--- title: How Contember Fabrika works, in detail description: "How Contember Fabrika works: three ways in (kickstart, taking over an existing app, your own developers), the setup, what you will have in place, and how it keeps living after." url: "https://www.contember.com/factory" type: static generatedAt: "2026-09-28T14:08:32.906Z" --- # How Fabrika works, *step by step* From the first call to everyday operations. There are three ways into Fabrika: we build your first app with you, we take over an app you already have, or your own developer or agency builds on it. Each one starts with setting Fabrika up, and everything after that works the same. ~10 minutes of reading · how the price is put together is on the [pricing page](/pricing) ![](/illustrations/strip-stations.webp) ## It starts with a half-hour call ### We look at what you're bringing. A process that slows you down, an app you already have, or a team that wants to build. We ask who's involved and where it breaks. And we tell you right on the call which way into Fabrika makes sense. If we're not a fit, you hear it right away, not after three meetings. ### Within a few days, you get an offer. It always covers the Fabrika setup: the platform in your cloud account, the rules for working with AI, and training for whoever will build. Depending on the path, it also states the scope of the first app, or what needs adjusting in the app you're bringing. It states the timeline and the price. Once you agree to it, the price doesn't move. ### You decide who builds. A capable person of your own who knows the processes and isn't afraid of software, your developer, or an agency you already work with. We set the rules up with them and review their changes from the very first one. Once you approve the offer, we usually start within a few weeks, depending on calendars on both sides. The setup itself doesn't have to be a big job: with an existing app it's mostly about connecting it to the platform and deploying it. ![](/illustrations/tall-callbox.webp) ### Three ways into Fabrika Where you start differs. Where you end up doesn't: the platform in your account, every change reviewed by us, and someone to call. Kickstart · optional #### We build the first app with you A week with your person: the process on Monday, the app live on Friday. It suits you if you're starting from zero and want your person to see the whole thing on something real. It's a service on top; Fabrika works the same without it. [What the week looks like →](#week) Takeover #### We take over an app you already have Built in Lovable, in Cursor, with Claude Code, by a freelancer or by an agency. We go through the code and make small changes so the platform handles sign-in, permissions, keys and deployment. Nothing dramatic. Then we help deploy it to Cloudflare or Zerops, and the data comes along. The one condition: it has to be code that can run outside the tool it was made in. We can't take over an app clicked together in Bubble or similar tools. [How a takeover works →](/already-building) Your developers #### Your developer or agency builds Anyone you choose can build on Fabrika. We set up the platform and the rules, review every change before it's deployed, and answer for operations under an SLA. So operations, monitoring and patches aren't something you have to sort out with whoever writes the app. [Who answers for what →](/your-developers) ## The kickstart week, day by day If you choose the kickstart, we build the first app together. A week is enough because the scope is bounded up front: one workflow, one application. And because we don't start from zero: sign-in, permissions and deployment already stand, nobody invents them again. The week is the default, not a rule. A small app can be done in a day or two, a bigger one asks for more time. The offer shows how it comes out for your process. 1. Mon ### Process mapping We sit down with the people who work with the process every day, not just with management. We walk through how the workflow really runs, including the exceptions and workarounds nobody mentions in meetings. The output is a data model and a clearly agreed boundary: what the application will do on Friday, and what it deliberately won't. 1. Tue–Thu ### Building the application We build on our platform, with AI assistance and under the control of experienced developers. Every day we send you a link to the current state. The application grows in the open, not behind a curtain. Feedback goes in right away. Big changes to the brief belong in the next iterations, not in the middle of the week. 1. Fri ### Deployment to production The application is deployed into your infrastructure in a standard, repeatable way. We set up role-based access, train the people who will work with it, and hand over the documentation. From Friday on you work with the application for real, and from that moment we keep it running. What it asks of you: A few hours on Monday from the people who run the process every day. Your chosen person stays close to the build through the week, though not full-time. And on Friday, an hour or two for training. What the kickstart is not: A workshop, a feasibility study or a click-through prototype. At the end there is software your people work