Custom web platforms, mobile apps, ERP and TMS integrations for businesses in and around Hoofddorp. One partner for all software layers, from Schiphol cargo flows to SME portals. Vendor-independent, with code ownership staying with you.
Apart from Amsterdam, Hoofddorp is one of the most densely concentrated clusters of technology, logistics and aviation businesses in the Netherlands. The cargo cluster around Schiphol, the data centres along Beechavenue, the mid-market head offices around Beukenhorst and the SMEs in the outskirts all share one thing: they rely heavily on software that doesn't quite come off the shelf. We build that software.
Appfront builds custom software for organisations in and around Hoofddorp. That includes web platforms, mobile apps, integrations between ERP and CRM systems, and the specialised tools that keep your operation running, from a transport platform to a ground-handling app on the tarmac.
We are based on the Westerdoksdijk in Amsterdam, half an hour's drive from Beukenhorst. Close enough to be in your office for sprint reviews, far enough not to get in your way. We work vendor-independently: no licence lock-in, no mandatory stack, no "powered by" tagline. You keep the source code, the architectural decisions and the IP.
Our role varies from project to project. Sometimes we are the entire build team for an organisation that doesn't yet have its own developers. Sometimes we form one team with your in-house developers, where we provide senior capacity and your people provide domain knowledge and business context. And sometimes we step in for a defined engagement, such as a legacy migration, an API layer or a new mobile app, and then gradually step back. In all three modes, the code, the documentation and the roadmap remain yours.
The SaaS tool you chose two years ago is now struggling with volumes, integrations or workflows your competitor doesn't have. Custom software removes that brake without you having to learn another package.
Accounting, WMS, TMS, CRM and the client portal each live in their own silo. A smart integration layer removes the manual work and lets data flow in real time.
Cargo operations, AOG parts, ground handling: your processes run 24/7. Software that falters overnight costs flights. We build with operational reality as the starting point.
You want to be rid of a legacy package that only one vendor can still maintain. We modernise step by step, with your team in the driving seat and no mandatory vendor involved.
Customer portals, vendor portals, dashboards, configurators. Anything that runs in a browser. One codebase, multi-tenant where useful, built around your sector's business logic. See also our page on web app development in Hoofddorp for the narrower scope.
Field service apps for engineers, scanning apps for warehouse staff, ground handling apps for apron teams. Native or cross-platform, offline-first where operations demand it.
ERP integrations, BI layer, AI modules, microservices. Where your landscape has become too complex to solve with an off-the-shelf product, we build the connective tissue. See the enterprise page for the wider context.
Eight categories we are often approached for by companies in the Schiphol region, from logistics planners to mid-market head offices along the Hoofdweg.
Customer or partner portal, configurator, dashboard, shaped entirely around your workflow.
Real-time sync between your accounting, sales and operations systems.
Planning, routing, e-CMR, integration with customer systems, proven at Schiphol cargo.
Location management, picking, slotting and scanning for distribution centres around the airport.
Work order, inspection and service apps for engineers, with an offline mode.
Multi-tenant, multi-role, audit trail. For regulated industries with multiple business units.
LLM features within your own software, RAG over your knowledge base, copilot interfaces in workflows.
Data warehouse layer, KPI dashboards, automated management reporting.
Choosing a software partner who is "also capable of doing something for logistics" is different from hiring a team that already knows the Schiphol environment. Hoofddorp companies more often than average work with real-time cargo flows, ground handling SLAs, ULD tracking, customs procedures and clients who are themselves embedded in a global IT chain. That context shapes how you design your software: what is needed in offline mode, what must respond within a second, what may be asynchronous, what must be auditable.
Hoofddorp is also home to many mid-market organisations that have grown out of the SME phase but are not yet fully corporate. At that scale there is no standard software package to fall back on: a large ERP is overkill, and a SaaS tool is too thin. Custom software for mid-sized businesses that grows with you from fifty to three hundred employees is precisely where we often end up.
Finally, the IT landscape around Schiphol is full of legacy. Many core operational systems are a decade or more old, run on-premise, or were once set up by a single vendor that no longer exists. Legacy modernisation is for us a routine part of a new project, not a separate track.
The Hoofddorp mix of corporate pace and mid-market pragmatism also shapes how we plan projects. For a head office with a formal governance layer, we work with steering committees and architecture reviews. For a family business building a DC along the Hoofdweg, we join the operations manager over lunch and build based on what is hurting that week. Both work, as long as you know which mode you need.
What we almost always see: a new software project hangs on a chain. The data comes from three systems, passes through one calculation layer, and has to go back to two others. A software partner who only builds "the front end" and leaves the back end to another firm rarely delivers anything workable in this kind of environment. Our team builds the entire chain — front end, back end, integration, deployment — keeping responsibility with one party.
