Apps and platforms for research, healthcare and education
App developer in Ghent for iOS and Android apps
Zenjoy is a digital product studio that builds apps and platforms for research, healthcare and education. A good part of that work sits in the Ghent area: for research groups at Ghent University, for Arteveldehogeschool and for care organisations. You sit at the table with the people who design and build your app.
If you need an app for a single campaign, or you want to click something together in an app builder, we are not the right partner. We would rather say so up front.
Looking to have an app built for iOS and Android?
An app is rarely just an app. The backend, user management, integrations through APIs, publishing to the App Store and Google Play, monitoring and the next release of both operating systems are part of the plan from the first sketch. That is the difference between an app that still runs two years later and one that stalls at the next update.
Why Zenjoy as the app developer for your project in Ghent?
Our office is in Leuven, about an hour from the Ghent area. We meet on campus, at your office or online, and we come over as often as the project asks for. We are not going to claim we are around the corner.
We have worked with research groups at Ghent University and with Arteveldehogeschool for years. Co-creation with the target group, a submission to the ethics committee, informed consent and clear agreements about who sees which data: that belongs to the work, not to the extras. Your data stays in the EU, on Nimbu, our own platform.
We build for both platforms and put the backend and the management platform next to them. Whether it becomes a native app, a hybrid solution or cross-platform depends on the device features your app needs and on what the maintenance costs afterwards. We make that call together, before a single line of code exists.
We have worked with the Flemish Centre of Expertise in Suicide Prevention (VLESP) at Ghent University since 2016; their app Spark* went live in March 2026. After a launch the same people stay reachable, with Platform & App Care for updates, monitoring and backups.
What we build: from mobile app to platform
Mobile applications for both operating systems, from the first flows to an approved release in the stores. Design, mobile development and backend sit in the same team here, and people from your own organisation test on real devices before the app goes public.
Behind almost every app sits a platform: roles, records, a management environment for your own people and connections to the systems you already use. The app is then the interface on that platform. We build the whole thing and not just the front end, because a shell on a backend we do not know comes back to bite you later.
Operating systems, SDKs and the rules of the app stores keep changing. With App Care we keep your app, your backend and your hosting secure and up to date, with monitoring, backups and a fixed point of contact who knows your project in detail.
Where AI genuinely saves time in your operation, we build it into the workflow. Tools that prepare texts, classify data or make an archive searchable, always with a person checking before anything goes out.
Our work in Ghent
Digiwijzer
For Arteveldehogeschool we built the platform where social workers search the offer around digital inclusion on a map, filter it and pass it on as a PDF. Organisations manage their own entries, with search through Algolia and a connection to the UiTdatabank.
Project Sleep
A nine-week sleep programme for secondary schools, with a public information platform and a private school track with onboarding, roles, phases and a library of materials. Designed together with three schools and scientifically evaluated.
KickAsh!
A digital toolkit for youth welfare workers on smoking and vaping, with moodboards, tips, policy guidelines, games and materials for smoke-free camps. Made in co-creation with young people, vzw Habbekrats and the KAA Gent Foundation.
Spark*
For VLESP we built Spark*, a free app for young people aged 12 to 17 with a personal safety plan, exercises, a HopeBox and the way to helplines. The app launched in March 2026 and was picked up in the news by VRT NWS among others.
We come to Ghent
Our office is at Blijde Inkomststraat 22 in Leuven. From Ghent that is about an hour, which is why the travel is on us. We meet on your campus, at your own office in Ghent or online, depending on what is on the table that day.
A first conversation takes an hour and costs nothing. We look at who is going to use the app, how often, which device features are needed, which system has to sit behind it and who keeps the whole thing alive after launch. After that you get a proposal with what is included and what falls outside it.
Questions we often get
That depends on the number of operating systems, the device features you need, the backend behind it, the number of languages and the connections to what you already use. An app that only shows information is a very different thing from an app that keeps working offline and collects data for research. We estimate this in the first conversation and put it in a proposal, including what is not in it. Advertising a teaser price and billing the rest as extra work is not how we work.
Native pays off when you need the camera, push notifications, GPS, NFC, Bluetooth or offline use, or when the app has to feel smooth under intensive use. Cross-platform keeps one codebase for both platforms and lowers the maintenance, as long as you need no deep device integration. If people use your application a few times a year and you need no device features, a web app often does the same job without app stores and without double maintenance. We choose together, with the costs after launch on the table.
Yes, and it is often the largest part of the work. User management, roles, a management environment for your own people, integrations with existing systems through APIs and analytics to see what is really used: that belongs to the product. An app on a backend we do not know sooner or later leads to a discussion about who solves which problem.
That is a large part of our work. We know our way around a submission to the ethics committee, informed consent with minors, pseudonymisation and the question of who may look at which data. Everything runs on Nimbu, with hosting in the EU and processing agreements that line up with the GDPR and with your data management plan. On Project Sleep and KickAsh! research and development ran side by side, with co-creation as the starting point.
No. Our office is in Leuven, at Blijde Inkomststraat 22. In practice you notice little of that: we come to Ghent for work sessions, demos and training, and in between we carry on online. If you would rather visit us, it is a ten-minute walk from Leuven station.
We can, and it happens regularly. We start with a review of the codebase, the backend, the store accounts and the dependencies, so you see in black and white what still works and what has to be replaced. After that you choose: keep building on what is there, or renew specific parts. The maintenance then runs through Platform & App Care: new features, adjustments for new versions of iOS and Android, monitoring and backups.
VLESP and several departments at Ghent University, Arteveldehogeschool and organisations such as IDROPS, Beroepenhuis and Thagaste, among others. Four of those projects are shown above; we are happy to show the rest in a conversation.
Having an app built in Ghent?
Tell us briefly who is going to use the app and what goes wrong today. Then we can think along on the substance, in Ghent if you prefer.
You speak with someone who thinks along on the content, with no obligation and no standard pitch.