We run what we build
Our own apps are in real hands with our own servers behind them. Every lesson we have paid for — store review, crash reports, a restore at 2am — goes into your project too.
About us
A small studio that builds and runs its own software
Chhindwara Labs is an independent product studio in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India. We make our own apps, and we build software for businesses who want it done by people who will still be around when it needs fixing.
Why we exist
Most small businesses in India get one of two deals. Either an agency quotes a large number for a templated site nobody maintains, or a freelancer disappears after the first invoice and the code is left in an account nobody can log into. In both cases the business ends up owning very little of what it paid for.
We started from the other end — by building products of our own, shipping them, and living with the consequences. That turns out to be the best possible training for client work: every shortcut you take comes back to you, so you stop taking them.
Two halves of the same thing
We build products. DharmaMitra is a devotional app in Hindi that works entirely offline, and School Connect — a school management system — is in development for schools that still run on registers and spreadsheets. They are real software with real users, real servers and real support obligations — not demos.
We build for others. Mobile apps, websites, web applications, and the backends behind them. The same people, the same standards, pointed at your problem. Our products fund our curiosity; client work keeps us honest about what people will actually pay for.
Built from Chhindwara
We are based in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, and we think that is an advantage rather than something to apologise for. Our costs are lower, so our prices can be. We build for phones and connections like the ones around us — a mid-range Android on patchy 4G, not a flagship on office WiFi — which is exactly the user most Indian businesses are actually serving. And we work remotely with clients anywhere, because none of this work requires being in the same room.
What we believe
Scope in writing, price in writing
You know what is being built and what it costs before work starts. If something falls outside the scope we say so at the time, not in the final invoice.
You own everything
Source code, domain, store listings, servers and databases are yours, in your accounts. No lock-in, and nothing held hostage if you ever work with someone else.
Built for real conditions
Patchy networks, low-end Android phones, and hosting bills that have to stay small. We design for that from the start, because that is where our own users are.
You talk to the people building it
No account manager relaying messages. Whoever writes the code is whoever you deal with.
Privacy is not an afterthought
An app should collect what it genuinely needs and nothing more — and we will say plainly when a feature you want would change that.
How we actually run a project
You get a written scope with screens, a feature list, a timeline and a price before anything starts. We build in short increments and you see the real thing running every week — on your own phone, or a link you can open — so changes happen while they are still cheap.
At launch we hand over the accounts: the source code, the domain, the store listings, the server and the database, in your name. After that we are available for support, updates and the next round of features, and you are free to stop any time without holding anything hostage.
Things we will tell you plainly
- When the thing you are asking for will not solve the problem you described.
- When a feature belongs in v2, not v1 — and what that saves you now.
- When we are not the right people for the job. There is no version of this where we take a project we cannot do well.
- When a change you want will cost more, at the moment you ask, not on the final invoice.
Talk to us
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Tell us what you are trying to fix — send us a message and we will come back to you.
Our own privacy practices for this website are in the Privacy Policy. DharmaMitra has its own policy at dharmamitra.in/privacy.
Have something you need built?
Tell us what the problem is — even roughly. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it, what it would take, and what it would cost.
Prefer email? Write to us at chhindwaralabs@gmail.com