thailand / national / custom apps
next.js, postgres and claude for thai businesses, chiang mai studios and phuket hospitality groups, internal tools and customer portals and saas products shipped on a fixed date.
thailand has roughly 3.2 million smes (osmep, office of smes promotion of thailand) and a growing fintech sector. most thai businesses ready for a custom app are stuck on a saas patchwork that breaks at scale, a wordpress with custom plugins, or an excel sheet a senior staffer maintains alone. we ship custom apps for thai smes on a modern stack: next.js plus postgres plus claude where it matters, with pdpa governance, bilingual surface, and the team owning the code from day one. bangkok primary, chiang mai and phuket as secondary markets, usd pricing standard, thb invoicing for boi-promoted entities.
book a 30-minute intake01 . why thailand
thailand's custom-software demand sits at the intersection of three tracks. one, smes outgrowing a saas patchwork: a flowaccount plus shopify plus line oa plus google sheets stack hits its ceiling around 30 to 80 employees, when the data lives in five places and nobody reconciles it. two, fintechs scaling under the bank of thailand and sec regulatory perimeter, covering digital lending, e-wallets, insurtech, wealthtech. three, expat-founded sme groups building internal tools that have to handle thai language input, pdpa, and (often) eu-side reporting because the parent company sits in europe or the customer base is bilingual.
the dominant supply side is two tiers wide. tier one is the english-fluent generalist (outsourcify, aware, lexicon, ad system asia, dbot, we do dev work) running on pre-llm patterns: handover engineers, ticket queues, fixed scope, slow change cycles. tier two is the thai-language enterprise builder (sertis, data wow) selling consulting hours into the upper-mid market. there is a missing middle: ai-native delivery on a modern stack, english-first comms, pdpa + eu dual posture, and a price-and-timeline frame that a 40-person bangkok smb or a series a fintech can actually green-light without a six-month rfp cycle.
our stack default is next.js plus postgres plus claude where it matters. next.js handles the customer-facing surface (portals, dashboards, marketplaces, light checkout). postgres handles the data layer with row-level security where pdpa needs it. claude wires in as the operational ai layer (triage, summarisation, bilingual draft) inside the same app, not as a separate chatbot bolted on. react native or expo when a real mobile shell is needed. the choice gets locked in phase 0 against the actual workflow, not pre-committed.
we ship for thai smes outgrowing their saas patchwork, expat-founded f and b groups, hospitality, dtc retail, fintechs under sec or bot supervision, accountancies, law firms and machinery brands with bilingual customer tails. fixed price per phase, fixed delivery date, you own the code from day one, pdpa governance built in, eu ai act article 50 transparency activated when ai is part of the customer surface. bangkok primary, chiang mai and phuket as secondary markets, eu-bridge built in via the brussels base for thai companies exporting into europe.
02 . custom app per shape
01
internal tool for thai smes. next.js dashboard wired to flowaccount, peakaccount, line oa and the team's existing erp. one source of truth, no excel sheet single point of failure. pdpa-aware, bilingual surface, ai layer optional. read custom apps→
02
customer portal for bangkok b2b. client login, file delivery, billing visibility, support ticket flow. for thonglor consultancies, asoke law firms, sukhumvit accountancies. wcag 2.1 aa, pdpa governance, fixed delivery date. read custom apps→
03
saas product for chiang mai and bangkok founders. next.js plus postgres plus stripe or 2c2p. multi-tenant from day one, claude on the ops surface, eu-bridge ready. for chiang mai studios spinning out their internal tool into a saas, bangkok founders shipping their first product. read custom apps→
04
two-sided marketplace and platform. supply and demand sides on one platform, with payments, escrow, dispute flow, bilingual surface, line oa support layer. for bangkok fintech marketplaces, phuket booking platforms, chiang mai service exchanges. read custom apps→
05
custom apps for other thai verticals. for property agencies, clinics, hospitality groups, dtc retail, food importers. same stack discipline (next.js, postgres, claude where it matters). delivery nationwide from bangkok. all services→
03 . thailand custom-app case
04 . the method
phase 01
1 to 3 weeks
workflow interviews, audit of existing tools, technical spec, data-model first cut, integration inventory (line oa, payment rails, accounting, erp, identity), pdpa risk register, boi activity 8 eligibility evaluation if the project is for a new thai entity. paid discovery, refundable on no-fit.
