Cidersoft - Web Design & Development

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an automotive parts-related website. It’s basically a startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cider?

We need them to build a website.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Cider is creating a marketplace website for us. The did some research, in the beginning, to see if some of the tech I had in mind was possible. Now, they’re building it.

I want to integrate several existing auction and e-commerce platforms into one website with live updates. Everything will happen in real-time, so if a product listing is updated on an external platform, it will update on ours, too.

What is the team composition? 

I’ve dealt with Ilya (Founder & CEO) who is very professional, detail-oriented, and easy to talk to. He’s a good communicator with a quick turnaround time.

How did you come to work with Cider?

One of my peers had worked with Cider in the past and recommended several of them, including Cider. Cider was definitely the one that stood out the most in their communications and follow-up.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $8,000–$12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in July 2020, and it’s ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Everything is still in the works, so I can’t speak to any metrics just yet. But, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve been working with Ilya, and the work we’ve done so far has been up to par with my expectations. 

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication is the most important to me, and their team has definitely shown that they’re capable of communicating well and relaying information fast. If they have any questions for me, they don’t hesitate to ask them so that we can resolve any challenges as soon as possible. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is what stood out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t comment on that so far since we’re still developing the site. I’m happy with everything that they’ve been up to, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know exactly what you want and really think through whatever services you seek prior to reaching out to them. That way, there’s no loss of time due to confusion or miscommunication about expecting them to come up with certain things.

Please describe your company and your position there. 

I’m the CEO of a cannabis dispensary called Medithrive.

For what projects/services did your company hire Cider? 

Our site was initially built by another vendor, but we wanted to update it and bring our online presence to the next level. As a result, we were looking for a reliable partner that had experience not only in development but also in SEO.  

What were your goals for this project?

Cider joined the project to optimize our site, fully manage our online presence through SEO, and develop new features. Our current goal is to roll out in-store menus and a POS system.

How did you select this vendor? 

After interviewing multiple providers, I ultimately chose Cider based on their customer services, industry experience, and feedback from industry counterparts. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail. 

First, Cider did a thorough technical audit of the website to determine where our issues were most prevalent and to create an improvement plan. We then worked on SEO and the overall usability of the website. Their team optimized the mobile version of the site using accelerated mobile pages (AMP), which facilitated our communication with customers using mobile devices. 

Currently, they continue to perform constant updates and upgrades on the site. We’re working on a new project to develop and implement digital in-store menus. These will be connected to our POS via an API.

What was the team composition?

We work with a project manager, a designer, a QA specialist, an SEO specialist, and a full-stack developer.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? 

We’re very pleased with their work. After their SEO specialist optimized our keywords, we noticed a tremendous increase in organic traffic, which resulted in a growth in sales. By refining the mobile version of our site, they’ve streamlined communication with our customers. 

I also appreciate how reliable their team is. Last year, our site was subject to multiple brute force attacks. Cider’s development team managed to bring the site back to life in a timely manner and improved web security to prevent such things in the future. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Overall, Cider is very responsive and thorough in their communication. Our assigned project manager is located in California, so it isn’t a problem for us to call or text if we have any questions that need to be answered immediately. We also use Trello to coordinate, which allows us to monitor task progress in real time. This keeps the process more transparent between teams. ​​​​​​

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I am most impressed by their attitude and level of involvement. They’re open to meeting my goals and deadlines, and the team is dedicated to transparency and communication.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are happy with their services overall. The only area for potential improvement would be response time on estimates for tasks.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Senior Director of Customer Service for Minerva Networks. We develop video compression technology and broadcast systems.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cider?

We needed custom development work to fill gaps in our environment that our management products suite didn’t cover.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve worked on two different projects for us. The first is creating a simpler review and feedback process for our publications. Under the original Atlassian management system, information would come to our technical writers from developers and QA engineers, who would then create a document and send it back for review as a PDF. We had to go through multiple iterations of this process which resulted in little collaboration and too many emails. Cider developed a tool that allowed us to create release notes directly from Jira ID’s, and export them, in real time, onto a Confluence page, which we could then send to the customer via PDF. They used macros and SQL to pull the information from Jira into Confluence.

