A custom municipal website that does more than a brochure: a main website, a digital counter with DigiD and eHerkenning login, e-forms, council information and public space reporting, all in one coherent platform that fits your existing GEMMA architecture and isn't tied to a single vendor. Built on Common Ground principles, compliant with BIO, and accessible under WCAG 2.1 AA.
A municipal website is no longer a static brochure. It is the digital counter of a public organisation: the channel where residents register a move, request an extract, submit a permit application, report a broken streetlight, search council papers or lodge an objection against a decision. Building a municipal website means that all those functions, with their differing security and accessibility obligations, work together in one platform that is recognisable to residents and manageable for the organisation.
We design and build those platforms to measure. Not a generic CMS template where every municipality gets stuck in the same way, and not a single-vendor suite that turns every extension into a change-request negotiation. We work according to Common Ground, the VNG reference architecture in which data and functionality are separated and integrations run through standardised APIs, and we align with the existing GEMMA building blocks your organisation already uses. That gives you the technical freedom to keep up with change without migrating again every four years.
Our background is in custom software for municipalities: case management systems, e-form engines, integrations with basic registers, permit workflows and domain-specific applications. For us, a municipal website is therefore not a brochure project but a front office sitting on top of serious process architecture. You feel that difference in every decision we make: in the information architecture, in how we design DigiD requests, in how we connect e-forms to your case management system and in how we set up management for your own editorial team.
Suitable for municipalities of any size, from the G4 handling hundreds of e-forms to smaller municipalities that want an honest, accessible website without package lock-in. Also for provinces, water boards, environmental services and joint arrangements: the same architectural principles and compliance requirements, with different processes on top.
The licence for a large existing suite, such as BCT, PinkRoccade, Seneca, Tribe, GX or similar, is coming up for renewal, prices are rising, or the package no longer scales with your needs. Rather than being tied to a single supplier for another four years or more, this is the natural moment to move to a Common Ground setup. We will work out together which components you really need to replace and which you can decouple and reuse, so the migration stays manageable.
The Dutch Decree on digital accessibility of government requires WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across all municipal websites and apps. Many older sites come up against audit reports with a long list of open issues, particularly on forms, PDFs and interactive components. A new website is then often cheaper and more honest than continuing to patch. We build accessibility in as a design requirement and have an independent audit carried out before the site goes live.
Residents have to visit the town hall for matters that could be handled online. E-forms exist, but they end up with a civil servant rather than in the case management system. DigiD is integrated for some applications but not others. The result: duplicated work, long processing times and dissatisfied residents. A well-designed digital counter eases the pressure on the contact centre without requiring custom development for every new service.
An audit from your CISO, a DPIA finding from the Data Protection Officer, or a report from the Court of Audit or the Dutch Data Protection Authority may make a thorough rebuild of the website platform unavoidable. For structural GDPR and BIO issues, patching the old stack rarely helps. A newly built platform with clear separation of data and presentation solves the problem at its root and gives supervisors a far more explainable answer. See also our approach to compliant software.
We use the VNG reference architecture as the foundation. Data and functionality are separated, integrations run via standard APIs (NLX, Haalcentraal), and case-oriented working is built in throughout. That may sound abstract, but the effect is concrete: you are not tied to one supplier for one set of features, and extensions become simpler rather than more expensive.
We come from software development, not from a marketing agency. The team that builds your site is the same team that is experienced in working with custom municipal software, DigiD/eHerkenning integrations, case management systems and basic registries. For us, the website is the front office on top of processes we understand, and you will notice that difference in every decision we make.
The code sits in a repository belonging to your municipality, not in a closed supplier environment. Documentation is complete and in Dutch. If the supplier changes, whether us or a successor, someone else can take over without data or logic being held hostage. For public organisations, that is not a marketing advantage but a basic, explainable requirement. See also our information security policy.
In practice, a municipal site is a collection of interrelated components. We build them as modules on a single platform, so you do not have to explain four different login environments to residents, yet you can still replace or extend individual components.
