# Sloboda Studio Sloboda Studio Reviews (55), Pricing, Services & Verified Ratings - Verified - 4.9 out of 5 average review rating - 2 connections joined Sloboda Studio's Network [Visit Website](https://sloboda-studio.com/?utm_source=clutch&utm_medium=ruby&utm_campaign=sloboda_page) [Get a Custom Proposal](https://clutch.co/profile/sloboda-studio) **Building business-oriented soft for SMBs, startups** Sloboda Studio is a European software development company supporting startups and SMBs in building and scaling digital products: - Proven track record with 200+ successful projects - ISO-certified processes and transparent communication - Focus on practical, business-driven solutions without unnecessary complexity - Long-term partnerships with companies in the US, Canada, UK, and EU Since 2010, we’ve delivered reliable platforms and modernized legacy systems while helping companies extend their engineering teams with experienced developers. Sloboda Studio combines technical depth with business understanding. We create platforms, marketplaces, SaaS products, and AI-powered tools that help companies operate more efficiently, scale with confidence, and innovate faster. **What we do:** - Web development with Ruby on Rails, Python, and Java - Frontend with React and Vue.js - AI & Machine Learning: ChatGPT integrations, predictive analytics, maintenance optimization - Industrial IoT dashboards for energy, manufacturing, and sustainability - Data engineering and analytics with PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, Power BI - Cloud & DevOps on AWS, Google Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD **How we work:** - Fast product delivery: from MVPs to enterprise SaaS platforms - Dedicated engineers: mid- and senior-level experts ready to join your team from day one - System upgrades: modernizing legacy apps, adding analytics or AI, improving security - Flexible engagement: dedicated teams, staff augmentation, or end-to-end development ## Company Information - Minimum project size: $10,000+ - Hourly rate: $50 - $99 - Number of employees: 50 - 249 - 4 Locations: - Berlin, Germany (Headquarters) - Cherkasy, Ukraine - Austin, TX - València, Spain - Founded in 2010 - 4 languages: English, Spanish, German, Ukrainian - 11 timezones: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), Central European Time (CET), Eastern European Time (EET), Pacific Standard Time (PST), Phoenix Standard Time (PNT), Mountain Standard Time (MST), Central Standard Time (CST), Eastern Standard Time (EST), Indiana Eastern Standard Time (IET), Canada Newfoundland Time (CNT) ## Services, Focus Areas, Industries, and Clients ### Service Lines - 35% IT Staff Augmentation - 25% AI Development - 20% IoT Development - 10% Custom Software Development - 10% Web Development ### Focus Areas - Application Platforms: - 80% Amazon Application Development Framework - 20% Google app engine - Frameworks and CMS: - 40% Django - 40% Ruby on Rails - 20% React - AI Expertise: - 35% Natural Language Processing - 25% Chatbots & Conversational AI - 10% AI Recommendation Systems - 10% Computer Vision - 10% Machine Learning - 10% Voice and Speech Recognition - Programming & Scripting: - 30% Python - 30% Ruby - 20% Java - 20% JavaScript - AI Technologies & Models: - 25% Hugging Face Bloom - 25% Open AI Dall-E 2 - 10% Adobe Firefly - 10% Anthropic - 10% Deepmind Gopher - 10% Open AI GPT-3 - 10% Stable Diffusion ### Industries - 20% Advertising & marketing - 20% eCommerce - 20% Financial services - 20% Medical - 20% Real estate ### Clients - 50% Small Business (<$10M) - 50% Midmarket ($10M - $1B) ## Pricing Snapshot Average rating for cost based on this provider's reviews: 4.7 out of 5 **What Clients Have Said** *(This summary is based on verified Clutch reviews.)*: Sloboda Studio offers competitive pricing and good value for cost, with projects ranging from $10,000 to over $1 million. Clients appreciate their responsiveness, effective communication, and quality of work, often highlighting significant improvements in efficiency and streamlined processes. **Most Common Project Size**: $10,000 to $49,000 based on 36 reviews *(Pricing information for this provider is based on reviews where the project size was available.)* ### Pricing by Service - Custom Software Development: $10,000 to $49,000 based on 25 reviews - Web Development: $10,000 to $49,000 based on 8 reviews - IT Staff Augmentation: $10,000 to $49,000 based on 7 reviews - UX/UI Design: $50,000 to $199,999 based on 4 reviews - Web Design: Less than $10,000 based on 2 reviews - DevOps Managed Services: $50,000 to $199,999 based on 1 review - E-Commerce Development: $10,000 to $49,000 based on 1 review - HR Consulting: $10,000 to $49,000 based on 1 review - Mobile App Development: $50,000 to $199,999 based on 1 review - Other Design: Less than $10,000 based on 1 review - AI Development: Confidential based on 1 review - Other IT Consulting and SI: Confidential based on 1 review ### Packages Offered - IT Staff Augmentation Packages — starting at $7,500/month - Custom Software Development Packages — starting at $5,000/total - Web Development Packages — starting at $5,000/total ## Reviews Clutch investigates each reviewer's identity and work history. Every review goes through a rigorous, human-led verification process to confirm the reviewer's identity, and reviews that we verify are visibly marked as 'Verified' so you can trust that they come from a real client. [Learn More](https://help.clutch.co/en/knowledge/how-clutch-verifies-reviews) ### Sloboda Studio Review Insights Overall Review Rating: 4.9 - Quality: 4.8 - Schedule: 4.9 - Cost: 4.7 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 ### Top Mentions - Communicative (14 mentions) - High-quality work (14 mentions) - Great project management (11 mentions) - Timely (9 mentions) - Collaborative (7 mentions) - Professional (6 mentions) - Unique expertise (6 mentions) - Well-organized projects (6 mentions) - Efficient (5 mentions) - Transparent (5 mentions) - Easy to reach (4 mentions) - Flexible (4 mentions) - Helpful (4 mentions) - Knowledgeable (4 mentions) - Exceptional results (3 mentions) - Open to feedback (3 mentions) - Attentive (2 mentions) - Experienced (2 mentions) - Reliable (2 mentions) - Results-oriented (2 mentions) ### Review Highlights **Handling Staffing Challenges** While generally praised, there were occasional mentions of challenges in maintaining consistent team members throughout a project. Clients suggest that stability in team composition could improve project continuity. **Proficient in Custom Solutions** Sloboda Studio excels in developing tailored solutions across different industries, such as e-commerce, healthcare, and B2B services. Their expertise in Ruby on Rails and React is well-regarded, and clients appreciate their ability to address complex business needs with innovative solutions. **Responsive and Adaptive** The team is noted for their responsiveness and adaptability to client needs. They quickly integrate into existing workflows, which allows for seamless collaboration and swift project progress. **High-Quality Deliverables** Clients report high satisfaction with the quality of work delivered by Sloboda Studio. Their attention to detail and commitment to meeting project specifications ensure that the end products are reliable and effective. **Effective Project Management** Clients frequently commend Sloboda Studio for their structured project management, ensuring timely deliveries and smooth communication. Their ability to maintain transparency, adapt to changes, and keep stakeholders informed fosters trust and satisfaction. **Proactive Problem Solving** Sloboda Studio is recognized for their proactive approach in identifying potential issues and suggesting improvements before they escalate, which enhances project outcomes and client satisfaction. **Strong Communication Skills** Sloboda Studio is praised for its open and effective communication. They maintain clear channels with clients, often using Slack, Jira, and other tools, which ensures alignment and addresses any concerns promptly. **Areas for Improvement in Design** Some clients noted that while Sloboda Studio excels in development, their design capabilities, particularly in web design, could be enhanced to better support marketing and user engagement. **Cost-Effective Solutions** Many clients appreciate the value Sloboda Studio provides, offering high-quality services at competitive prices. This cost-effectiveness is a recurring theme in client feedback. **Commitment to Client Success** The studio's dedication to client success is evident, with teams going above and beyond to understand client goals and provide valuable recommendations, ensuring long-term partnerships and trust. ### Sloboda Studio Reviews #### Development Services for HR Company (Featured Review) **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: May 2021 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: An HR company needed additional resources for their team in order to scale efficiently. They chose to partner with Sloboda Studio to provide the services they needed to achieve their goals. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Recruiter, Surprise.com - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 201-500 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Oct 12, 2021 **Feedback Summary**: The Sloboda Studio team's good communication and responsive sales teams are helping the company build their dream product. The company commends the overall quality of the team's engineers as their most impressive asset and the biggest reason the project is progressing smoothly. ""All of the engineers are very qualified."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I'm a recruiter at Surprise.com. The company is fundamentally changing how people work, by engaging employees and providing impactful analytics to people operations professionals. To continue scaling our impact, we’re committed to hiring builders who are inspired by our team’s guiding principle: to derive a tremendous sense of purpose to make anything we touch be the best it can be. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio, and what were your goals? Surprise.com has created a purpose built enterprise class platform that aligns employees, managers and business leaders to effectively drive “positive, goal directed behavior” and recognizes major accomplishments and milestones across an organization in support of personal, team and corporate goals. We hired Sloboda Studio as we needed additional resources to our team. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors? We found this vendor on Clutch and after a call, we decided that we want to cooperate. Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used. Features development How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions? 15 Engineers (React Engineers, Ruby Engineers, iOS Engineer, Python Engineers) **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables? All of the engineers are very qualified. They are helping us to build our dream product. Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness. Good communication. Attentive and responsive sales representatives and hr team (Iryna Korobka and Liliya Andreychenko) What did you find most impressive or unique about this company? Fast communication with it's representatives and qualified engineers Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently? No --- #### Lending Services Development for Patient Financing Platform **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Nov. 2025 - Feb. 2026 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio developed a lending service for a patient financing platform. The service was an isolated lender simulation platform used by the client's QA team to test their platform. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CEO, CredCompare - Industry: Financial services - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — May 14, 2026 **Feedback Summary**: The lending service became the deterministic backbone of the client's automated regression testing. Sloboda Studio's project management was solid, and they were consistently responsive. The client also praised the team's communication discipline and willingness to execute as instructed. ""They delivered what we needed, and the working relationship was smooth."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and position.I am the CEO of CredCompareDescribe what your company does in a single sentence.CredCompare is a multi lender patient financing orchestration platform that routes elective healthcare applications across a tiered lender network to maximize patient approvals. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish?Build a configurable, end to end automated testing infrastructure for our patient financing platform.Eliminate fragility in our QA pipeline caused by unstable third party lender sandboxes.Bring deep fintech domain expertise into the design of our test coverage. **SOLUTION** How did you find Sloboda Studio?ReferralOtherWhy did you select Sloboda Studio over others?Great culture fitCompany values alignedHow many teammates from Sloboda Studio were assigned to this project?6-10 EmployeesDescribe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.Sloboda Studio built our Mock Lender service, an isolated lender simulation platform used by our QA team to test our patient financing orchestration platform end to end without depending on real lender sandboxes.Deliverables:A standalone API service (Python/FastAPI with MongoDB) that exposes the same integration surface as a real lender, returning configurable responses (approve, decline, pending), status transitions, and transaction flows.A Control Plane UI (React) where our QA team configures behavior rules per scenario. For example, "decline all applications above a threshold," "time out the next N requests," or "return a specific error for a defined input pattern."Manual operations tooling for actions that normally happen outside our platform in production, including signing transactions, resolving pending applications, and creating external transactions.Auth0 SSO on the Control Plane so our team uses existing credentials, with Bearer token auth on the API plane.Designed for sustained load of 100 requests per minute with bursts up to 20 requests per second. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?The Mock Lender now serves as the deterministic backbone of our automated regression testing. Specifically:100% deterministic test behavior. The same input always produces the same output, which removed a major source of flaky tests we previously had when testing against real lender sandboxes.Complete test coverage of platform features independent of any specific lender's availability or sandbox limitations.Our QA team can now define new test scenarios through configuration in minutes, without engineering work.Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?Project management was solid. Deliveries generally landed on the timelines we agreed on, with the kind of normal back and forth you'd expect on a project with evolving scope. Mykola, our PM, was consistently responsive. Questions got answered the same day, scheduling was handled cleanly, and when we needed to adjust direction it was a real conversation rather than a process bottleneck.What was your primary form of communication with Sloboda Studio?Virtual MeetingWhat did you find most impressive or unique about this company?Two things stood out. First, communication discipline. Mykola never let a thread drop or a question go unanswered, which sounds basic but is rarer than it should be. Second, the team's willingness to take a clear brief and execute against it without over engineering. When we said "this is internal, optimize for simplicity and determinism, not for scale," they did exactly that. A lot of agencies push toward more complexity, and more billable hours. Sloboda matched the scope of the problem.Are there any areas for improvement or something Sloboda Studio could have done differently?Honestly, nothing significant. Within the scope we defined, they delivered what we needed, and the working relationship was smooth. --- #### Platform Dev & UX/UI Design Staff Aug for IT Services Co **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development, IT Staff Augmentation, UX/UI Design - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Apr. 2024 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provides staff augmentation services for an IT services company. The team has sourced a React developer for frontend development and to enhance the UX/UI of an end client's booking platform. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Founder & CEO, Idea Team - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 51-200 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Oct 30, 2024 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio's developer has integrated easily with the client's team, improving development speed by 30%. The team showcases excellent teamwork and exhibits a structured project management approach, communicating via in-person and virtual meetings. Their responsiveness has impressed the client. ""What stood out about Sloboda Studio was their streamlined processes and responsiveness."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and position.I am the Founder & CEO of Idea TeamDescribe what your company does in a single sentence.We specialize in providing highly skilled software developers for staff augmentation to help companies scale their tech teams efficiently. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish?Sloboda Studio engaged us to source a skilled React developer to optimize front-end development and enhance the user experience for their travel industry client’s booking and ticketing platform. **SOLUTION** How did you find Sloboda Studio?ReferralWhy did you select Sloboda Studio over others?High ratingsGood value for costReferred to meHow many teammates from Sloboda Studio were assigned to this project?1 EmployeeDescribe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.Our engagement involved sourcing, vetting, and onboarding a React developer who was fully dedicated to Sloboda Studio’s team, working closely with their in-house engineers to ensure a cohesive development process. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?Sloboda Studio integrated a developer easily with the project, ensuring productive environment. The developer contributed to a 30% increase in the speed of the client’s application, alongside a noticeable improvement in UI elements, which boosted the overall UX.Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?Sloboda Studio’s project management was highly structured, with clear milestones and a collaborative approach that facilitated excellent teamwork between our developer and their internal teams.What was your primary form of communication with Sloboda Studio?In-Person MeetingVirtual MeetingWhat did you find most impressive or unique about this company?What stood out about Sloboda Studio was their streamlined processes and responsiveness, making it easy for our developer to jump into the project effectively.Are there any areas for improvement or something Sloboda Studio could have done differently?No, everything was good. --- #### IT Staff Aug & FinTech Platform Dev for Software Dev Firm **The Project** - Services: IT Staff Augmentation, Web Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Jan. - Sep. 2024 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided one senior and two mid-level Rails developers to support the development of a FinTech platform for a software development company's client. They built the backend and integrated APIs. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 4.5 **The Reviewer** CMO, SumatoSoft - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 51-200 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Aug 16, 2024 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio’s developers accelerated the client’s product roadmap by 25%, allowing them to meet key project milestones and roll out new features ahead of schedule. The team operated within the client’s established agile framework and showcased flexibility, independence, and adaptability. ""Their developers quickly adapted to our complex environment and were highly autonomous."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and position.I am the CMO of SumatoSoftDescribe what your company does in a single sentence.SumatoSoft builds complex custom software to help companies to apply the best IT innovations to meet their goals through business digitalization.  **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish?Sloboda Studio augmented our client’s internal team with skilled Ruby on Rails developers, enabling the team to scale development efforts and deliver critical features for the FinTech platform on time. **SOLUTION** How did you find Sloboda Studio?ReferralWhy did you select Sloboda Studio over others?High ratingsGood value for costReferred to meHow many teammates from Sloboda Studio were assigned to this project?2-5 EmployeesDescribe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.Our client provides digital banking solutions to financial institutions, focusing on improving security and customer experience. Sloboda Studio provided two mid-level and one senior Ruby on Rails developer who seamlessly integrated into the client’s internal team to support the development of the FinTech platform. Their focus was on backend development, API integrations, and improving our system's performance.  **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?Sloboda Studio’s developers allowed us to accelerate our client’s product roadmap by 25%, ensuring we met key project milestones and launched new features ahead of schedule. Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?Sloboda Studio’s team worked within our existing agile framework, demonstrating flexibility and adaptability to our processes and deadlines. What was your primary form of communication with Sloboda Studio?Virtual MeetingEmail or Messaging AppWhat did you find most impressive or unique about this company?Their developers quickly adapted to our complex environment and were highly autonomous, which reduced the need for extensive oversight from our side. Are there any areas for improvement or something Sloboda Studio could have done differently?Everything has been great, but one area we want to encourage is for the team to challenge requirements when they don’t seem logical or when there’s a better approach. We understand this can be difficult, especially since some clients prefer a 'build exactly what I say' mindset. However, we value the team's expertise, and it's always beneficial to hear their ideas and suggestions for improvement.  --- #### Automated System Dev & Design for Advertising Agency **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development, UX/UI Design - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Jan. 2021 - Aug. 2022 **Project Summary**: An advertising agency hired Sloboda Studio to develop an automated system that would collect data from customers and route it to different partners. They also built a UI for setup and statistics purposes. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CEO, Advertising Agency - Industry: Advertising & marketing - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Oct 17, 2022 **Feedback Summary**: In just a few weeks, Sloboda Studio completed the project, and it functioned as expected. The client rarely encountered issues, and the vendor was responsive to any feedback and necessary improvements. They communicated through calls, emails, and Slack, and they were efficient in executing the plan. ""They understood quickly what we needed."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. CEO of an advertising agency **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio, and what were your goals? We needed to develop an automated system that would collect postbacks and route them to different partners systems **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors? I knew Sloboda from the previous company I worked at, and they were always highly spoken of, so I decided to contact them when I had needs with my own company Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used. Project was based on Python. First step was to build a database with a specific endpoint that would collect different parameters from our clients. And then after collecting this data, make some decisions whether to forward or not this data to our business partners. Over time this evolved and became more sophisticated, with more complexity in the decision making phase, handling new types of postbacks etc.. The project also included developing a simple user interface for setup and statistics purposes. This was based on Django framework. How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions? 1 person, full-stack senior engineer **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables? The project was launched after a few weeks of work. Immediately it was reliable and suffering very few issues, working as expected. It became a central piece for our operations. Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness. First call with a project manager from the team, who gathers the requirements and then decided on the team member to allocate to the project. Alex was very reactive and had easily availability to speak with us, which kicked things off quickly. Style was always very professional and organized. A few days after we had a call with one of their engineers and our previous provider for a transition. Then the engineer started working on our project immediately and was able to deliver faster than expected. Communication was done over calls, emails and Slack channel. Always smooth and efficient. What did you find most impressive or unique about this company? They understood quickly what we needed, were very concrete and pragmatic about what they were going to do, how they were going to do it. And finally very efficient in executing. Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently? We were fully satisfied and do not see specifically any area of improvement --- #### Development Staff Augmentation for Financial Software Co **The Project** - Services: IT Staff Augmentation - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Jan. - June 2021 **Project Summary**: A financial software company has partnered with Sloboda Studio to augment their engineering team and accelerate features and functionality development. The team assists in all aspects of the platform. **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 4.5 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Head of Professional Services, Financial Software Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Sep 20, 2022 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio thus far has successfully accelerated the platform's development process, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and launching speed of features and functionality. Beyond their unique skillsets, the team's quick adaptability to the client's workplace and processes is remarkable. ""I like their ability to integrate with our team and process quickly."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I'm the head of Professional Services for a US based financial SaaS platform. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? We hired the Sloboda team to initially help us make progress on our tech debt with the ultimate goal of augmenting our own engineering team to help accelerate customer enhancement requests and new features and functionality. **SOLUTION** How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors? The biggest factors were the availability of unique skill sets and professionalism of the management and delivery team members we met with during the selection process. Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project. The initial phase of the project was to guide and advise us tech debt related initiatives. From there, the Sloboda team has migrated to becoming an extension of our development team assisting with all aspects of our platform and additional responsibilities around QA and Project Management. Describe the recruitment process in detail. We provided a detailed list of responsibilities we were looking for the Sloboda team to take on. We then decided on a number of resources and were presented with options. We had the opportunity to perform multiple interviews and technical screens for each of the requested resources. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success? Since on boarding the team, we've been able to accelerate our overall development process which has resulted in improved customer satisfaction and quicker roll out of customer enhancements and new features and functionality. How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs? Fairly seamless. There are ebbs and flows in our activities which make managing utilization of the Sloboda team tricky at times but we've been able to work through those times with little to no impact on the Sloboda team or our customers. What did you find most impressive or unique about this company? The ability to bring unique skillets to bear in short notice. I like their ability to integrate with our team and process quickly. Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently? While communication and reporting is good there is room for improvement. That falls just as much on us as it does the Sloboda team. --- #### Dev Staff Augmentation for IT Company **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development, IT Staff Augmentation - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Feb. 2022 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio has been hired by an IT company for assistance in rebuilding and maintaining a customer's reporting module for employee learning progress. They also help rewrite the customer's PHP app in Python. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Account Manager, IT Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Sep 9, 2022 **Feedback Summary**: Although the project is still ongoing, the client is already satisfied with Sloboda Studio's quality of work and valuable recommendations. The team consists of is highly-qualified experts who listen to feedback. They use email and Slack to communicate and use Github and Jira for project management.  ""They exceeded our bar on every need."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I work as an Account Manager at an IT company. We are a tech ecosystem that helps clients solve their software and staffing needs by managing each and every step in tech competency - from education to impact-driven development services. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio, and what were your goals? We were working on a project to maintain and modernize the reporting system of our client for it to perform efficiently and provide accurate reports. So, we collaborated with Sloboda Studio to rebuild and maintain our client’s reporting module that creates reports about employee learning progress. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors? Sloboda and our company are long-standing partners that have worked together on many projects. Out of all the companies we interviewed, Sloboda Studio showed the most understanding of the project goals. They provided us with the most efficient way to solve challenges. Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used. Our client was in the process of migrating clients from their 2nd Generation monolith to our 3rd Generation distributed platform. So, we partnered with Sloboda Studio to re-write the client’s monolith PHP application in Python using microservices architecture. In the process, we had to maintain and improve current data sync workers and 2nd & 3rd gen reporting systems, which ensures that the reporting data is reliably stored in a database. Once that was done, we increased the performance of their 3rd Gen Reporting system to be able to generate reports on 250k learners in a timely manner. How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions? We hired the expertise of a Python engineer from Sloboda Studio to join our team of 2 backend developers and a QA specialist. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables? The project is still in progress, so it is still early. But so far we are very satisfied with the results, their engineering team is highly qualified. Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness. We had daily stand-ups and synchronization. The main communnication channels used were email (for organization issues) and Slack (for dev issues). For task tracking our main channels were Github, Jira, and timereports. What did you find most impressive or unique about this company? The developer provided by Slobodo Studio did not only work with our requirements but also provided valuable recommendations on how to create a more efficient reporting system for our client. He integrated seamlessly into our team of experts and is working together to successfully complete the project. Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently? No. They exceeded our bar on every need --- #### Custom Software Development for Recipe Marketplace **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $200,000 to $999,999 - Project length: Sep. 2020 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio has built the MVP of a recipe marketplace using Python and React as the technology stack. Since then, they’ve been improving and updating the platform on an ongoing basis. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Founder, Recipe Marketplace - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Mar 31, 2022 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio’s delivery frequency is outstanding, helping the client release updates almost weekly. The team is organized, communicative, and diligent, demonstrating a high level of attentiveness and responsiveness. "“The best metric regarding the success of our engagement is Sloboda’s high delivery cadence.”" **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the founder of a recipe marketplace for creators. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We needed help to build our platform’s MVP. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Sloboda has built the MVP of our site from scratch. First, they designed it and its different user flows, and they did a feature analysis. Then, they built the product using Python for the backend and React for the frontend. Since then, they’ve been helping us with new releases and updates. What is the team composition? We’ve worked with six people from Sloboda: a senior project manager, a regular project manager, a designer, a business analyst, and a couple of developers. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? I found Sloboda on Clutch. After interviewing many firms, including them, I felt that they understood what we were trying to do the best. Additionally, they had great reviews and were able to use the technology we wanted to use. After the interview, they presented a proposal for the platform’s design and the scope of work, and we ultimately hired them. How much have you invested with them? We’ve spent over $250,000.  What is the status of this engagement? We started working together in September 2020, and our engagement is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?  The best metric regarding the success of our engagement is Sloboda’s high delivery cadence. Since working with them, we’ve been able to deliver new releases weekly. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Sloboda performs well. The senior project manager oversees the project and is excellent at organizing the team, and our direct project manager is very diligent on day-to-day tasks. We communicate via Slack, and we have a weekly standing call. What did you find most impressive about them? Sloboda is very attentive and responsive. Are there any areas they could improve? During the process, we switched project managers because our original project manager left the company. Although it was a smooth transition, it was very surprising, so it would have been good if we had gotten notice in advance. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Understanding your scope of work is really important. --- #### E-Commerce Site Dev for Furniture Rental Service **The Project** - Services: E-Commerce Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Dec. 2021 - Jan. 2022 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided frontend, full stack, and dev ops support for a furniture rental company's e-commerce website. They used Ruby on Rails and other related technologies in developing the project. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CEO & Head Of Product, Furniture Rental Service - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Mar 21, 2022 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio delivered high-quality work that matched the project's requirements. They demonstrated an efficient communication approach that led to a smooth workflow. Being a highly professional team, they were collaborative, and their customer service was outstanding. ""They were tenacious, curious, and determined to deliver good work."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I’m the CEO and Head of Product. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio, and what were your goals? We needed front end, full stack, and dev ops support for our proprietary e-commerce website. Our needs were complicated by extensive technical debt - about 75% of the code was no longer being used. We had limited budget to maintain and iterate on the website prior to our next fundraise. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors? I reached out to 8 different dev studio vendors across the US and Eastern Europe and ended up choosing Sloboda. They weren’t the cheapest, but they were by far the most responsive and asked the best questions to scope our needs. This continued throughout the engagement: they were curious, responsive, hard-working, and able to quickly get up to speed and contribute where we needed help. Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used. They took on work our US-based engineering team didn’t have the bandwidth to deliver. This was a web development project using Ruby on Rails and related technologies. They participated as equals in our weekly engineering sprints, determining work assignments based on their bandwidth and skills. How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions? We hired 1 full-time Front End Dev and 1 part-time Full Stack Dev who also helped with occasional DevOps needs as they came up. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables? Sloboda delivered work at a high quality appropriate to their career experiences. They were true peer partners for our US-based team. Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness. We had daily stand-ups (US morning, Ukraine late afternoon/early evening) and sprint sessions every week or two. We used Jira to track deliverables (our system already in use, they readily adopted it) and Slack for quick communications. What did you find most impressive or unique about this company? They were tenacious, curious, and determined to deliver good work. They also showed superb customer focus for us are their customer, and solid CX sensitivity for our customers. They were consummate professionals, quick to respond to our bid and our vendor vetting process, collaborative in nature, and dedicated to our success. Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently? No. They exceeded our bar on every need. --- #### Custom Software Dev for Accommodation Booking Platform **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Dec. 2020 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: An accommodation booking platform hired Sloboda Studio to develop a web-based software where users could list their amenities. The site houses a payment gateway, a search filter, and a customer reviews section. **Review Rating**: 4.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 4.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Owner, Greater Vacation Rentals Inc. - Industry: Hospitality & leisure - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Nov 9, 2021 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio has developed a platform that earned positive internal feedback. This has been made possible by the team’s careful attention to the client’s requirements. They are prompt, responsive, and well oriented to the needs of end-users. ""Sloboda delivers a high-value product at a reasonable price."" **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the owner of a company that provides a platform where people can rent accommodations. It allows property owners to list their amenities, which vacationers can then find and book through our web-based software. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We were trying to design a website that could make it easier for property owners to advertise their accommodations to customers. For this, we hired Sloboda. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Sloboda created a web-based platform where vacationers could find accommodations in different locations. The team developed several functions to enable users to list and advertise their properties, reserve or book an accommodation, make their payments on the website itself, and leave reviews about their experience. Sloboda also created a search filter to help customers narrow down results based on their preferences.  I provided a textual description and basic design of the website that we wanted to develop, while Sloboda used software from another company as a reference for the build. I already had the website hosting in place, so their team now only provides ongoing maintenance for us. What is the team composition? There were 14 people who worked with me: a team manager, a web designer, eight web developers, and several customer acquisition specialists.  How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? I found Sloboda through a Google search. I chose them based on past reviews of their work and based on their responsiveness during my initial consultation. I don't get in touch with a few other companies, but Sloboda was the best. How much have you invested with them? We’ve invested about $110,000. What is the status of this engagement? A partnership began in December 2020 and it is still ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? We’ve done internal testing on the platform, and my staff and I are very happy with the design and the website flow. Though we have yet to have actual end-users test the website, we believe that the features and functionalities will be good at meeting the needs of our customers.  How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Sloboda meets all of our expectations. We’re very satisfied with their performance. They are attentive to our needs and they respond quickly to critical questions and concerns.  We use Figma, Slack, Google Meet, and Zoom.  What did you find most impressive about them? Sloboda delivers a high-value product at a reasonable price. They have a good hourly rate, and it is lower than what our competitors have paid to achieve the same end.  Are there any areas they could improve? I can think of anything at the moment. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Prepare for the project in advance. If you're planning to do web development, make sure to outline everything you want to achieve before getting in touch with Sloboda. It will save you a great amount of time and money compared to if you approached the team not knowing what you're looking for. --- #### Custom Software Development for IT Company **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Feb. 2021 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio has assigned an outsourced Python backend developer to support product development. The individual has inherited existing documentation to build out the MVP.  **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 0.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Product Director, IT Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 51-200 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Jun 9, 2021 **Feedback Summary**: What started as a 2-month engagement has since expanded thanks to the quality of Sloboda Studio’s developer. They’re transparent with their work and warn the internal team of potential risks. ""I hired someone directly from Sloboda Studio because we’d had a good experience with them." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the product director of an IT company. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? I was assigned to a product development project, but we lost our backend developer. To keep the project moving, I needed a new backend developer as soon as possible. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? We have the frontend team, and they handle the backend development. The previous backend developer kept some of our product documentation in Notion, so we’ve given it to Sloboda Studio’s team.  What is the team composition? I work with one backend Python developer. There are other developers working as well. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? Our company was already collaborating with them.  We actually had several projects going on with Sloboda Studio because our company was already collaborating with them. When I needed a new backend developer for my project, I found that it was really hard to find a full-time resource. So, I hired someone directly from Sloboda Studio because we’d had a good experience with them. How much have you invested with them? We’ve spent over $15,000. What is the status of this engagement? We started working together in February 2021, and the collaboration is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? We were only planning to hire one person for 1-2 months, but his work has been so great that we’ve continued working with him. It’ll be really hard to let him go after we finish the MVP. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Our backend developer is really great at communication. If there’s a problem with a task, he always comes to me first and tells me about the potential risks. The team is satisfied with his work, too. What matters most is that we can see the stages of development and know when the feature is ready. We communicate via Slack and Jira and have two meetings per week. What did you find most impressive about them? This is the first outsourced person I’ve worked with. I don’t have anyone to compare him to. I’m satisfied with him. Are there any areas they could improve? I don’t know what he could’ve done better. Do you have any advice for potential customers? If you have a pause in development and are thinking whether to wait and hire a full-time person or to use outsourced developers, I suggest that you hire an outsourced developer. You’ll save so much time. --- #### IT and Cloud Consulting for Internet company **The Project** - Services: Other IT Consulting and SI - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Jan. 2017 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provides outsourced developers to complement an internal team. Their resources are skilled in a variety of technologies including Ruby on Rails, Java, React, and more. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Director of Engineering, Internet Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 15, 2021 **Feedback Summary**: The client praises Sloboda Studio for their energetic work ethic and extensive development experience. They've integrated smoothly into existing communication practices and cadences. Fast ramp-up and cost-effective price points are hallmarks of their work, as is simple feedback integration. ""They’re able to provide developers to me as soon as possible — and at awesome rates." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the director of engineering for an internet company. We’re involved in gaming. I support four different platforms for four different companies. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? I needed to scale up our development team. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Sloboda Studio provided outsourced developers to us. In just 1–2 days, they built up a team of 5–10 people and started working. When we start a new project, I request developers with certain skills, and then it’s completely on me to provide all the documentation onboarding that they need. I usually work with Ruby on Rails developers, Java developers, frontend developers, and React developers. What is the team composition? The most developers I’ve run with from Sloboda Studio at a time are 8–9. I scale up and down as needed. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? I was responsible for engineering in a different group when I was working under an umbrella company, and they had two external developers from Sloboda Studio. We saw they were really good partners for us and we decided to cooperate with them. How much have you invested with them? We’ve spent $1 million with them to date. What is the status of this engagement? We’ve been working together since January 2017. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? All of Sloboda Studio’s resources are highly motivated; I’ve never encountered anyone who wasn’t interested in working hard. It’s really fun to work with them, and I can scale the team to include any technology I want. They’re usually a bit more experienced than the in-house developers, and they perform better. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Our process is smooth. We try to use Sloboda Studio the same way we use in-house resources. They support me with anything I need. It’s a great setup — I can get them very quickly when the need arises. I have a dedicated account manager that sorts out all of my issues, and we have review sessions with developers if there’s anything to improve. What did you find most impressive about them? They’re able to provide developers to me as soon as possible — and at awesome rates. They’re reliable partners. Are there any areas they could improve? I don’t have any problems with them. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Understand your goals and communicate them so that they can support you in your journey. Sloboda Studio is really committed to going the extra mile. They offered to take part in some standups. They’re keen on providing high quality. --- #### Web Redesign & Dev for Fitness Studio **The Project** - Services: Other Design, Web Design, Web Development - Project size: Less than $10,000 - Project length: June 2020 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio redesigned and developed a website for a fitness studio. Picking up where another vendor left off, the team worked to remedy bugs and fix reference links and redid the site's UI/UX. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-Founder, Orange Club - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 12, 2021 **Feedback Summary**: The updated website functioning without crashing and features a fresh new design, meeting the goals of the clients. Sloboda Studio is quick to respond, fixing any arising issues with great speed. The team works to understand the problems the client is facing to best remedy them. ""They remember our problems and are always ready to work with us." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the co-founder of Orange Club, a fitness studio. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? Another company built our website but stopped working with them because the site wasn't working properly. The site had a lot of bugs and our reference links weren't working properly. We needed help from another company to fix the site. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Sloboda Studio fixed a lot of bugs on our website as well as the issue with our reference links. Our website has a personal cabinet where people can work with our clients. It’s a diet diary where people can find what they eat during the day and work with their managers. They also worked on the personal cabinet as well since it didn’t work properly.  Some objects were too close to each other and they fixed the design problems. The Sloboda Studio team helped redesign most of the side, adding video content to our business page and redoing the UI/UX. Now, their team helps with ongoing maintenance and support. What is the team composition? My main point of contact was a manager, who in turn put us in contact with a WordPress developer. All our technical questions were directed to the developer and payment questions were for the manager. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? We asked our friends which companies were good in our country and they told us about Sloboda Studio. We looked at other companies as well but Sloboda Studio was the best because they had the developers we needed. Not many companies work with a website that another company built and there weren’t many WordPress developers, but they did. We were very excited to work with them How much have you invested with them? We have invested than $10,000. What is the status of this engagement? We started working together in June 2020 and it's ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? The quality of their work is really high. The platform works smoothly and runs without bugs. We effectively approached them with a non-functioning website. The bugs meant that it was constantly crashing. The developer understood our problems and made the site exactly how we wanted. Now, the platform is actually usable. If we find any bugs on our website, we text them and they fix them. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? It's been great. We use text messages and video calls to communicate. They're really fast. Anytime I need them, they’re available even if it’s at night or on the weekend. What did you find most impressive about them? They work quickly. If I find a bug, I text them right away. By the next day, we’re working on the bug. It’s that fast. They remember our problems and are always ready to work with us. Are there any areas they could improve? No, they have nothing to improve. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Everything was well done. --- #### IT Staff Augmentation for Tech Startup **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development, IT Staff Augmentation - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Oct. 2020 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: A tech company tapped Sloboda Studio for their staff augmentation needs. After going through different profiles, the client chose one developer to work with them closely on the development of their application. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CTO, Invajt Development AB - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Mar 29, 2021 **Feedback Summary**: Thanks to Sloboda Studio's efficient admin and onboarding support, the client is pleased to welcome a developer that understands their vision and needs. The assigned developer is keen on applying code edits based on the client's feedback, continuously leading to the app development's success. ""With Sloboda Studio, I always get the right developers with relevant skills." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the CTO and sole developer of an IT startup. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? I needed a full-stack developer to help me develop an application. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Initially, I contacted Sloboda Studio to discuss the position that I was looking for — I basically needed a developer who can focus on my app development needs. After screening through the profiles they provided, I chose one experienced resource and interviewed her. I also spoke with her manager and looked at some of the code work she’s done in the past. Everything seemed good to me, so I was happy to onboard her. We started the development work in October, and we’re launching the product soon. She’s been working remotely since the start of our engagement. What is the team composition? My main point of contact before the app development was the team’s manager. He was the one who gave me the profiles of all the qualified resources for the role I was looking for. He also joined me during the onboarding meeting with the developer, whom I am now working with. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? They were referred to me by a former colleague who’s worked with them on several occasions. It seemed like a great recommendation, so I was more than happy to go with Sloboda Studio. How much have you invested with them? I’ve spent about $30,000 so far. What is the status of this engagement? We started in October 2020, and the development work is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? I’m responsible for reviewing the developer’s code work, and I can be picky in the entire process. I appreciate how she quickly applies all the edits and feedback that I relay to her — it pays a lot when someone you work with takes their time to internalize and apply your feedback so they can improve their work. That alone makes me happy. