TRUTERAX Ask for a quote

Trutera X · registered in Cape Town, working wherever you are

We build it.
You own it.

A studio for websites, web applications and the software a business runs on. You get a written quote before anything starts, and the code is yours the day it ships.

Start your project See what has been built

It costs nothing to ask and no one will chase you afterwards - describe what you need and a person will write back, usually within a day.

Most projects are one of these four. Some are two.

What you can have made

Everything below is the same craft, sized differently. If you are not sure which one you need, describe the problem in your own words and we will tell you honestly.

  1. Websites

    Built from nothing, or a rebuild of something that has stopped doing its job. Written, designed and coded here - no template bought in and dressed up. It loads fast on a phone, it reads well, and it says what your business actually does.

    You get: the design, the code, the hosting set up in your name.

  2. Web applications and SaaS

    Dashboards, portals, booking and admin tools, and products people subscribe to. HappyShrink and NetWatch further down are ours - built, launched and running in public, which is a fairer test of a studio than anything we could write here.

    You get: a working product, and the code behind it.

  3. Ongoing care

    Someone to keep an eye on it. Updates, backups, certificates, the small edits that pile up - new prices, a new team member, a page that needs rewriting. Quiet, regular maintenance so the site does not slowly rot while you are busy.

    You get: a site that stays current, and someone who answers.

  4. Practical AI

    Only where it genuinely helps the person visiting. Answering a real question from your own documents instead of a search box that finds nothing. Reading a long enquiry and sorting it before it reaches your inbox. Drafting the reply you were dreading. If it would just be decoration, we will say so and we will skip it.

    You get: one useful thing that works, not a novelty.

For anyone who has been burned before.

Why this is a safe thing to commission

You should be able to walk away from us at any moment and lose nothing.

The usual fear when commissioning software is being trapped: it works, but only the people who made it can touch it. That is a business model, and it is not ours. Everything below is arranged so that leaving is easy - which is exactly why nobody has needed to.

The code is yours
Not licensed to you, not rented. The repository, the domain and the hosting account are in your name from the start. Any competent developer can pick it up after us.
A written quote, before anything
You will always know what is being built and what it costs before a line is written. If the work grows, you get a new quote in writing - never a surprise at the end.
Handover is part of the job
Not a favour, not an extra. When it is done we walk you through what you have, in plain language, and hand over every key.
You watch it being made
There is a private link from the first week. You see the real thing take shape, and you can say "not that" while changing it is still cheap.

Four steps. No stage gates, no jargon.

How the work goes

  1. The brief

    A conversation, not a form to survive. What the business does, who you are trying to reach, what is going wrong now. Twenty honest minutes is usually enough.

  2. A written quote

    What will be built, what it costs, roughly how long. In writing, in plain words, so you can read it twice and sleep on it. Nothing starts until you say yes.

  3. The build

    We make it, and you can watch on a private link. You will hear from us when a decision is genuinely yours to make, and not otherwise.

  4. Handover

    It goes live. You receive the code, the accounts and a walkthrough. From there you can keep us on for care, or carry on alone with everything you need.

Built here, live in the world, and open to anyone.

Work

A short catalogue rather than a long one. Each of these is running in the world right now, and you are welcome to go and use it.

  1. HappyShrink shown on a phone: a tool for making PDF files smaller directly in the browser.
    Plate I HappyShrink Studio product · free to use

    A PDF shrinker that never sees your file

    Made because every other one wants an upload. HappyShrink makes a PDF smaller inside your own browser - the file never leaves your device and never reaches a server of ours, because there is nothing to reach.

    It is free, and it stays free. It is also the clearest example of how we prefer to build: do the hard part properly, then ask for as little from the user as possible.

    Try happyshrink.truterax.com

  2. NetWatch shown on a phone: a dashboard listing South African internet providers and their current status.
    Plate II NetWatch Studio product · live status dashboard

    Is it me, or is it them?

    A live board of South African internet providers and the big global services beside them, so you can answer that question in about four seconds instead of restarting the router twice.

    Built for our own use first, which is usually the honest reason a tool ends up good. It has been quietly useful to other people since.

    Open netwatch.truterax.com

Trutera X (Pty) Ltd · registered with CIPC.

The studio

Most businesses are judged on their website before anyone speaks to them, and it is often where a genuine enquiry quietly goes missing. Our work sits on both sides of that: a site that earns trust on sight, and the communication behind it that makes sure a real enquiry reaches a real person and gets answered. Done properly, that is not a cosmetic exercise. It is where new business comes from.

TRUTERAX is deliberately kept small. It gives us the space to give each project the attention it needs: to understand the business behind it, question what needs questioning, notice the details that are easy to miss, and make decisions with the full picture in mind. We take on a considered number of projects for that reason. Each one should have enough room around it for good thinking, proper attention and the kind of familiarity that only comes from knowing it well.

That familiarity builds over time. The early conversations, the decisions made along the way, the ideas that changed and the reasons behind them: all of it becomes part of the project. Keeping that understanding close means everything develops with greater clarity and consistency. We value long relationships, clear conversations and outcomes we are proud to put our name to. The aim is not simply to deliver what was asked for. It is to understand it well enough to make it better.

We would rather be easy to verify than easy to market. The company details, the legal terms and the privacy position are published in full, and the site is written to be read correctly by people and by the AI assistants they now ask for recommendations. You own the code we write for you, on your hosting, in your accounts. That is what makes a studio safe to hand something important to.

TRUTERAX is based in Cape Town and works with clients wherever they are. The work travels well, and time zones have never been the difficult part.

StephenTrutera X

TRUTERA X (PTY) LTD SPACES, 50 Long Street
Cape Town 8001, South Africa

The things people ask before they trust anyone.

Questions

Who owns the website when it is finished?

You do - the code, the content and the accounts. The domain and hosting are registered in your name, not ours, so you are never asking permission to leave. If one day you hand it to another developer, they will find ordinary, readable code and no locked doors.

How do you charge?

Every project is quoted in writing before it begins, based on what you actually need. We do not publish packages, because we have never met two identical projects and a menu would only mean charging some people for things they will never use.

Tell us what you have in mind and you will get a real figure to consider, with no obligation attached to reading it.

Ad-hoc support and extra development is billed at our standard hourly rate. Ask for the current rate when you send the brief.

I already have a site. Does it have to be replaced?

Often not. Plenty of sites are sound underneath and simply neglected, and repairing one is usually kinder to your budget than starting again. We will read what you have and tell you which it is - including when the honest answer is "leave it alone".

How long does it take?

A small site is usually a few weeks; something larger runs longer. The quote gives you a realistic date rather than a hopeful one, and if that date is going to move you will hear it from us early, not on the day.

What happens if you are unavailable?

A fair question, and the reason everything is arranged the way it is. Your site runs on infrastructure you own and does not depend on us being awake. The code is in your account, written plainly and documented, so anyone can take over.

For anything urgent, you have a direct phone number rather than a ticket queue.

Do we have to be in the same city?

No. The company is registered in Cape Town and the work happens wherever you are - a call, a shared link and clear writing cover almost everything. If you are nearby and would rather meet, that is easy too.

You will hear back from a person, usually within a day.

Ask for a quote

Tell us what you need in your own words. You do not have to know the technical shape of it - describing the problem is genuinely enough, and we will ask about anything we need.

There is no cost to asking, and no one will chase you afterwards.