digiDEVS — Blog (English)

How we rebuilt MP-14's booking platform with Next.js, Firestore & Sanity

digiDEVS - Fredrik Aarvold — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 08:14:35 GMT

MP-14 runs professional sports camps — volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, figure skating — at venues across Italy, Croatia, and Austria. Their 2026 season already has 14 camps live, spanning age groups from 8 to 19 and ranging from day camps to full-week programmes.

When they came to us, every booking was a manual operation.

The problem with Excel and bank transfers

Before this project, a parent who wanted to book a spot for their child would trigger a multi-step staff process: a booking in a spreadsheet, a request to pay a deposit by bank transfer, then a member of staff manually checking the bank account, matching the transfer to the right customer by name, and updating the sheet. On top of that, athlete registration data — medical information, emergency contacts, age, dietary needs — was collected over email. GDPR consent was gathered informally. There was no systematic follow-up for parents who dropped off mid-process.

This works at small scale. It does not work when you're running camps across three countries, in multiple languages, for hundreds of young athletes per season.

What we built

We rebuilt their entire customer-facing platform on Next.js 14, with Firestore as the real-time database and Sanity as the content management system. The result is live at mp-14.com.

Multilingual, multi-region booking. The platform serves camps in English and Italian, with region-specific content for Italy, Croatia, and Austria. Content editors at MP-14 manage all camp listings — dates, prices, spot availability, age groups, locations — directly in Sanity without touching code. Spot counts update in real time via Firestore, so parents see exactly how many places remain.

Online payments with deposit handling. Deposits (€50 per camp) are collected at the point of booking through an integrated payment flow. Reconciliation is automatic — no more cross-referencing bank statements with a spreadsheet. The payment status lives in Firestore and triggers the next step in the pipeline automatically.

Athlete registration portal. After booking, parents receive an automated email with a link to a registration portal. There they enter all required athlete data in a structured form: personal details, age, medical information, emergency contacts. The data writes directly to Firestore, structured and queryable — not buried in an email inbox.

Digital GDPR consent and hospital permission. Within the same registration flow, parents formally accept GDPR terms and provide signed digital consent for MP-14 to arrange emergency medical treatment for their child if needed. Both are timestamped and stored with the athlete record — meeting the legal requirements that informal email consent does not.

Automated email pipeline. A trigger-based email sequence handles the entire customer journey: booking confirmation, registration reminder if the parent hasn't completed the athlete form, follow-up for incomplete GDPR steps, and a final confirmation once everything is in order. The MP-14 team no longer chases anyone manually.

Why this stack

Next.js 14 with the App Router gives fast server-rendered pages out of the box — important for SEO on the camps listing pages, where parents searching for "volleyball summer camp Italy" should land on real, indexed content. Firestore handles real-time spot availability without any infrastructure to manage. Sanity gives the MP-14 team genuine editorial control: launching a new camp, updating a price, or changing session dates takes minutes, not a developer.

The outcome

MP-14 now runs a self-managing booking operation. What previously required daily staff attention — chasing payments, matching transfers, collecting athlete data, sending follow-up emails — now runs on its own. The team focuses on what they're actually good at: delivering high-level youth sports coaching with internationally experienced coaches, in partnership with CBF Sport Academy.

The 2026 season has 14 camps already published and available for booking. Spot counts are ticking down in real time.

Want to replace a manual workflow with something that runs itself? Get in touch.

Norwegian-Croatian Development: The Smartest Way for Norwegian SMBs to Build Digital Solutions

digiDEVS - Fredrik Aarvold — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:27:12 GMT

Norwegian-Croatian Development: The Smartest Way for Norwegian SMBs to Build Digital Solutions

You have decided to invest digitally. The next question is: who should build it?

Norwegian agencies are good – but expensive. Asian freelancers are cheap – but carry risks most businesses are not prepared for. There is a third option that gives you the best of both worlds.

Three Options – and What They Actually Cost You

Norwegian agency or in-house developer The quality is usually good. But an experienced developer costs NOK 800,000–1,200,000 per year, and agency rates reflect that. For project-based work, this is difficult to justify for an SMB.

Asian freelancers or teams The prices can look attractive. But what comes with them is easy to overlook: a 5–8 hour time difference that delays everything, communication barriers that produce incorrect specifications, and – most importantly – real GDPR risk when personal data is processed outside the EEA without adequate data transfer agreements. On top of that, enforcing contracts and IP rights across continents is complicated and costly.

EU-based team with Norwegian project management Competitive pricing. Same time zone. European legal standards. And a Norwegian project manager who ensures that what you order is actually what you get.

