Taking on new work · Trogir, Croatia
An engineer builds your software — and stays to run it.
iOS, Android and web products for businesses with something real to run. Thirteen years as an electrical and automation engineer before I wrote software, so I understand the equipment, the constraints and the people using it. One person, accountable, from first sketch to the version you're still running in three years.
Not ready to talk? Send me the project and I'll send back a price, a plan and an honest market check — free, within two working days.
Four vendors, and nobody owns the seams.
A product that touches the real world gets quoted by an electronics house, a firmware contractor, an app studio and a backend team. Each one is competent. Each one hands you a piece. Nobody is responsible for the places where the pieces meet — which is exactly where these projects die.
Then the build ends, the team disperses, and eighteen months later an OS update breaks the login screen, a certificate expires, the store changes a policy, and there is nobody left who knows how any of it works.
I take the whole thing. And I'm still here afterwards.
What I build
Software for businesses with something real to run — usually with equipment behind it.
iOS & Android app development
Native iOS and Android apps, plus the backend behind them — designed, built, shipped to both stores, and looked after afterwards.
Details →Apps for hardware and connected devices
Mobile and web software for physical products — Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi, WebSockets, live control and monitoring.
Details →Monitoring & control dashboards
Web dashboards and alerting for equipment, sites and operations — built around how your business actually works.
Details →App rescue & long-term maintenance
Taking over an existing iOS, Android or web app: stabilising it, getting it back into the stores, and keeping it alive.
Details →On-premise AI over technical documents
Private, self-hosted document AI for scanned manuals, engineering drawings and dense tables — running on your own hardware.
Details → All services, pricingand what I don't do →
Why me and not an agency
Anyone can generate an app now. Almost nobody will still be answering the phone about it in two years.
I'm an engineer first
Thirteen years on ships' automation, satellite and control systems, factory machinery and cranes — before a line of software. If your product touches the physical world, I already speak the language.
One person owns the whole thing
App, backend, web, store releases. No four vendors, no integration nobody owns, no meeting where two suppliers blame each other.
I stay after launch
The build is the easy part now. Being here in two years — for the OS update, the store policy change, the crash on a Friday — is the part that's actually scarce.
I ship my own products
ProWord is live in both stores, built and maintained by me alone. You can download it and judge the work before you ever email me.
Things I've built
Not a portfolio of screenshots. Live products and working systems, each one built alone.
ProWord
A product I built alone and still run.
Vocabulary learning across iOS, Android, web and backend — designed, built, shipped to both stores and maintained solo.
VesselRef
Answers from scanned manuals and drawings, without leaving your network.
Private document AI for technical operations — retrieval and question answering over scanned manuals, engineering drawings and dense tables, running on the customer's own hardware.
Also built
Heating controller
A closed-loop temperature control node with a local display and a live web interface, running unattended through several heating seasons.
Smart LED matrix
An ESP32 BLE peripheral with a custom GATT service and a native iOS app for real-time control.
EnglishTatia
An English-learning web product with a companion Telegram chat bot.
Thirteen years before I wrote a line of software.
Four years on production machinery and factory cranes. Nine at sea — radars, satellite communications, shipboard networks, and seven years on ship automation systems, diesel generators and bridge equipment with Disney Cruise Line.
At sea there is nowhere to send a broken board. You fix it, now, with what's aboard. That is a different relationship with reliability than most software people ever develop.
If your product involves equipment, I don't need you to translate it for me.
13 yrs
electrical & automation engineering
9 yrs
at sea, on ships' systems
4
platforms shipped solo — iOS, Android, web, backend
5
languages — EN, UK, RU, HR, ES
Free · Within 2 working days
Send me your project. I'll tell you what it costs.
Send me what you want built. I'll come back with a realistic price range, a timeline, how I'd approach it technically, and an honest look at what already exists on the market — including whether you should buy something off the shelf instead of paying anyone to build it.
A real price range
Not “it depends”. A range you can put in front of whoever controls the budget, and what moves it up or down.
A market check
What already exists that does this, what it costs, and where it falls short for your case. Researched properly, not guessed.
How I'd build it
The technical approach in plain language — what talks to what, which parts are off-the-shelf, which need writing.
No charge, no obligation, no mailing list.
How it works
Fixed prices, phases you can stop between, and your code in your repository from day one.
Free project review
Free · 2 working days
Send me what you want built. You get a price range, a timeline, a technical approach and an honest market check — including whether something off the shelf already does the job.
Intro call
Free · 30 min
You describe what you have and what you need. I tell you straight whether I'm the right person, and roughly what it costs. No deck, no pitch.
