Your backend development partner, whichever frontend you're building on
Most of what makes a product actually work happens away from the screen - the API it talks to, the database holding its data, the server it runs on. We build that layer to be solid and unglamorous in the best sense, so whatever sits on top of it - ours or someone else's - has something reliable to lean on.
It's the same engineering underneath every Laravel and React Native project we ship.
What's included
From a new API to picking up infrastructure someone else built, the goal is the same - a backend that's straightforward to reason about, not one that only makes sense to whoever wrote it.
- API design & development
- Database design & architecture
- Cloud hosting & deployment (AWS, DigitalOcean, Hetzner)
- Legacy system integration & migration
- Authentication & data security
- Ongoing support & maintenance
Common questions
Do you only build backends to go with your own frontends?
No - plenty of our backend work sits behind a frontend built by someone else, an in-house team or another agency. We just need a clear API contract to build against.
What do you build APIs in?
PHP and Laravel by default - it's what we know best and use daily - but the API itself is JSON over HTTP, so it doesn't lock your frontend into anything.
How do you handle things if traffic grows?
We design with AWS's scaling tools in mind from the start rather than retrofitting them under pressure, so growth tends to be a configuration change, not a rebuild.
Can you take over or audit an existing backend?
Yes - we'll look at it honestly and tell you what state it's actually in before recommending a rebuild over incremental fixes.
What happens after launch?
Monitoring, security patches and scaling adjustments - a backend needs looking after quietly in the background, which is exactly what we do.
Websites
Want to see more first? Take a look at our work or explore everything we build.
Meet Storm
We're Dan Cotton and Grant Bartlett - the whole of Storm.
We're a tight-knit team of Surrey based technologists with over 25 years combined experience of crafting digital experiences for web, mobile, VR and everything in between.
Meet the team
Need a tech development partner?
Let's chat on how we can help to bring your big idea to life.