About Randcore

A small studio, on purpose.

We take a handful of clients at a time, from two bases in Johannesburg. You meet the engineers on the first call. They’re the same people still running it in year three.

Start a project See the work

The studio

Practice: A senior engineering studio
Base: Rosebank and Linden, Johannesburg
Clients: South Africa and the EU
Company: Randcore Development (Pty) Ltd

Why we built something smaller.

Most agencies grow by adding people. That’s how you end up with a senior on the pitch and a junior on the build.

So we kept it small. We work out what a business is dealing with before we propose anything, and we stay on it long after launch. That runs from owner-run businesses to listed corporates, across custom software, e-commerce, hosting, security and hardware, held to one standard.

Over a decade of that adds up. The full track record has the numbers behind it.

Ethan Lowery

Founder, CEO and CTO

Ethan started Randcore and still writes the code. He works across everything the studio sells, from PrestaShop and WooCommerce storefronts to the .NET and TypeScript systems behind them, and the hosting and security underneath. He also builds Core Platform, the invoicing, accounting and inventory suite that keeps our own books.

Behind him is a small team of engineers you deal with directly. The person who scopes your project builds it. There’s no account manager in the middle, relaying your problem to somebody you never meet.

That’s the whole argument for a studio this size. It is also the reason we can only take a few clients at a time.

How we work

Six things that don’t change.

Whoever you deal with, whatever we build.

Selective by design

A handful of clients at a time, so a senior engineer has room to think about yours. It caps what we can earn, and we’ve made our peace with that.

Business first, then code

We start with what the work is worth to your business. The framework argument comes later, and it’s usually boring.

End-to-end ownership

The same people scope it, architect it, build it and support it. Nobody hands your project on at the end of a phase.

Security throughout

POPIA and sound security from the first commit. We’d rather argue about it in week one than patch it in month six.

Local knowledge

We’ve wired PayFast, Yoco, Ozow and Peach, and shipped through The Courier Guy and Picup. We know where each one breaks.

No surprises

Written briefs, fixed quotes, and an honest answer when something is a bad idea. Including when the bad idea is ours.

Plainly

Things we don’t do.

If any of these matter to you, we’re the wrong studio. Better that you find out here than in month three.

Register your domain in our name.The code, the accounts, the domain and the passwords are yours from day one. If you leave, you leave with all of it.
Put a junior on the build after a senior won the pitch.The person who scopes your project is the person who writes it. Same name on the call and on the commits.
Sell you a platform because it’s the only one we know.We build on WordPress, Astro, Next.js, WooCommerce, Shopify and PrestaShop. Having six answers is what makes the recommendation worth anything.
Take backups we’ve never restored.Every hosting client gets a restore drill. A backup nobody has tested is a folder, not a backup.
Disappear after launch.The people who built it keep it running. Nothing gets handed to a ticket queue.

The shape of it

The studio in numbers

Eleven lines, one team

We build on six platforms and cover eleven service lines, which is the only reason the recommendation is worth anything. Nobody here has to push you at the one thing we happen to know.

To a reply

Business day, on every enquiry. If we’re the wrong fit we say so on that first reply rather than booking you into a funnel.

Regions

Johannesburg, Frankfurt, London and Sydney. Local by default, because that’s where your customers are.

We use it before you do

Core Platform runs our own books and Omnitronix’s. The Randcore store runs on PrestaShop, which is why we have a real PrestaShop practice rather than a page claiming one.

Where we’re

Rosebank and Linden.

Two bases in Johannesburg, hybrid by default, with clients across South Africa and into the EU. Same time zone as you, and you’re welcome to come and sit with us.

Rosebank

The office side

Meetings, client work and the day-to-day of running the studio, five minutes from the Gautrain.

Linden

The build side

Where most of the engineering happens, including the machines that run our own products.

Next step

Start with a call, not a brief.

Twenty minutes on what’s actually breaking. If we’re the wrong fit, we’ll say so and point you at who isn’t.

Book the call