Web development for Des Moines businesses
Custom build work for Des Moines businesses that have outgrown a standard page template — features, integrations and automating the process someone is currently doing by hand.
Since 2011 · Elisabeth Samuels, Web Development Lead · Scoped before quoted · Veteran-owned
When a business website needs development, not just design
Design decides what the site looks like. Development decides what it can do. These are the moments a business hits the second one.
An inquiry arrives in the website’s inbox and gets copied into a CRM. An order gets copied into the accounting system. Every one of those is a job that exists only because two systems are not talking, and it fails quietly on the day the person doing it is off.
A calculator for your pricing, a booking that respects real availability, a portal where a client checks their own job. None of those are pages, so no page template provides them.
It started as a contact form. Now it needs to branch on the answers, quote a rough figure, collect a file and land in the right person’s queue. That is not a form any more.
It was abandoned by its developer, or it broke on a PHP update, or it now costs four times what it did. Something built for the job does not have a vendor who can lose interest.
Custom features, integrations and automating what is done by hand
The middle ground — larger than a plugin, smaller than a software project.
- Custom features built into a WordPress site rather than bolted on with a plugin
- Integrations between your website and software you already run, over its API
- Automating a process someone currently does manually between two systems
- Multi-step forms with branching logic, file uploads and routing to the right person
- Calculators and quoting tools that use your real pricing rules
- Customer or client areas behind a login, with the right people seeing the right records
- Data imports and exports, and scheduled jobs that run without anyone remembering
- A written scope before anything is built, so the deliverable is agreed rather than assumed
- The code, the credentials and the documentation handed to you at the end
Connecting your website to software you already run
The most valuable and least glamorous thing on this page.
Most businesses do not need new software. They need the software they already pay for to stop being islands. The inquiry that arrives on the website should appear in the CRM without anyone retyping it. The booking should hold a real slot in the real calendar. The invoice should not be keyed in twice.
How it works in practice: most business software has an API, which is a documented way for another system to read and write its data. We read that documentation, agree with you exactly what should move and when, build the connection, and test it against the failure cases as well as the happy path — because the question that matters is not whether it works, it is what happens the day the other end is down.
The honest first question is always whether it is worth it. Automating something that happens twice a month usually is not. Automating something that happens forty times a week, that gets mistyped, or that only one person knows how to do, almost always is. We will tell you which one you have before we quote it.
What we do not build, and who we refer it to
The boundary matters more here than anywhere else on the site.
We do not build native mobile applications, and a web app that behaves well on a phone is a different thing from an iOS or Android build. We do not build data warehouses or business-intelligence platforms. We do not take on enterprise system implementations — ERP, large-scale integration programs, anything with a compliance regime attached. And we do not do machine-learning work.
That is not modesty, it is arithmetic. Those projects need a team, a runway and specialists we do not employ, and taking one would mean subcontracting it while holding your money in the middle. There are firms in Des Moines that do this properly and we will point you at them.
What we are good at is the middle: a business with a website, some software it already runs, and a process between them that is being done by a person who should be doing something else. Nobody else on this search is describing that work, and it is the majority of what actually gets asked for.
Support and maintenance after a development project
Custom code is different from a website, and pretending otherwise would be unfair.
A custom feature has dependencies that move underneath it. WordPress updates, PHP versions change, and the API you are integrated with will alter its terms one day with a month’s notice. None of that is a defect in the build — it is the weather, and it needs somebody watching.
So every project ends with three things: the code, the credentials, and written documentation of how it works and what it depends on. That is what makes the work portable. Any competent developer can pick it up, and you are not tied to us by ignorance of your own system.
If you want us to keep watching it, that is a support arrangement priced separately. If you would rather hold it in-house or take it elsewhere, the documentation is written for that too — which is the point of writing it.
What web development with us does not include
The clearest boundary on the site, because this is where scope creeps.
- Native iOS or Android applications
- Data warehouses, business-intelligence platforms or analytics engineering
- Enterprise system implementations — ERP and anything with a compliance program attached
- Machine learning or AI model development
- Ongoing software product development with a roadmap and a release cycle
- License or subscription fees for the software we integrate with, which stay yours
- Work on a codebase we cannot see — we will not quote blind on somebody else's system
Every site is built by Elisabeth Samuels and the Salterra team — a company building websites since 2011. Not a reseller, not an offshore queue. The same person who scopes your project writes the pages and hands over the logins.
Describe the process — what comes in, what you do to it, where it ends up. That is enough for us to tell you whether it is worth automating and what it would cost.
What web development costs in Des Moines
Scoped first, quoted second, and never estimated on a call.
Custom development is not priced from a page count, so the $499 website tiers do not apply. What it is priced from is the scope: what has to be built, what it has to talk to, and what the failure cases are.
So the first step is free and it is not a sales call. You describe the process or the feature, we ask the questions that change the answer, and you get a written scope with a fixed figure attached. If the scope turns out to be larger than the problem is worth, we will say so — talking someone out of a build we would have been paid for has happened more than once, and it is cheaper for everybody than the alternative.
What moves the number
- How many systems are involved — one website and one API is a small job; four systems that all have to agree is not
- Whether the other end has a documented API — a modern one is straightforward, an old system with no documented interface can double the work or make it impossible
- How much the failure cases matter — a feature that can safely wait until morning is cheaper than one that must never lose a record
- Whether existing data has to be migrated and cleaned, which is routinely the largest single part of a project like this
Frequently asked questions about web development for Des Moines businesses
What does web development include for a Des Moines business?
For us: custom features built into your site, integrations with software you already run, automating a process currently done by hand between two systems, multi-step forms and quoting tools, and client areas behind a login. Everything is scoped in writing before it is built, and you get the code and the documentation at the end.
What is the difference between web design and web development?
Design decides what the site looks like and how it is used — layout, type, images, the route a visitor takes. Development decides what it can do — the things that calculate, connect, store or automate. Most business websites need a lot of the first and none of the second. You need development when the site has to do something no page template provides.
Can you connect my website to the software I already use?
Usually yes, if it has an API — which most modern business software does. CRMs, calendars, accounting packages, scheduling tools and email platforms are the common ones. Tell us what you run and what should move between them and we will tell you whether it is possible, whether it is worth it, and what it would cost.
What web development work do you not take on?
Native mobile apps, data warehouses and BI platforms, enterprise system implementations, and machine-learning work. Those need a team and specialists we do not employ, and taking one would mean subcontracting it with your money in the middle. There are firms in Des Moines that do this properly and we will point you at them.
What does web development cost in Des Moines?
It is quoted from a written scope rather than from a page count, so the $499 website tiers do not apply here. Describe the feature or the process and you get a scope and a fixed figure before anything starts — and if the work costs more than the problem is worth, we will tell you that instead of quoting it.
Tell us what you sell. Get your number.
Send us what your business does and roughly how many pages you think you need. You will get the number and a timeline in writing.
Takes about a minute. No call, no obligation.
We reply to everything within one business day.