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Web development agency · United Kingdom

Web Development Agency for UK Startups, SMEs and Product Teams

By Obaid Tariq, Founder & Lead Engineer · Published · Last updated

AI Dev Planner is a senior-led web development agency for UK startups, SMEs and product teams in London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and across the UK. We build web applications, SaaS products and MVPs on Next.js, React, TypeScript and PostgreSQL. Our team is in Islamabad, Pakistan, and works remotely with UK clients: three to four hours of the UK working day overlap with ours, production can sit in AWS London in your own account, and every project starts from a written scope priced in GBP.

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The short version

  • Web apps, SaaS, MVPs, portals and AI features on Next.js, React, TypeScript and PostgreSQL.
  • Three hours of overlap with the UK in winter, four in summer, all in the UK morning.
  • Production in AWS London (eu-west-2) in your own account; UK GDPR roles and transfers agreed before the build.
  • Published GBP planning ranges from £25,000–£45,000 for a web app MVP, then fixed two-week sprints.
  • Code assigned to you in writing as each paid milestone is met, with a 60–90 day warranty after launch.

Web development services for UK businesses

One senior team covers architecture, design, front end, back end, database, testing and deployment, so you do not coordinate three suppliers. UK clients mostly come to us for software that runs part of the business, not for a brochure site. Each service has its own page with deliverables, technology and case studies.

Web application development

Booking, operations and customer-facing platforms with accounts, roles, dashboards and integrations to the tools you already run.

Web development services

SaaS development

Multi-tenant products with organisation workspaces, Stripe subscription billing and role-based access enforced in Postgres.

SaaS development

MVP development

A first launchable version built around one core workflow, priced as fixed two-week sprints you can stop after any milestone.

MVP development

Customer portals

Secure self-service portals for customers, tenants or partners, with permissions checked on the server, never in the browser.

Customer portal development

AI features and agents

Document processing, retrieval over your own content and agents with human approval steps, built into the product rather than bolted on.

AI development

Next.js development

Our default for web apps and fast sites: App Router, React Server Components, TypeScript and PostgreSQL, plus upgrades and migrations.

Next.js development

Why UK teams hire a remote web development agency

For a UK startup or SME, the alternatives are usually a London or regional agency, a contractor on a day rate, or hiring. Each has a cost beyond the invoice: agency overheads, managing contractors yourself, or months of recruitment before anyone writes code. Here is how the trade looks with us, including where it does not work.

Where we help

  • Senior engineers from day one. You work directly with founder and lead architect Obaid Tariq and the engineers writing the code, in a shared Slack or Teams channel, not through an account manager.
  • A budget you can defend. Published GBP ranges, a written scope with exclusions, and fixed sprint costs: a figure you can take to your board or investors before you commit.
  • Proof every two weeks. A recorded walkthrough of working software and a staging build you can click through, every sprint.
  • No lock-in. Your GitHub, your cloud accounts, documented handover, so you can bring development in-house once the product proves itself.

When we are the wrong choice

  • You need people on site, or the full UK working day in shared hours.
  • Your contracts, insurer or regulator require that only UK-based staff can access your systems or data.
  • You need a fixed quote before anyone has looked at the scope.

London agency, UK contractor or remote senior team

None of the three is right for every product. This is how they differ on the points that decide most UK projects. For a wider comparison including freelancers and in-house hiring, see agency vs freelancer vs in-house.

London or regional UK agency, UK contractor and AI Dev Planner compared
London or regional UK agencyUK contractor on a day rateAI Dev Planner (remote, Islamabad)
What you pay forDay rates or a project price set by each agency; senior London rates are usually the highest in the UKA day rate per person, paid whether or not the scope is clearPublished GBP planning ranges, then fixed two-week sprint costs against a written scope
Who does the workVaries: ask whether juniors or subcontractors deliver what seniors soldThe contractor you hired; you manage them and fill the other rolesFounder and lead architect Obaid Tariq and the senior engineers who scoped it
Overlap with UK hoursThe full working day, and in-person meetingsDepends on where they live3 hours in GMT, 4 in BST, in the UK morning; written handoffs for the rest
UK GDPR set-upA controller-processor contract; no international transfer if the agency stays in the UKA processor contract, and transfer rules if they are outside the UKA controller-processor contract plus a transfer mechanism, usually the IDTA or the UK Addendum
Code ownershipNeeds a written assignment: commissioning work does not make you the ownerNeeds a written assignment tooBespoke code assigned to you in writing as each paid milestone is met; repository in your name from day one

Working hours: GMT and BST overlap

Islamabad is on UTC+5 all year and does not change its clocks, so the gap with the UK shrinks by an hour when the UK moves to British Summer Time. The overlap assumes both sides keep a 09:00 to 17:00 day; it is arithmetic for planning, not a promise of availability.