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? We use Google Drive to send codes and edits back and forth, and they also update me with weekly project reports. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at those because I’ve already established a good working relationship with the developer — I trust that she’ll provide me with the output I need.  I get monthly invoices from Sloboda Studio when they check in regularly to ensure that the project is actually progressing. That’s basically all we have to do in terms of project management —  I don’t really need much from them in this aspect. What did you find most impressive about them? I’m happy to be working with a very devoted and responsible developer from Sloboda Studio’s team. She really handles my feedback well, and she cares about my vision and the product. Their admin team is also responsive when I ask for other resources to help me with other projects or tasks. With Sloboda Studio, I always get the right developers with relevant skills. They understand my tech needs, and that’s very important. Are there any areas they could improve? They’re doing a great job so far. It’s hard to spot an area for improvement. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Start by giving them a detailed description of what you’re looking for. Their team is pretty good at understanding all the technical aspects of their work, so that’s all they’ll be needing from you. --- #### Web Dev & Design for Property Rental Business **The Project** - Services: Web Design, Web Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Mar. 2020 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio was hired by a property rental business to customize and develop their online platform and mobile app. The team develops software based on workflow charts presented by the client. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 4.5 - Schedule: 4.5 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 4.5 **The Reviewer** COO, Property Rental Business - Industry: Hospitality & leisure - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Online Review **The Review** — Mar 24, 2021 **Feedback Summary**: Although the project is still in the works, Sloboda Studio impresses the client with their work. The team has great communication skills, regularly meeting with the client and giving updates on the project. They are dedicated, efficient, and committed to the project. ""We love the time and dedication they commit to our project." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. Short term rental business. I am the COO. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio, and what were your goals? We hired Sloboda in order to build our customized website and app. Our goals were to have a fully functioning and smooth website for users to use **SOLUTION** How did you select Sloboda Studio and what were the deciding factors? Sloboda offers an expertise in this field and with their competitive pricing and high quality staff they were the ideal match for us Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used. They designed and developed our platform. We send work flow charts for every aspect of the website and they build the software to match this How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions? They have upwards of 7 staff members working with us. we have a project manager, back and front end developers, app designers **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables? The process is still ongoing but so far we are very satisfied with the results. The team at Sloboda is constantly in communication with us and very efficient with their work. Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines. Great. We have regular calls providing us updates on the project. Any issue they have they communicate immediately with us. What did you find most impressive or unique about this company? We love the time and dedication they commit to our project. They are always available for a call at a moments notice Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently? We are content with the service provided --- #### MVP Dev for Online Platform **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Oct. 2019 - Mar. 2020 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio designed and developed an MVP. They built a web platform with a PHP backend and React frontend.  **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-Founder, Limoo - Industry: Information technology - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — May 7, 2020 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio successfully brought the idea to life and completed the MVP. The project management was excellent. The communication and support were great. The standards were great.  ""The amount of communication and support that they provided." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I’m one of two Co-Founders at Limoo which is an online platform for contractors and temporary workers to find work in Australia. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? We hired Sloboda Studio to build our web platform. What were your goals for this project? We needed an MVP to be built to then be able to show our idea to potential investors. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? We used Clutch to sort through a number of development studios, talk to each and then decide on who to use. Sloboda were the most responsive and were able to help us form our idea. Describe the project and the services they provided in detail. Sloboda took my initial wireframes and then designed and developed our solution. We had twice weekly video conferences with our project manager. The team built our product using PHP in the backend and React on the front end hosted in AWS. They were able to offer the best technology and ideas from every member of their team as to extra features and changes to features which were really appreciated. What was the team composition? The project team had four people. A project manager, two developers and a designer. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? Our business started from an idea and Sloboda has brought that idea to life. This is the starting block of our business. With the MVP completed we can now go and start bring companies on board to use it and contractors to find work for. How was project management arranged and how effective was it? Project management was fantastic. We had our twice weekly meetings and were always able to contact our project manager. We were let know if anything unexpected happened and had good timelines of when features would be completed. We used slack and Asana heavily and google hangouts for our video conferences. What did you find most impressive about this company? The amount of communication and support that they provided. Are there any areas for improvement? We found everything up to our standards. --- #### Development for Ride Hailing App **The Project** - Services: Mobile App Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Aug. 2018 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio used Swift and Ruby on Rails to develop a ride-hailing iOS app with passenger and driver interfaces. They connected the backend to a database and third-parties to enable data transfers. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 4.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-Founder, Ride Sharing App - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Nov 8, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: Since being launched, the app has received many positive reviews and is fully functional. Sloboda Studio has consistently delivered over an extended period of time, demonstrating their reliability in this partnership. The team communicated directly, ensuring a smooth collaboration. "“Their reliability and consistency have had a significant impact on the project’s success.” " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the co-founder of an on-demand ride-hailing company. Similar to other ride-sharing apps, we pick up passengers, but we use three-wheeled motor scooters and have employees instead of independent contractors. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We originally hired them to build our driver and passenger apps. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? We provided wireframes and documentation, and they completed full-feature development of our product. Using Swift, they created our iOS app. They also used Ruby on Rails for the backend that houses our data and supports different APIs, connecting the app to our database and other third-party services. This way, we can move data from one place to another. What is the team composition? At first, we had 4–5 people on our team, including a project manager, but we’re currently working with two developers and the project manager. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? They were referred to us from the first developer we worked with. How much have you invested with them? We’ve spent about $50,000. What is the status of this engagement? The project started in August 2018 and it’s ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?  We have a lot of reviews on the app store and all feedback has been positive. We have a stable app, stable backend, and a product that people love to use and keep coming back to. It’s truly a testament to the work they’ve done. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? We work directly with the development team, which really fits our management style well. We use Slack for instant communication, Jira for bug tracking, and occasionally we use Google Hangouts or Zoom for face-to-face meetings. What did you find most impressive about them? Their reliability and consistency have had a significant impact on the project’s success. It can be challenging to work with an overseas team for a long period of time, but they’ve been responsive and have consistently delivered quality work for over a year now. Are there any areas they could improve? No, they’ve been really great. Do you have any advice for potential customers? It’s important to thoroughly document the requirements for any project, especially when working with an overseas team. A lot of things can be lost in translation, so you should detail project requirements and provide wireframes. The time you spend initially scoping out a project, the more money you’ll save in the long run. --- #### Web Development for Online Education Product Company **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Jan. 2018 - May 2019 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio developed the backend of a website for an online education product company. Their team integrated a payment system into the client's internal system and used Ruby on Rails for the backend. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 4.5 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Managing Partner, Profit Group & Growth Factory - Industry: Information technology - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Sep 17, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: The Sloboda Studio team exceeded expectations, delivering a finished product within one week. Their team is communicative and resourceful, asking questions where necessary. They produce quality work through an efficient project management process. ""The greatest aspects of Sloboda Studio are their experience and expertise." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. We create online education products and top them up with massive niche offline events. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? When we started our collaboration with Sloboda Studio, our main goal was to create a system to collect the payment data of our clients. We needed to create an admin panel, to house our customers' information. Another goal was to integrate the payment system. What were your goals for this project? We were in need of high speed system that would integrate payment functionality into our internal systems and work seamlessly with the rest of our complex eco system. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? The story started when we decided to create a Profit Group Consulting project. We didn’t choose the company to develop products for us, but we were looking for partners. When we met their CEO, Pavel Obod, and learned more about Sloboda Studio's expertise and experienced developers, we decided to collaborate and create a project for the IT service company's niche consulting. Describe the project and the services they provided in detail. For the back-end, they used Ruby on Rails. Sloboda Studio developers also applied Active admin gems for generating administration style interfaces. What was the team composition? Sloboda Studio created a simple and useful solution and made the final product with minimal, yet valuable, resources. The whole team composition included one back-end developer and one project manager/QA. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? When we started our collaboration with Sloboda Studio, we needed our tasks to be completed on time. The team really exceeded our expectations—they completed the project in just one week. They also stayed in touch and made decisions based on practical experience, so you can be sure that people in Sloboda Studio know exactly what they are developing. How was project management arranged and how effective was it? We like to maintain communication through each collaboration, and this is exactly why we made the right choice with Sloboda Studio. However, the project consisted only of one project manager and Rails developer. During the development stage, the Sloboda Studio team used mostly GitLab for project management, in addition to coordinating stand-ups to share how the work was going. They always ask a lot of questions and propose their own solutions, so was pretty easy to arrange an efficient working process and perform the results up to deadlines. What did you find most impressive about this company? The greatest aspects of Sloboda Studio are their experience and expertise. These allowed us to get the results ASAP, as the team not only has the experience but also provides excellent project management. This was really useful for us, as we needed to build clear communication and get an understanding of our technical and business goals. Are there any areas for improvement? Nothing worth mentioning here. If I had any questions, we discussed them right away and choose an appropriate solution, so there is nothing really critical to be improved on at this point. --- #### Continued Development of E-Commerce Automation Platform **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Mar. 2019 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio built an e-commerce tool that integrates with other well-known e-commerce platforms to automate the online order lifecycle. The team developed the product using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CTO, Veeqo - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Jun 25, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: The product has exceeded the expectations of internal stakeholders. Sloboda Studio deployed a fluid project management structure to facilitate a seamless development process that included regular feedback. Their professionalism and responsiveness set them apart from other firms. "“We treat them as if they were part of our own company.” " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the CTO of Veeqo, an e-commerce automation platform. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We raised a lot of investment money in January, and there was a really short amount of time between the actual date when we were going to receive the funds and the date when we were scheduled to present to the investors. There was no chance that we could’ve expanded our team quick enough on our own to build the platform. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? They’re responsible for the core part of the e-commerce platform. They’re using Ruby on Rails, RabbitMQ, Sidekick, and JavaScript. The product already exists and is being used, but they’re helping with continued development. We’re automating large e-commerce businesses, specifically those who trade on Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and WooCommerce. We integrate with all of those platforms. We also integrate with shipping couriers like USPS, FedEx, and DHL. Our product automates the entire lifecycle of an e-commerce order inside a large e-commerce business. The Sloboda Studio team is responsible for that part of the functionality, which comes after the order has been placed and shipped. Sometimes orders are returned, and other times there’s an inquiry from a customer asking where their order is. All of that has to be automated as well, which is what they’re working on. What is the team composition? There’s a team leader, who is a very experienced developer, and two other web developers. We treat them as we would our own in-house development department. The team hasn’t changed since we started. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? We started to search for an agency that could supply us with an established team, including a team leader, that knows how to work well with each other. We chose Sloboda Studio over all of the other teams because they appeared to be the best for us. What is the status of this engagement? We started working together in March 2019, and the work is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? We hired them with the intention that they would be productive from day one, and that is exactly what happened. We’ve entrusted them with the core parts of our product, and they've developed high-quality components. They communicated with our other teams as well to make sure they weren’t doing anything wrong. We’re happy with what they’re doing for the price that they charge. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? We treat them as if they were part of our own company. They’ve provided us a contact person in case we experienced any issues, but there wasn’t a single case when we had to contact that person. Everything that happens has been dealt with internally. We provide a product owner who forms the backlog, and their team handles time estimates and functionality analysis. They measure their own productivity against those estimations. We use Jira to track estimates and the actual time spent on a ticket. What did you find most impressive about them? They were extremely professional in how they reacted to both positive and negative feedback, and they always acted on our recommendations. I love that about them. Are there any areas they could improve? If there was anything we didn’t like, we talked to them like we would our internal team. Do you have any advice for potential customers? If you rely on the leadership inside the team that you hire, everything will be okay. Sloboda Studio is known for having good leadership inside their team. --- #### Production Deployment for Three Marketplaces **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Feb. 2016 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio developed the frontend and backend of a website using Ruby on Rails and Vue.js. They integrated several tools for SEO, CRM, analytics, ad-tracking, UX management, and WebRTC and ran QA testing.  **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CEO, TikkTalk - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — May 20, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio's quality and breadth of talent secured a long-term partnership. They've helped catalyze an eightfold growth in revenue annually. The team features an array of uniquely skilled technical specialists. They pair excellent and timely project management with reliable implementation. ""Sloboda Studio is one of the few teams I truly trust. They've always done right by our business."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your organization. TikkTalk is a marketplace software for interpretation services. It offers an open marketplace in which interpreters can create an account and receive assignments from anywhere in the world, allowing businesses to click a button and work with speakers of any language. One of the main goals of our project is to help the refugee crisis. Many of the people coming here don't speak European languages, so clinics, hospitals, shops, police, and so on, can click a button on our app or website and have a direct video translation. What is your position? I am the Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of the company. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What business challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? The business challenge was mostly economical; we couldn't afford to hire engineers in Oslo. I attempted to outsource in many different places, connecting to 29 different individuals in total in the last 4 months. **SOLUTION** Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail. We've come to have a team of 10 employed consultants, 8 of them being from Sloboda Studio. During tight deadlines, we employed as many as 10 people from Sloboda Studio. The frontend and backend of our website has been entirely built by Sloboda Studio. They used Ruby on Rails, as well as VueJS on the backend and frontend. Sloboda Studio used many third-party APIs like Google Analytics for tracking, which was integrated quite nicely. They integrated tools for SEO, CRM, analytics, ad-tracking, UX management and WebRTC purposes as well. We use SendGrid for emails and we are deployed on Heroku, which Sloboda Studio managed as well. They're also in charge of quality assurance, using our specs for test coverage. We have used Sloboda Studio for many other gems and open-source projects. In total, we have implemented 74 components, which is a normal figure for any open-source project. Sloboda Studio built our initial minimum viable product and are now in charge of full development. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? I searched for Ruby on Rails booking system projects. I noticed that the quality of individual engineers on freelance websites was always questionable. They didn't always work alone, even though they presented themselves as individuals, instead of working for companies. As such, I didn't have a guarantee of always working with the same person. Instead of looking for freelancers, I looked for existing projects based on my stack, found the companies responsible for them and contacted each one. One of those was Sloboda Studio. I initially decided to give each one smaller tasks requiring 10-20 hours of work, mostly on the frontend, so that there was a better chance of actually using their output, instead of throwing it away. I hired an individual from Sloboda in mid-February 2016 for 2 weeks. He worked fast and well. I liked his quality, so I decided to add 2 more people for the backend, growing our team slowly to 8 people. What is the status of this engagement? We started working with Sloboda Studio in February 2016. We launched an internal prototype after 4 months of development, which we tested with interpreters and businesses. The public product was launched last week, after an additional 4 months of development. We plan to cater more towards improving the product in order to provide better onboarding and an improved experience after the launch. We have a continuing relationship with Sloboda Studio. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement? Sloboda Studio implemented tests for the work on their own, without being asked. I appreciated that this was brought up. Sloboda Studio also came up with many good ideas by themselves, having open discussions with me, weeding through the bad ideas. I missed this approach from other agencies. I like being told when something is right or wrong. I did work with another agency in Poland which simply couldn't see the big picture, coming to waste a number of hours. This hasn't been the case with Sloboda. They've been very open and have also worked overtime on weekends and during late hours, when necessary. Sloboda Studio understood that we have a deadline, so they went above and beyond my expectations. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? I have only been working with one person from Sloboda Studio for project management. She has been very good, following up well and helping convert ideas into tasks and schedules. For any engineering project, the schedule will never be as accurate as it should. We never finished anything exactly in the number of hours predicted, but we've always been able to release on the right date, even if with extra hours. I'm a coder myself, so I've always been able to push the work ahead. What distinguishes Sloboda Studio from other providers? Comparing Sloboda Studio with other agencies I've worked with, I can say that they've been able to understand why we are working on this project. Sloboda Studio understands us and our customers, and have built an amazing product for us. I had our team from Sloboda Studio come to Oslo and spend 10 days on the project, which helped me explain our idea to them. They've come to understand the purpose behind our project and have come up with good ideas, helping me with planning and projections. Is there anything Sloboda Studio could have improved or done differently? Some of the members from Sloboda Studio could improve their English. They are taking classes, but this is still an issue. A bit more improvement on the frontend work would also be welcomed. This is partly due to the fact that we've prioritized backend tasks and only have one person working for frontend development. **UPDATED REVIEW** This review was updated on May 28th, 2019 by the client. New content is below.  BACKGROUND What have been some of the changes that the product has gone through? We've worked with Sloboda Studio on the production and deployment of three marketplaces: TikkTalk, Home Services and Counseling Services. The most significant change we've made has been splitting the product into separate parts for marketplace technology and the language company. Over the last three years, we've created a core engine for our three different marketplaces dedicated to language, career counseling, and home services. We built this entire package in partnership with Sloboda Studio. Our three different companies run separately and independently. Our team developed the software for the core engine that runs a fourth company, while our subsidiary owns the marketplace engine.  SOLUTION Are you still one of the main contacts to collaborate with Sloboda Studio? I'm the CEO of two of the companies. The other two businesses are my customers. They contracted the projects through me, and I am working on completing them with Sloboda Studio. What was the scope of their involvement? Sloboda Studio is our company's largest software provider. Has the team changed? We've changed our product architecture and engineering processes within the last three years. Over that period, we've scaled up our team to 35 different people at its largest.  Right now, we work with roughly 10–12 people from Sloboda Studios on documentation, QA, project management, software development, and almost every area of full stack development. How much have you invested with them? We've spent more than $500,000 at this point. What is the status of this engagement? As long as the people are still at Sloboda Studio, we will continue working with them indefinitely. RESULTS & FEEDBACK What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? Sloboda Studio is one of the few teams I truly trust. They've always done right by our business. I made it clear to them that I value the people on their team.  If they change companies, I would naturally move with them. I'm focused on the talent at Sloboda Studio. Year-over-year, our revenue has increased by a factor of eight since we've integrated the new software on top of the technology platform we developed together. Our company has grown significantly with Sloboda Studio's support. What did you find most impressive about them? Sloboda Studio is the best team I've found in the industry. Are there any areas they could improve? My only suggestion would be to grow their team size and hire additional talented developers. I've encouraged developers I know to work for Sloboda Studio so I can hire them through the company.  --- #### CRM and App Development for Medical Group **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Dec. 2018 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio enhanced a custom CRM by optimizing its APIs and developing additional backend features. This facilitated data exchange between the CRM, a medical records system, and an iOS app. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CTO, Hudson Medical Group - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — May 7, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio’s high-quality code helped automate several internal administrative processes, and they’re currently implementing security measures. The team takes a proactive approach to development, considering edge cases preemptively to identify and account for any potential challenges. "“Besides their excellent communication skills and transparency, I’m most impressed by how they think about problems.” " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there.  I’m the CTO at Hudson Medical Group. We’re a multi-specialty medical practice with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Our facilities process about 50,000 patients visits per year. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?  We manage our practice with a series of administrative tools, including a custom CRM, a medical record system, and a patient-facing iOS app. However, we wanted to automate a bunch of these processes, which required further backend development. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement?  We already had the basic MVP of our CRM, so Sloboda Studio was responsible for building out our system’s backend features using Ruby on Rails.  To automate our administrative processes, the team focused on connecting our custom CRM, medical system, and iOS app together. They refined our APIs so that we could send data from our CRM to the medical system and vice versa (e.g., clinical outcome, patient appointments, emails), and they also enhanced our iOS app’s backend, which allowed it to connect to our medical system’s API. Currently, all of the initial scope items are in production, but we’re still coming up with new features to build. They’re now working on SSL features to secure our tools. What is the team composition?   I work with a project manager and two engineers. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?  Sloboda Studio reached out to me on LinkedIn. Since I’m a Rails engineer myself, I was able to vet them and found them to be a great partner to work with. A couple of months later, they helped us with some of the basic integration work for our project, and we've worked with them since. How much have you invested with them?  We’ve spent about $15,000 so far. What is the status of this engagement?  We started working with them in December 2018, and the engagement is ongoing. We liked their team so much that we decided to continue building more features with them. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? I regularly review Sloboda Studio’s code in GitHub, and it’s been really great. They write clear code, develop excellent unit tests for us, and are great at looking at edge cases. If I ask them about a certain feature, they’ll go over all of the different edge cases that they’ve come across while reading the API documentation. Then, they’ll write out a well-structured email for us to discuss.  How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? The team hits our deadlines and communicates ahead of time if something will take longer than expected. We use a project tracking sheet, which gives us a lot of visibility on what’s being done at the moment, and they update their time estimates as we proceed through the sprint. As a result, we haven’t had any surprises. What did you find most impressive about them? Besides their excellent communication skills and transparency, I’m most impressed by how they think about problems. They’re able to conceptualize all of the edge cases before they build something rather than after. That’s been really valuable because we haven’t had to go in and discover unforeseen edge cases on our own. Are there any areas they could improve?  No, I can’t think of anything. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Make sure you have a clearly defined spec so that you can effectively communicate the intent of the project and the features that you want to build. That documentation helps Sloboda Studio come up with multiple solutions in case they see a potential problem.   --- #### Website Performance Enhancements for EdTech Startup **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Dec. 2018 - Jan. 2019 **Project Summary**: At the beginning of a semester when a platform saw an influx of new users, Sloboda Studio provided maintenance and bug fixes to solve performance issues. They offered both front- and backend resources with Ruby on Rails expertise. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 4.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** VP Operations, StudySoup - Industry: Education - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 11, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio reduced expenses and maximized returns by providing a valuable and reliable service at a competitive price point. They fully satisfied expectations by resolving every error hindering the platform’s performance. Dedicated, transparent, and accommodating, they add value as a partner. "“We’re really pleased we partnered with Sloboda Studio.”     " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the VP of operations for StudySoup, an EdTech startup. Our marketplace enables university students to get paid for sharing their notes with classmates. We provide a platform for naturally inclined, skilled notetakers to post and share documents with students who struggle to follow along in lectures or who might have missed a class. We pay the notetakers and resell their materials to classmates who need them.  **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? In recent years, our development resources have been somewhat limited. We’ve slowed down product development, and our developers have been focusing on a different project. We needed an outsourced team to take care of bug fixes and performance issues on our platform.  Due to our marketing strategy, we acquire most student users at the beginning of the semester. Some of our channels were experiencing problems with data and loading times. The platform simply wasn’t prepared for hundreds of new users all at once.  **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Our platform was initially built on Ruby on Rails, and Sloboda Studio has the specific development expertise to manage it. They started by resolving performance issues.  Initially, we only requested backend development. We ended up needing frontend services as well. Sloboda Studio made frontend resources available for us right away, which was a great help. What is the team composition?  We mainly worked with one developer, Kostyantin (Ruby Developer, Sloboda Studio). We didn’t interface with the frontend developers. Whenever we needed another resource to support their developer, I was always amazed that they’d have one ready within 48 hours. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? A couple of agencies came highly recommended, but we also wanted to consider providers we hadn’t heard of before. We chose Sloboda Studio because they were extremely professional and offered great prices. They seemed like a team we would enjoy working with. What is the status of this engagement? We worked together from December 2018–January 2019. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? Sloboda Studio alleviated all the performance issues. Hiring a domestic developer would have cost us 150% more for the same work. They accomplished the objectives we set, and their team worked hand-in-hand with ours.  We’re really pleased we partnered with Sloboda Studio. Our budget was the only reason we couldn’t extend the contract. The lead developer performed will in a challenging situation. We hadn’t used outsourced developers before and had high expectations for a startup. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? One of the company’s principals attended our initial planning meeting. Alex (Project Lead, Sloboda Studio) wanted to make sure that the engagement met our expectations. Daily kickoff meetings included the lead developer from Sloboda Studio, myself, our company’s co-founder and CTO, and another external project manager. Even though this was a lot of people to manage, they did so very effectively. We used the time zone difference between us to our advantage. When I’d start my day three hours before business hours began, I’d check Slack for questions from the developer. At that point, he’d have been online for six hours. We conducted code reviews and testing throughout the day. I sent instructions in Google Docs and videos that indicated where to focus. We held check-in meetings toward the end of his day, leaving him about an hour to resolve any issues before logging off.  Rather than us having to adopt their communication practices, they were happy to use ours. We included them in our Slack teams. There wasn’t an excessive language barrier, and we talked through any misunderstandings. What did you find most impressive about them? The team is highly organized, accessible, and responsive. They answered all our questions. Sloboda Studio genuinely cared about completing our project at the price they quoted us. There were never hidden charges. I was quite impressed. If I needed to reach the COO, he’d respond on Slack within 20 minutes. Are there any areas they could improve? We required outside project management. I don’t recall if they offer those services, but they should consider doing so if they don’t already. They could provide a project manager and increase the rate by 25%. Do you have any advice for potential customers? If clients are based in the U.S. or Latin America, they should be empathetic about the time zone difference.  Having different schedules and locations poses challenges. Be understanding if a provider can’t work the exact same hours as you, This type of engagement goes hand-in-hand with asynchronous collaboration, which can honestly be more productive. Constant communication can pose distractions. I suggest dedicating 30-60 minutes to answer questions, and putting a process in place for daily check-in meetings. --- #### Ruby on Rails Development for Health & Wellness Firm **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Oct. 2018 - Jan. 2019 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio built an exercise information platform for a health and wellness firm. They developed the product, which includes an advanced scheme editing algorithm, using Ruby on Rails. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Head of Software Development, MyDailyLifestyle - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Apr 5, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: The platform they delivered has streamlined a significant client service process. They were efficient and communicative, addressing challenges and problems in a timely manner. Customers can expect high-quality deliverables and professionalism from their team. ""The quality of their code is excellent, and they delivered every one of our complex requirements." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I’m the head of software development at MyDailyLifestyle. We help our customers achieve happiness and productivity through healthier lifestyle choices. I oversee software design and development for our company. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? We hired Sloboda Studio to build a tool that could generate fitness advice and exercise templates. What were your goals for this project? We needed an efficient platform that could quickly deliver content to our users. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? We’d previously worked with Sloboda Studio on a successful project, and they’d performed better than other firms. We gave them a pilot task, which they executed well. Soon after, we decided to officially begin development. Describe the project and the services they provided in detail. We wrote a clear specification brief that we delivered to their team. Our requirements included a complex matrix for editing schemes, which they implemented using Ruby on Rails. What was the team composition? The project team included a manager and three developers. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? Our coaches are now able to generate exercise advice for our clients much more rapidly, and in a uniform manner. This saves us time and has improved our brand image. How was project management arranged and how effective was it? There was one project lead who was the main point of contact. She was responsive and effective, and reached out to the developers when we encountered issues that were too technical. What did you find most impressive about this company? Sloboda Studio is well-organized and collaborative. The quality of their code is excellent, and they delivered every one of our complex requirements. Are there any areas for improvement? There is some room for improvement in terms of communication skills, but overall, their work was excellent. --- #### Administrative System Creation for Commercial Product Co. **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Mar. - Nov. 2018 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio created an administrative system that displays data from a variety of devices by storing it on one server. The team also implemented an API to facilitate access to the system. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-Owner, Commercial Product Co. - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Apr 3, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: Project development only required a short amount of time due to effective management and productive communication. The team organized their schedule according to a rational timeline. ""Specialists made informed decisions and used fitting technologies throughout the project." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I am a founder of a commercial product company that manufactures and sells equipment for paintball, laser tag, airsoft, and reball. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? We hired Sloboda Studio to implement an administrative system that could store business statistics from a variety of devices in one server. What were your goals for this project? We wanted to consolidate source data from a variety of locations so all of the information could be accessed and analyzed together. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? Based on past experience, we felt comfortable working with their specialists. We knew the team effectively manages projects according to practical goals. Describe the project and the services they provided in detail. Sloboda Studio implemented an open source software framework to test the API before synchronizing our systems. The team then developed an administrative system to gather statistics from various devices and store the data on one server. What was the team composition? The project team consisted of a backend developer and a project manager in charge of QA. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? Sloboda Studio’s work has facilitated more educated business decisions by providing access to source data from different locations. Our analysis of that data has yielded helpful insights about client behavior. How was project management arranged and how effective was it? Once we explained our business needs, the project manager effectively outlined a timeline and worked quickly to accomplish our goals. What did you find most impressive about this company? Specialists made informed decisions and used fitting technologies throughout the project. Collaboration with the team was highly productive, and the development process only took 100 hours. It appeared easy for them to reach our objectives. Are there any areas for improvement? I don’t have any notes. The team’s responsive communication supported solutions to any questions that arose during the process. --- #### Web Platform Re-development for Catering Concierge Service **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Dec. 2018 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio developed a web platform using Ruby on Rails. They did frontend development and worked on UI/UX design. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Executive, Catering Concierge Service - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 2, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: The team delivered efficiently and their speed and skill earned praise from the client. Sloboda Studio’s design work improved UX, and their development saved time and money on operations, which has improved overall business capability by freeing up resources. ""They just wanted to deliver for us." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the CEO of a catering concierge service. We help corporate customers organize and execute catering from different great local restaurants by providing them with estimates, menu options, and then ultimately finding the right menu for whatever needs they have all the way through to the delivery of the food to their event. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? I needed to find a company to take on a development role and work with what our previous vendor had started.  We needed a web platform developed that allowed us to not only operationally improve our processes and automation, but also to give our customers a unique experience that allows them a better way of ordering catering. The challenge for us was that because we had already had been operating for seven years and had already used the third-party applications, our customers were already used to a certain process and experience. It wasn’t like we could start small with an MVP and build from there. We had to at least provide the customers with the same experience that they’ve been having or better. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? They developed our web platform on Ruby on Rails. They also handled some of the frontend work and the UX/UI of the platform. What is the team composition? At first, I worked with Alex (Head of Growth, Sloboda Studio) and Olga (Cofounder, Sloboda Studio) who evaluated our existing platform. We went over the items that we needed to get developed or fix or modify in order for us to launch. Then they assigned it to a project manager, a frontend developer, a backend developer, and someone who does a little of both. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? We evaluated Ruby on Rails developer based on their Clutch reviews. I was concerned about the communication differences of doing something overseas. When I reached out to Sloboda Studio, they were willing to chat with me on the weekend. It’s such a little thing, but just for that alone, I fell in love with them because I don’t have time during the week. We had a good conversation with Alex. Their team analyzed our existing software and gave us good advice in how to move forward. They recognized there were some faults, but they didn’t badmouth our previous developer. They weren’t so much focused on solving the problem, but building a relationship with me, which is what I wanted. I wanted someone I could partner with. What is the status of this engagement? We started working together in December 2018 and the work is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? Sloboda Studio did in four or five months what took our previous vendor over a year. Not only did they do it, but they did it very effectively, efficiently, and with great skill. There’s a lot of transparency in the way that we developed. They’re creating efficiency on operations and they’ve substantially improved the UX. They’re saving me time and money on operations. What used to take somebody an hour to do is done in five minutes. That high-level person can now turn their focus toward other business areas. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Project management is great. The projects have been group projects. One project will consist of four or five different tasks that need to be developed. Once that’s completed, we create a new project that also contains four or five different tasks. We may have switched some of the developers, but the project manager has been consistent for everything. Olga has been a part of that as well. There’s always been someone consistently overseeing what it is we’re doing. Every person that has come in to work on our platform has picked up from where the other person left off without any issues. I haven’t had to retrain anyone. It’s a completely seamless process. They’re always available to help. What did you find most impressive about them? One of the things that was really admirable is their humility. They didn’t criticize our previous vendor. They just said they would help us out. There was no ego. They just wanted to deliver for us. They weren’t interested in just fixing our platform but wanted to build a partnership with us. Are there any areas they could improve? We didn’t get into wireframes because of the cost associated with it. They were trying to help me with my budget and we skipped that. Not that it caused a problem, but it certainly created extra work that didn’t need to be done. Having a better picture of what you’re doing and what the end result will be is something they can improve on. Do you have any advice for potential customers? You need to interview as many as possible so they can gauge the difference. This is one of the areas where Sloboda Studio really stood out. You need to articulate what you’re looking to do as best as possible. Be familiar with what you have. You need to know why certain languages are better for other things. You need to have a basic foundation. What might be easy for the client, in reality, is not easy for development. Simply changing a color or a font could take hours of development. You need to understand some of those things before you start talking to developers. --- #### Custom Software & Web Dev for Recruiting Company **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Jan. 2019 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio delivers custom web development for an employment services provider. They built a platform that gives users access to candidate profiles and other relevant data. The product has yet to launch. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Managing Partner, Recruiting Company - Industry: Business services - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 1, 2019 **Feedback Summary**: The application has performed well in QA testing, and internal stakeholders are pleased with the interface. The team is dedicated to the project, and their professional approach has made for a fluid development process. Customers can expect engaging collaboration and strict adherence to deadlines. ""Their project manager is in touch with me every day, and their team is very responsive." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m a managing partner at a Middle Eastern employment services provider. We offer recruiting services to finance and banking firms. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We were looking to build a platform that would help our users find suitable candidates. We also wanted to upgrade our system through automating our database. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? They built a product that processes our data and gives users access to candidate profiles and data analysis. They’re currently building a website to house the platform, and they’re adding security measures to protect our data. What is the team composition? I work with a team of seven people, which includes their COO, an account manager, and several developers. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? I conducted initial research on Clutch and shortlisted about six or seven companies. I held phone meetings with each of these firms, and most of them were unable to grasp my requirements. I eventually spoke with Yaroslav (COO, Sloboda Studio), and he understood our project immediately. I chose them because they knew exactly what we wanted, and they could identify the technologies they would use to meet our needs. How much have you invested with them? We’ve spent approximately $20,000–$25,000. What is the status of this engagement? The project began in January 2019, and the work is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? The product has performed spectacularly in testing, and we’re very much looking forward to launching it in the near future. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? We communicate primarily via WhatsApp and email. They’ve also sent us YouTube video presentations with relevant information. Their project manager is in touch with me every day, and their team is very responsive. They’ve also been very transparent in terms of their time management. Every month, they send a detailed report of hours spent on each task. They set clear deadlines and always deliver on time. What did you find most impressive about them? We’ve remained under budget, and they’ve stuck to the outline they initially gave us. They fully understand our requirements, and when I ask them for suggestions, they give concise and meaningful answers. I’ve also very much appreciated the YouTube videos they produced. Are there any areas they could improve? This is minor, but they could improve their web design capabilities. This would help with marketing the product. Other than that, there isn’t much that I can provide in terms of constructive criticism. They’ve been excellent. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Be clear about what you want, and they will be honest with you about their abilities. Also, I’m not sure that they’ll be able to develop an app without a preexisting database, so keep that in mind. --- #### MVP Development for Expert Engagement Marketplace **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: June - Dec. 2017 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio developed the entire frontend, backend, and an admin panel for an MVP with the goal of raising funds, obtaining user insights, and appealing to investors. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CEO, Expert Access - Industry: Education - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Nov 19, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Their expert developers produced an MVP that shows investors that there’s a team and a great product in place, ready for more funds. Sloboda Studio’s developers provided helpful tech insight, produced high-quality code, and went a step ahead of just taking direction by asking the right questions. ""… their skilled developers were willing to work with us at any capacity." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I’m the CEO and co-founder of Expert Access, a marketplace where people can book time to speak with experts in the sports and entertainment industry. We’re currently building our MVP and are looking to launch early next year. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? They were hired to assist us in building the frontend, backend, and admin panel for our MVP. What were your goals for this project? Our objective was to have our MVP help us gain customer insights and have something to demo as we raise funds. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? We researched different teams overseas on multiple marketplaces. Sloboda Studio’s experience was enough to draw us in for an initial conversation, after which we knew that they were the right team for the project. Since I come from an agency background, I knew that their project managers were listening and offering valuable insight into our conversations. Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project? Sloboda Studio helped us assess the technology to build our platform on, proposing the most advanced and cost-effective languages. We anticipate working with them on all of our future phases. What was the team composition? They assigned two project managers and two developers to our project. Our internal team handled all of the UI/UX and worked with their team to get our vision onto the screen. