Custom software · Amsterdam
Software that fits the way you actually work.
Plathena designs and builds SaaS products, internal tools and the integrations between them, for companies whose work does not fit off-the-shelf software. A small senior team in Amsterdam. The person you talk to writes the code.
One working day to a reply · fixed quotes · you own the code
A build, week by week
10 weeks · illustrative
Built here, still running
A property management system running a portfolio of furnished apartments in Amsterdam, and an event-scheduling product sold in three tiers, from small teams to enterprises. Both designed and built by Plathena, both in production today.
Why custom
Off-the-shelf software is built for the average business. Yours is not one.
Most companies end up with the same three things, and one person holding them together.
The tool that almost fits
Off-the-shelf software is built for the average version of your business. The part that is specific to you, the part that makes you money, is exactly the part it cannot represent.
The spreadsheet that fills the gap
So the missing part lives in a spreadsheet. Open in four tabs, edited by three people, authoritative because nothing else is.
The person who is the integration
And one person re-types things between the tool and the spreadsheet. They know where everything is. They cannot take a holiday.
Plathena builds the one system that models the whole thing. The tool, the spreadsheet and the person’s head, so there is nothing left to keep in step by hand. It is built around your process, which means it is also built around the part that makes you money.
What we build
Four things, properly.
Not forty things, adequately. Each of these we have built more than once, and would rather build again than sell you something else.
What each one includesSaaS products
From the first sketch to paying customers: the application, the accounts and billing, the admin side, the deployment.
What is includedInternal tools & portals
The system that replaces the spreadsheet: the dashboard for your team, the portal for your customers, the automation for everything in between.
What is includedIntegrations & automation
Making the tools you already pay for talk to each other: APIs, webhooks, scheduled syncs, and the alert that fires before a customer notices.
What is includedOngoing development
A team that stays. A fixed number of days a month from the people who built it: features, fixes, upgrades, and someone to call.
What is includedHow it goes
A number before we start. A demo every week.
The same four steps for every project. The shape of the work is what makes the fixed price possible.
01
A conversation
Free · 45 minutes
On a call, or in Amsterdam if you are nearby. You tell us how the work runs today and where it breaks, and we ask a lot of questions. Then we tell you straight whether custom software is the right answer. Often it isn't, and if it isn't we'll tell you what to buy instead.
02
Discovery sprint
1–2 weeks · fixed price
We map the process as it actually runs, which is rarely how the org chart says it runs. Then we write the scope in plain language, including what we're deliberately leaving out, and build a clickable prototype you can put in front of your team. You leave with a fixed quote and a week-by-week plan, and both are yours to take to anyone.
03
Build in weekly slices
6–14 weeks · fixed scope
Every week something is demoed and deployed to your environment. You're using the system from the second week, on real data as soon as that's safe, so the thing that's wrong in week three gets found in week three and not at launch. If the scope needs to change, that's a conversation, and it's priced before anything gets built.
04
Launch, then stay
Ongoing · optional
Hand-over is documentation, access and a walkthrough. The code is in your GitHub, the infrastructure in your cloud account, and another developer could pick it up from there. Or you keep us on for a fixed number of days a month, same people, and stop at the end of any month.
Who you are dealing with
Small on purpose.
Plathena is a few senior people, not an agency with an account manager between you and the work. A constraint we chose. It means a handful of projects a year, and it means the person on the first call is the person who writes the code and answers the phone after launch.
It also means we would rather lose a project than take one that should not exist. If a product you can buy does the job, the first call ends with its name.
How we build
- Language
- TypeScript, end to end
- Application
- SvelteKit
- Data
- PostgreSQL
- Runs on
- Containers, EU region
- Lives in
- Your GitHub, your cloud account
- Chosen for
- Still maintainable in ten years
Boring on purpose. Easy to hire for, and any competent developer can take it over.
Your data stays in the EU
One region, infrastructure in your own name, GDPR handled by design rather than by a banner. This site sets no cookies at all.
Questions
Before you ask us
The six we get most, answered the way we would answer them on a call.
Do you work at a fixed price?
Yes, for anything we can scope, which after a discovery sprint is most things. The sprint buys the quote. The quote is the price of the build. Changes are priced before they are built, not discovered on the invoice. Ongoing development is a fixed number of days a month instead.
Who owns the code?
You do, from the first commit. It lives in your GitHub organisation, runs on your cloud account, and the documentation is written so another developer could take over. If you ever want to leave, the exit is boring.
What do you build with?
TypeScript end to end, SvelteKit for the application, PostgreSQL for the data, containers on European infrastructure. Deliberately boring. Easy to hire for, still maintainable in ten years. We do not pick a framework because it is new.
Can you take over an existing codebase?
Usually. We start with a paid audit of a few days and tell you whether it is worth keeping, what it would cost to stabilise, and whether we are the right people for it. Sometimes the answer is to keep the current team and let us build the next thing beside it.
How big is the team?
Small, and senior only. Nobody learns on your project. We take on a handful of projects a year so the person you talk to is the person doing the work. If we are full we will say so and give you a date.
Where does our data live?
In the European Union, in one region, on infrastructure in your own name. Privacy by design, not by consent banner. This site itself sets no cookies.
Tell us what you are running today
Forty-five minutes, your process, your spreadsheet. If custom software is not the answer we will say so, and tell you what to buy instead.
One working day to a reply · fixed quotes · you own the code