Crub
Identify it, map it, tend it.
Identify plants, mushrooms and insects from a photograph, then map a garden and keep on top of what it needs.
Independent software studio
We build for us,
then share with you
AKdev is an independent studio in Scotland. Every app here started as a problem worth doing properly, where what already existed cost more than the job was worth or simply was not very good. One company stands behind all of them.
Our apps
Products under the AKdev umbrella
Different problems, different audiences, same method: each one existed as a gap somebody kept working around.
KinopiQ
Accreditation tracking that knows which requirements apply to you.
Accreditation readiness and tracking for impact-driven organisations. One tool for the six frameworks it covers, instead of one evidence pack per standard.
BusyWait
Busy is all they see.
Calendar sync and booking links. Keep every calendar you connect in step, and share one link that checks the calendars selected for it.
SwingFactor
Know what your decision depends on.
A decision analysis platform. It shows which uncertainties could change your choice, and what to find out before you make it.
Why AKdev
A single home for everything we make
- One publisher behind every app
- AKdev Ltd is the legal entity behind every app here. One company to contact, one set of accounts, one place the responsibility sits.
- One set of policies
- Terms, privacy, security and support are written once and apply to every app. You do not read a different privacy policy for each one.
- Narrow on purpose
- Each app stops where its job stops. There is no enterprise tier holding the useful part hostage, because there was never a version of this where that made sense.
Work with us
Ship your app with AKdev
The same studio and publishing setup behind our own apps, opened up to other people. If you have an idea worth building, the first conversation costs nothing and you will get an honest answer about whether it should exist.
- Talk it through
- Bring the idea and we will work out whether it is worth building, what it would actually take, and where the hard parts are. Sometimes the honest answer is that something off the shelf already does it — you will get that answer rather than a proposal. No charge, and no obligation afterwards. Tell us about it
- Commission a build
- Have an app idea and need someone to make it real? We design, build and ship it, working the way the AKdev apps are built. You deal directly with the people building it throughout, and you end up owning the repository and the accounts — published under the AKdev umbrella or handed straight over to you. Commission a build
- Publish with AKdev
- Built something good but would rather not run a company to ship it? Publish under the AKdev umbrella and the legal entity, payments, developer accounts and policies are carried for you. It is the same setup behind AKdev’s own apps, opened up to other independent developers. Publish with AKdev
Client work is limited to Scotland. Something else on your mind? Email hello@ak.dev.
FAQ
Frequently asked
What the studio does, who it works with and what it costs.
- What is AKdev?
- AKdev is an independent software studio based in Scotland. It publishes its own apps — Crub, KinopiQ, BusyWait and SwingFactor — and takes on a small amount of work building apps for other people. AKdev Ltd is the registered company behind it.
- How is AKdev different from an agency or a freelancer?
- AKdev is a studio that publishes its own apps and takes on a small amount of client work beside them. Unlike an agency, it has no account managers and nobody to hand a project to: you deal with the people designing and building the app throughout. Unlike a freelancer hired by the day, the work is a whole app, built with the stack and release process AKdev’s own apps run on, and it can be published under AKdev Ltd so you do not have to run a company to ship it. It is also narrower than either: client work is limited to Scotland, the number of projects is kept small, and it is a poor fit for staff augmentation or for anything that needs a large team.
- Who will I be dealing with?
- The people designing and building your app, directly. There is no account manager and nobody to hand you off to — you talk to whoever is writing the code, from the first conversation to the last deploy. We keep the number of client projects deliberately small so that stays true, and it is the main reason to work here rather than with an agency.
- Do you work with clients outside Scotland?
- No. AKdev only takes on client work in Scotland. It is a deliberate constraint rather than an oversight — it keeps the number of projects small enough to do properly and makes it possible to actually sit in a room with people. Enquiries from elsewhere will get an honest no rather than a slow maybe.
- What kind of projects are a good fit?
- Apps somebody genuinely wants to exist. AKdev builds its own products for that reason, and the client work worth taking on is the same shape: a clear idea, an owner who cares about it, and enough scope to ship something real. It is a poor fit for staff augmentation, for rescuing a large existing codebase or for anything that needs a large team.
- What does it cost?
- The first conversation is free and carries no obligation. Beyond that, cost depends entirely on what the thing is, so it is agreed per project after that conversation rather than quoted from a rate card. If the budget and the idea do not fit each other, you will be told early.
- What does AKdev build with?
- A deliberately small, modern stack: TypeScript, React and Next.js on the web, Tailwind for design systems, deployed on Vercel. The AKdev apps themselves are built this way, so the same tooling, scaffolding and release process is what client projects get.
- Who owns the code?
- You do. Client projects end with you holding the repository and the accounts the app depends on, so nothing is hostage to the studio still being around. Where AKdev’s own shared scaffolding is used, it comes with no strings attached to your project.
- What apps has AKdev built?
- AKdev has built and publishes Crub, KinopiQ, BusyWait and SwingFactor. Crub: Identify plants, mushrooms and insects from a photograph, then map a garden and keep on top of what it needs. KinopiQ: Accreditation readiness and tracking for impact-driven organisations. One tool for the six frameworks it covers, instead of one evidence pack per standard. BusyWait: Calendar sync and booking links. Keep every calendar you connect in step, and share one link that checks the calendars selected for it. SwingFactor: A decision analysis platform. It shows which uncertainties could change your choice, and what to find out before you make it. They are the reference for how AKdev builds — the same stack, tooling and release process a client project would get.