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? We've managed to get our admin, frontend, and backend up and running. We’re still working towards getting our entire MVP complete, but Sloboda Studio’s work so far has been very helpful for showing our investors that we already have a team in place that knows how to execute. How was project management arranged and how effective was it? Project management was great. One of the project managers seemed to be more experienced and helped the lower level manager when needed. They did an excellent job of managing our expectations and driving the project forward by asking questions and not just taking direction. This was very helpful because they had very good insight and valid points regarding the used technologies and how certain features work. What did you find most impressive about this company? It’s critical to have technical insight as well as great communication, which they do. Furthermore, their skilled developers were willing to work with us at any capacity. Are there any areas where they can improve? They should work on verifying the functionality of a feature before building it. We only had one small issue where we missed the exact functionality that we needed to create. --- #### Web Platform MVP for Content Creation Company **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Feb. - June 2018 **Project Summary**: Using provided UI/UX mockups and a preliminary prototype, Sloboda Studio developed an MVP of a web app to demo to investors. The MVP features a Ruby on Rails backend. **Review Rating**: 4.0 - Quality: 4.5 - Schedule: 4.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 4.5 **The Reviewer** Co-founder, Content Creation Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Nov 1, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio refined the prototype’s design and concept, allowing the internal team to take over future development. While rotating developers posed some challenges, the staff kept extensive documentation throughout the process and maintained open communication. "“Their development team and leadership were remarkable.” " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m one of the co-founders of a content creation company. We’re developing a tool to make it easier for content creators in the media and entertainment industries to collaborate. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We approached Sloboda Studio to develop a basic MVP of our web-based app to show to investors. It needed to be a semi-functional prototype that demonstrated what we were trying to do. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? We provided Sloboda Studio with UI/UX mockups as well as an initial prototype to start. Their team implemented the UI design into the prototype using React. Afterward, they developed the backend functionality as needed using Ruby on Rails. What is the team composition? The team consisted of a frontend developer, a backend developer, and a product manager. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? We found them on Upwork and interviewed them. Because our other co-founder had a lot of technical experience, he interviewed the developers to gauge their Rails expertise and knowledge. What is the status of this engagement? Their work lasted from February–June 2018. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? Sloboda Studio’s efforts allowed us to move the product forward, getting to a point where our internal team could proceed with future product development. We were also able to clear up some of our initial design decisions once we started building the prototype. Their team supported us throughout, helping us bring an actual MVP to some of our customers. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Their product manager was responsible for coordinating efforts on the development side and updating us on the project status. The team had excellent English skills, so we had no problems communicating back and forth. They kept extensive notes and Excel spreadsheets to keep track of hours, telling us clearly how much time they spent on certain tasks. What did you find most impressive about them? Their development team and leadership were remarkable. The frontend developers knew what they were doing, and the management was also strong. I even had the chance to meet their founder, who is excellent; he's driving the company forward. Are there any areas they could improve? It would’ve been beneficial to have a more consistent team. This is partly due to our own budget limitations, but when a developer completes their task, the management can replace them with a different developer to keep everyone staffed. However, it’s challenging to work on a project with a rotating team. Having a dedicated developer stay on throughout the project would've been more conducive. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Communication is key. During the development phase, document everything and communicate your point multiple times. It’s better to over-communicate than under-communicate. --- #### Web Development for IoT Nonprofit **The Project** - Services: UX/UI Design - Project size: Less than $10,000 - Project length: August 2018 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio built a responsive, multi-page website with interactive tools and complex graphics. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Software Engineer, IOTA Foundation - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 51-200 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Sep 26, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: The website looked fantastic, and development concluded within the established schedule and budget. Sloboda Studio made the whole process enjoyable, answering questions clearly and always delivering on time. Their efficiency and transparency made them a great partner.  ""This was a collaborative, positive experience."  " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I'm a software developer at IOTA, a non-profit foundation developing an open source, permissionless distributed ledger technology for the IoT economy. We seek to enable innovation across multiple industries and regions. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What were your goals for this project? Our goal was to create new UI/UX designs for multiple pages, with assets and mock-ups provided in an accessible fashion. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? I had worked with Sloboda Studio in the past and was always satisfied with the quality and speed of their work. Their communication was always good. Describe the project in detail. We hired them to build a new multi-page website for our data marketplace project. They created lots of graphics, interactive elements, and a responsive design that looked great on any device. It took one short video call to explain the requirements, after which the designer immediately began working on mock-ups. They opened the deliverables for feedback and implemented change requests on time. What was the team composition? We had one UX/UI designer and two managers from Sloboda Studio, who worked with one of our frontend developers. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success? Their UI/UX experts did a great job. They provided the deliverables we agreed upon and completed the project within our timeframe and budget. How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs? The workflow was effective and comfortable. They clarified open questions rapidly and respectfully.  What did you find most impressive about this company? I especially liked communicating in my native language. This was a collaborative, positive experience. I will engage with Sloboda Studio again for our future website needs. Are there any areas for improvement? We were satisfied with them every step of the way. --- #### Agile Product Development for Business Consultancy **The Project** - Services: IT Staff Augmentation - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Aug. 2018 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided development staff augmentation to build a core product more efficiently. The team offered valuable insight and participated in code reviews. This review was updated by the client on August 11, 2020. The original star ratings were Quality: 4.5, Scheduling: 4.5, Cost: 5, Willingness to Refer: 4.5, Overall, 4.5 **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 4.5 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CTO, Business Consultancy - Industry: Advertising & marketing - Client size: 51-200 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Sep 26, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio’s collaboration helped deliver a product that increased sales and continuously spurs company growth. The solution is useful both in-house and for end users. Working under Agile project management, the team used a combination of tools to track and communicate progress. "“They’re interested in our feedback and proactively find ways to improve.” " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I’m the CTO of an international business consultancy. I lead the development, technical project, and product teams. We provide strategic data-driven consulting services. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? We needed to scale up our team to accelerate and improve development for our core product. What were your goals for this project? We wanted a high-quality product with regular and mapped updates, implemented and managed using the Agile development processes. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? We chose to work with Sloboda Studio based on the cost, efficiency, and quality that they offered. Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project? Sloboda Studio’s developers not only provide basic coding services but also participate in code reviews and offer feedback. We collaborate to define the best strategies for our product’s technical architecture, implementation plans, and development processes. The team’s suggestions are extremely valuable, making them a cornerstone of our product development. One core service they support us with is implementation support with a mobile interface for our dashboard. What was the team composition? There are usually between 15–20 developers working on the product at any time. About 50% work on the frontend, and the other half focus on the backend. While Sloboda Studio restructures the teams occasionally to accommodate our needs, the total number of resources stays relatively constant. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? The finished product is currently a major selling point for our company. As a central element in the grand scheme of our services, it has swayed many clients in our direction and boosted sales. Additionally, it is regularly used both internally and externally. How was project management arranged and how effective was it? Sloboda Studio joined our internal management process. At the direction of our product owner, scrum master, and QA team, the team communicates consistently and uses tools like GitHub, Slack, Jira, Confluence, and Trello to stay up to date with the project. We’ve never encountered a language barrier; all interactions and documents are done in English. They’re interested in our feedback and proactively find ways to improve. What did you find most impressive about this company? Sloboda Studio offers high-quality developers that quickly familiarize themselves with our technology stack. They communicate openly and frequently which makes our interactions smooth and pleasant. Are there any areas where they can improve? I honestly can't think of anything at the moment. They are open for feedback and react well to it. Whenever I had questions or comments, they considered them quickly. **UPDATED REVIEW** BACKGROUND Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the CTO of a business consultancy. We provide marketing and intelligent solutions in the field of data analytics and data services, dashboard providing, data modeling, etc. OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We work mainly with data scientists, as well as a lot of consultants, but we don’t have a big IT department to help keep everything organized. SOLUTION What was the scope of their involvement? We’re helping a client with a large batch of media data and were tasked with automating the process. We needed someone who is very good with Python that was able to work to translate Excel Sheets where data has been collected into structured formatting via Python, a couple of libraries, and integrating into Microsoft Azure. We were looking to shift a super manual process into a cloud service. In the beginning, the scope was more an advisory base. Now they are slightly into the tech consultancy side. What is the team composition? Their team was comprised of one project manager and two developers. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? They were recommended. We were partnering with them in the beginning and for us, it’s a huge process of onboarded new external people. They were already in the system and that’s the reason I reached out to them initially. How much have you invested with them? The total cost was around $50,000. What is the status of this engagement? We started working together in May 2019 and the work is ongoing. RESULTS & FEEDBACK What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? They’ve shown us this kind of solution is applicable to a lot of other companies we are working with. It was the first time we had ever done this, but it’s been a very scalable approach. They have shown my team how to very efficiently work with remote staff. It’s been a challenge for us in the past but with a good project manager, everything was very transparent and had a positive impact on our internal staff. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Project management is very on point. It’s reliable and transparent, and we have a daily hour tracking that allows me to check what’s happening at any time. I have frequent check-ins with the project manager to see where we are. They have proven the ability to scale up quickly when we need something in the course of 1-2 days. Everything is super clear. What did you find most impressive about them? They have the capability of combining a couple of tools and methodologies together. It’s not just pure Python developers but it’s more bringing really intelligent comments and thoughts onto the table. It’s not a matter of telling them what to do and they do it. They ask questions to make sure it makes sense. It’s a critical way of working. They do it in a very respectful and proactive way. I’m super happy with them. Are there any areas they could improve? In the beginning, they weren’t as proactive. It has only been developed over the course of time. Do you have any advice for potential customers? I recommend working with the people I worked with. It’s super important to take time to talk to the team. Move them out of the sheer development process but include them in the status updates. This will open new points of view for the overall manager. --- #### Web Development for IT Industry Social Platform **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Jan. 2015 - June 2016 **Project Summary**: Sloboda fully created a web-based social app to connect IT specialists and help grow their local networks. The platform contains a member catalog, management system, and various search and privacy options. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Former CEO, Softsource - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 10,001+ Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Jul 27, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda’s efforts led to notable social media success, and increased user base, and general growth. The team was available and actively involved throughout the engagement. Their responsive customer service and goal-oriented workflow assured the project was completed to the desired standards. "“Their transparent, responsive, and punctual approach to the project made them a valuable resource.” " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I was the CEO of SoftSource. It is a community working to unite c-level, sales, and project management representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus in the IT sector. The online platform focuses on facilitating the communication process and establishing lasting business relationships. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? We needed a partner to completely build our website. What were your goals for this project? We wanted to create a convenient online platform that allowed users to share their experience and grow a network of business contacts. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? We researched a few companies that specialized in the type of web development we needed. Through my network, I found some reviews of Sloboda’s work. We contacted them and decided to engage. Describe the project in detail. After designing the UI/UX elements of the platform, Sloboda fully developed the website using Ruby on Rails for the backend and Bootstrap, React.js, and jQuery JavaScript libraries for the frontend. The team optimized the site for mobile devices and set up an email notification system to engage our users. The web-based application has many functionalities. There is a catalog listing the different companies and participants in our various city club communities with information on their members, organized events, and any relevant news. Clubs have the option to remain public or be accessible only by invitation. Another feature acts a community management system that allows club moderators to accept, deny, or contact new users after receiving their application. Also, the platform serves as a marketplace where users can post leads and apply for positions in the software development industry. Additionally, there is a library that details general types of inter-company agreements and a search capability that stretches over all of the website’s content. What was the team composition? We mainly interacted with the project manager, who coordinated with two backend developers, a frontend developer, a designer, and a QA engineer. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success? Our business has grown significantly since partnering with Sloboda. Our website is a main entry point into the industry for IT specialists in the region. Our main Facebook group has over 15 thousand members. The website’s club catalog contains over 500 entries and users can browse through to connect with colleagues and initiate collaborations. How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs? Sloboda’s project manager effectively handled their team’s workflow and was always available for Skype calls. Our questions were answered immediately in scheduled meetings with their developers. The team was very helpful, responsive, and time-oriented. They became a part of our internal team, which allowed us to easily track their work. We also appreciated their proficiency in working with Ruby on Rails. What did you find most impressive about this company? Their transparent, responsive, and punctual approach to the project made them a valuable resource. Sloboda really understood our business needs and was able to intuitively develop all of the required features. The team’s honesty in giving and receiving feedback ultimately helped improve our internal processes. Are there any areas for improvement? They used our feedback to make improvements throughout the engagement. When there were challenges, they notified us immediately and promptly made the adjustments. So, at this point, I have no specific areas in which they could improve. --- #### Software Development for Family Timeline Product **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Jan. 2017 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided Ruby on Rails development work that is continuing into a second project phase, where PHP may be utilized and Sloboda will continue to give feedback on strategy. **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 4.0 - Schedule: 4.5 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-founder, Family Timeline Product - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Jun 18, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda effectively took early concept designs and executed working developments that can be tested live and iterated upon. They exhibit great attention to detail by noticing and fixing small issues that arise. Responsive communication mitigates language barrier problems. "“[They] go beyond what is the basic requirement in order to get something up and running.” " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. We’re still at the project stage—rather than already being a full-fledged company—and want to help people track their family timelines. Our platform gives the ability to create private networks for family members and close friends to upload and share pictures and stories about close and distant loved ones. The platform comes with a visual timeline, push alerts for family events and anniversaries, and capabilities for uploading and crowdsourcing family photos that otherwise may have been lost. I am a co-founder with another family member. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We wanted to get an MVP up and running very quickly and then be able to iterate upon that very frequently during the development process. After, we wanted to get something live so that we could test it with extended family members, learn from those tests, and continue to refine the model until it is ready for testing in a larger market. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? They have provided Ruby on Rails development work for creating the MVP. There is no mobile app component yet but we do plan on making it mobile enabled in the future. For now, our target audience is people who are comfortable using the platform on a desktop. We have finished phase one and are about to look at phase two, which might include exporting into something like PHP. What is the team composition? We have a very flexible relationship with Sloboda Studio. We have worked with a project manager, who would coordinate with a number of different tech developers, and one of the cofounders himself, who would brainstorm and discuss with us while overall boosting the entire process. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? We found them through a reference, from cityFALCON, who is a friend and contact of mine in the tech world. He highly recommended them as they helped him get his product up to speed. He showed me some of their output and explained a little bit about what they could do. My initial conversations with one of the cofounders turned into an ongoing engagement. What is the status of this engagement? We began working together about one year ago and the engagement is still ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? For an application, I think there are two sides to measure it from: first, how usable it is, and second, how well does it visually work. We came up with a basic, unfinalized design and they interpreted it into something that is highly usable. The application works and makes it easy to upload an image and description, which then create alerts. For example, if I upload photos from my grandparents’ wedding anniversary it will effectively push a picture alert notification to respective emails, which all sounds easier than done. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? They’ve been helpful, responsive, and extremely adaptive. Their ability to think through a problem is notably impressive as well. For example, they recognized that apple phones imported pictures at a 90-degree angle and were able to correct for that. I think that they have also contributed to the development of the idea itself. One of their key strengths is that they will help out on even small projects and not meticulously charge for every half-hour of services rendered. Their pricing is both fair and flexible; despite this, they go beyond what is the basic requirement in order to get something up and running. We principally use them for development work but would also consider them for design work during phase two. Skype is our primary form of communication and email is used for sharing documents and specs. What did you find most impressive about them? I have been most impressed with their responsiveness and positively helpful nature. Unlike the company that referred us (who has already raised funding and put together a team), we are a very early stage concept. Sloboda goes beyond what is normally necessary and has done a great job; from my relatively limited experience. Are there any areas they could improve? The only improvement I would recommend—and it’s minor—is to work on the problem of some things being lost in translation. This is often a challenge when dealing with people oversees. I think an improvement in English language capabilities would save time and avoid sometimes overly blunt conversations. However, there were no problems with the platform. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Provide very clear specs up front and understand what Sloboda Studio can and can’t do for you. For example, I am fully aware that they, at this moment, cannot do mobile apps; however, if I expect to create a mobile application, I think they would be able to find a partner who can do that. They are able to manage and hire teams to work on behalf of a single client, which is something that is potentially a very attractive thing for some potential clients. --- #### Web App Tool Dev for PR Company **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Dec. 2017 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda uses Ruby on Rails and React to extend an existing web application, further developing the backend and integrating with the frontend cloud platform, Heroku. **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 4.0 - Schedule: 4.5 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CTO, Mynewsdesk - Industry: Business services - Client size: 201-500 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Jun 5, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Overcoming initial concerns of outsourcing development work, Sloboda integrates well with the existing team, has open, honest, and consistent communication, and is willing to adjust their methods and processes to meet business needs and expectations. ""They have open and honest communication." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the CTO at Mynewsdesk. We are a B2B company that helps our customers with PR and communications by providing media monitoring, social media integration, and offering channels to contact different journalists. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We needed more resources to extend our web application and were interested in working with an external team of developers. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? They are extending our web application, which is currently a running beta with a larger launch planned for autumn. They are using Ruby on Rails and React as the main frameworks to built the backend, and then deploy the code on Heroku integrating with our frontend platform. What is the team composition? Sloboda’s team had a project leader—or Scrum master—and a team of front- and backend developers that integrated with our team. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? Sloboda reached out to us. We wanted to work with them because we found their company and work exciting. What is the status of this engagement? We began working together in December 2017, and the work is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? We have great communication and collaboration between the teams. They always give detailed and helpful feedback. We use Slack for daily communication; we have sprint meetings and planning every two weeks; and before each sprint meeting, I meet with the Scrum master. Sloboda’s lead developers have integrated with our in-house developers, so we have open lines of communication with them. Before the project started, we were concerned with how well the teams would integrate, so we spent a week letting the teams get to know each other and work together. After that, we felt secure in the fact that the project would go smoothly. What did you find most impressive about them? They have open and honest communication. If there are challenges in the project, they notify us right away, which is something I was unsure we would get with an outside team. Are there any areas they could improve? They’ve been open to our feedback and are already working on areas where they could improve. Any time there has been an issue they’ve made improvements or adjustments quickly. Do you have any advice for potential customers? If possible, meet with the Sloboda team in-person. In general, it’s good to know the people you’re working with and their culture, and in our case, it helped the two teams integrate early in the project. Either go to their office or have them come to yours. It’s worth the cost. --- #### Software Platform Dev for Sales Service **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: June 2017 - Mar. 2018 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio helped develop an app using Ruby on Rails. They added additional features, developed an updated version, and prepared the product for launch. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CEO, SalesFolk - Industry: Media - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Jun 4, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: The software Sloboda helped develop increased efficiency and streamlined internal processes. Always meeting deadlines, Sloboda's team was organized and delivered clean code. Their in-depth knowledge in Ruby on Rails and responsiveness to feedback set them above the competition. ""They are organized and good developers—better than some of the ones I've seen in Silicon Valley." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I am the CEO of SalesFolk. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? We hired Sloboda Studio to help build a software platform, optimize internal processes, and improve our customer experience. What were your goals for this project? We wanted to automate and streamline our internal processes for higher efficiency and greater transparency. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? They were initially recommended by a friend who has been working with them for the past six years. I spoke to several other firms, but they seemed to be the most affordable with the highest quality. Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project? They helped us build an app using Ruby on Rails. We had already built out most of the backend architecture, which had some existing documentation. The Sloboda team helped us finish and launch the product, while also adding additional features and functionality; This included rolling out another version of our software. Their developers used best practices for committing code using Github and various automated testing software. What was the team composition? In the beginning, they provided one backend developer, but later added another backend and one part-time front-end developer. We had some issues with the first front-end developer, so they replaced him with a better one as per my request. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business? They were definitely successful in improving our internal processes. How was project management arranged and how effective was it? The team almost always hit deadlines, used Github to track code, and were always available on Slack. I worked closely with Sloboda's developers and reviewed all code they committed before pushing it live. They were very knowledgeable about Ruby on Rails. What did you find most impressive about this company? They are organized and good developers—better than some of the ones I've seen in Silicon Valley. Are there any areas where they can improve? Some of their developers were definitely better than others. One of the developers was truly exceptional, while the other one wasn't quite as strong. However, they did a great job with helping me replace the weaker developer, and even gave me a two-week free trial period to test them out before hiring them. --- #### Staff Augmentation for Cognitive Assessment Platform **The Project** - Services: IT Staff Augmentation - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Oct. 2017 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio has an engineer that works as part of the staff developing a cognitive assessment platform. The engineer develops software features, performs testing, and plans new features using Ruby on Rails. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 4.5 **The Reviewer** Engineer, Assessment Service - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — May 24, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio’s team members perform the work quickly with a high level of execution. They offer strong technical expertise and excellent results, accompanied by responsive communications when needed. This professional firm impresses so much that additional resources may be brought on. "“They stand out in terms of speed of development and quality.” " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. We are developing a cognitive assessment platform that allows clients to perform brain function assessments. The measured faculties are verbal and reasoning abilities and memory. I support the platform from a tech perspective and oversee some of the product development. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We were looking for professionals who could support our team. We were looking for the right balance between skills and rates. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? We have worked with professionals from Sloboda in an outstaffing model. They are a part of our team, engaged in our development and delivery process. They provide web software development, primarily using Ruby on Rails. They are developing new features, providing maintenance, testing for our current platform, and planning new features. We involve everyone in long- and short-term planning from a technical perspective. What is the team composition? We are currently working with one senior engineer from their team. He is a remote teammate in Ukraine. We work directly with the developer, and we have an account manager on their side for support. We may expand the team in the future. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? We researched a few companies that provide expertise in the technologies we were using. I found some reviews for Sloboda through my network, and we contacted them. What is the status of this engagement? We started working with Sloboda around October or November 2017. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? The Sloboda team has very good speed and a performance level that is on par or higher than our team’s. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? We have a straightforward scrum process, and we keep burndown charts, story points, and so on. We do not communicate very often in terms of project management. Once we set something up, it works. At the same time, they are quite responsive whenever we have a question. We have a few points of communication from their side, which is always an advantage. Sloboda is a part of our team and process. Everything is tracked online, and our company had a distributed model from day one. Our tools were set up to be remotely accessible. What did you find most impressive about them? The team from Sloboda is very responsive, and they are very professional in terms of tech-related knowledge. Even though they work remotely and we will always have a small communication gap, we haven’t felt that they are in a different time zone. They have good work quality and have a good balance of rates and benefits. They stand out in terms of speed of development and quality. Are there any areas they could improve? We had a conversation with them about changing their rates five months after we started working together. The pricing is accessible, but they changed their rates whenever we increased their responsibility or the scope of the work. The conversation started based on the contract, which included a chapter stating that they could increase their rates or subscription fee. --- #### Backend Dev for Taxi Booking Service **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Jan. 2013 - Jan. 2015 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided Ruby on Rails backend developers, working on building the server-side and backend of a native mobile application. **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 4.5 - Schedule: 4.5 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Project Manager, TaxiPixi - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — May 11, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: The team managed the project well through a project lead and demonstrated their expertise with Ruby on Rails development throughout the work. Despite some bugs appearing later, their development work was largely good quality and delivered efficiently.  ""Everyone from their side was helpful and hardworking." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. We ran the TaxiPixi app, which has since been shut down. It was a taxi-booking app that operated in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt. I was a project manager for the company. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We had an issue finding skilled and affordable talent. We were a bootstrapped startup, and Sloboda Studio was the perfect match for us. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? They assigned backend developers for our project. The work was mostly related to server-side and backend development. The core native mobile app development was done by another agency. What is the team composition? They assigned 3–4 people to our team. The size of the team kept changing based on our requirements. We sometimes had only a single person working for us, and a maximum of 4 people. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? Our co-founder had worked with them in the past. We found them on oDesk, the predecessor to Upwork and hired them as a part-time agency. We didn’t give them a lot of work initially, as we weren’t sure what needed to be done at that point. How much have you invested with them? We worked with them for over two years. Their invoice was $3,000–$4,000 per month. What is the status of this engagement? We worked together between 2013 and 2015. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? We measured the output in terms of deadline adherence—whether a task was completed within the given time frame. I wouldn’t say that they always delivered on time, but we never know what cases we might come across during a software development project. Everyone from their side was helpful and hardworking. If we had a delay, they would pick up the pace. I never had any issues to bring up. In terms of quality of work and of code, I would give them an 8/10, based on the bugs that appeared later on. We had a few issues where they had to roll back changes and complete fixes. This was in part because we didn’t have an automated QA tester. We were a small team and there were only developers on their side. They tested the work alongside me. We sometimes released items to production that were not ready to go to production. We had to go back, fix them, and release again. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Most of the time, they assigned project managers or leaders from their side. Those kept changing, for some reason. I would work with one person for a couple of months, after which they would be changed. However, it didn’t really create many problems. I would communicate with their project leader to explain the requirements, and they communicated with the developers. The developers were included in a Skype group, where they could ask any questions they had and I would answer. We didn’t have any issues with communication. What did you find most impressive about them? Their skill level was different than that of developers from my own country, India. One of the reasons for choosing them was that they were more knowledgeable and knew about the latest developments in Ruby on Rails. They were able to suggest any necessary upgrades, which is not very common among Indian developers. They were very aware of the latest trends. Are there any areas they could improve? They would provide us timesheets, detailing how many hours they’d worked for, and what tasked they’d finished. I had to ask for details for specific jobs, on many occasions. We had a few discussions regarding timesheets where the tasks were not clearly mentioned. Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs? Since we always outsourced our work, and we used multiple agencies, it would be hard for me to think about Sloboda in particular. If someone is from India, I would definitely recommend a company like Sloboda to them, specifically if they are looking for Ruby on Rails developers. --- #### Web Dev & Support for Merchandising Company **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Nov. 2017 - Feb. 2018 **Project Summary**: Sloboda augmented a Ruby on Rails database to facilitate a new product integration. They built out a backend interface to create customer-facing product displays, order forms, and search functionalities. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-Founder, Merchandising Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — May 9, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Their developments smoothly assimilated with an existing platform and function as expected. Extremely flexible, Sloboda works hard to overcome challenges and adjust to different management styles. However, their approach to contract agreements and payment processing could be more intuitive. "“They just worked well even with the time difference and being in two separate locations.” " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the co-founder of a merchandising company. We print t-shirts and apparel to help people grow their merchandising businesses. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We needed alterations made to our Ruby on Rails database. Our previous developer moved on to different work and we lacked other connections in this arena. We reached out to Sloboda and hired them to take on the project. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? We introduced embroidery products to our business and needed the website to reflect that. Sloboda integrated new products into the site by developing a UI in admin database that could interact with everything on the frontend. They used this to create the pricing, display, order forms, and filtering functionality of the new products on the marketing side of the website. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to offer them a constant stream of work. However, they make an effort to be available and provide occasional support and maintenance when necessary. What is the team composition? We worked directly with a project manager and one assigned developer. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? We’re working with another developer on a separate project, but they aren’t equipped to work in Rails. As a result, they put us in contact with Sloboda. What is the status of this engagement? The project took place from November 2017–February 2018. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? Sloboda performed really well. I measure the quality of their deliverables by comparing them against the rest of our site, and not necessarily the strength of the code itself. Instead, I put more value in how their work translates to an intuitive UX. They delivered what I expected and there weren’t many issues. Everything aligned pretty well. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? The project manager set the terms of the agreement between us and laid out how the whole thing was going to work. Despite the time difference, we’d frequently correspond with them via Slack and Google Hangouts. They were organized, communicated any changes that needed to be made, and stuck to the timeline they projected. Overall, the project was very well executed. What did you find most impressive about them? I found their ability to integrate with my workflow and methods of communication to be one of their most notable attributes. They just worked well even with the time difference and being in two separate locations. Are there any areas they could improve? We needed basic contract work, but they were looking for a long-term project with a broader scope. I understand that, but it meant I had to sign a fairly robust contract while only asking for a short-term engagement. I’d recommend they offer a smaller-scale contract template for firms who want to do smaller developments before moving into a large project. Also, they should implement an easier payment system. Initially, they wanted me to use a software I’ve never used before to pay them. Being more accustomed to PayPal or some kind of bank transfer, I had to push back on that. They were flexible and we eventually came to an agreeable solution. Do you have any advice for potential customers? The more detailed you can be when sharing information the better. Some things are literally going to be lost in translation, so using screencasts, screencaps, or mock-ups will always go a long way. --- #### Web Dev & Support for Social Wellness Service **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Mar. 2018 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio was brought in to build specific functionalities into an app’s existing infrastructure and is currently building an in-app messaging service. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-Founder, Social Health LLC - Industry: Hospitality & leisure - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 20, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Despite being based thousands of miles away, Sloboda quickly became a trusted partner by being responsive, delivering a high-quality product as desired, and demonstrating a unique zeal for mobile app development. "“The overall work product has been exactly what we wanted." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I am the CEO of a company called Social Health, which provides a social wellness service designed to reward and incentivize people to go out and be more active in their local communities. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? The main issue was to find a programming team that would balance efficiency with good cost, good service, and good customer support. We found that many programmers we’ve worked with in the past overrepresented their abilities during the interview process and then underperformed when doing the work. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Our basic infrastructure for our service was already completed when we began working with Sloboda, so we needed them to build in various tasks and features. We’ve created a series of projects for them to implement in various segments. For example, the big task we have Sloboda working on now is an in-app messenger service. What is the team composition? I speak with the owner of Sloboda occasionally, but he does not work with us day-to-day. My COO has communicated extensively with an individual at Sloboda who coordinates between us and their developer. They are very responsive and we mainly communicate via Skype. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? I had heard good things from some programming friends about their experiences working with Europeans. We started Googling established European programmers and spent about a week calling, emailing, and interviewing about ten that we had narrowed down from a larger list. Then, we gave tasks to about three or four of them and Sloboda was the one at the top at the end. What is the status of this engagement? is ongoing, and we have been working with them for about a month, since about the end of March 2018. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? The overall work product has been exactly what we wanted. Sometimes I’m blown away because they’ll build something the way I imagined it without me giving the full details of how it should look. As my business partners have described it, they’re hungry for the work, they want to do the work, they’re not doing it just because they know it’s something they have to do to make ends meet. It seems like they really like what they’re doing and that’s important. It makes a difference that they care about what they’re doing. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? We hear from them daily. We’ve worked with firms local to us with whom we would barely meet every other week while they were working on projects for us. On the other hand, we’d get daily updates from Sloboda and they are halfway across the world. What did you find most impressive about them? I find them to be kind of like us – they are a younger organization. The positive thing about that is they’re very responsive. They don’t care that we’re a startup nor that we are still trying to figure out the landscape. If there are any quirks, rather than disappearing on us or making us go through some bureaucratic mess, they will stick around and work through those issues. Considering the time distance between here and where they are located, in Ukraine, they’ve also adjusted their hours on certain occasions to be more available to us. Also, despite there being a bit of a language barrier, they go out of their way to answer questions and provide relevant explanations on things like why a certain feature or piece of code exists or works in a certain way. Are there any areas they could improve? Not really. The only hiccup we’ve had has been an issue with payments going through. I think that is an international issue with payments being heavily scrutinized and not even their fault. Frankly, everything else is great and when this causes a delay, it is by a couple of days. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Be prepared to deal with the time zone difference. While I have found myself answering questions over Skype at 5:00 a.m., they have also kept their offices open until 9:00 p.m. their time just to make sure everything is right with us. So, it is a tradeoff. Just do your research on the logistics of working with someone halfway across the world. --- #### Ruby on Rails Web Dev for Financial News Startup **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Jan. 2014 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Using Ruby on Rails, Javascript, and jQuery, Sloboda Studio managed both the front- and backend development for a news aggregating website. **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 4.5 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Executive, CityFALCON - Industry: Financial services - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Mar 23, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: They delivered a high-quality product, paying particular attention to the testing phase. Despite the time difference, they established a smooth process and quickly earned trust, while their productivity and commitment contributed to the ongoing relationship. ""They're very committed, disciplined, and productive." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I work at CityFALCON, which is a start-up that focuses on aggregating and curating financial news and content for people in financial services. Our clients range from retail traders and investors to banks and other financial institutions. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We were looking for a company to help us develop a website and work with our budget constraints. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? I built the first version of the website and they took over the project, overseeing the back- and frontend development. The website is similar to Google News, but it's geared towards financial services industry. Using Ruby on Rails, HTML, Javascript, and jQuery, they built about 75% of our website. In addition, they helped us focus on other products, such as iPod and Amazon Echo. What is the team composition? I'm the project manager and I work with 8–9 people from their team. How did you come to work with them? I found them through an online search when I was looking for a web development agency in Ukraine. I liked their website, so I contacted them. Initially, I hired one person from their team and worked with him for a month. Since he did an excellent job, I decided to expand the team. What is the status of this engagement? We started working with them in 2014 and the relationship is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? We have a complicated product with a lot of different channels, but I've been very satisfied with the quality of their work. Also, we appreciate the fact that they're very focused on testing. How did they perform from a project management standpoint? They've been doing an amazing job. We use Jira, Confluence, and Slack to communicate. Sometimes we have specific deadlines, but we've also tried sprints to track productivity. We're located in different time zones, but we haven't had any issues with that. What did you find most impressive about them? They're very committed, disciplined, and productive. Are there any areas they could improve? It's important to be aware of cultural differences and be careful when communicating with people from other cultures. Do you have any advice for potential customers? Be very clear about the tasks. It helps when you work with an overseas team. --- #### Geolocation Tool Dev for Poker Service **The Project** - Services: Web Development - Project size: Less than $10,000 - Project length: Dec. - Jan. 2017 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio helped to circumvent a country-wide blocked website by implementing a geolocation tool for users. The team also made the existing site more responsive to mobile users. **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-owner, MirPokera - Industry: Arts, entertainment & music - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Jan 30, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: The website is now easily accessed from previously blocked countries. Sloboda provided quality work quickly while maintaining friendly and professional communication directly with the developers on the project. ""[O]ur needs were met and we are completely satisfied with service." " **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and your position there. I am a current owner of MirPokera, a poker website created in 2006.  **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio? A lot of gambling websites have been blocked in Russia by an organization called Roskomnadzor and therefore aren't available to users in Russia. What were your goals for this project? We needed a geolocation tool that would change the Russian visitor prohibition notification page to a link with information regarding restrictions for Russian users. We then wanted the page to display further links that would allow them to access the site through a proxy. This would allow Russian users to access our site. **SOLUTION** How did you select this vendor? One of our site owners had previously worked with Sloboda Studio and recommended them. Describe the project in detail. Sloboda Studio implemented the geolocation function, and also added required backend tools. They made some minor changes to the website's HTML to make it more user-friendly for mobile phone visitors. What was the team composition? Since our task was quite simple, we only had one project manager and one senior Ruby-on-Rails developer. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success? MirPokera is now safe from the block that Roskomnadzor had implemented. How effective was the project management? We are satisfied with their project management; they made sure all deadlines were met. What did you find most impressive about this company? We had a direct access to the developer and project manager so there weren't any communication issues and communication was all very friendly. What tips or recommendations do you have? We don't have any recommendations, our needs were met and we are completely satisfied with service. --- #### Marketing Platform Dev for Community Management Service **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Apr. 2016 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda developed an online marketing platform for a community management service. Designing, developing, and then QA testing the platform, they continue to work on the evolving platform’s front- and backend. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-founder, Artur Inside - Industry: Advertising & marketing - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Jan 30, 2018 **Feedback Summary**: Since the platform’s creation almost 2 years ago, the company has raised around $2 million, demonstrating the quality of the product. Sloboda continues to impress with their technical skill and knowledge, attention to detail, and good communication, though could work on growing their team faster. "“Everything was done in a professional, timely, and efficient manner." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. Artur Inside provides community-management services based on artificial intelligence. We offer Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram account management to small and medium-sized businesses. We charge a fraction of what they would be paying to a regular web agency, thanks to our AI [Artificial Intelligence] algorithm, which helps us curate and create personalized content. I am a co-founder and the CEO. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda? We approached them at the very beginning of our company, in the spring of 2016, when we had a pay-for-business plan. We had just our idea at the time and needed help turning it into a platform. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Sloboda developed our web-based platform. We provided a list of specifications, based on which they performed design, development, and testing. Now that we’re growing, we have our own product team so the design is done in-house. We send Sloboda full mockups and they use those for development. They still handle testing and we don’t plan to change this. The platform itself handles thousands of pieces of content, which are selected by our algorithm. This content is distributed to the accounts of hundreds or thousands of customers, on behalf of subject-matter experts. The platform helps us generate full reports to our customers about the activity. There is also a frontend part to the platform, through which customers can check the content we are planning to upload to their social media accounts in the upcoming weeks. They can also see the results of the mail we’ve sent to customers, the open rate, and the evolution of communities on social media. It’s a mix between a dashboard and a control tool for everything happening on the social accounts we’re taking care of. What is the team composition? We are using 4 or 5 dedicated resources from their side—a mixture of backend, frontend, and QA [Quality Assurance]. The project management side has been kept in-house from the beginning. They assigned a project manager, but she was only in charge of the communication between us and the Ukrainian team. How did you come to work with Sloboda? We did an internet search, identified 3 or 4 companies, and talked to them. Finally, we opted for Sloboda. What is the status of this engagement? We started working with them in April or May 2016, and have an ongoing relationship. The platform is evolving constantly, with new features every day. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? The company was created in the spring of 2016 and, up to now, we’ve raised around $2 million. How did Sloboda perform from a project management standpoint? This is the area where they’ve done the least for us. My partner is the equivalent of a CTO [Chief Technology Officer], and followed specifications as a regular CTO would do. This made our engagement different to that of a company that would outsource a technical project, without having any technical knowledge in-house. I don’t believe we followed any methodologies per se, but we did work with Sloboda’s team in an Agile manner. Sloboda helped, but the management part was not outsourced to them. We setup tools for the collaboration, including a Slack channel. They also had access to our Asana and Jira instances. We integrated Sloboda into all the company tools we used, both in terms of the project and IT. This really helped maintain smooth communication from the beginning. Everything was done in a professional, timely, and efficient manner. What did you find most impressive about them? We are based in France and have worked with teams in India, San Francisco, and China. We had never worked with a Ukrainian developer before and were a little worried about the quality of the engineers. However, we were and still are impressed with the level of Sloboda’s team—they are not only competent but use the latest technologies, such as Ruby on Rails. They’re curious and want to learn new things. Are there any areas they could improve? They could find more engineers quicker. Sloboda is growing fast, and so is demand for them. They’ve had some difficulties keeping up with it. They’re a victim of their own success, in a way. --- #### API & Full-Stack Dev for Mobile Advertising Company **The Project** - Services: Mobile App Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Jan. 2017 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda’s engineers assist with rapid MVP development, including Ruby on Rails and AngularJS development, API tools, campaign management systems, and price optimization. **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 4.5 - Schedule: 4.0 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** VP BI & Analytics, Mobile Advertising Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 201-500 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Oct 2, 2017 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda’s efficiency stands out, and they swiftly deliver stable products that bring in immediate revenue. The team excels at prioritizing critical tasks and handling urgent requests. They are communicative, highly motivated, and willing to work additional hours when necessary. "“They don’t waste time on things that wouldn’t take us forward.”" **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I work for a mobile advertising platform that helps app developers who want to expand their business, especially those who have just launched an app. We help them bring in more users. We also work on retargeting to make sure that they are engaging the right users. I am responsible for business intelligence and analytics, making sure that data is available for either decision-making or action. A large part of my work is related to automation such as fraud detection and prevention tools, recommendation engines, and so forth. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? At that point, we were interested in growth hacking. We wanted to come up with a small application that would make an impact on the business. Instead of a complex product, we thought of doing light development on something that could bring in revenue within a very short time. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? Sloboda is doing everything in terms of design and development. We’ve mostly been working with Ruby on Rails, and used databases like PostgreSQL, Redis, and Swagger. The project started with basic tasks such by building all kinds of REST API tools that makes our data available externally. We also worked on price optimization. After we determined the pricing logic, Sloboda helped us with the distribution method. They also updated the campaign management system that sent emails to our partners. Recently, we’ve started going into a different direction. After one of the applications started becoming more successful and robust, we decided to make a completely new design. Our designer worked on that with an additional AngularJS frontend developer from Sloboda. What is the team dynamic? Internally, we have all the right people to make decisions and make the engine in our analytics team. However, we can only get so far without the engineering to support them, so we’ve established an automation team. Sloboda has assigned two people to the automation team while another person works on the engineering team on an outsourced basis. So far, we’ve been using full-stack developers, and our engineering team works with them directly. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? Since we already had teams in two countries, we did not want to set up an additional engineering department. We were looking for a team that could work with us immediately, but we were unsure if it would be a long-term or short-term engagement. Eventually, we decided to go with Sloboda since our company had outsourced work to them in the past. What is the status of this engagement? We started working with Sloboda in January 2017. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? Since I haven’t done code reviews on their work, I can’t give a full answer about quality. The application has been stable, for the most part. If there is a problem, we receive relatively quick answers, additional development, and code verification. Their team is young and motivated. They allow us to make things in an automated fashion, and we consider them an integral part of our analytics team. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? I handle project management with them. Delivery has gone well, in some cases exceeding expectations. Sloboda has met deadlines, even though we work based on prioritizations given on the same day, not on sprints. They let us know in advance if we need to adjust a deadline. They also don’t mind giving extra hours if we let them know that something is important. We’re constantly in direct communication using Slack and Skype channels. It’s good that I am able to explain details on a daily basis, which helps keep things on track. The communication is straightforward, with no excuses. What did you find most impressive about them? We are impressed with the timeliness and simplicity of delivery. They don’t waste time on things that wouldn’t take us forward. For prototypes, they don’t focus on the user interface too much; they deliver something functional that we can improve from there. Are there any areas they could improve? It would be great to have more transparency on technical designs before they start development. Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs? It is important to have constant check-ups and daily calls to make sure that everyone is aligned. Secondly, create motivation around the business value; invite the team on site, make sure they know the people whom they’re working for, and share any articles about the products they developed. --- #### App Development for Online Intelligence Gaming Platform **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Jan. 2016 - Jan. 2017 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided from-scratch development on an app for psychological testing, allowing simultaneous matching using multiple subjects. After deployment, they will assist with future updates.  **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 4.5 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Founder, Gaming Platform - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 21, 2017 **Feedback Summary**: The completed engine currently supports experiments successfully and meets all requested specifications. Sloboda Studio’s problem-solving focus, cost-effective workflow, and expert feedback continue to ensure a viable final product.  ""Sloboda Studio is a customer-minded company."" **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I am a university researcher working on a side project. It is a platform for conducting psychological experiments with multiple subjects at the same time, which I plan to expand into a for-profit solution. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? I needed a matching engine which could group several individuals on a trading platform. I had used outsourcing companies which weren’t as good as I expected, and I was looking for someone who could solve the issue of matching potentially hundreds of individuals. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? From a visual perspective, I had already made a basic design for the platform; it had been implemented already, but it had a poor engine. Sloboda Studio rebuilt it from scratch, using the same visual framework. The software was developed using Ruby on Rails and some Java. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? I shortlisted some companies on Upwork. I moved away from the idea of using single freelancers working on their own. I wanted to find companies that had multiple resources, as well as reputations which they couldn’t afford to lose, which I why I selected Sloboda Studio. How much have you invested with Sloboda Studio? The cost of Sloboda Studio’s work has been around 100,000 Danish Krone [$14,600] so far.  What is the status of this engagement? We started working with Sloboda Studio around a year ago. I have some further plans, but I’m using the system for my experiments at the moment. I will definitely use Sloboda Studio again. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement? The quality of the work is great. From a service and project management perspective especially, Sloboda Studio is very good. I haven’t tested the engine’s limits, but it’s working within the agreed specs. I don’t expect it to handle many thousands of individuals at once, but it can do what I need it to do now. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? Sloboda Studio was referred to me by another one of their clients, who also told me about Slack, which is a great platform for these types of projects. We can communicate via different channels, and I was able to provide feedback and address questions as if Sloboda Studio’s team was working in the same office. What did you find most impressive about Sloboda Studio? Sloboda Studio is a customer-minded company. They are willing to go out of their way to understand and solve problems. Sloboda Studio was also easy to contact and always available. Are there any areas Sloboda Studio could improve? Our lead programmer was changed twice during the project, as was the project manager. I would have liked to continue using the same people. --- #### ERP and Mobile App Development for Cell Phone Charging Device **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $10,000 to $49,999 - Project length: Jan. 2015 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio developed an internal ERP solution from scratch, operating as an extended part of the in-house team. They now apply their acquired React Native skills by creating a mobile app.  **Review Rating**: 4.5 - Quality: 4.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Co-Founder & CTO, Battere - Industry: Energy & natural resources - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 20, 2017 **Feedback Summary**: In addition to delivering on-target solutions within the established timeline, Sloboda Studio also learned new skills to support the initial pilot project. Their flexibility in adapting to requirements and adherence to the workflow continue to promote a successful relationship. ""I really like their flexibility in terms of adapting to the customer's needs."" **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. I’m the co-founder and CTO of Battere. We’re a Switzerland-based company. We rent power packs in convenience stores for people who are on the go and run out of battery. Our rental batteries come pre-charged with solar power. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio? We have two projects with Sloboda. The first one is a Ruby on Rails application that we use internally to track our production processes. The second one is a mobile application, where we used the React Native framework and Node.js. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? The initial project was the internal ERP [enterprise resource planning] system, and then we started with the React Native project on top of that. The first project ran for the first year and a half, and the last six months have been spent on the second project. Both projects were built by Sloboda Studio from scratch. How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio? At my previous company, I was working with a different Ukraine-based agency which specialized in Python and Django. I had a good experience working with Ukrainians in general. A friend recommended Sloboda to me because I was looking for a React agency this time. We also contacted Russian and American agencies, especially for the React Native part, the frontend. At the time, Sloboda was not offering React Native as a service. In the end, we decided to go with Sloboda, and one of their JavaScript developers actually learned React Native on this project. We had a pilot program with them, and it turned out well. I preferred to stay with Sloboda, rather than going to a more experienced agency in React Native because I know it’s hard to find a good agency, and I was happy with what I had. I was ready to take that risk. How much have you invested with Sloboda Studio? Sloboda works like an extended part of our team, so it’s not project-based. We have two developers from them, and they work as part of our internal team. It’s hard to say what the product costs are, but our total cost has been between $10,000–$50,000. What is the status of this engagement? The project began in 2015, and the relationship is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement? We don’t have metrics, but I can say that the quality of the developers from Sloboda Studio is good. As a CTO, if I wasn’t happy with the quality, we wouldn’t have been working with them for almost two years. They met the expectations of the project regarding deliverables. How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint? I’m very happy with that. I don’t have any bad experiences in project management with Sloboda Studio. What did you find most impressive about Sloboda Studio? I really like their flexibility in terms of adapting to the customer's needs. I wanted to do a lot of my apps in React Native. Sloboda didn’t offer the service, but they agreed to start a pilot project, and now it’s a success. I think that was really cool. I didn’t have to resort to another agency. Are there any areas Sloboda Studio could improve? I have nothing to suggest. I’m really happy with the relationship. --- #### Event Platform Development for IT Conference **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Jan. 2015 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Inspired by existing designs, Sloboda built an event management platform with e-commerce features using Ruby on Rails. A mobile version is also being developed. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** COO, Bright Outsource - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Phone Interview - Verified **The Review** — Apr 3, 2017 **Feedback Summary**: The customized system is more reliable than similar products in the market, which is largely due to the quality of Slododa’s work. The assigned dev is knowledgeable and responsive, proactively suggesting improvements for the product. ""Sloboda's project manager is always there to help me." " **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there. We organize IT business conferences for executives as well as sales and business development managers in Ukraine and Belarus. We are also planning our first conference for the Polish market. We hold classes for sales and business education. I am the chief operations officer of the company. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda? We were looking for a system that could give us the opportunity to manage the participants list, schedule, and staff. It should also let us sell tickets and handle other tasks during conferences. Our competitors typically use Red Payments for this task, but we were not willing to pay 7%–10% of a ticket's price for the operation. We decided to create our own system for processing payments, and it proved to be a good decision. A week before a big event, one of the biggest systems of this kind on the market crashed. It could have been catastrophic for us, so we've seen the importance of developing these solutions ourselves. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement? We had already designed two screens, and Sloboda created the rest of the interface based on the style of our initial work. They also worked on the development and provided consultation on what would be the most suitable choices for our platform. We are working on a mobile version of the site at the moment. How did you come to work with Sloboda? I also live in Kharkov, where Sloboda is located, so I'd heard a lot about the company. I had also met their CEO. It was important for me to start a project with someone I could trust. How much have you invested with Sloboda? The cost of Sloboda's work has been $70,000. What is the status of this engagement? We started working with Sloboda 2 ½ ago. We are in preparation for the Poland conference in April 2017 and continue to work with Sloboda. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement? I am quite happy with the decision I've made, and I wouldn't want to work with anyone else. If I have a problem, I can write to my developer from Sloboda's team and know that he will address it even after hours. How did Sloboda perform from a project management standpoint? We are usually within budget. There have only been a couple of critical moments due to an update to the payment system. Sloboda's project manager is always there to help me. We communicate face to face and follow a Scrum process for setting up tasks. This is a comfortable approach for me. What did you find most impressive about Sloboda? Our developer is a very knowledgeable person and is able to propose additional or alternative features for our platform. Are there any areas Sloboda could improve? We could use more developers since the work can be too much for a single person. --- #### Custom Software Development for Cleaning Company **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development, Mobile App Development, Web Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Feb. 2025 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio has designed and developed booking forms and automations for a cleaning company. The team is also working on a customer app and portal. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 4.5 - Cost: 4.5 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** CEO, Cleaning Express - Industry: Business services - Client size: 201-500 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — May 21, 2026 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio's work has resulted in a reduction in admin spending, quicker booking processing, increased revenue, and reduced management time. The team fully understands the project, enabling them to deliver solutions tailored to the client's goals. The team has also managed everything well. ""Sloboda Studio understands our business needs and helps us to develop technical solutions to solve our problems."" **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there.I’m the CEO of Cleaning Express, a professional cleaning company. We provide office, commercial, domestic, and specialist cleaning services across London. We serve clients in various sectors with highly trained and vetted staff. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?We needed help designing and building bespoke booking forms, creating automations, and improving processes. We also want to build a customer app and portal. **SOLUTION** What was the scope of their involvement?Sloboda Studio has designed and developed two booking forms for our MVP. The forms show current availability slots from scheduling software via API, allow payment via our payment systems, show sidebars with benefits and interactive quote calculations, and send automated email notifications and text message booking confirmations. The team has also integrated the forms with Google Sheets. Sloboda Studio is also working on a customer app and portal. What is the team composition?We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from Sloboda Studio.How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?We found them through an online search. We chose them because they were a great culture fit and their company values aligned with ours.What is the status of this engagement?We started working together in February 2025, and the engagement is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?Sloboda Studio's work has resulted in a reduction in admin spending, quicker booking processing, increased revenue, and reduced management time. Our customers are happy that they can make bookings 24/7 and that the process is quicker.How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?Sloboda Studio's project management is excellent. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.What did you find most impressive about them?Sloboda Studio understands our business needs and helps us to develop technical solutions to solve our problems.Are there any areas they could improve?Nothing I can think of.  --- #### Custom Software Development for Vehicle Spare Parts Company **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Oct. 2025 - Ongoing **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio has developed a custom platform for complex internal operations that support a vehicle spare parts company. The team has built core data models, UIs, dashboards, workflow logic, and integrations. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Product Manager, Vehicle Spare Parts Company - Industry: eCommerce - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — May 20, 2026 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio has delivered a scalable platform that consolidates workflows and provides cleaner data and faster visibility into opportunities. The team has delivered on time and is responsive, responsible, and collaborative. Their ability to understand complex requirements stands out. ""It feels like a real partnership rather than a transactional vendor relationship."" **BACKGROUND** Introduce your business and what you do there.I’m the product manager of a marketplace for vehicle spare parts. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish for your e-commerce marketplace for vehicle spare parts?We hired Sloboda Studio to help us build a custom software platform for managing our specialty parts marketplace and internal operations. The goal was to move from fragmented tools and manual workflows into a more scalable system for opportunity management, sourcing, supplier quotes, proposals, order tracking, and operational visibility. **SOLUTION** Can you describe the scope of work Sloboda Studio handled for your vehicle spare parts marketplace project? Please include the main deliverables if you can.Sloboda Studio has worked with us on the design and development of a custom web application that supports our end-to-end workflow. This has included building core data models, user interfaces, operational dashboards, workflow logic, integrations, and structured processes for managing complex sourcing and fulfillment activities.The product has had to handle a lot of real-world complexity, including multiple item identifiers, supplier quote comparisons, proposal generation, customer and supplier records, order status tracking, and analytics. Sloboda Studio has helped translate our business requirements into a working application while keeping the system practical and usable for the team.What is the team composition?We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from Sloboda Studio.How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?We found them through an online search and the Clutch website. We chose them because they had high ratings, were close to our geographic location, had pricing that fit our budget, and offered good value for the cost.What is the status of this engagement?We started working with them in October 2025, and our engagement is ongoing. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?The biggest outcome is that we now have a much more scalable foundation for our operations. Workflows that were previously spread across spreadsheets, Airtable, email, and manual follow-ups are now being consolidated into a purpose-built platform.The application gives us better structure, cleaner data, faster visibility into opportunities, and a clearer path to scale the business without adding unnecessary operational overhead. Our team is overall very happy with Sloboda Studio’s deliverables and the speed at which they’re pushing enhancements. The product has made work faster and streamlined processes.How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?They’ve delivered on time. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.What did you find most impressive or unique about them?Their ability to understand complex operational requirements and turn them into a practical product has stood out. Our workflows aren’t simple, and there are many edge cases across sourcing, quoting, proposals, and fulfillment. Sloboda Studio has been able to absorb that complexity and build in a way that stays aligned with the business.They’re also very responsive, responsible, and collaborative. It feels like a real partnership rather than a transactional vendor relationship.Are there any areas they could improve?No, there aren’t any. --- #### Custom Software Development for Software Development Company **The Project** - Services: AI Development, Custom Software Development - Project size: Confidential - Project length: Jan. 2022 - June 2023 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio developed custom software for a software development company. The team built the software's front- and backend, integrated cloud services, and implemented AI capabilities. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Partnership Manager, Software Development Company - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 51-200 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Aug 6, 2024 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio completed the project 30% faster than expected, reducing the client's time to market and boosting their ROI within the first quarter after launch. The team used an agile project management approach, which enabled them to adapt to changes effectively and meet the client's expectations. ""Their ability to quickly understand our industry-specific challenges and propose innovative solutions was remarkable."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and position.I am the Partnership Manager of a software development company.Describe what your company does in a single sentence.We specialize in digital transformation solutions, focusing on enhancing business processes through innovative technology. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish?Sloboda Studio helped us develop a custom software solution that improved our operational efficiency by integrating advanced analytics and automation features. **SOLUTION** How did you find Sloboda Studio?ReferralWhy did you select Sloboda Studio over others?Known for their robust engineering solutions and efficient project management.How many teammates from Sloboda Studio were assigned to this project?6-10 EmployeesDescribe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.Sloboda Studio provided comprehensive development services from initial concept to final deployment, including backend and frontend development, cloud services integration, and AI capabilities to enhance user experience. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?The project was completed 30% faster than anticipated, significantly reducing our time to market and increasing ROI within the first quarter post-launch.Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?Sloboda Studio applied an agile project management approach, which allowed for flexibility in adapting to changes and ensuring deliverables met our expectations.What was your primary form of communication with Sloboda Studio?Virtual MeetingEmail or Messaging AppWhat did you find most impressive or unique about this company?Their ability to quickly understand our industry-specific challenges and propose innovative solutions was remarkable.Are there any areas for improvement or something Sloboda Studio could have done differently?While overall very effective, there could be more proactive communication about potential delays or issues. --- #### Custom Software Development for Software Development Agency **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Dec. 2022 - Oct. 2023 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided custom software development and project management services for a software development agency. They provided specialists to improve the client's workflow and delivery. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Account Management, Software Development Agency - Industry: Other industries - Client size: 11-50 Employees - Review Type: Online Review - Verified **The Review** — Apr 8, 2024 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio’s high-level expertise allowed them to execute complex tasks efficiently. The team ensured strict compliance with deadlines and communicated through virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps. Overall, they stood out for their professionalism, insights, and expertise. ""They managed to speed up the development and make it more efficient."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and position. I am the Account Management of an it services company Describe what your company does in a single sentence.Software development agency with a focus on web and mobile app development. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish?Custom Software Development and Project Management **SOLUTION** How did you find Sloboda Studio?ReferralWhy did you select Sloboda Studio over others?Good value for costCompany values alignedExtensive expertiseHow many teammates from Sloboda Studio were assigned to this project?2-5 EmployeesDescribe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.We hired a few specialists from Sloboda Studio to improve our workflow on the project. The specialists' main tasks included software development and project management. They were professional and delivered results timely, possessed good communication skills, and improved our workflow and delivery. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?Sloboda Studio provided high-level expertise and executed complex tasks efficiently.Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?Sloboda Studio ensured strict compliance with the deadlines.What was your primary form of communication with Sloboda Studio?Virtual MeetingEmail or Messaging AppWhat did you find most impressive or unique about this company?Sloboda Studio's professional expertise provided us with insights and needed qualifications to improve the workflow. They managed to speed up the development and make it more efficient.Are there any areas for improvement or something Sloboda Studio could have done differently?no more comments --- #### IT Staff Aug for Digital Mktg & SaaS Dev Co **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development, IT Staff Augmentation - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Dec. 2022 - Oct. 2023 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio provided staff augmentation services to a digital marketing and SaaS development company. Through a collaborative process, their developers helped the client develop a SaaS solution on Django. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Marketing Manager, Netpeak - Industry: Advertising & marketing - Client size: 201-500 Employees - Review Type: Online Review **The Review** — Nov 8, 2023 **Feedback Summary**: Sloboda Studio's developers were proactive and provided valuable insights and suggestions supported by their expertise. The team also stuck to the timeline and kept on top of the project to ensure a smooth process. Overall, they were a great addition to the client's team, sharing the same values and vision. ""Sloboda Studio provided us with proactive developers. They suggested valuable insights and shared their expertise."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and position.I am the Marketing manager of NetpeakDescribe what your company does in a single sentence.A holding of multiple digital companies aimed at internet marketing and SaaS development. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish?Developing and scaling a SaaS solution. **SOLUTION** How did you find Sloboda Studio?ReferralWhy did you select Sloboda Studio over others?High ratingsExtensive experienceHow many teammates from Sloboda Studio were assigned to this project?2-5 EmployeesDescribe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.We hired developers from Sloboda Studio to participate in developing a SaaS solution on the Django framework. The collaborative process was seamless and efficient. Sloboda Studio developers provided valuable insights for the developers and contributed to the smooth functionality of the solution. They also helped us to improve server responses and ensured the software's scalability. Sloboda provided us with a well-tuned team which paid out in an efficient partnership. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?Sloboda Studio provided us with proactive developers. They suggested valuable insights and shared their expertise.Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?Sloboda Studio kept up with the deadlines that were set and kept the hand on the pulse of the project.What was your primary form of communication with Sloboda Studio?Virtual MeetingEmail or Messaging AppWhat did you find most impressive or unique about this company?Sloboda Studio's developers contributed to the team with their proactive approach. They shared our vision, main goals, and values which we appreciated a lot.Are there any areas for improvement or something Sloboda Studio could have done differently?No more comments. --- #### Custom Software Dev for Dealer Management System Platform **The Project** - Services: Custom Software Development, DevOps Managed Services - Project size: $50,000 to $199,999 - Project length: Aug. 2022 - Dec. 2023 **Project Summary**: Sloboda Studio has been hired by an auto dealer management system company to develop a mobile application. The team has worked on front- and backend development. **Review Rating**: 5.0 - Quality: 5.0 - Schedule: 5.0 - Cost: 5.0 - Willing to Refer: 5.0 **The Reviewer** Founder, Elev8 DMS - Industry: Automotive - Client size: 1-10 Employees - Review Type: Online Review **The Review** — Nov 7, 2023 **Feedback Summary**: The client has been satisfied with Sloboda Studio’s work and performance. The team delivers everything on time, communicates effectively through virtual meetings, emails, and messages, and constantly exceeds expectations. Overall, they're professional, efficient, and experienced. ""They have great talent and are very personable."" **BACKGROUND** Please describe your company and position.I am the Founder of Elev8 DMSDescribe what your company does in a single sentence.We are revolutionizing the Dealer Management System (DMS) landscape for independent auto dealers across the US. **OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE** What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sloboda Studio to accomplish?Build out application **SOLUTION** How did you find Sloboda Studio?Clutch SiteWhy did you select Sloboda Studio over others?High ratingsGood value for costHow many teammates from Sloboda Studio were assigned to this project?2-5 EmployeesDescribe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.They helped build out the front-end as well as the back-end and were very receptive to ideas and suggestions. **RESULTS & FEEDBACK** What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?We are in the process of securing funding.Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?Everything was delivered on time and met or exceed expectations.What was your primary form of communication with Sloboda Studio?Virtual MeetingEmail or Messaging AppWhat did you find most impressive or unique about this company?They have great talent and are very personable.Are there any areas for improvement or something Sloboda Studio could have done differently?None --- ## Portfolio & Awards ### Huggies Huggies is an international company producing disposable diapers for babies and is marketed by the American corporation Kimberly-Clark. Industry: Healthcare Product: Video The scope of our work: front-end Solution: Video editing We developed a tool for creating custom videos with babies branded by Huggies. Recently this marketing campaign was launched and a number of parents have already obtained their family videos. ### Retail platform; Acquired by Amazon Acquired by AmazonRaised over US$ 4.4M overallProcessed £1 billion worth of ordersLocation: UKIndustry: TransportationProduct: Retail platformThe scope of our work: Full-stack (backend, frontend, DevOps)Solutions: React, AWS Lambda, StripeVeeqo is an omnichannel retail platform for various merchants. It allows you to manage your orders from multiple channels and keep track of inventory from multiple warehouses. It is possible to ship up to 100 orders in a single click and gain invaluable insights on the performance of your business.Sloboda Studio’s goal was to: develop user profiles in the retailers’ system create orders generate invoices (from the beginning stages of a transaction to the moments right before shipping). ### Social Media Tool; Raised over $50M Headquarters: Paris, France Industry: Marketing and Advertising Product: Social media management tool The scope of our work: backend/frontend/design Solutions: MVP Artur'In is an AI-based platform to help real-estate professionals deploy an advanced digital marketing solution. This tool launches targeted campaigns (newsletters and personalized content) to your network, tracks and measures engagement, and gives you a precise picture of your marketing efforts. The MVP included the possibility to create an account, import customers’ contacts into Artur Inside, and link their social accounts, i.e. it had integration with social media. Three months after the launch, Artur Inside and Sloboda increased sales by 110%. Artur'In has raised a total of €47.5M in funding over 2 rounds. ### Ad tech platform; Raised over $20M Location: GermanyIndustry: Marketing & Advertising AppLift is one of the leaders in the mobile advertising market, which helps mobile app advertisers to expand their business. It allows consumer brands and agencies to reach, convert and engage their audiences on mobile.Now, Applift has 1.5bn+ users per month and 500+ direct quality publishers. The main idea is to assist the operation teams to function more efficiently and focus on what creates a true value. Applift received stable products that brought immediate revenue. We provided various infrastructure, databases and performed multiple data transformations so that the application works stably and efficiently, fulfilling all the customer requirements and clients’ goals.  ### Educational platform; Raised $4,9M Location: USA Industry: E-Learning Product: online sports education platform The scope of our work: full-cycle development The Skills is an educational platform that produces and distributes online lessons from the world’s top athletes like Michael Phelps, Maria Sharapova, and Shaun White collecting payments with end-users for a subscription. Our team of web, mobile, and QA experts helped the Skills to: enrich product functionality develop and launch a mobile app. At the end of October 2020, our client raised $4,9 million and continues to grow. ### Healthcare platform; 75K+ users Location: CanadaIndustry: HealthcareProduct: web applicationThe scope of our work: back-end, front-endSolutions: building a B2B cognitive platformCambridge Brain Sciences (CBS) is a leader in developing engaging assessments of brain function and brain health based on 25+ years of scientific research.The client wanted to build a new B2B platform CBS Health from scratch and add new features to the B2C platform CB. As of 2021, Cambridge Brain Sciences has over 10 million completed tasks globally. Furthermore, researchers using CBS tasks have published in the most authoritative scientific journals, such as The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, Neuron, and Nature. Our team is currently working on the further development of Cambridge Brain Sciences platforms and are planning to create even more new features. ### News Aggregator: Raised over $4M Headquarters: UK Industry: FinTech Product: News aggregator The scope of our work: backend/frontend/QA/design Solutions: ML, Natural Language Processing and E-learning CityFALCON is a 21st-century financial news aggregator that provides a comprehensive, relevant, personalized, and real-time news feed for fundamental investors, powered by crowd-curation, social media, and machine learning.  Using Natural Language Processing and E-learning, CityFALON creates a personal news feed based on a person's profile, online interaction, and preferences. CityFALCON’s customers are investors and traders, both professional and amateurs. The project also provides services for corporate clients, who want to integrate CityFALCON’s API into their own trading platforms. Our client wanted to launch a new and improved MVP with a focus on clean and simple UX to demonstrate the huge potential of his Social Media Aggregator. Now CityFALCON can process up to 2.5 million articles a day. ### Wellness coaching platform; Serves to Shell MyDailyLifestyle offers lifestyle and wellness coaching to employees. The company provides an opportunity for employees in different industries to live healthier lives. Location: Netherlands Industry: Healthcare Product: web application   Scope of our work: back-end, front-end Solutions: adding new features and functionality, support   Our team helped MyDailyLifestyle to introduce a new type of service, automate the manual tasks and simplify the registration process.   Sloboda Studio created an exercise scheme template from scratch, changing the registration flow and introducing a new feature of sleep advice.   ### US-based recipe marketplace; Raised $1.5M Location: USAIndustry: Food and Beverages Product: Online recipe marketplace  The scope of our work: full-cycle custom web app development Foody is a US-based recipe marketplace that provides an opportunity for global chefs and popular culinary influencers to sell their recipes and for foodies to buy them. Our client needed to create a custom software platform from scratch that will be a digital helper in the kitchen for home cooks and help influencers and chefs directly monetize their unique content. After the official release, the Foody platform increased its new functionality by 1.5 times. Right before the product release, Foody raised $1.5M in the pre-seed round in November 2021.  Our team still continues to cooperate with Foody by scaling its platform with numerous features.  ### Marketplace for interpreters; Raised over $2M Headquarters: Oslo, Norway Industry: Translation Product: Marketplace The scope of our work: back-end/front-end/design Solutions: MVP Salita (ex TikkTalk, Skiwo AS) is a B2C and B2G marketplace that offers access to different interpreters over video and phone conferences on a number of platforms. Governments and organizations can get immediate access to a worldwide pool of interpreters filterable by language, certification level, and evaluation. In the meantime, interpreters can log in, demonstrate their abilities by uploading their certifications and gain access to interpretation jobs around the world. We met our client at the idea stage of the project. In short, we’ve built the TikkTalk platform from scratch. Salita is now a member of StartupLab, the biggest startup incubator in Norway ### App for the management of working expenses Location: NorwayIndustry: FinTech Product: mobile app Solutions: Flutter Luca Labs Expenses is a cool app to get rid of time-consuming accounting tasks within companies. Luca Labs was created by former McKinsey consultants as a company that focuses on accounting documents with the help of AI. Our goal was to create an app that would work with an existing API, look good, and would be easy to maintain. The company has won many awards: In 2017, Luca Labs was awarded as being the most exciting startup at Fintech Factory. In 2018 Luca Labs raised an undisclosed amount in the seed stage from DNB, Norway’s largest financial services group. ### Property Management Software Location: USAIndustry: Real Estate Product: CRM, SaaS solution The scope of our work: Back-End   PropertyRepair.co is an American repair software platform for tracking work order status for real estate managers and tenants.   Our main goal was to extend software functionality, improve existing code, and improve a scheduling mechanism.   As a result of our work, Property Repair received expanded functionality for its software: Easy and comfortable registration function Scheduling  SMS notifications Different automatic statutes for each project Financial reports Automatic payments Security ### SaaS-based automation software for advertisement Pointblank is a SaaS-based automation software for advertisement and marketing purposes. Location: Germany, EU Industry: Advertising The client needed assistance with the software that helps automate an operational process the client was doing manually.  Pointblank now acquires 200,000 new users weekly.   ### Enterprise capital, portfolio management software Finario provides an enterprise capital and portfolio management software solution for Capex that helps businesses improve the strategic allocation of capital.  Headquarters: US Industry: Fintech Our team helped enhance the product’s design, contributing to its overall modern and visually appealing user experience.  Through quality assurance testing, we ensured that changes continue to meet end-user expectations for a robust and reliable platform.  ### Clutch Awards - [Clutch Award Badge](https://shareables-prod-static.clutch.co/badges/top_clutch.co_artificial_intelligence_company_germany_2026.svg) - [Clutch Award Badge](https://shareables-prod-static.clutch.co/badges/top_clutch.co_iot_company_eastern_europe_2026.svg) - [Clutch Award Badge](https://shareables-prod-static.clutch.co/badges/top_clutch.co_staff_augmentation_company_germany_2026.svg) - [Clutch Award Badge](https://shareables-prod-static.clutch.co/badges/top_clutch.co_software_developers_germany_2026.svg) - [Clutch Award Badge](https://shareables-prod-static.clutch.co/badges/top_clutch.co_iot_company_germany_2026.svg) ### Industry Recognitions - Fintech Software Development Services Market Recov - Top Property Page Design - Top 9 Rails Development Company in Ukraine 2022 - Best Web & Mobile App Development Company 2022 - Top Web Development Company in Ukraine 2022 - Top Custom Software Development Company (Ukraine) - Top #30 Django Firms in Ukraine 2022 - Top App Development Company in Ukraine 2022 - Best Web development company 2022 - #34 Best Custom Software Company 2022 - #2 Top Ruby On Rails Development Company 2022 - TOP 1000 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES 2021 ## Key Clients - Huggies ## Packages ### IT Staff Augmentation Packages Simple, transparent pricing for scaling your team | Feature | Small ($7,500/month) | Medium ($9,300/month) | Large ($11,000/month) | |---------|---------|---------|---------| | Seniority | Middle Developer | Senior Developer | Architect | | Receive CV in | 1 to 2 days | 3 to 4 days | 4 to 5 days | | English Knowledge | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Leadership Skills | — | — | ✓ | | Years of Experience | 2 years | 5 years | 6 years | | Tech Knowledge | Solid knowledge of design patterns and database programming | Indepth knowledge of a variety of technologies and frameworks | Indepth knowledge of a variety of technologies and frameworks | | Supervision | Needed | Not Needed | Not Needed | --- ### Custom Software Development Packages | Feature | Small ($5,000/total) | Medium ($60,000/total) | Large ($80,000/total) | |---------|---------|---------|---------| | Start in | 2 days | 5 days | 7 days | | Project Strategy and Roadmap | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Product Discovery and Design | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Prototype Building | — | ✓ | ✓ | | UI Design and Development | — | ✓ | ✓ | | Quality assurance and control | — | ✓ | ✓ | --- ### Web Development Packages | Feature | Small ($5,000/total) | Medium ($60,000/total) | Large ($80,000/total) | |---------|---------|---------|---------| | Start in | 2 days | 5 days | 7 days | | Discovery workshop | 2 calls | 4 calls | more than 4 calls | | Wireframing | Basic | Detailed | Detailed | | Mockups | 5 | 10 | more than 10 | | Non-functional requirements | Simplified | Simplified | Detailed | | Third-party Integrations | None | Simple | Expanded | | System Architecture | — | ✓ | ✓ | | MVP development | — | ✓ | ✓ | | Project Management | — | ✓ | ✓ | | Account Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | SEO Audit | — | — | ✓ | | Marketing Consultation | — | — | ✓ | --- ## About the Team ### Our Story Sloboda Studio is a team of 100+ middle and senior engineers, project managers, and designers delivering software since 2010. Founded in 2010, we've grown from a small Ruby on Rails shop into a full-cycle development partner trusted by startups and SMBs across Europe and the USA. Our engineers are carefully selected through a 5-step hiring process — we prioritize strong technical depth, fast onboarding, and long-term retention. Low turnover means your team stays stable ### What Sets Us Apart - Senior-heavy team with low turnover: We hire mid and senior engineers through a rigorous 5-step process and invest in keeping them long-term. You get a stable team that knows your product — not a revolving door of junior developers. - Speed without sacrificing quality: We set up dedicated teams within 2–3 weeks and integrate into existing workflows from day one. Delivery experience starting from 2010 means fewer surprises and faster time to value. - True long-term partnership: We don't hand off and disappear. Our clients stay with us — some for 14+ years — because we treat their product goals as our own. Results like 8x revenue growth (Salita) and acquisition by Amazon (Veeqo) speak for themselves. ### Quick Facts - 50 Verified Clutch Clients - 16 years in business ### Commonly Asked Questions **How quickly can you assemble a dedicated team?** We typically set up a dedicated development team within 2–3 weeks from the first CV review — including technical screening, interviews, and onboarding. **What engagement models do you offer?** We work in three models: dedicated development teams, staff augmentation (individual engineers embedded in your team), and full-cycle custom software development. Most clients start with one and expand over time. **What seniority level are your engineers?** Our team is predominantly mid and senior-level. We don't staff projects with juniors — every engineer goes through a 5-step vetting process before joining a client engagement. **How do you handle communication and time zones?** We're a remote-first company with talent across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. We align to client working hours and use async-friendly processes so communication never becomes a bottleneck. **What industries do you specialize in?** We have the deepest experience in marketplaces, FinTech, AI-based product companies, logistics, MarTech, DefenceTech, real estate, hospitality, and healthcare — but our core strength is engineering, so we adapt quickly to new domains when the technical challenge is the right fit. ## Verification Clutch verification provides an additional layer of data to help you make the right purchasing decision of business services. - Verified Client Reviews: 50 - Overall Review Rating: 4.9 Last Updated: 2026-06-15T13:14:31Z ### Business Entity - Business Entity Name: Sloboda OÜ - Source: Estonia e-Business Register - Jurisdiction of Formation: Estonia - Date of Formation: April 18, 2017 - Status: Active - Last Updated: September 6, 2024 - ID: 14242439 ### Credit Report Results - International Credit Risk Assessment: High Risk - Source: Creditsafe - Last Updated: September 15, 2024 ## Locations (4) ### Berlin, Germany (Headquarters) - 7 Am Märchenbrunnen - Berlin 10407 - Germany - 101 - 150 employees - Phone: +4916094851513 ### Cherkasy, Ukraine - 248 Nadpilna Street - Cherkasy 18000 - Ukraine - 101 - 150 employees - Phone: +380997596995 ### Austin, TX - 600 Congress Avenue - Austin, TX 78701 - United States - 2 - 5 employees ### València, Spain - 2 Plaça de la Legió Espanyola - València 46010 - Spain - 2 - 5 employees - Phone: +34 636 70 66 30 ## Connections - Michael Bogoyavlenskiy (Cleaning Express) - Asaf Moses (CredCompare) ## Contact Sloboda Studio [Send a message](https://clutch.co/profile/sloboda-studio) ### Connect on Social - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sloboda-studio/) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/slobodastudio/) - [X](https://twitter.com/SlobodaStudio) - [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/sloboda.studio/)