with. ![](/illustrations/tall-week-line.webp) ## What gets made, and how fast The pattern for anything where one person asks and another approves: holidays, business trips, small purchases. Estimate: A day or two The pattern for any register: contracts, vehicles, equipment, certificates. A record card, deadlines, reminders. Estimate: A day or two Field entries on a phone: trips, work done, quick reports. Anything written on paper today and retyped later. Estimate: A day or two A document arrives, makes its approval rounds, gets matched. A purchase request or a production requisition works the same way. Estimate: Two or three days Enquiries, offers, open deals. Not a hundred-field monster: exactly the steps your sales actually takes. Estimate: Two or three days ![](/illustrations/tall-app-vending.webp) Hours by project, straight into billing. The same shape works for machine logs, shifts or service visits. Estimate: Two or three days A login for your clients: order status, documents, requests. Your app facing out, not just in. Estimate: Four or five days An order from intake to delivery, with statuses, history and follow-up steps. Whether you sell goods, services or production. Estimate: Four or five days People, machines or dates against commitments. From production shifts to consultant workloads. Estimate: Four or five days Anything that lives in spreadsheets, e-mail and people's heads today. If we build it with you in the kickstart, a small app is done in a day or two, a bigger one takes the whole week. Nine examples out of many. It works the same in manufacturing, services, commerce or an IT company. The app follows your process, not the other way around. [Pick your first app with us →](https://cal.com/contember/demo) - helpdesk - bookings - complaints - inspections - onboarding - board reporting - shift handovers - asset register - purchase requests - training records - stock counts - visitor log - helpdesk - bookings - complaints - inspections - onboarding - board reporting - shift handovers - asset register - purchase requests - training records - stock counts - visitor log The list has no end. The scoping call is where we pick what makes sense for you first. [Book a 30-min call →](https://cal.com/contember/demo) ## What you'll have in place once Fabrika is set up Whichever way you come in, the end of the setup looks the same: an app in production, access set up, people trained. The more important part sits underneath. Let's go through it layer by layer, top to bottom. Your application what your people see Platform the production line Access management roles & permissions Operations deploys · patches · monitoring Your infrastructure your cloud account ![](/illustrations/sym-app.webp) ### Your application Forms, overviews, roles, a history of changes. This is what your people work with. It might be built with us during the kickstart, taken over from elsewhere, or written by your developer. Either way it's the first product of your fabrika, not the last. ![](/illustrations/sym-engine.webp) ### Platform The fabrika's production line: a tested foundation and established practices we've built from years of making business software. It's why the first application stands within a week, and why every next one takes days. Nothing that already stands gets invented again. ![](/illustrations/sym-turnstile.webp) ### Access management Who may do what, in one place for all your applications. Someone joins, leaves or changes roles: one change, not five tools. Sign-ins and access changes are recorded. ![](/illustrations/sym-gauges.webp) ### Operations Deployment, patches, monitoring, reviewing changes. The application keeps running long after the initial project enthusiasm fades. That's our job and a contractual commitment, not an extra task for your people or your supplier. ![](/illustrations/sym-tower.webp) ### Your infrastructure All of it runs in your own cloud account, in your company's name. The code and the data belong to you, and you can leave us at any time, with the whole system. [How it works technically: the Under the hood chapter →](#tech) These aren't tools bought in for one project. We build our own products on them too, like Nua Site and Redo My Site. That's why we think like manufacturers, not like an agency. [What else we build →](/products) ## After that, the next applications get built on your side Fabrika isn't outsourcing where everything disappears behind a vendor's wall. The work is divided so that competence gradually moves over to you. With your own developer or agency it goes faster, but the principle is the same: they send the changes, we review them and keep operations running. With a person of your own, it usually goes like this: 1. wk 1–2 ### Finding their feet We keep operations running: deployment, access, monitoring, platform updates. Your person saw how the platform is used during the kickstart or the setup training; now they get their hands on it. The first small things we solve together. 1. mo 1 ### First changes of their own After a few weeks your person makes smaller changes themselves: fields, code lists, reports, roles. We review every change they send toward production. The time investment is a few hours a week, not a new full-time job. 1. mo 3+ ### Their own applications In time they build whole applications themselves, always with our review behind them. They grow with it: they build things the entire company uses every day, and that competence stays with you. Your dependency on us shrinks over time instead of growing. 