Blueprint
€1,200 · 1 week
A fixed-price week that removes the unknowns: technical approach, what talks to what, the risks worth worrying about, and a fixed quote for the build. Yours to keep, even if you hire someone else.
Build
Fixed price, quoted after the review
Fixed scope, fixed price, in phases you can stop between. Code lives in your repository from day one. You see something working every week.
Care plan
Monthly, agreed up front
The part most people skip. OS updates, store policy changes, certificate renewals, crash reports, small improvements — and one person who answers the phone when something breaks.
I won't be the cheapest quote you get. If cheapest is what you need, I'll say so on the first call rather than waste your time.
Priced in euro. I invoice as a registered sole proprietor (FOP) in Ukraine, so no VAT is added by me — an EU business client handles it as a normal non-EU supplier invoice.
We'll work well together if
- ✓You have a business that already works and software has to fit into it
- ✓Your product involves equipment, instruments, vehicles, vessels or a physical process
- ✓You want one accountable person rather than a team you manage
- ✓You care more about it still working in three years than about launching next week
I'm the wrong person if
- —You have an app idea and are looking for a technical co-founder
- —You want an app mainly as a way to make money without a business behind it
- —You need a large team, a big agency, or twenty people on a Slack channel
- —You want the cheapest possible quote — I will not be it
Writing
Notes from the seams between hardware and software.
Tools I build with
Only things I've actually shipped with.
Questions people ask
Who is Oleksii Mykhalchuk?
Oleksii Mykhalchuk is a software developer based in Trogir, Croatia. He spent thirteen years as an electrical and automation engineer — four in industrial plant and nine at sea, including seven years on ship automation with Disney Cruise Line — before moving into software. He now builds iOS, Android and web products for businesses, and maintains them long after launch.
What kind of work does he take on?
Native iOS and Android apps and the backends behind them; software for hardware and connected devices over Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi and WebSockets; monitoring and control dashboards; taking over and maintaining existing apps; and on-premise AI over scanned technical documents. The common thread is products that have to keep working, usually with something physical behind them.
Why hire an engineer rather than an app agency?
If your product involves equipment, instruments, vehicles or a physical process, most app studios need you to translate your world into theirs before they can quote it. Oleksii spent thirteen years maintaining and commissioning electrical and control systems, so he reads the schematic himself. One person covers the app, the backend and the device side, which removes the integration gap where these projects usually fail.
Can't AI build an app now?
AI made building an app much easier. It did not make anyone accountable for it eighteen months later, when the OS updates, the certificates expire, the store changes its policy and something breaks on a Friday. The scarce thing is no longer writing the code — it is having one person who knows how the system works and is still there. That is what the care plan is.
How much does an app cost?
It depends on what it is, and rather than guess at a number here he will give you a real one: send the project through the free review and you get a price range within two working days. Builds are quoted at a fixed price after a Blueprint week (€1,200), which produces the technical plan and the quote, and ongoing care plans are agreed monthly before any work starts. He will not be the cheapest quote you receive.
Does he design custom electronics?
No. He specifies and integrates off-the-shelf hardware, writes firmware for ESP32-class devices, and builds the software around them. Custom PCB design, EMC certification and manufacturing are outside his scope — if a project needs them, he works alongside an electronics house and owns the firmware, app and cloud side.
Who owns the code?
You do, from the first commit. Work happens in your repository, under your accounts, with handover documentation written to be read by a person. You are never locked in.
Where is he based, and does that matter?
He lives and works in Trogir, Croatia — Central European Time, so a working day that overlaps with the rest of Europe. He works remotely with clients across Europe and travels on site for installation and commissioning work. Invoicing is through a registered sole proprietorship (FOP) in Ukraine, priced in euro; for an EU business client that is a standard non-EU supplier invoice with no VAT added. Where a project needs data kept in the EU, it is deployed on EU infrastructure — or, for on-premise work, on the client's own hardware. He speaks English, Ukrainian, Russian, Croatian and Spanish.
Is there a way to get an estimate without a sales call?
Yes. Send a description of what you want built to oleksii@oleksi.dev, or use the project review form on oleksi.dev. Within two working days you get back a realistic price range, a timeline, the technical approach, the main risks, and a market check on what already exists — free, with no obligation. If the honest answer is that an off-the-shelf product already solves your problem, that is what the review will say.
How do you start working with him?
Email oleksii@oleksi.dev or use the form on oleksi.dev. The first step is a free thirty-minute call to work out whether he is the right person for the job. If he isn't, he will say so.
Tell me what you're trying to do.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. If I'm not the right person for the job, I'll tell you on the call and point you at someone who is.