The public information layer: governance, organisation, news, policy, regulations, contact details and opening hours. A headless CMS in which editors and chief editors publish directly, with workflow and archive.
The logged-in area where residents handle their affairs. DigiD integration, session management, authorisation checks, registration in the case management system and feedback to MijnOverheid.
A form engine your editors manage themselves, from simple reports to multi-step applications with attachments, conditional logic, pre-filled fields drawn from basic registers, and direct routing to the correct case type.
A viewing portal for residents: ongoing cases, payment status, permits, reports and correspondence. Securely accessed via DigiD, synchronised with MijnOverheid and the case management system.
Quick and mobile: a resident can file a report with a photo and location, such as a broken street lamp, overhanging greenery or illegally dumped waste. It is routed straight to the right team, with feedback at each status update.
Application flows for events, tree felling, environmental permits and existing buildings. Integrated with DSO, BAG and, where relevant, your own permits software, with guided pre-filled fields and a transparent processing-time indication.
Council calendar, meeting documents, executive decisions, motions and amendments. Integrated with iBabs or an equivalent council information system, and fully searchable on detail pages for residents and the press.
A proper search function across the entire site, plus an optional AI search layer for frequently asked questions, provided it stays within a responsible scope. Application classification and objection decisions remain human work; here AI serves only as a signpost.
Municipalities are the main context, but the architectural principles (Common Ground, BIO, WCAG 2.1 AA, code ownership) apply across the entire public sector.
Hundreds of e-forms, multiple case types, and editors spread across directorates. Decomposition is crucial: one main site with loose, self-contained modules, allowing teams to work in parallel without getting in each other's way on releases.
Often the sharpest trade-off between an off-the-shelf package and custom software. Our approach works well here because we build modularly: no more functionality than you need, and expandable later as the organisation grows.
Tighter budgets, smaller editorial teams and a need for a low-maintenance platform. We build a lighter variant on the same compliance foundation, and where sensible we share infrastructure with neighbouring municipalities.
Policy information, subsidies, provincial council papers. Similar architectural principles, different processes, with specific integrations with provincial registers, environment plan instruments and the Provinciaal Blad.
Tax assessments, notifications, water permits, flood defence communication. Their own levy systems, cooperation with BsGW and GBLT, their own election moments: everything calls for custom UX and integrations.
Joint arrangements for social domain, ICT, taxes or the environment serve several municipalities with different house styles and processes. A multi-tenant platform is often wiser than a separate site for each partner.
A municipal website operates under a tighter regulatory framework than a corporate site. That is not a side issue: it determines what the platform looks like under the hood.
The Baseline Informatiebeveiliging Overheid (BIO) is the shared standards framework of central government, municipalities, provinces and water boards. It sets requirements for logging, access management, vulnerability policy, data classification and incident handling. We design the platform with BIO in mind from the very first sketch: separated environments, audit logs at the right level, no unnecessary storage of personal data, and hardening of the hosting layer.
The GDPR overlaps with BIO but places its own emphasis on purpose limitation, data minimisation, data subject rights and DPIAs for high-risk processing. For every new feature, we check together with your DPO whether the existing DPIA is sufficient. We actively document which data is held where, on what legal basis, and how a request for access or erasure is handled technically.
The Digital Government Act (Wet digitale overheid) and the Decree on the Digital Accessibility of Government (Besluit digitale toegankelijkheid overheid) require compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA and a corresponding accessibility statement. This is not a tick-box afterwards but a design requirement that affects every component: colour contrast, focus management, semantic HTML, assistive-technology-friendly forms, screen reader support and alternative text. Before going live, we commission an independent audit.
The AI Act affects the platform as soon as you add AI components, such as a chatbot, a classifier for incoming reports or a preliminary-review AI for permits. We treat this as a separate decision chain: first the risk classification for each AI feature, then registration in the Algoritmeregister where applicable, and only then implementation. For organisations that want to explore what AI can do here, see our AI workshop for municipalities.
Finally, we work with the standards of VNG and Geonovum: GEMMA for architecture, NLX for inter-organisational integrations, Haalcentraal for querying base registers (BRP, BAG, BRK, BGT), and the common case and document types for case-based working.
