or by next business morning for off-hours requests. Initial assessment and critical stabilization usually happens within the first 24 hours.

Starter (4h/month) is strategic advice and architecture review. Growth (12h/month) adds team mentoring and roadmap planning. Scale (25h/month) provides near-daily availability and full team management. Choose based on how much hands-on technology leadership you need.

Yes, absolutely. Many clients start with Starter to establish the relationship, then scale up as needs grow. You can adjust tiers with 30 days notice.