The boring stuff, done right.
Back-end development for products that need a real platform underneath. APIs, databases, queues, scheduled jobs, auth, payments, deployment. The unglamorous foundation that decides whether the shiny stuff on top actually works in production.
Talk to usEverything a backend needs to actually run.
A backend isn't a single service you stand up and walk away from. It's an API, a schema, a queue, a deploy pipeline, and the alerting that tells you when one of them breaks at 2am. Here's what we deliver.
A production API
A versioned, documented API your front-end, mobile app, or partners can actually build against. REST or GraphQL depending on the shape of the data and who's consuming it. Auth, rate limiting, validation, and error responses designed in from the start, not retrofitted after the first incident.
Database design and migrations
A schema modelled around how the business actually works, not how the first sprint happened to look. Postgres is our usual default (SQL, JSON columns, full-text search, mature tooling), with a proper migration setup so changes ship safely and roll back cleanly.
Auth and billing wired in
Authentication, authorisation, sessions, password resets, social sign-in, role-based access. Stripe integration for subscriptions, one-off charges, metered billing, refunds, and the webhook plumbing that keeps the database in sync when payments succeed, fail, or get disputed.
Queues and scheduled jobs
Background workers for the work that has no business blocking a web request. Bull Queue on Redis for retries, concurrency, and dead-letter handling. Cron and scheduled jobs for the nightly aggregations, the weekly emails, the hourly syncs. Idempotent by design so a retry can't double-charge a customer.
Deployment and CI/CD
A pipeline that takes a merged PR to production without anyone holding their breath. Automated tests, environment promotion, database migrations, zero-downtime deploys, and a one-command rollback when something does go sideways. Hosted on Railway, Vercel, AWS, Fly, or wherever fits the workload and the budget.
Observability, alerts, and ongoing care
Logs you can search, metrics you can graph, and Sentry-style error tracking so the failure modes surface before customers email about them. Alerts wired into Slack or PagerDuty for the things that genuinely need a human. Then we stick around to keep dependencies patched, certificates renewed, and the platform healthy as it grows.
How we work
6 week product cycles that always launch.
Build your vision with our 6-week product cycles. A small senior team, AI-amplified end-to-end, geared up to launch your idea in six weeks.
Why 6 Weeks? It's the Goldilocks Zone - Striking the perfect balance between allowing enough time to build something meaningful, while being short enough to keep risks low!
Whether its an MVP, prototype, or feature in a existing product, our 6 week cycles make sure you have something tangible at the end of the project.
Sounds cool! Tell me more01: Discovery
Refine your ideas and plan what will be launched in 6 weeks.
02: Kick-off
We get cracking. Design, code, and AI work happen in parallel from day one.
03: Check-in
On week 3 get ready for an exciting demo of progress.
04: Build & Iterate
Continue work and integrate feedback from the check-in.
05: Pre-launch
A check-in before launch to tie up loose ends and get ready.
06: Launch
The big day is here, you idea is launched to the whole world.
What we usually build.
- 01
Backend for a new product
You've got a frontend, an app, or a designer ready to go and you need the platform underneath. We build the API, schema, auth, and infra in step with the product team so the first release ships with a backend that can take the next ten.
- 02
API rebuild or replatform
The legacy API has become the thing nobody wants to touch. We replace it incrementally: new endpoints alongside the old, traffic shifted behind a flag, the old service decommissioned only when the new one has earned it. No big-bang cutover.
- 03
Payments and billing integration
Stripe (or Paddle, or LemonSqueezy) wired into your product properly. Subscriptions, trials, upgrades, downgrades, dunning, tax, invoices, webhooks, the lot. Built so finance gets clean numbers and customers get the right access the moment a payment lands.
- 04
Auth and access control
From a single sign-in box to multi-tenant SSO with SAML, role-based permissions, and audit logs. We pick the right tool for the job (Better Auth, Clerk, Auth0, Cognito, custom), wire it into your stack, and document who can do what so the access model stays sane as the team grows.
- 05
Dev-ops and deployment overhaul
If shipping feels like a ritual, the pipeline is the problem. We sort the CI, the environments, the secrets, the migrations, and the deploy story so the team can ship multiple times a day without the Slack channel lighting up. Mono-repo cleanup included where it helps.
- +
Got something different?
Tell us about your use case. We'll come back with a straight answer about whether it's something we can help build.
Real backends, in production.
We run our own products on the same backends we build for clients, and every lesson from our own infra (the failed deploys, the noisy queues, the migrations that needed redoing) gets folded back into the work we ship for you.
Chat Thing
Chat Thing is our first in house product that allows users to create magic AI chatbots
Building HeyYou a production AI security platform in 8 weeks
HeyYou had a working AI prototype. Pixelhop built the launchable product: a multi-tenant platform with deep Axis camera integration, all live in 8 weeks.
Things people ask.
Which languages and frameworks do you use?
We pick the stack that fits the specific job, not the framework we like best this quarter. Node and TypeScript with NestJS, Fastify, or Hono is our usual default. Rails, Django, or Go show up where they're a better fit for the team or the workload. The starting point is what you already run and what your team will maintain after we hand off, not a religious preference on our side.
Where do you host?
Depends on the workload. Railway and Fly are great for fast-moving products with sensible-sized traffic. Vercel for serverless front-and-back stacks. AWS, GCP, or Hetzner when the workload, compliance, or cost profile calls for it. We document the trade-offs (price, scaling, lock-in, ops overhead) and pick something you can run after we leave.
How do you handle data security?
Encryption in transit and at rest as a baseline. Secrets in a proper secret manager, never in the repo. Least-privilege roles on databases and cloud accounts. Audit logging on the actions that matter. For regulated workloads (GDPR, SOC 2 paths, healthcare-adjacent) we scope the data flow up front, document where personal data lives, and design access controls and retention to match.
What's the testing approach?
Unit tests for the business logic that genuinely benefits from them, integration tests around the API and the database, and a small set of end-to-end tests on the critical paths (sign-up, checkout, the core workflow). Test coverage isn't the goal; confidence to deploy on a Friday is. CI runs the suite on every PR so broken changes don't reach main.
How do you ship without downtime?
Backwards-compatible migrations (add columns before you remove, deprecate before you delete), feature flags for risky behaviour, and rolling deploys behind a load balancer so a bad release can be rolled back in seconds. Database changes get staged so a migration and the code that depends on it never have to land in the same deploy.
Do you stay on after launch?
Yes. Backends aren't ship-it-and-forget. Dependencies need patching, providers change pricing, traffic patterns shift, and small fires need putting out. Most engagements include an ongoing support arrangement covering maintenance, monitoring response, and the steady stream of small improvements that keeps a platform healthy. We're upfront about what's in scope and what counts as a new project.
Got a backend that needs a grown-up?
Tell us what you're trying to ship. We'll come back with a straight answer.
Start a conversation