1. ongoing ### Us behind your team, leadership in the picture We stay where we're most useful: supporting your team and contractually guaranteeing operations. There's always someone to call. Leadership gets a monthly overview: what's running, what changed, what's in the backlog. And the costs are known up front: the setup price from the offer, then a predictable monthly plan. ![](/illustrations/tall-growing-rack.webp) ## Under the hood This chapter is for whoever you forward this page to with the words “have a look at this”. Everyone else can skip ahead, the comparison will wait. ### Where it all runs Usually in your own Cloudflare account, in your company's name. The applications run as Cloudflare Workers, data lives in a D1 database (SQLite), files in R2 storage. Instead of Cloudflare, we can set Fabrika up on Zerops or, by arrangement, on AWS, where we pick the region to match your requirements. Wherever it runs, we act in the account as administrators, and you can revoke that access at any time. ### What it's built from No no-code: every application is ordinary code. TypeScript and React on standard web technologies, plus our own open tools for building, sign-in and deployment, developed as open source. We build with AI assistance, inside guardrails and under the review of experienced developers. The code lives in git and every change gets checked before it ships. ### One sign-in for everything People sign in with their company account over SSO (OIDC, so Google, Microsoft and others work). Roles and permissions are managed in one place and set per application, and sign-ins and access changes are recorded. Machines and connected systems get API keys instead. Internally we call this layer Propustka. ### Deployment without clicking around Every application describes what it needs in a single file: domains, databases, permissions, build pipeline. Deploying to production is a repeatable step, not clicking through a console. Every deployment has its own record, and on top of that sit error tracking and a check that the app responds. We set up backups and restore with you, to the extent you need. Internally this layer goes by Vozka. ### What the servers cost You pay the cloud provider directly, Cloudflare or Zerops, by actual usage. Internal applications barely register: typically a few dollars a month for the whole fabrika, tens at most. And nobody charges per user, Fabrika plans scale with the number of applications, not seats. ### Integrations and existing data Connecting your accounting, ERP or e-shop is technically not a problem, and neither is taking over the data you have today. What differs is the effort: spreadsheets migrate quickly and simpler integrations fit inside the kickstart week, bigger systems ask for further iterations. How it looks in your case, we can tell you up front on the first call. ### If it ever comes to leaving The application code is yours, the data and domains sit in your account, and the platform stands on open tools. The system keeps running without us, and anyone who does ordinary web development can take it over. Nameplate Runtime Cloudflare Workers Database SQLite (D1) Files R2 storage Code TypeScript + React Sign-in SSO (OIDC) Deploys git + review Platform open source Your account, your code, your data. ![](/illustrations/tall-nameplate.webp) ## What you're hiring instead of us today We don't compete with brands, but with the ways this usually gets solved today: staying in spreadsheets, buying an off-the-shelf tool, clicking apps together in a no-code platform, or having a system custom-built. Each of them makes sense somewhere, and somewhere it stops being enough. The real question isn't what's cheapest now, but what runs your company three years from now. ![](/illustrations/machine-carts.webp) | What we compare | Stay with spreadsheets and email | Buy an off-the-shelf tool (SaaS) | Click it together in a no-code platform | Hire a custom-build agency | Contember Fabrika | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | First version in production | It's already there, and that's the problem | Weeks, but on someone else's template | Days, but only what the boxes allow | 3–6 months | A week with the kickstart, or we take over the app you have | | Cost and speed of change | Free, but with no control or history | You wait for the vendor's roadmap | Yourself and right away, within the tool's limits | Tens of thousands, months of waiting | Included in the monthly plan, ongoing | | Ownership of code and data | Nobody really knows | The vendor | There is no code; data sits on their platform | Often stays with the agency | You: code, data, portable | | Access management and audit | Shared files and passwords | Separately in every tool | Basic, whatever the platform offers | It varies | In one place, with a record of sign-ins, access changes and deployments | | Continuity | Ends with the person holding it together | Ends with the product or the price | Ends at the first process that