Second, our customer tracking system doesn’t allow customers to edit their own information through our website. Cider is building a tool that utilizes API’s calling into the records system, showing the customer what details they currently have on file, and allowing them to update those records using API database update requests.

What is the team composition?

We worked through and interacted with their CEO.

How did you come to work with Cider?

It was done through our IT team, who allowed us to interview certain approved vendors. We provide the requirements and then get proposals from the vendors to understand their scope, cost, and potential solution. Then we presented our decision to our I.T. department.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $30,000 between the two projects. They have a distributed workforce throughout the world, with a number of different offices, so they're able to keep their costs low. Other companies would have been in the $50,000-$60,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2017. We’re in the deployment phase of the feedback simplification project now. The consumer records project started in January 2018.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We saw our investment returned on the feedback simplification project within 60 days, so we’re saving money by implementing their solution. It also has drastically improved our efficiency. Now our QA engineers and developers can document information while they’re working on an issue, which prevents us from having a backlog at the very end when there’s a big push to get all the information in within a couple days. They have some advanced developers that have a lot of experience who provided us with an elegant solution that met our requirements. Everyone’s been excited about it.

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very clear in their communication. When we give them requirements, they’ll review them and have a high-level design ready within a week. We’ll come back and review it with them and go over how they’re going to implement it. We communicate through our point of contact, and they’ve been flexible about setting up discussions and Skype calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with other partners and the lack of communication has always been a challenge, but Cider is good at communicating and following-up. They’ve followed-up on almost every item I’ve sent. And they explain that process to us, so we know what to expect. Most companies get the requirements and then implement their solution without doing a demo or proof of concept, but it’s not exactly what the customer wants. Cider has a good process to role things back to the customer for feedback that increases efficiency and cut down costs. They also do a lot of testing before they turn any versions over to us, so they work out most of the wrinkles ahead of time. Finally, they spend a lot of time upfront with the requirements and learning about our needs, so there’s not a lot of slippage in the scope.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It seems like nitpicking, but because their team is distributed, there might be holidays in certain areas or countries that they're located in, that we don’t anticipate. So you may have someone go offline for three or four days because of a holiday and we're just not aware. should I should be aware of it, just google it and figure out the holidays, but that's probably the only thing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It is imperative to get your requirements straight, because if you have bad requirements, you’re going to get a bad design and bad implementation. Cider will review the requirements and then they’ll set up a review meeting to go through them and ask clarification questions. That process has caught a lot of things we haven’t thought about. Get solid on the requirements and they’ll be well understood, which leads to a much more successful project.

Understand the flexibility you’re looking for. In general, developers will make something hardcoded, like the length or name of a field, if they don’t have an understanding of the flexibility you need. This will make it so it’s very hard to change later on. Having that level of requirements and understanding makes it so you can keep development time from expanding beyond expectations.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing director of Blu Marketing Solutions, a local-based marketing company in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For what projects/services did your company hire Cider?

I needed them to do some website updates and backend work for one of our clients.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to make the site cleaner, load quicker, more user-friendly, and create an administrative panel to manage the site. 

How did you select this vendor?

Cider offered all the solutions we needed at a competitive price. 

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Cider started with a discovery period to understand the basic needs for the site to run more efficiently. They created better security for the site and designed the UX/UI to be more user-friendly. Their team implemented a member payment feature and created an administrative interface to manage content posting and removal. They currently work on smoothing out features and provide technical support. 

What was the team composition?

