Cloud Backend & API Development

Backend infrastructure that scales with you. Database design, serverless functions, REST API development, and CI/CD pipelines set up once and built to keep working.

A native app is only as good as what feeds it. Backend and API development here means designing the data model and endpoints with the actual iOS, macOS or Android client in mind — not a generic API built first and adapted to afterward — plus the authentication, rate limiting and database constraints that keep it correct under real usage, not just in a demo.

Mobile clients make backend decisions matter more than they do on the web. You cannot ship a fix in an hour — a bad response shape lives in the App Store until the next review cycle, and old versions of your app keep calling the old endpoints for months afterwards. So the API gets versioned from the start, responses are designed to be additive, and anything the client cannot recover from gracefully is treated as a design bug rather than an edge case.

The default stack here is Supabase on Postgres: real relational constraints, row-level security enforced by the database rather than by remembering to check in application code, and no server to operate. When a project genuinely needs something else — CloudKit to keep data in a user's own iCloud account, or Firebase because the team already runs it — that is a deliberate choice made per project, not a house default applied regardless of fit.

What Backend Work Covers

Data Model & Schema

PostgreSQL
Designing tables, relationships and constraints so invalid states are rejected by the database rather than hopefully prevented by application code. Foreign keys, unique constraints and check constraints are cheaper than the bugs they make impossible.

Row-Level Security

Postgres RLS
Authorization enforced in the database, so a missed check in one code path cannot leak another user's rows. Policies are written per table and tested directly, because RLS that was never verified against a real unauthorized request is a policy you are only assuming works.

REST & Realtime APIs

RESTWebSocket
Endpoints shaped around what the client screen actually needs, so a view is one request rather than five chained ones on a mobile connection. Realtime subscriptions where live updates genuinely matter, polling where they do not.

Authentication

OAuthSign in with Apple
Session handling, token refresh and provider integration wired to the platform conventions users expect — including Sign in with Apple, which App Review requires when you offer other third-party sign-in options.

Serverless Functions

Edge functions
Server-side logic for the work that cannot live in the client: payment verification, webhook handling, scheduled jobs, and anything involving a secret that must never ship inside an app binary.

Rate Limiting & Abuse Control

Per-IPper-identity
Public endpoints treated as hostile by default. Layered limits per IP and per identity, applied where state is actually shared rather than per-instance, so limits hold across serverless invocations instead of resetting with each one.

Migrations & CI/CD

SQL migrations
Schema changes as reviewable, ordered migration files rather than manual edits against production, and a deploy pipeline that runs type checks and tests before anything ships. Reproducible environments beat a database only one person understands.

Observability

Loggingerror tracking
Structured logs and error reporting wired in from the start, so a production problem is diagnosed from evidence rather than guessed at. Errors are never silently swallowed — a failure that logs nothing is the most expensive kind.

How a Backend Project Runs

1

Model the Data

Working out the entities and relationships before writing endpoints — the schema is the part that is expensive to change once real data exists.
2

Lock Down Access

Row-level security policies written and tested against real unauthorized requests, not assumed correct because the app never makes them.
3

Shape the API

Endpoints designed around actual client screens, versioned from day one because old app versions keep calling them for months.
4

Wire the Client

Integrating against the real iOS, macOS or Android app so the contract is proven end to end rather than in a REST client.
5

Harden & Ship

Rate limiting, error tracking, migrations and a deploy pipeline in place before launch rather than after the first incident.

Backend Technology Stack

SupabasePostgreSQLREST APIsCloudKitFirebaseServerless FunctionsCI/CDRow-Level Security

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you build the backend and the app together?

Yes, when a project needs both — the API contract is designed alongside the app that consumes it, instead of one side guessing at what the other will need.

What backend stack do you use?

Supabase and Postgres for most new projects — real SQL, row-level security, and serverless functions, chosen for being genuinely production-grade without unnecessary infrastructure overhead. Firebase and CloudKit come in where the product specifically calls for them.

Can you work with our existing backend?

Yes — building a native app against an existing REST or GraphQL API is a common, well-scoped engagement, no backend rewrite required.

How much does backend development cost?

Scoped around the data model and the endpoints the client actually needs, quoted as a fixed estimate. A simple CRUD backend and one with realtime sync, rate limiting and complex authorization are different jobs.

Why Supabase/Postgres instead of Firebase or a custom Node server?

It is the default because it gives real relational constraints and row-level security enforced by the database itself, with no server to operate — but it is a default, not a mandate; Firebase or a custom stack gets used when the project genuinely fits it better.

Do you write API documentation?

Yes, where a client-side team (yours or a future hire) needs to integrate against it independently — endpoint shapes, auth flow and error responses documented, not left to be reverse-engineered from the code.

Can you take over a backend someone else built?

Yes — starts with reading the schema and existing RLS policies before changing anything, since the biggest risk in an inherited backend is usually a security assumption nobody wrote down.

Do you handle backend hosting and deployment too?

Yes — Supabase or the chosen platform gets provisioned, migrations run through a real deploy pipeline, and monitoring/error tracking wired in before launch, not left as a manual afterthought.

How do you test row-level security policies?

Against real unauthorized requests, not just the app’s own code path — an RLS policy that has never been tested against an attacker’s request pattern is a policy you are only assuming works.

Can the backend support both a web app and a native mobile app?

Yes — that is the common case. One backend and data model feeding a native iOS/Android app and a web surface, each shaped around what its client actually needs from the API.

What happens if the app outgrows the initial backend design?

Schema changes go through reviewable, ordered migrations rather than manual production edits, so the backend can evolve without a rewrite — versioned APIs mean old app versions do not break when new ones ship.

Need a Backend for Your App?

Tell us what the app needs from its backend. You'll get a straight answer on the data model, the stack that genuinely fits, and what it costs to build.
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