doesn't fit the boxes | Ends with the contract | Your person or supplier builds, we review, and the way out is clear | ### “I've seen AI coding. But who's going to maintain it here?” These days almost anyone can generate something: a nephew, a freelancer, a capable colleague. And it often even works. But without access management, proper deployment and maintenance, it becomes shadow IT that ends the day its author leaves. AI made writing software cheaper. It didn't make owning it cheaper. That second half is exactly what we do. [Discuss it on a 30-minute call →](https://cal.com/contember/demo) ## Why this isn't another dependency We hear these questions at every first meeting, and they're fair. ![](/illustrations/spot-exit.webp) ### “Do we have to start with the kickstart week?” No. The kickstart is a service on top, for companies starting from zero that want their person to see the whole process. If you already have an app, or your developer or agency will build, we start straight with the Fabrika setup: the platform in your account, the rules for working with AI, and training. ### “Will you take over an app that was built elsewhere?” Yes, as long as it's code that can run outside the tool it was made in: an app from Lovable, Cursor or Claude Code, from a freelancer or an agency. We make small changes so the platform handles sign-in, permissions, keys and deployment, and help deploy it to Cloudflare or Zerops. The data comes along. We can't take over apps clicked together in Bubble and similar tools: the code stays locked inside the tool. ### “We don't have IT people. Who here will know how to run this?” You don't need them. Either we build the first app with your person during the kickstart, or we train them as part of the setup. They build the next ones themselves, with our review and support behind them. A capable power user who knows your processes is enough. You don't need a programmer. ### “What if you shut down or raise your prices?” The code and the data belong to you, we build on standard technologies and everything runs in your infrastructure. You can leave us at any time, with the whole system. It sounds odd as a sales argument, but it's exactly why clients stay with us. ### “Custom development means half a year and millions.” Traditionally, yes. That's why the scope and the price are bounded up front. With the kickstart: one week, one workflow, one price you know before we start. The speed isn't magic. It comes from not starting from scratch: the platform is already built, on years of experience building business software. ### “Are these just web apps for the office?” The apps run in a browser on anything: on a computer in the office, on a phone or tablet in the field. A trip log gets filled in in the car, a handover report on site. And when a full mobile app makes sense, that can be built too. ### “Can it connect to our accounting, ERP or e-shop?” Technically that's not a problem, and neither is taking over your existing data. Spreadsheets migrate quickly. What varies is the effort: simpler connections fit inside the setup or the kickstart, bigger systems ask for further iterations. How it looks in your case, we can tell you on the first call. ### “We don't have a cloud account. Now what?” You don't need anything up front. We set the account up, in your company's name, and hand it over as yours, along with everything that runs in it. Managing it stays part of our job. ### “Where does our data flow when AI is assisting?” The application runs in your infrastructure and AI always runs through your own plan, your people's AI, so you know exactly where things flow. We don't train anything on your data. And we're happy to advise on which provider makes the most sense for you. ### “How many users and how much data will it take?” More than an internal application will usually need. It runs on Cloudflare or Zerops, the default setup is the cheapest one that does the job, and a stronger database can be switched on once an app really needs it. When the company grows, the applications grow with it, no replatforming. ### “Won't this just be another vendor dependency?” We won't promise you complete independence. Nobody honest will. But the model points the opposite way from a classic vendor: the capability to build and manage the apps grows on your side, we support your team long term and hold an SLA on operations. Sign-ins, access changes and deployments are recorded, everything is documented, and you can take the whole thing with you. The way out is clear. ### “What if it doesn't catch on internally?” That's why we don't start with a year-long contract. First comes the setup at a price you know up front, and a first app running on your own process, whether we build it with you or take it over. Only then do you decide whether to continue. ![](/illustrations/cta-crane.webp) ## Start with half an hour on *what you have*. Show us a process you want to turn into an app, or an app you already have. We'll tell you which way into Fabrika fits, what it involves, and say plainly if we're not the right match. It's worth bringing your IT along. [Book a 30-min call →](https://cal.com/contember/demo) [Or just write to us →](/contact) Kickstart capacity: 2–3 a month. Slots fill up gradually.