Why Croatia

Over the past decade, Croatia has become one of Europe's leading countries for software development – driven by strong technical universities, a solid engineering culture, and a growing startup scene in Zagreb and Split.

For Norwegian businesses, this is particularly relevant:

EU member since 2013 – Fully GDPR-compliant, the same regulatory framework that applies to you
CET/CEST time zone – Full working-hour overlap with Norway
Schengen – Easy to meet in person when needed
40–65% lower rates than Norwegian market prices, without compromising on quality

The Norwegian Bridge – Why It Is the Key

Having a great development team is one thing. Making sure that team builds the right solution for the Norwegian market is another.

A Norwegian project manager knows Norwegian business culture, Norwegian payment solutions (Vipps, BankID), WCAG accessibility requirements, and industry-specific Norwegian regulations. They translate your business goals into precise technical requirements – and maintain quality throughout the entire project.

That is what makes Norwegian-Croatian collaboration fundamentally different from simply outsourcing to a cheap team abroad.

What Does It Cost?

Project type	Norwegian agency	digiDEVS
Simple business website	NOK 30,000–150,000	NOK 15,000–45,000
Advanced website / e-commerce	NOK 100,000–700,000	NOK 50,000-300,000
Mobile app (iOS/Android)	NOK 100 000 – 1 000 000	NOK 60 000 – 600 000
Automation setup	NOK 40 000 – 200 000	NOK 15 000 – 80 000
Customer portal / SaaS MVP	NOK 500 000 – 2 000 000	NOK 150 000 – 800 000

The 40–65% saving is not just a good deal – it is what makes digitalisation achievable for SMBs that otherwise could not afford to do it properly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns the code? You do. Everything built for you belongs to your business – clearly regulated in the contract.

Is it safe in terms of GDPR? Yes. Croatia is an EU country and fully subject to GDPR. With Norwegian project management overseeing compliance, the risk is comparable to using a Norwegian agency.

Do you support BankID and Vipps? Yes – Norwegian project management ensures that solutions are adapted to Norwegian infrastructure.

What if we need changes after launch? Straightforward – either via an ongoing maintenance agreement or by ordering new features as needed.

Ready to Build Something You Actually Own?

You do not have to choose between quality and price. With the right partner, you get both.

Get in touch with DigiDevs for a no-obligation conversation →

DigiDevs is a Norwegian-Croatian digital agency specialising in web development, app development, and automation for Norwegian SMBs.

Digital Assets Are the Best Investment Norwegian SMBs Aren't Making

digiDEVS - Fredrik Aarvold — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 06:55:27 GMT

Digital Assets Are the Best Investment Norwegian SMBs Aren't Making

Many Norwegian small businesses spend thousands of kroner every month on Google ads, social media, and subscriptions to tools they half-use. It feels concrete. It feels measurable.

But it is a trap.

Ads stop working the moment you stop paying. Generic tools never quite fit. And throughout all of it, you own nothing.

The most profitable digital investments are the ones you own – the ones that keep delivering value long after they have been paid for.

Three Digital Investments With Lasting Returns

1. A Website That Actually Sells

Most Norwegian SMBs have a website. Far fewer have a website that works.

A professionally developed website with fast load times, mobile optimisation, and solid technical SEO does one thing over time: it ranks you higher in Google and converts visitors into customers – without you paying per click.

That is the difference between renting visibility and owning it.

2. An App or Digital Solution You Control

Is your business using three different SaaS tools to solve one problem? That is a sign that a custom-built solution would be cheaper and better in the long run.

A customer portal, an internal admin app, or a booking solution built for your business gives you full control – no monthly licence fees paid to someone else, and no functionality you do not need.

3. Automation That Replaces Repetitive Work

Norwegian labour is expensive. There is no reason to spend it on tasks that can be automated.

Invoicing, payment reminders, reporting, customer onboarding – all of this can be set up once and run on its own. A typical automation implementation pays for itself within 6–12 months and saves time for years afterwards.

The Simple Calculation

Each of these investments has something in common: you pay once (or across a project), and you own the result. That is fundamentally different from paying for ads or subscriptions that disappear when you stop paying.

For Norwegian SMBs with limited budgets, that is precisely what makes them the smartest digital investments you can make.

In our next post, we cover the smartest way to build these solutions – without paying Norwegian agency rates or gambling on unknown developers on the other side of the world.

Read Part 2: Why the Norwegian-Croatian Model Is the Gold Standard →

DigiDevs helps Norwegian SMBs build digital solutions they actually own. Get in touch for a no-obligation conversation →