Backend and API development
Backend and API development: a server side that holds the load, keeps the data and updates without stopping the service. We take the project as a separate stage or place a developer inside your team.
The backend is the invisible part of a product, which is exactly why mistakes here cost the most. A crooked screen is fixed in a day. A poor data model lives for years and is paid for with every subsequent change. A lost payment or a leaked database costs reputation, and that is not something you buy back.
We design from the questions a business usually asks late and should ask early. How many people will be working at the same time a year from now. What should happen if an external service does not respond. Who is allowed to see what. What happens to the data when an employee leaves. The answers shape the architecture more than the choice of language does.
Updating without downtime is a subject of its own. At Ubix.Exchange the system could not be stopped even for a few minutes: other people money and other people reputation were on the line. Backward compatibility, a rollback plan and switching over in parts cost more than an ordinary release, so we name that line of the budget before the work starts rather than halfway through the project.
The opposite is also true: new things are not always worth building from scratch. SignItNow grew as a layer on top of the Silent Notary API rather than as a second service beside it. If you already have a working part, we look first at what can be reused.
The backend runs alongside frontend, web development, mobile apps, desktop and server software and infrastructure. A developer can join your team under the outstaffing model, and if it is unclear what is happening with a system that already runs, it is worth starting with an audit. Server sides we have built are running in the wallet, on the staking platform, in the network explorer and in the ecosystem analytics.
What the service covers
Any combination of the items below can be taken on its own.
REST and GraphQL for your applications, exchange with external services, payment systems and CRM, including the ones whose documentation is incomplete.
Schema design, migrations, indexes, backups and a check that the backups actually restore.
Roles, permission boundaries, audit logs, encryption of sensitive fields, sensible handling of personal data.
Caching, horizontal scaling, behaviour when an external service fails, updates without downtime.
Calculations, mailings, scheduled reports, event processing with a readable log and retries.
We step into an existing backend, work out how it is built, close the bottlenecks and move it to a supported stack piece by piece.
How we work
We go through the scenarios, the volumes and the requirements for access and data safety. The output is a specification, the risks and an estimate.
We describe the components, the storage, the API contract and the update procedure. This is also where we decide what to write ourselves and what to cover with an existing product.
Two-week iterations, each with a working API and documentation for it.
Automated tests, checks on volumes close to production, behaviour under failure and restoring from a backup.
Deployment, monitoring, alerting, on-call duty for the first weeks and a development plan.
Stack and tools
Cases for this service
Frequently asked questions
Yes, that is a common scenario. We work with your frontend or mobile app, hand over a documented API and take on the server side in full.
Our main tools are C# with .NET and Node.js with TypeScript. We use Python where the task calls for it. If you have your own stack, we will say plainly where we need time to get up to speed and account for it in the estimate.
It depends on the size of the team and on how the product will grow. For a small product microservices add complexity and cost without benefit, so the decision is made at the architecture stage rather than by fashion.
Load requirements are fixed at the start and verified before launch rather than after the first marketing campaign. If there are no numbers yet, we build in headroom and a path for growth.
We will, including one with no documentation. First we work out what has been built, assess its condition and say plainly what is cheaper to improve and what to rewrite.
Everything is set by the contract, and we put it in writing at the specification stage, before the work starts. During the project the team works either on our infrastructure or on yours: the choice depends on the complexity of the project and on whether you already have infrastructure in place. Every approved stage is transferred to your servers and your repository, so the work accumulates on your side rather than ours. Once the project is closed, all code, materials and documentation are handed over to you together with the rights to them.
Yes, under a separate agreement: on-call duty, monitoring, updates and development.
Related services
Shall we discuss your task?
Tell us what needs to be done and we will come back with an estimate, the team composition and a plan for the first two weeks.