Active Frequency — Pragmatic Custom Software (now with AI)

Meet Active Frequency

Most of our clients come to us at a specific moment: they're about to make a big software bet and they want to get it right. Sometimes that's a growing business whose systems have been outgrown - what worked at a third the size is now the thing everyone works around. Sometimes it's a founder with a sharp idea and one shot at a first version. Either way, the hard part is the same: knowing what to build before you spend real money building it.

We can, and often do, both halves. We help you figure out what's actually worth building - including the parts you shouldn't build at all - and then we build it.

We've been doing this since 2009. Our clients tend to stay for 4+ years, which is the part we're proudest of: long enough to learn a business well enough to be genuinely useful to it, not just to ship what was asked for. We also bring a lot of diverse experience, and get great joy out of applying that across industries. (What do baseball videos and neuropsychological testing have in common? Meet us and find out!)

How we work: We're a small, senior team - five people, no handoffs to junior staff, no account managers between you and the people building your software. We specialize in Django and often pair it with Vue or React, but we've worked across the full range of web and mobile technology and we pick what fits the problem.

On AI: We use AI tools throughout our work, and they've made us meaningfully faster. We love when a client comes to us with a vibecoded prototype! We've also advised clients not to use AI for things where it adds complexity without the payoff, or introduces real risk to the business. If you're wondering whether AI belongs in your product, we'll give you a straight answer rather than the one that bills better. The first answer is often "it depends"; we'll work with you to flesh that out in full. We're neither AI fanboys nor skeptics, but pragmatists.

Open source: We contribute to the projects we depend on and share our own work when it's useful. It's how the industry moves forward, and we've been part of that for a long time.

Since 2009 we've built software for universities, hospitals and research institutions, newspapers, startups, automotive sales, businesses whose operations would make your eyes water, and the occasional rock star. We've enjoyed all of it.

Services

Where are you in your software journey?

Start here: The Roadmap

A two-to-four week engagement, fixed fee. We learn how your business actually runs and come back with a straight answer: what to build, what to buy off the shelf, what to kill, what it costs, and where AI genuinely helps. Where appropriate we'll build a prototype, proof of concept, or pilot.

You get a plan you can act on with anyone. If you build it with us, the fee is credited toward the work.

Build

Web applications, front and back
Mobile (iOS, Android, mobile web)
Internal tools and workflow automation
APIs and third-party integrations
AI features that earn their keep

Stick Around

Most of our clients don't leave when the project ships. If desired, we stay on as an ongoing resource in some form - depending on the business's needs, we can be:

a full maintenance team
an embedded pair of hands alongside your in-house team
an advisory retainer to bring an ongoing external perspective

If you'd rather bring it in-house, we'll hand it over to your team and fully support the transition - we're happy to see clients "graduate"!

Tell us about your challenge and we'll work with you to get it done.

Our Team

We're serious about our craft - code, design, and everything else that goes into making your software fantastic and your business profitable.

Kevin

Principal
Igor

Developer
Matt

Developer
Emily

UX/UI Designer
Keenan

Developer

Clients

We love our clients - and they love us! See what they've had to say:

"Trusted advisors"

We have been working with Active Frequency for over four years now. Kevin and his team have become trusted advisors to us over the years. Not only have they shown a great ability to program and problem solve but they have become experts in understanding our unique business and challenges. As our business has grown and become more complex, Active Frequency has always been able to provide us with solutions that are able to propel us into the next phase of our growth. In short, we wouldn't be able to expand and make our business more efficient without the expertise and deep understanding that Active Frequency provides.

Paul Friedman Owner
LensProToGo
"ALL Superlatives"

We have been a client of Active Frequency for five+ years. When the principals discussed our experiences with Active Frequency and its lead, Kevin Grinberg, we had ALL Superlatives: Learns the client's business · Integrates into the customer team · Strong customer orientation · Highly responsive · Always on time · High value for money invested · Intense and imaginative professionals · Really nice and competent team · Always attentive to client's needs · Provides sound guidance and expertise · Uses and Creates state of the art technology · Formulate innovative approaches to problem solving

Dr. Barbara E. Millen President
Millennium Prevention, Inc.
"A joy to work with"

I cannot say enough about the entire Active Frequency team. Since we began working with them in 2012, our site has dramatically improved in quality, speed, and reliability, in large part thanks to Active Frequency's help and guidance. A joy to work with, the Active Frequency Team has taken a genuine interest in our work and has helped us both expedite projects and avoid errors that could have set us months back. As a newspaper that sometimes faces crises in the wee hours of the morning, it is incredibly comforting to know that we can count on them at any time of day. All of us at The Crimson feel incredibly lucky to have found Active Frequency.

Bobby Samuels President Emeritus
The Harvard Crimson
"A gem of a dev team"

The Active Frequency team is a gem of a dev team. They're extremely knowledgeable, communicative, easy to work with and if your idea can possibly be built, they will find a way for you to do it. They're my go-to team for any project.

Kellian Adams Senior Game Producer
Green Door Labs / Edventure Builder
"Brought great work to the table"

The team at Active Frequency really took the time to understand our business, our creative needs and helped us identify a clean, elegant way to create a lasting impression with our customers. From a UI and general "flow" perspective, they were super patient in walking us through best practices and was strategic in giving opinions, suggesting really key components that we hadn't considered. They brought great work to the table.

Brian Drewes Co-Founder / Head of Production
ZeroVFX