We work with a developer, a designer, and a project manager.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The team at Cider is very efficient and creates expert solutions to resolve issues. They are always suggesting the best options to fix and improve the functionality of the website.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We plan everything together from our work priority list to the managing board we use to keep up with updated. They provide all their work online and we can easily review their timetable for pricing. Cider is available for our questions and feedback at any time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Cider is very efficient, professional, and have a depth of technical knowledge. Their team is always a pleasure to communicate with.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

No, they are a great agency. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Enkeli, a nonprofit organization that’s trying to save kids through an alert system. We have an app that reminds parents to check their cars, so they don’t leave their children inside.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cider?

We needed a company to build the app from scratch. We’d hired a different firm, but it didn’t work out well, so we needed a new partner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided Cider with the idea and vision for the app, and they delivered the technical solution. When the parent stops driving, they’ll receive a push notification form the app that reminds them to check their car and make sure they didn’t leave their child behind. The app’s key features are the tracking device, a customizable reminder message, and selecting how many meters from the car a user wants to receive the push notification. Cider built the app for both iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Cider’s co-founder, but we also work with the project manager.

How did you come to work with Cider?

I found Cider through LinkedIn’s ProFinder tool. We met in person, and I decided to work with them based on their knowledge and assurance they could do the work.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2017–January 2018. They finished both the iOS and Android apps in two months.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Without Cider, we wouldn’t have an app. They not only built it, but they made it a lot better. We initially wanted the app to access Bluetooth, but they said tracking would make the app much lighter. We’re absolutely satisfied with Cider’s work.

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

They had great project management. Everything was posted through Trello, which helped track the work. We usually got updates and answers within 24 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provided an accurate estimation of how many hours they’d work. They also kept us highly involved in the project, letting us see the progress step-by-step.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of the main reasons I hired Cider was because I thought they were based in San Francisco. However, I later found out the team is located in Russia. I wanted to work with a nearby team to make communication easier, and I didn’t know they were overseas. Communication that was faster than 24 hours would’ve been helpful. Overall, we had a great experience and got the product we wanted, though.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a co-owner of the emoji app My Hoodmoji.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cider?

They helped with the mobile development of our app for both Android and iOS users.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took what was just an idea with no design, no coding, and made it real. The assigned us a dedicated design team, created and walked us through a project plan, and worked with us through the development and discovery phase as new challenges arose.

What is the team composition?

We worked with our design team, but I was also able to directly contact the CTO and co-founder with any questions. I could reach out by email, text, or phone call at any time, and either the design team or CTO would quickly respond.

How did you come to work with Cider?

This is a completely new avenue me and my co-founder, so we reached out to many different companies, but what first stood out about Cider was their willingness to meet in–person. In that meeting, we felt that they really understood the project and could connect with our vision.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $16,000–$19,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first met with them February 2017 and released in the App Store December 2017.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Even with the minimal advertising on Instagram that we had for our initial release, we had 800–900 downloads in the first month. We received a lot of positive feedback in the way of Instagram messages from people loving the keyboard and sharing stories of how they related to and used it.

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

In addition to emails, phone calls, and text, they used Trello to make sure we stayed updated on the project and to communicate with us. Any time I had a question or needed clarification, they responded right away. When there were technical aspects that I didn't understand, they would patiently break everything down for me so that I knew exactly what was happening on the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I don't have much experience in the field to provide a comparison to other companies, but they were very responsive and made sure we understood every part of the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The design team they assigned to us was based out of another country, and the time difference introduced a stress factor on a few occasions. Since they could be an entire day ahead of us, we would send feedback on what was a weekday for us but a weekend for them, so our feedback would remain untouched for several days.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be mindful of the time difference between yourself and the team Cider assigns to you. I would also suggest putting aside money if the project is something Cider hasn't encountered before, just because as a unit you and Cider will face unexpected hurdles.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the tech lead for a company that manufactures luxury watch accessories that we sell online. Our small team does everything in-house, including hosting and developing our website.

What challenge were you trying to address with XYZ?

We do not have a physical store, so our online presence has a huge impact on our sales. We employed SEO professionals to make our website search engine friendly and improve our rank in search results.