phase 02
6 to 16 weeks
fixed price per phase. weekly demos. you own the code from the first commit. next.js plus postgres plus claude where it matters, react native or expo when a real mobile shell is needed. one engagement lead per project, no ticket system between us. pdpa governance built in, audit log standard.
phase 03
1 to 3 weeks
fixed deadline. lighthouse 95+ on mobile, wcag 2.1 aa accessibility, security review (owasp top 10 plus pdpa risk surface), penetration test for any platform handling payments or pii. dns and infra cutover with your it partner or hosting vendor present.
phase 04
90 days, included
weekly uptime and performance check, bugfixes with no limit, a small batch of cms or schema changes per month on request, one optimisation pass at the 60-day mark. no second contract needed before month four.
05 . questions from thailand
01
do you serve all of thailand or only bangkok?
bangkok primary, sukhumvit-corridor studio. chiang mai and phuket served remote with on-site visits planned per scope. for nakhon ratchasima, khon kaen, hat yai, hua hin and pattaya projects the delivery is fully remote, with kickoff and ship-day done via video. english primary, thai secondary for customer-facing surface.
02
what does a thai custom-app project cost?
scope-dependent. three shapes: internal tool typically usd 24,000 to 65,000 over 8 to 14 weeks. customer portal typically usd 32,000 to 85,000 over 10 to 18 weeks. saas product or two-sided marketplace typically usd 60,000 to 180,000 over 14 to 26 weeks. price and plan land in your inbox after a 30-minute call and the paid discovery. the discovery is rolled into the build if you continue, fully refunded on no-fit.
03
do you handle boi software promotion paperwork?
no, we coordinate with your thai lawyer or boi consultant on the application file, we do not file it for you. we help our clients evaluate boi activity 8 promotion eligibility for their digital products in phase 0, and prepare the deliverable structure in parallel with the build so the boi application can be filed once the project ships. the relevant boi tax incentives apply when your software counts as a boi-eligible activity.
04
what about pdpa and security review?
pdpa b.e. 2562 (sections 19, 23 to 29, 37, cross-border per section 28) is built into the architecture, not bolted on. data flow mapping is part of phase 0. lawful basis for processing documented per workflow. row-level security on postgres for pii. retention settings configurable per data category. dpia for high-risk categories. breach notification template prepared. security review at ship time covers owasp top 10 plus the pdpa risk surface. penetration test added when the platform handles payments or sensitive pii.
05
what timezone do you work in?
bangkok primary (utc+7). engagement lead reachable on slack or line during 09:00 to 18:00 bangkok time. brussels secondary (utc+1 or +2) covers eu trade hours when the thai company sells into europe. no late-night thai calls expected from your team. async handovers handled via 24-hour rolling windows.
06
do you bridge thai and eu trade?
yes. piexels has been operating from belgium since 2021 with bangkok studio since 2024. the dual posture matters when a thai company exports into europe or runs a parent entity there (eu ai act article 50 if ai is part of the surface, gdpr applied to eu customer data, vat handling, sepa payments). the same applies in reverse for a european company opening a bangkok ops centre under a boi-promoted entity.
07
how do you handle thai language input and bilingual users?
thai script handled natively in postgres (utf-8, collation set per field). thai-specific input (no word spacing) handled in the search layer with proper tokenisation (icu or per-vendor full-text). bilingual ui shipped with i18n routing standard. claude tuned to the bilingual register where it acts on customer-facing copy, so the thai output reads like a thai writer wrote it, not a machine translation of the english version.
06 . keep reading
ready for a real custom app?
start a project or book a 30-minute intake. we reply inside 24 hours with a first scope sketch or an honest no. piexels thailand, bangkok studio in the sukhumvit corridor since 2024, brussels hq since 2021. no sales rep, no three-week proposal cycle. last updated 2026-05-19.