The most common starting point is an operational bottleneck that management has come across by chance. A planner who loses two hours every morning to manual retyping, a salesperson pasting quotes from three systems, a field-service team typing work orders on a laptop in the evening. Patterns like these — repeatable, measurable, time-consuming — are what usually trigger a custom software project. Not a wish to "do something with digitalisation", but a concrete hour a day that goes to waste.
A second category involves replacing systems. An ERP or legacy platform that has been running for a decade, but that nobody dares to touch anymore. The question is almost never "replace it entirely", as that is expensive and risky. The question is "extract the layers where change happens from the old system, leave the rest alone, and connect them cleanly". That is modernisation work, and we do it in stages, often with an integration layer as the first intervention.
A third category: a mobile app for a team that until now has worked on paper or in Excel. Engineers at an installation company along the Hoofdweg, ground-handling staff on the apron, warehouse staff in a distribution centre at Schiphol-Zuidoost. A well-built mobile app gives those teams hours back each week and gives your head office real-time visibility into what is happening. See also transport software for the logistics variant of this.
And finally, platform projects. A mid-market company that wants to build its own product — a marketplace, a SaaS, a sector platform — and is looking for an experienced product partner who can guide the full cycle from concept to the first hundred paying users. For that role we provide not only development capacity, but also product strategy, UX design and go-to-market support.
In a few conversations we map out the problem, the stakeholders, the existing systems and the risks. After that, a short written approach: scope, architecture, sprint planning, cost structure.
Working software from the first sprints. Fortnightly reviews at your office or remotely. Each sprint delivers something concrete that you can hold in your hands — no "big bang" at the end.
You decide whether to continue with our team after go-live, hand over to an internal department, or choose a mix. Documentation, repository access and architectural decisions remain yours.
"Software" is the overarching term: anything that runs on a server, in a browser or on a device. A web app runs specifically in a browser and is therefore a subset of software. An app is typically a mobile application for iOS or Android, or a wrapper that gives the same experience on a tablet.
Many clients in Hoofddorp need all three: a back-end platform that carries the business logic and data, a browser portal for customers or partners, and a mobile app for field staff. We prefer to build these three layers as one coherent whole, with a single team. That way you avoid ending up a year from now with three different suppliers, each with their own interpretation of your data model.
Yes. We have experience with the specific demands of the cargo, ground-handling and airline ecosystem: real-time flows, integration with EDI messages, integrations with customs and airport systems, audit trails and uptime requirements where every second of downtime costs money. In this type of project we plan for failover from the start, use queueing instead of synchronous calls, and build an observability layer that the duty engineer can still use at three in the morning.
We also often work with mid-market and SME businesses that sit in the same chain without being an airline or freight forwarder themselves, such as suppliers of ground equipment, catering, MRO parts or cargo handling services. For that layer the question is often slightly different: less hard real-time, but the same compliance and audit requirements, because they operate in a regulated chain.
Yes, from a transport platform to a warehouse management system, slot-booking portals for dock management and track-and-trace for customers. We do this for both asset owners (hauliers with their own fleet) and 3PLs and freight forwarders who don't own vehicles but manage the planning.
A logistics project often starts with one pain point in the existing landscape, for example a planner who manually retypes orders into an ERP, and over a few sprints it expands into a coherent operational layer where the planner, the driver and the customer each have their own view of the same data.
That depends on scope, integrations, the complexity of the business logic and the number of sprints. We don't work with "from" prices because they are rarely accurate. A low starting figure is almost always overtaken by what turns out to be needed. After a short discovery phase, we provide a concrete sprint plan with a transparent cost structure per sprint.
What you will never get: an open-ended engagement, scope creep without warning, or hourly billing without a roadmap. What you will get: a fixed team composition, a fixed sprint price and a clear overview of what is delivered each sprint. For an exploratory price guide based on project type, see our software development page.
Pragmatically. For web, usually TypeScript, React/Next.js, Node.js and Python. For mobile, React Native or native iOS/Swift and Android/Kotlin if the use case calls for it. The database depends on the workload: PostgreSQL is our default for relational data, supplemented where needed (search, caching, time-series).
Infrastructure on AWS, Azure or GCP, depending on what is already running or where your IT department already has expertise. We are not ideological about the stack. We choose based on what you will still want to be able to maintain in five years. What we do consistently: testing, CI/CD from sprint one, observability and infrastructure-as-code, so that six months later we are not stuck in a tangled system where nobody dares to change anything.
A few weeks of discovery, followed by a series of two-week sprints in which you see working software at every review. We prefer to work from one central point — your office in Hoofddorp or ours on the Westerdoksdijk — for the kick-off and major milestones. The rest is hybrid: daily stand-ups remotely, demos and strategic sessions in person.
A typical engagement runs over several sprints; more complex platforms take longer and are delivered in phases. We would rather work through several completed phases in succession than follow one enormous plan that has to land a year from now. That way you can adjust, scale up or scale back at any point.
A no-obligation introduction of half an hour. We discuss what your operation currently relies on, what is holding you back, and whether custom software is the right direction, or not. No sales pitch, no questionnaire, no commitment.
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