Custom web apps built for real business workflows.
Custom Web App Build is the Build Lab service for browser-based business apps. Xero scopes and builds web apps that help users do something useful: find leads, get trained, submit requests, run checks, view dashboards, calculate options, or move through an AI-assisted workflow. Built from the same practical app patterns behind Xero Scout and CarCloser.
How a web app is different from a website
A website explains what you do. A web app lets someone do something. If a visitor needs to check eligibility, calculate a quote, submit details, practice a skill, search a library, generate leads, track progress, or move through a workflow, a custom web app may convert better than another static page.
What Xero can build
- Lead tools that turn a visitor's input into a report, recommendation, score, or next step.
- Customer portals where users submit, view, update, or track information.
- Training apps with practice flows, drills, scoring, and feedback loops.
- Searchable libraries with filters, categories, and conversion paths.
- Calculators and estimators: quote helpers, savings calculators, fit checks, decision aids.
- Internal dashboards for leads, requests, reports, status, content, or operations.
- AI-assisted tools where AI drafts, summarizes, scores, recommends, routes, or generates outputs with guardrails.
- Niche SaaS MVPs: a focused first version of a software product for one audience and one core workflow.
Proof from Xero's own apps
Xero Scout is a web app for founders who need Reddit customer discovery. It shows the pattern: product URL input, niche interpretation, lead generation workflow, manual approval, SaaS activation events, and a paid path. CarCloser is a web app for car sales practice with niche drills, scoring, a searchable objection library, SEO content, app analytics, and a free to paid path. These are examples of the kind of useful browser-based tools Xero can scope, build, test, and improve.
What a build can include
- Public landing and SEO pages.
- Core app workflow: input, action, result, output.
- User accounts or gated access where the app needs saved data or paid access.
- Admin dashboard for leads, users, submissions, reports, payments, or content.
- AI features where useful: drafting, scoring, summarizing, generating, routing.
- Payments via Stripe when the scope supports it.
- Analytics with PostHog or event tracking for activation, conversion, retention.
- Handoff docs: Loom, prompt logic, app map, ownership notes, and care plan.
Process
- Define the app job: who uses it, what they do, what result they need.
- Scope the first version: the smallest useful flow.
- Design the user path: landing, input, action, result, follow-up, admin view.
- Build and connect: app, data, auth, analytics, payments, AI where scoped.
- Test with real examples: mobile, edge cases, forms, emails, events, SEO basics.
- Launch and improve: ship v1, watch usage, expand only where it proves useful.
Pricing and scope
- Starter Web App: from $3,000 setup.
- Standard Web App: from $5,000 setup.
- Advanced Web App or SaaS MVP: custom quote.
- Optional care: from $199 per month.
Application-only. Client pays for required hosting, database, auth, API, model, email, payment, storage, domain, or third-party tool costs unless quoted otherwise. Final scope, timeline, payment structure, and care plan are confirmed before build starts.
Good fit
- You need a browser-based tool, not just a website.
- The app has one clear audience and one core workflow for version one.
- Users need to submit, search, calculate, train, generate, track, or view something.
- You want SEO, analytics, and conversion paths built in from the start.
What this does not do
- No iOS or Android apps.
- No giant enterprise rebuilds.
- No guaranteed traffic, users, sales, rankings, or funding.
- No regulated medical, legal, or financial decisions.
- No unlimited features in version one.
- No permanent support without a care agreement.
Related pages