Time difference and working-day overlap between Islamabad and the UK
UK timeIslamabad is ahead byExampleOverlap of a 09:00–17:00 day
GMT (late October to late March)5 h09:00 UK is 14:00 in Islamabad3 h
BST (late March to late October)4 h09:00 UK is 13:00 in Islamabad4 h

We put the stand-up, planning and design reviews in the UK morning, and use the UK afternoon for review and feedback that the team picks up the next morning. Decisions are written down in the project channel, so nothing depends on someone remembering a call.

UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK hosting

The UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply to personal data in your product. If a development team can access that data, for example during a migration or an incident, it acts as your processor. Three things then matter:

  • A controller-processor contract. The UK GDPR requires a written contract with any processor, covering what is processed, on whose instructions, with what security and which sub-processors (ICO guidance).
  • A transfer mechanism. Pakistan is not covered by UK adequacy regulations, so a restricted transfer needs an appropriate safeguard, usually the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, with a transfer risk assessment (ICO on international transfers).
  • UK hosting in your own account. Production can run in AWS London (eu-west-2) or another UK region of a cloud account your company owns, with the repository in your own GitHub or GitLab organisation.

The practical answer is to design the project so the team rarely needs real personal data: build and test on synthetic data, keep production access to a named person during incidents, and use least-privilege, logged, time-limited credentials. We do not claim a compliance certification; what is agreed for your project is in writing before the build. The full checklist is in our offshore software development guide for UK businesses.

Clean IP assignment under UK law

Paying for software does not by itself make you the owner. Under UK law the author of a commissioned work is normally the first owner of the copyright unless they are your employee, and a transfer has to be in writing and signed (GOV.UK: ownership of copyright works). That matters when investors or an acquirer check who owns your code.

Our contract assigns the bespoke source code, database design and documentation we write to your company as each paid milestone is met. Commits go into a repository your company owns from the first day, so there is never a handover where the code has to be “released”. Check the same two points with any supplier: the written assignment, and whose name the repository and cloud accounts are in.

GBP pricing and timelines

There is no honest fixed price for a web application before it has been scoped, but there are honest planning ranges, and we publish ours in pounds sterling. After discovery you get a written estimate with fixed two-week sprint costs and the exclusions listed.

AI Dev Planner published planning ranges by product type
Product typePublished rangeTimeline
SaaS or web app MVP£25,000–£45,0008–12 weeks for a focused SaaS MVP; 12–16 weeks for a standard web-app MVP
Focused B2B SaaS MVP$25,000–$65,0008–12 weeks
Internal tools£40,000–£80,000+Agreed after discovery
Customer portals£60,000–£120,000+Agreed after discovery

GBP ranges from our custom web application cost guide for the UK; the USD range from our SaaS development cost guide. A “+” means the figure can be exceeded. Hosting, licences and maintenance are separate. For your own scope, use the MVP cost calculator or see all bands on our pricing page.

London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and the rest of the UK

We work remotely with UK companies wherever they are; we have no UK office. These are the kinds of teams we most often hear from in each city.

  • London

    Fintech, B2B SaaS and marketplace founders who want senior engineers without London day rates. Production in AWS London (eu-west-2) when data should stay in the UK.

  • Manchester

    SMEs and scale-ups replacing spreadsheets and legacy systems with web applications and customer portals.

  • Bristol

    Product teams that need a defined workstream delivered alongside an in-house team, inside their Git workflow and review standards.

  • Edinburgh

    Startups and B2B teams in Scotland; the same UK GDPR position and GBP pricing apply as anywhere else in the UK.

Our process

Every project follows the same five steps, whether you are in Shoreditch or Salford. More detail is on how we work.

