The part of your app nobody sees decides everything users feel: data, logins, payments, background jobs. Senior engineers build it sized to your real load and secure from the first sprint. 2,500+ projects shipped since 2004.
First deliverable in 14 days · Architecture reasoned in writing · You own the code
PixelCrayons provides back-end development services: the data models, APIs, auth and background jobs your application runs on. Architecture is sized to your actual load (one well-built application before a fleet of small services, and we'll say so in writing); security is engineered in from the first sprint, and every merge passes senior review. First working deliverable within 14 days of NDA, and you own every line. Direct for brands, white-label for agencies.
The data model outlives every framework choice, so it comes first. Entities, relationships and constraints are agreed in plain English before code. Schema changes are written and reviewed like any other change. A back end built on a considered data model stays extendable for years. One built endpoint-first calcifies in months.
The contracts between your back end and its clients (web front end, internal tools, partner systems) are documented as they're built. Every field's shape and version is written down, REST or GraphQL as the case argues. Your own team can build against them without asking us what a field means.
Authentication and authorisation are built on proven libraries rather than home-rolled crypto. Least-privilege access, secrets kept out of code, dependencies scanned in CI and OWASP risks treated as review criteria on every merge. Security here is a property of how the system is built, week after week, not an audit purchased at the end.
This is the unglamorous work that separates a demo from a production system. Queues and scheduled jobs that retry safely without repeating themselves. Records that stay consistent where money moves. Error tracking and logs your operators can actually read. Backup-and-restore paths get rehearsed rather than assumed to work.
We size architecture to your measured load and growth, not to conference talks. For most businesses that means one well-structured application that one team can operate. It gets split into separate services only when the evidence demands it. Architecture notes, runbooks and the reasoning are handed over in writing, with the repository in your accounts from day one.
Outcomes tied to real engagements, not averages.
We sign the NDA and walk your domain together: the records, rules and loads that actually exist. Existing code if there is any, and who operates the system after launch.
An itemised, priced scope with the recommended architecture and the reasoning, including, where it's true, 'you don't need microservices for this'.
Schema and API boundaries settled, repository and CI standing in your accounts, environments and secrets handling set up properly from the start.
Working, tested endpoints demoed on a call: real requests against a real data model, not an architecture diagram about progress.
Your build runs in a Prism workspace you log into: requests, approvals, the task list and the weekly review, beside the repository your team already owns.
One queue, beside the repository your team owns.
Every task has one owner and a date.
Each decision recorded, with the expectation attached.
An agency drowning in backlog handed us their delivery queue. Dedicated pod, their brand, their tools: velocity up 85%, client never knew we existed.
A back end never runs alone: every discipline it touches is a service you can buy on its own, from the same accountable team.
This page covers your application's engine room. If the brief is the full build (interface, core and the architecture between) that's custom web development; and every build here starts on the same 14-day clock. Adding engineers to your own team instead? Hire Node.js, Django or Laravel developers by the month.
Backend web development is the part of your application users never see: the data model, the application APIs, authentication and the background jobs. We size it to your actual load and build security in from the first sprint. Connecting to other systems, such as CRMs, ERPs and payments, is covered on our API and integrations page.
Probably not, and no honest engineering partner opens with them. Microservices trade code complexity for operational complexity: more deployment surfaces, more failure modes, more infrastructure to staff. That trade pays off at organisational scales most businesses never reach. Our default recommendation is a well-structured monolith (one application, cleanly organised inside), which one team can operate and which can be split later along those boundaries if the evidence ever demands it. If we think you genuinely need services, we'll argue it in writing, from your numbers rather than from fashion.
The stacks most production systems actually run: Node.js and TypeScript, PHP with Laravel, and Python for data-shaped work, on PostgreSQL or MySQL, deployed to the major clouds. The choice is argued from your constraints: what your team can operate and hire for, what you already run. Our bias is deliberately boring: proven tools with deep talent pools beat fashionable ones your next hire has never seen. Where we lack genuine senior depth in a technology, we say so and point you elsewhere rather than learn on your budget.
As an engineering practice, applied continuously, not a certificate bought at the end. Concretely: authentication built on proven libraries, least-privilege access to data and infrastructure, secrets kept out of the codebase, dependencies scanned in CI, OWASP risks treated as explicit review criteria on every merge, and personal data handled to the standard of the regulations that apply to you, such as GDPR. What we won't do is promise 'unhackable' or wave a compliance badge at you. If you need a formal audit or penetration test, we build to make it pass, and work alongside the assessors.
Yes, rescue and takeover work is a steady share of back-end engagements. It starts with a plain audit, not a rewrite pitch: we map the data model, the deployment path and the genuinely risky corners. Then we stabilise before we extend: tests around the critical paths, secrets rotated, backups verified. Most inherited systems are better than the team that inherited them fears, and incremental improvement usually beats the big rewrite that stalls features for a year. When a rewrite genuinely is cheaper, we show the reasoning and let you make the call.
You do, from day one. The repository, cloud accounts, databases and CI pipelines are created under your ownership, and IP assignment is written into the contract. No licence-back clauses, no proprietary framework you can only operate through us. Schema documentation, architecture notes and runbooks are maintained as we build, and credentials live in your vault, not ours. If you leave, you take a system your own team can run; open-source dependencies keep their standard licences, documented in handover.
Yes. Many partner agencies use us as their backend development agency, with the work shipped under their brand: your project tools, your client calls, our engineers behind the scenes. It's NDA-backed, with a clause signed at the start that we never approach your clients, during the engagement or after it. The average partnership runs past two years, which is the measure that matters.
Tell us what your application has to do. You'll have an itemised proposal (architecture, team and timeline, with the reasoning) within 48 hours, and working endpoints on staging within 14 days of the NDA.
48-hour proposals · NDA standard · You own the code
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