Data & GIS
Backend and Database Engineering
APIs and data models built to stay up: typed, tested, indexed, monitored and documented.
What is backend & database engineering?
Backend engineering is the server side of an application: the API contracts, the authentication, the background jobs and the database schema that everything else depends on. RegalBit Solutions builds backends in Node.js, Laravel and PHP over PostgreSQL, MySQL and MongoDB, with structured logging, automated tests and monitoring, so problems surface as alerts rather than as customer complaints.
A backend is judged on what happens when things go wrong. An API that returns data in eighty milliseconds on a good day is unremarkable. The one that degrades gracefully when a payment gateway times out, retries idempotently, and tells you it happened is the one worth paying for.
Almost every slow application we are asked to fix is slow at the database, and almost always for the same three reasons: a missing index, a query fetching far more rows than the screen displays, and a schema designed for a smaller version of the business. A health check finds which within a couple of days and we benchmark before and after so the improvement is measured rather than claimed.
The part clients most often lack is a backup they have tested. An untested backup is a belief, not a safeguard. Every engagement includes automated backups, off site copies and at least one documented restore drill, so your recovery time becomes a known figure.
Authentication and authorisation get particular attention because that is where most breaches begin. Properly hashed credentials, short lived tokens with rotation, permission checks enforced server side on every route, and audit logging on anything sensitive. We have also implemented AWS Cognito for enterprise identity where standard auth was not enough.
Deliverables
What we build
REST and GraphQL APIs
Versioned, documented, validated at the boundary and covered by tests on the critical paths.
Authentication and authorisation
Token auth with rotation, role based access, SSO and AWS Cognito where enterprise identity is required.
Database schema design
Normalised where it matters, denormalised where reads demand it, with constraints that enforce the business rules.
Performance tuning
Slow query analysis, execution plans and indexing, with before and after benchmarks you can read.
Background jobs and queues
Scheduled and event driven processing on a real queue with dead letter handling, not a timer that dies with the process.
Backups and observability
Automated encrypted backups, a witnessed restore drill, structured logs, error tracking and alerting to a human.
Process
How a backend & database engineering project runs
Written scope and a fixed quote before anything is built, then visible progress at every stage.
- 1
Assess
Schema review, slow query analysis, index audit, security review and growth projection.
- 2
Report
A prioritised written findings list with expected impact and effort against each item.
- 3
Build
Changes applied as reversible migrations against staging first, always. Never ad hoc SQL on production.
- 4
Verify
Before and after benchmarks shared with you. Performance work without measurement is guesswork.
- 5
Protect
Backups, monitoring, alerting and a restore drill you witness.
Technologies
What we use
Named, specific and current. We list what we have shipped, not what we have read about.
- Node.js
- Laravel
- PHP
- Express
- NestJS
- TypeScript
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- Redis
- Supabase
- AWS
- Docker
- GitHub Actions
Who this is for
You will get the most from this if…
Applications that have become slow
It was fine at ten thousand rows and is unusable at two million.
Teams whose API keeps falling over
Outages are frequent, the cause is never obvious, and there are no logs worth reading.
Businesses with no backup they trust
There is a backup job. Nobody has ever restored from it.
Engineering rates
What this costs
We publish a rate band rather than a project price, because a project price without a scope is a guess. Once we understand the work we convert it into a fixed written quote, so you carry no open ended risk.
Backend & Database Engineering
From $12 / hour
Typical band: $12 to $32 per hour
A database health check is a small, bounded piece of work and usually pays for itself in the first fix. Larger builds can be quoted fixed scope.
Why us
What makes this different from the other quote you are getting
An eight person engineering team, with a dedicated designer and a dedicated tester, shipping production software since 2017. The person who scopes your project is the person who builds it.
- We benchmark before and after and show you the numbers.
- Every migration has a tested rollback plan before it runs.
- We run a restore drill, not just a backup job, so your recovery time is a known figure rather than a hope.
- Reviewed against the OWASP API security list before every launch.
Questions
Backend & Database Engineering, frequently asked questions
PostgreSQL for new applications: better JSON support, stronger constraint enforcement, window functions, full text search and PostGIS for geospatial work. MySQL when you are on shared hosting, integrating with an existing MySQL stack, or running WordPress. Both are excellent; PostgreSQL simply covers more ground without a second database.
Usually, and usually it is one of three things: a missing index, a query returning far more rows than the screen shows, or an N+1 query pattern in the application layer. A health check identifies which within a couple of days and quantifies the win before you commit to the fix.
Yes. We start with an audit covering architecture, security, dependencies and test coverage, and give you a written remediation plan with priorities before we change anything.
Daily full backups plus continuous write ahead log archiving for anything transactional, retained off site for at least thirty days, encrypted, and restore tested quarterly. Anything less and you are estimating your recovery time rather than knowing it.
Backend & Database Engineering where you are
Related services
- Web DevelopmentWeb platforms engineered to load fast, rank well and still be running years after launch.
- Integrations & API DevelopmentStripe, Razorpay, HubSpot, Salesforce, WhatsApp and the rest of your stack, connected properly and monitored.
- GIS & Mapping SolutionsSpatial data turned into applications people actually use, not a static map image.
Ready to talk about backend & database engineering?
A free 30-minute call. We will tell you what is feasible, roughly what it costs, and whether we are the right people for it.
Engineering since 2017 · Clients in 7 countries · Rates from $10 per hour