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the first stages of the project, they navigated through our entire website and helped us change the structure, rephrase content, and add keywords. In addition to incorporating SEO on our website, they used Google Adwords to create PPC campaigns for us. Each month, they run the relevant keywords and evaluate the amount of traffic on our website and our visitors' demographics.

What is the team composition?

I mainly interacted with my two points of contact via email, but we also used Trello.

How did you come to work with Cider?

SEO companies in the U.S. were too expensive, so we looked abroad for more affordable services. We eventually chose Cider because they provide nearly as high-quality a product at 20% of the cost of a U.S. agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent approximately $2,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Cider in January 2017. They completed most of the work in the early stages, but we continue to use their services to manage Google AdWords.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We use Rankinity to measure our rankings across several search engines, and we have seen our online visibility increase from 4% to 36%. Before they implemented SEO, it was hard to find our website when searching for watch accessories. Now, our website is found within the first five pages of search results. Our sales increased along with the traffic to our website, so our objective was met. 

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

Cider was great at project management. Using Trello, they were able to stay on top of tasks and give our team estimates on how long it would take to complete a task. They always responded to our email requests within two business days, which was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are a pleasure to work with, and they offer exceptional services at a competitive price point. They understand that SEO is a long battle that cannot be won over one or two months and practice the necessary patience with measuring progress.  Their knowledge of Google AdWords is another outstanding quality they possess.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When they came across errors on the website, they delegated the work to our team instead of fixing it themselves. I am not sure if their policy prohibits them from obtaining our login information, but it would be beneficial if they could make those changes without involving our staff.

Their English can be lacking at times, but communicating via email gives you a general context to understand what they are saying.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They know what they are doing, so give them the freedom to drive the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the operations manager for an online vitamin and supplements store.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cider?

We needed help with some website development projects that hadn't been handled properly by a previous vendor, including web stability, security, and customer experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cider assessed our website and determined where our issues were most present in order to make recommendations and fix them. Then we engaged them in SEO services and continue to work with them as bugs or security patches come up and updates and upgrades are needed.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with a project manager. Depending on the nature of the work, we may be in touch several times a day.

How did you come to work with Cider?

One of Cider's founders reached out to our digital marketing manager and talked to him about some of their services. We did a trial project with them from there and decided to continue working with them based on their delivery.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested over $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since August 2017.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We've been very happy with all of their work. They've fixed our web issues in a short timeframe where previous vendors had completely failed to. For example, our previous vendor spent months trying to sync our email application to our e-commerce store, but it was riddled with problems. Cider fixed it within a few weeks.

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive and thorough in communication. Despite different timezones, they appear to mirror our working hours, so we haven't experienced any issues. Using Trillo, I can easily upload requests and then they'll follow up with a phone call or email once the project is approved. They're very good at getting the right resources involved to resolve any issue that may arise.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm most impressed by their knowledge of coding and development. They're able to correct site issues that our previous provider wasn't able to fix. Their technical expertise and execution set them apart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. As a small company, I could see them running into bandwidth issues, but it hasn't affected our relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to understand your technology platform as much as possible, so that the requests you make can be properly communicated and your expectations managed. It will also help you assess the best vendor and approach for your company. It's really helped us keep our expectations in line by educating ourselves. We have a better understanding of what the technology can and can't do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of 6 Pack Fitness, a consumer goods company specializing in meal management cooler bags that come in different styles, from backpacks and totes to duffels and shoulder bags. Each bag has specific compartments for organizing meal containers, utensils, gel packs, and anything else someone would need when traveling with meals. We primarily focus on the fitness industry, since diet accounts for a good part of athletic performance.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cider?

We had moved to a Magento platform from a basic website that had been built in 2012. Since Shopify and the other platforms weren’t what they are now, it was the only option at the time. We considered five or six vendors before settling on Cider.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cider has provided backend implementations on our website, including a migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2. They work based on our copy and inputs.