WCAG 2.1 AA built into every component, not a testing round at the end. Keyboard navigation, screen reader support, contrast and language level are part of the delivery, independently verified before the site goes live.
The CMS and the presentation layer are separate. Content can also reach a mobile app, a citizen portal or a new front end via API, without migration. Building blocks connect via NLX to existing GEMMA systems.
Code in a municipal repository, documentation in Dutch, data flows made transparent. No black box, no lock-in. For regulators and council members, a far easier story than a closed vendor environment.
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →We start with an intake. Around the table are usually the communications or service advisor leading the project, the CIO or a representative from the CIO office, a representative from Information Services and, depending on scope, the Data Protection Officer and the CISO. The aim: which problem is most urgent now (an old CMS, poor accessibility, e-forms that go nowhere, council information that is not searchable), and what are the requirements for architecture, hosting, management and integrations.
This is followed by a discovery phase in which we map the problem from both the outside and the inside. Outside: who your residents are, which types of requests dominate, and where people get stuck. Inside: which registrations, case types, processes and integrations already exist. The end result is a functional and architectural design that we discuss with you, and with your audit role, before we start building in earnest.
The build phase runs iteratively in sprints. Each sprint delivers something usable: a working module, an editorial environment, an integrated DigiD flow, a fully developed form. Code lives in the municipality's own repository, with an acceptance environment for editors and testers, and a production environment that we only open once the accessibility and security audits have been approved.
Before go-live, we arrange an independent WCAG audit and, depending on scope and BIO impact, a penetration test and/or DPIA update. The report comes to you and serves as the basis for the accessibility statement and the in-control statement. For projects with a greater security impact, we also refer you to our approach to ISO 27001-compliant software.
After go-live, we either manage the system for you or hand it over to your IT department or a third party. On handover, we deliver complete documentation, a runbook and a repeatable deployment pipeline. The code belongs to you.
Authentication for citizens and organisations. Requests, session management, fallback mechanisms, authorisations. We also handle the routing of your application with Logius if you need a first DigiD connection.
Status updates and messages to residents via MijnOverheid, respecting each citizen's preference (digital or still on paper). Integrated with your case management system so that status changes automatically go through the right channel.
BRP, BAG, BRK, BGT: the standard lookups run through Haalcentraal APIs. This provides pre-filled fields in forms, automatic validation of address details, and consistent data between front office and back office, without building your own copies of the base registers.
Routing of e-forms to case types, status feedback, archive integration. We connect to the common case management systems via standard APIs and build handover points that logically support your case handling.
Council calendar, agendas, documents, decision lists and motions are automatically pulled from your council information system onto the website. Not as an embedded iframe, but fully within our own UI, with good search and a permanently searchable archive.
Connection to the Digital Environment Act System (DSO) for applicable rules, permit checks and environmental plan queries. Pre-enquiry and check flows on the website are supported with the right DSO connections.
For municipalities, vendor dependency is a serious and recurring pain point. A suite vendor that raises its licence fee every year without a realistic route to migrate. A CMS from which data can only be extracted through paid exports. A counter component that only works alongside other components from the same vendor. It isn't malice; it's how commercial dynamics play out when the architecture isn't open.
Our counter-strategy is deliberate and simple: no pre-selection of a vendor stack. We build on an open architecture with code ownership residing with you, using proven open-source building blocks as a foundation and municipality-specific logic on top. For every integration with a commercial package (council information, permits, case management system), we use standard APIs rather than vendor-specific interfaces, so that replacing such a package doesn't force a rebuild of your website.
In practical terms, this also means you are not tied to us. The code lives in your repository, the documentation is complete and in Dutch, and if you change supplier, someone else can take over without your data or logic being held hostage. For the wider context, see also our web development practice and our municipal custom software offering.
A thirty-minute introductory call in which we go through where you stand now: an expiring contract, an accessibility statement with open issues, a front counter that is overloaded, or simply a wish to think through a Common Ground-based website. Afterwards we send a concrete proposal covering scope, architecture and sprint planning.
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