A studio, not an agency.
cognatio labs builds software and AI for German companies — with the craft of a big agency and the closeness of a small team.
A studio, not an agency.
We have watched SMBs choose between two bad options: the big agency that costs a fortune, delivers slowly, and chains you to its platform — or the freelancer who eventually stops answering the phone. cognatio labs is the third option.
We choose the stack that actually fits each project — from Next.js and TanStack Start on the web, to React Native, Flutter, or native for mobile, to self-hosted open-source models for AI. No one-size-fits-all, no technology preference for its own sake. We deliver in fixed phases at fixed prices and hand over everything at the end: source code, models, documentation. Our conviction: a company's software and data belong to the company — not to its service provider and not to a US cloud.
That is why we build AI that runs on your servers, host in Germany and the EU, and write contracts you can exit at any time. Anyone working like this has to be good — that is precisely the point.
What you can hold us to
Ownership
Everything we build is handed over. No vendor lock-in, no platform hostage-taking, no rental software as a business model.
Sovereignty
Your data stays in Germany, the EU — or right in your own building. That is architecture, not a marketing promise.
Craft
Typography, performance, accessibility, clean data models. Details you only miss when they are gone.
What we work with
We choose technology by your goal, your team, your budget, and your privacy requirements — not by personal preference. What that means in practice:
Websites & web apps
Fast, maintainable, and free of site-builder limits — the framework follows the project and the team, not the other way around.
Next.js · TanStack Start · Astro · SvelteKit · Nuxt · Remix
Mobile apps
iOS and Android from one codebase — or native when your requirements demand it.
React Native · Flutter · Kotlin Multiplatform · Swift / Kotlin
Backend & integrations
Reliable servers, APIs, and connections to your existing systems — built type-safe and handed over documented.
TypeScript · Go · Python / FastAPI · Bun · Hono · Rust
Data & databases
From classic SQL to vector search for AI applications — your data, cleanly structured and exportable.
Postgres · pgvector · Supabase · SQLite / Turso · MongoDB · Qdrant
Private AI
Open models running on your infrastructure — your documents and queries never leave the building.
Llama · Mistral · Qwen · DeepSeek · Ollama · vLLM
Hosting & operations
Operated in Germany and the EU — or right in your own building. You decide where your data lives.
Hetzner (Germany) · your own servers · on-premise
Not sure where to start?
Bring the goal, bottleneck, or open question. We will identify the sensible first step, the information still missing, and what you should not build yet.
No obligation · Reply within 24 h · Your data is never shared