Cider has also made some implementations on the site based on our SEO specialist’s direction. We handle marketing and content creation internally.

What is the team composition?

I have interfaced with the engineers and one of their principals. On their side, we have a dedicated engineer who delegates our tasks to the team.

How did you come to work with Cider?

I knew their founder from previous engagements. He reached out to me with a quote, but I didn’t start a collaboration immediately. Since websites always break, I wanted to make sure that they would provide the right levels of knowledge and support. After becoming tired of the astronomical bills from our current provider, so I decided to give Cider a chance. I believe that we were one of their first accounts. We’ve been working together ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of their work has been $100,000-$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Cider at the beginning of 2016, and have an ongoing engagement. About 98% of the website is where we want it to be.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

From the start, one of the things I hoped to achieve was website optimization. We went from C to A on Google’s mobile speed score. Their Magento migration rebuilt the site from the ground up, and the page is much faster.

None of Cider’s work has had an adverse effect on our conversions. They test any new implementations on the development server, which I appreciate. This has minimized potential downtime from bigger changes.

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

We have two weekly calls. The first is focused on general business and upcoming initiatives, and Cider’s designers are present for the second. We use Trello to prioritize tasks and allocate hours for each one.

One of my concerns with an outsourcing engagement was task delegation. Their constant follow-ups and use of Trello have prevented any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When working with smaller, growing developers, I’ve experienced a lot of overpromising followed by under-delivery, excuses, and more promises. I’ve also worked with a larger company that had much more knowledge and available resources, but I didn’t feel that they cared about having us as a client. I know that Cider is focusing on attracting new business, but I haven’t felt neglected.

Their principal researched how we could list our products effectively on eBay and Amazon while keeping our prices high. That wasn’t within their scope of work. It showed me that they cared, which is Cider’s biggest differentiator.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have a great team, but I always wonder whether they’re implementing cutting-edge web development approaches. There is a lot of change going on, so they should constantly find creative ways of approaching e-commerce.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We mapped our short-term and long-term projects on Trello from the start. It was a good learning process, and it kept everyone on the same page.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a gaming company that creates casino games.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cider?

A game we created required an electronic scoreboard. We had a simplistic solution, but wanted something flashier, with more bells and whistles.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used Unity as their graphics platform. I’m not very tech savvy, so depended on their suggestions. We worked in real time via Trello. I made comments and enjoyed being involved in the process. I helped them go in the direction we wanted and we saved a lot of time.

What is the team composition?

Vadim (Business Development Manager, Cider) was our project manager and Ilya (Co-Founder & CEO, Cider) was in charge. I think they had a couple other developers. There were about four people on the team.

How did you come to work with Cider?

We found them via Yelp or another review site. We contacted four different companies and decided to work with Cider. They were quick to respond and set up an in-person meeting. They gave us a quote within our price range and asked specific questions about the scope of the work.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between January and April 2017. There were a few small follow-up items that were completed by June.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Their graphics caught on pretty quickly. Player feedback has been almost entirely positive. The main casino we work with expanded their use and added another game. The new graphics also gave me the opportunity to introduce the game in Las Vegas. We ultimately lost that bid, but the graphics allowed us to be considered.

How did Cider perform from a project management standpoint?

I met with Ilya and Vadim at the beginning to discuss the project and again as we approached our rollout. They never went ahead without our approval and let us check their work at every stage. They kept in touch and we had weekly or twice-weekly meetings throughout the process. I could always talk to somebody.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication was great. They kept me involved and gave me what I wanted. They’re open to frequent feedback, which is important to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They quoted us a price at the beginning that seemed to go up as we went along. There may have been some miscommunication at the beginning of the process, but we feel like we did a good job explaining everything we needed. We ended up compromising on the price, but it was substantially more than the original quote.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give a clear sense of what your project entails in the initial meeting. Make sure all the details are outlined and included in the quote.