Independent software studio

Software that earns its place.

Licrat designs, builds, and runs its own focused products — sharp APIs and tools, engineered by senior hands, with no fluff. Our first is Winnow.

Meet Winnow Get in touch
15+
years shipping production software
1
product live, more on the way
5
languages this site speaks
01Manifesto

Less software, better software.

Most tools are bloated because incentives reward features, not focus. We don't sell seats or chase roadmaps — we build small, sharp products and operate them ourselves. That changes what we ship: only what earns its place.

Every Licrat product is deterministic where it matters, private by default, and fast enough to forget. No AI black boxes where plain rules will do, no data hoarding, no dashboards you'll never open.

02What we build

APIs and tools that do one thing, exceptionally.

We pick narrow problems with a clear right answer and solve them properly — the kind of infrastructure you wire in once and stop thinking about.

01

Deterministic by design

Where a problem has a correct answer, we use explicit rules — not a model that guesses. Same input, same output, every time, explainable down to the line.

02

Built to integrate

One endpoint, clear contracts, honest errors. Drop it into your pipeline in an afternoon, not a quarter.

03

Operated, not abandoned

We run what we build in production. The people who wrote it keep it fast, correct, and online.

03Products

What we've shipped — and what's next.

Live

Winnow

A data-quality and fraud API for survey responses. One call scores each response for bots, speeders, straight-liners, duplicates, gibberish and uniform timing — with deterministic rules, in milliseconds. No AI, no per-call model cost, no raw PII.

POST /v1/score · Bearer auth · deterministic
Meet Winnow →
In the works

The next tool

We're building the next focused tool in the same spirit. Want early access, or to suggest one? Get in touch.

04Principles

How we decide.

01

Focus over scope

One job, done exceptionally. If it doesn't earn its place, it doesn't ship.

02

Deterministic first

Plain rules before models — predictable, explainable, debuggable.

03

Private by default

We keep only what we must. Your data is never our product.

04

Small surface

Less to learn, less to break, less to pay for.

05

Own the outcome

We build and operate our own products. No hand-offs, no finger-pointing.

06

Fast or it doesn't count

Milliseconds, not seconds. Speed is a feature, not an upgrade.

05Why Licrat

Senior engineering, end to end.

Every product is designed, built, and operated by engineers with 15+ years shipping production software. No hand-offs, no juniors learning on your problem — the people who write the code own the outcome. We'd rather ship one tool we're proud of than ten we're not.

15+
years shipping production software
06FAQ

Questions, answered.

What does Licrat do?

We're an independent software studio. We build and operate our own focused products — currently Winnow, a data-quality and fraud API for surveys — with more in the works.

Is Licrat an agency? Can you build my software?

No — we build our own products rather than take client projects. The fastest way to work with us today is to use Winnow. For anything else, get in touch and we'll be honest about whether we can help.

Do your products use AI?

Only when it's the right tool. Where a problem has a correct answer, we use deterministic rules instead — they're faster, cheaper, explainable, and they don't hallucinate.

How do you handle data and privacy?

Private by default. We keep only what a product needs to work, never sell data, and prefer hashed or minimized inputs wherever possible. Your data isn't our business model.

What is Winnow?

An HTTP API that scores a single survey response for quality and fraud — speeders, straight-lining, duplicates, gibberish and more — and returns a score, a recommendation, and the exact flags. See winnow.licrat.com.

How can I get in touch?

Email hello@licrat.com. We read everything and reply to what we can help with.

Start with Winnow.

Our first product is live and ready to use. Everything the studio ships is held to the same standard.

Meet Winnow Contact us