24 builds
Shipped since 2024. Small in-house crew, no outsourcing.
Custom client portals built around how you actually run jobs.
A construction client portal is a branded web app where a contractor's clients track project status, approve selections and change orders, view photo updates, and pay milestone invoices. It replaces email threads and phone tag. Pixel Studio builds custom portals on your own domain, with full code ownership and no per-seat fees.
Updated August 2026
What clients log into
What does a client actually see?
Built around the four questions every client asks every week: What's done? What's next? Where's my money? Can I see today's photo? Answered before they have to call.
Sample portal · Demo data · The Ridgeline Residence
Homeowner view
Today's progress Week 11 of 16
Mon · Apr 27
Drywall finish coat, kitchen, dining
Tue · Apr 28
Tile arrives + delivered to site
Today · Apr 30
Kitchen tile install begins · 8:00 AM
Fri · May 02
Plumbing rough-in inspection
Mon · May 05
Cabinet delivery + install kickoff
Photo of the day 2:47 PM
Site lead · Photo 23 of 47
Budget 68% used
Contract base$284,000
Spent to date$192,940
Open change orders+$8,400
Pending decisions 3
Backsplash · 2 optionsDecide
Cabinet hardwareDecide
Pendant placementDecide
On site today
Site lead● active
Tile crew (3)● active
Plumber2:00 PM
Sample portal with demo data. Yours runs your logo, your palette, your domain.
The honest comparison
Custom portal, per-seat software, or email and spreadsheets?
Three ways contractors run client communication today. Buildertrend and JobTread are established per-seat SaaS platforms, and email is free. Here is how the three models compare on the things that cost you later.
| What matters | Custom portal (Pixel Studio) | Per-seat portal software (Buildertrend, JobTread) | Email + spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost model | One fixed build, included in Headquarters: $0 today, $3,500 on satisfaction. Infrastructure billed at raw provider cost with receipts. | Ongoing subscription, priced by plan or seats. Check current vendor pricing; it changes. | Free in cash. Paid for in hours of status calls and re-sent attachments. |
| Ownership | You own the code, the design, and the data. Clean Git repo at delivery. | The vendor owns the software; you license access to it. | You own scattered inboxes and files nobody can find. |
| Branding | Your logo, your colors, your domain. Clients never see our name. | The vendor's interface, with your logo where the plan allows. | None. |
| Per-seat fees | None. Add clients, crew, and subs at no extra charge. | Typical for the category: cost scales with users or plan tier. | None. The fee is your evenings. |
| Lock-in | None. Export everything, host anywhere, leave with the repo. | Cancel and access ends; exporting project history varies by vendor. | None, but there is nothing structured to take with you either. |
Buildertrend and JobTread are solid choices for teams that want an all-in-one management platform. A custom portal is for contractors who want the client-facing side in their own brand, on their own domain, owned outright. Before you sign with any vendor, read our guide to who owns your website.
What's in every portal
What's inside a Pixel portal?
Modules are scoped to how you run jobs; most builds ship with these eight. Every portal lives on your domain (portal.yourcompany.com), runs your brand, your logo, your palette. Clients never see the words "Pixel Studio."
Live timeline
The project schedule, day by day. What's done, what's next, who's on site.
Daily photo log
Your site lead posts photos from a phone; the portal timestamps and files them by day.
Selections & approvals
Every client decision in a queue with deadlines. Options, prices, one-tap approval, a record.
Change-order workflow
You draft, the client approves with one tap, and the signed PDF lands in their archive. No email chains.
Milestone payments
Pay apps the client can read. Invoice by milestone, collect online, see what's paid and what's due.
Document vault
Permits, plans, warranties, manuals. Still there when the client looks five years later.
Crew view
A stripped-down mobile view for the field: photo, status, done. Twenty minutes to learn.
Smart notifications
A daily digest instead of 47 pings. Clients pick real-time, daily, or weekly.
Who uses it
Who is a custom portal actually for?
The portal flexes for different job profiles, and configuration is part of the build. What a homeowner cares about is not what a commercial GC's stakeholders care about.
For · Custom home builders
The 12-month custom home portal
One client, one portal, one giant project. Design phase, permitting, then months of construction. The selections module is the center of gravity: hundreds of decisions, all tracked.
FEATURED MODULE · SELECTIONS
For · Remodelers
The 4-month remodel portal
Several active jobs at once. Photos and timeline are the win: most homeowner anxiety is "is anyone working today?" The daily photo and crew check-in answer it before they ask.
FEATURED MODULE · DAILY PHOTO LOG
For · Commercial GCs
The multi-stakeholder portal
Owner, architect, lender, tenant: all need different views. Role-based access, RFI workflow, and a draw-request module built around your bank's checklist.
FEATURED MODULE · DRAW REQUESTS
"Every status call is a client who couldn't find the answer on their own. Put the schedule, the budget, and the photos where they can check them, and the phone quiets down. Build it once and own it outright."Yahya Malik · Founder, Pixel Studio
2 walk-aways
Both exited at a milestone and kept everything made so far, at no charge.
98+ Lighthouse
On every build we ship, portals included.
Common questions
What we get asked before a portal build.
Buildertrend and JobTread are per-seat SaaS platforms: broad feature sets, vendor-hosted, licensed by subscription. A custom client portal from Pixel Studio is built around your workflow, runs on your domain in your brand, and you own the code outright. There is no subscription and no per-seat fee, and portal infrastructure is billed at raw provider cost with receipts.
A custom client portal is included in the Headquarters package: $0 today, $3,500 on satisfaction, covering the site, the portal, and everything else in the tier. Running costs are billed at raw provider cost with receipts, zero markup. You pay nothing until the finished work is live in front of you and you sign off.
A portal build typically takes 4 to 8 weeks, scoped individually before we start. Marketing-site work runs on our standard 24-day schedule; portals add design and build time for your specific modules and integrations. We put the schedule in writing, and if we miss a milestone by more than a week, the next phase is on us.
No app download is needed. The portal is a web app that runs in any browser on phone, tablet, or desktop, at an address on your own domain. Clients get a login link, and your crew's view is stripped down to the few actions they use daily on site.
You own the portal completely: code, design, and data transfer to you at delivery in a clean Git repo. There is no proprietary CMS and no lock-in. If you leave us later, the portal goes with you and keeps running wherever you host it.
Walking away is built into the deal. You can exit at any milestone and keep everything made so far, the brief, the designs, and the code, at no charge. Across 24 builds, two clients have walked, and both kept the work.
See where a portal fits before you commit to anything.
30 minutes. You leave with a teardown of your current site and the 3 fixes we'd make first, yours to keep, even if we never work together.
Not a call person? Send the details. We reply within 4 business hours. A human, not an autoresponder.
Book my teardown call→Q3 2026: 3 of 8 build slots open.