A branded portal that replaces the email chaos.
Auth, billing, support tickets, document sharing, one login. Your brand, your data. Shipped in 4–6 weeks on a monthly subscription.
Who this is for
SaaS or services COO replacing email-based client communication with a single source of truth — clients emailing requests, no visibility into open work, ticket chaos growing weekly.
The pain today
- Clients emailing requests into a shared inbox nobody owns
- Support tickets scattered across email, Slack, and three support tools
- Billing questions forcing finance to screenshot Stripe dashboards
- Documents shared via Dropbox links that expire or break
- No analytics on portal usage because there is no portal
The outcome you get
- Single branded portal: login, billing, tickets, documents, account
- Auth with optional SSO (SAML, OIDC) for enterprise-grade clients
- Stripe integration for invoice history and payment methods
- Support ticket integration with Intercom, Zendesk, or custom
- Audit-ready access log of every document viewed or downloaded
The 5 modules every customer portal needs
Five modules, each non-optional. Account: profile, company, team members, password/2FA. Billing: current plan, invoice history, payment methods, tax info. Support: open tickets, new ticket form, knowledge base search. Documents: contracts, reports, shared files with access tracking. Activity: what's new, what's pending, what requires action. These five cover 90% of what B2B clients actually need to self-serve. Everything else (advanced reporting, API keys, white-label settings) is a follow-up module once the core five are live. Starting with all ten modules at once is how portal projects miss their first deadline.
Auth and SSO considerations
Three auth tiers depending on customer profile. SMB clients: email + password, magic link option, optional 2FA. Good enough for portals under 500 active users. Mid-market: add SAML SSO via Clerk, Auth0, or WorkOS — enterprise buyers expect it and procurement will ask. Enterprise: SAML + OIDC + SCIM (automatic user provisioning when a new employee is added to the client's identity provider). I build with Clerk or Auth0 for most engagements because they handle SAML and SCIM out of the box. WorkOS is a strong enterprise-first option. Custom auth is rarely the right answer — the compliance surface is larger than the saved cost.
Integrating with billing and support
Stripe for billing: invoice history, upcoming invoice preview, payment method management, subscription upgrades or downgrades through Stripe Customer Portal embedded or rebuilt for brand consistency. Support integrations: Intercom Messenger embedded inside the portal so ticket threading stays native, or Zendesk with two-way sync, or a custom ticketing system if the workflow is specific. Either way, the customer never leaves your portal — deep linking to external tools is what makes enterprise clients close the tab. Every integration respects the portal's auth — clients see their tickets, not everyone's.
Case study: GigEasy worker-facing portal
GigEasy needed a worker-facing portal: shift bookings, earnings history, ID verification, document uploads, support. I built it as part of the 3-week MVP — Laravel backend, React frontend, AWS infrastructure, PostgreSQL for worker records, Redis for session caching. Workers could check earnings, upload required documents, chat with support, and track shift history — all under their own login. The same portal architecture (auth, account, billing equivalents, document sharing, support) applies to any B2B or B2C client portal. Investors saw the MVP three weeks after kickoff and kept building.
Pricing
Customer portals fit the Applications Standard tier at $3,499/mo. Enterprise builds with advanced SSO (SAML + SCIM), multi-tenancy, or deep integrations move to Pro at $4,500/mo. First-version timeline: 4–6 weeks from kickoff to production. Subscription continues through buildout and ongoing maintenance — most clients stay 6–12 months through the initial version and feature expansion. 14-day money-back guarantee, cancel anytime after. Work Made for Hire — all code, infrastructure configuration, docs transfer to you at any cancellation point, so you're never locked in.
Mobile and offline considerations
90% of B2B portal usage is desktop — long sessions, big screens, document-heavy. But 20% of usage spikes are mobile (the executive checking status on their phone during a commute). I build responsive first so the portal works on mobile without a separate app. For field-heavy use cases (technicians uploading site photos, drivers logging deliveries), a Progressive Web App with offline sync is sometimes the right add-on. Full native apps (React Native, Swift) are rarely worth the cost for portals — responsive web is 80% of the value at 20% of the maintenance.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Built and shipped an investor-ready MVP from scratch
Built the entire technological base and delivered MVP in just 3 weeks, enabling a successful rapid launch and investor demo.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- How do clients log in for the first time?
- Magic link by default — they receive an email invite, click a link, set a password or enable SSO. For enterprise, we invite via SAML provisioning so they appear automatically when added to the identity provider. No manual credential sharing at any point.
- Can I white-label the portal for multiple clients?
- Yes — that's a multi-tenant build, fitting the Pro tier at $4,500/mo. Each client tenant gets its own subdomain or path, brand colors, logo, and optionally fully custom domain. Admin controls stay centralized. I've scoped this pattern for agencies productizing services and for B2B2B software.
- Does the portal support document e-signing?
- Yes via Docusign, HelloSign, or native Stripe invoice e-sign depending on the document type. I wire the webhook so completed signatures reflect in the portal activity feed and optionally trigger downstream actions (start project, activate subscription, notify account owner).
- What about auditability and compliance?
- Every portal ships with a full audit log (who viewed what, when). Access by user role is enforced in both the API and UI layers. For SOC 2 / HIPAA requirements, I extend logging to write-action diff tracking and configure retention per compliance policy. Compliance audit prep is a covered scope item.
- Can the portal integrate with my existing CRM?
- Yes — HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive are standard. Client records, activity history, and ticket summaries sync both directions through the CRM API, so account managers see portal activity without a separate login and portal users see their account status fresh.
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