  1. 01

    Discovery and written scope

    We map your workflows, data model, authentication and integrations, then turn them into a written scope with an estimate and a list of exclusions. Changes later are measured against this document.

  2. 02

    Two-week sprints on staging

    We build in fixed two-week sprints and deploy to a staging environment you can click through. Every two weeks you get a video walkthrough of the working software, not a status slide.

  3. 03

    Testing before launch

    Automated tests and load tests check how the application behaves under expected and peak traffic before it goes live.

  4. 04

    Launch, handover and warranty

    You receive setup and deployment documentation, environment configuration and a walkthrough. A 60–90 day warranty after launch covers defects in what we delivered.

  5. 05

    Optional ongoing support

    A maintenance retainer is scoped separately and can cover monitoring, security patches, dependency upgrades and performance work. You can equally support the product in-house.

Case studies

Client names and figures are anonymised for confidentiality. Ask for an architecture walk-through on a call, where the engineers who did the work explain the decisions they made.

FAQs about hiring a web development agency for a UK business

Do you have a UK office?
No. Our engineering team is based in Islamabad, Pakistan (UTC+5), and works with UK businesses remotely. We have no UK office, entity, address or staff, and we would rather you know that before the first call than after it.
How many working hours overlap with the UK?
Islamabad is five hours ahead of the UK in winter (GMT) and four in summer (BST), because Pakistan does not change its clocks. If both sides keep a 09:00 to 17:00 day, about three hours overlap in winter and four in summer, all in the UK morning. Stand-ups, planning and reviews sit there; afternoon feedback is picked up the next morning.
How much does a web application cost for a UK business?
Our published planning ranges are roughly £25,000–£45,000 for a SaaS or web app MVP, £40,000 to over £80,000 for internal tools and £60,000 to over £120,000 for customer portals. A focused SaaS MVP takes 8–12 weeks from agreed scope to production. Every project is quoted in GBP in writing after discovery, with fixed two-week sprint costs and the exclusions listed.
Is it UK GDPR compliant to use a development team in Pakistan?
It can be, with the right paperwork. If our team can access personal data, we act as your processor, so you need a written controller-processor contract. Pakistan is not covered by UK adequacy regulations, so a transfer also needs a mechanism such as the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, plus a transfer risk assessment. In practice we build on test data, host production in a UK region of your own cloud account and keep production access to a named person. General information, not legal advice.
Can our data be hosted in the UK?
Yes. Production can run in AWS London (eu-west-2) or another UK region, in a cloud account your company owns and controls. Hosting in the UK reduces exposure, but remote access from outside the UK can still be a restricted transfer, so it does not remove the transfer paperwork.
Who owns the code?
You do, once it is assigned to you in writing. Under UK law the author of commissioned work, not the client who paid for it, is normally the first owner of copyright, and an assignment must be in writing and signed. Our contract assigns the bespoke source code, database design and documentation we write to your company as each paid milestone is met, and we recommend the repository and cloud accounts sit in your company's name from day one.
Do you work with UK agencies as a white-label development partner?
Yes, for defined pieces of work: a web application, a SaaS back end or a front end behind your agency's design. We join your Git workflow and review standards and deliver against a written scope, with the same handover documentation as a direct build. We do not place individual developers by the hour.
How is this different from hiring a London agency?
A London agency offers the full UK working day and in-person meetings, which we cannot. What we offer instead is senior engineers on every project, published GBP planning ranges and a written scope before you commit. If you need people on site, or your contracts require UK-only data access, a UK agency is the better choice and we will say so.

Sources

  1. ICO: International transfers — Restricted transfers, the IDTA and the UK Addendum.
  2. ICO: UK GDPR guidance and resources — Controller and processor obligations, including contracts.
  3. legislation.gov.uk: Data Protection Act 2018
  4. GOV.UK: Ownership of copyright works — Commissioned work and written assignment.
  5. AWS: Regions and Availability Zones — The London region (eu-west-2).

All accessed 8 November 2026. General information, not legal advice. AI Dev Planner figures are our own published planning ranges, not quotes; see our disclosure policy. Hiring outside the UK? See our US, Europe and GCC pages.

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Tell us what you are building

Send a short description of your web application or SaaS product. We will reply with whether we are the right fit, a rough GBP range, and how the work can be done with as little access to personal data as possible. If a UK-based agency would suit you better, we will say so.

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