Independent apps, made in New Brunswick
Simple to use.Simple to live with.
Kantan Solutions Group makes its own apps for the web, iOS and macOS: simple to pick up, elegant to use, and built to do exactly what they promise. Tools people understand the first time they open them.
Kantan. Japanese for simple, easy, uncomplicated.
We named the company after the standard rather than the technology.
The problem
Most software gets complicated by accident.
A feature here, an option there — and before long the thing that was meant to save time needs a manual of its own.
Our answer
Simplicity is a decision, made over and over.
It takes more thought to decide what to leave out than to keep adding. Technology changes. That standard does not.
What we make
Our own apps, for the web, iOS and macOS.
In the browser
Tools that open in any browser, with nothing to install and nothing to configure before they are useful.
On iPhone
Apps that do one job well, respect your attention, and get out of the way when you are done.
On the Mac
Desktop apps that feel at home on macOS: quick to learn, and quiet when you do not need them.
Thoughtfully connected.
Connected where it helps, and never integrated for the sake of it.
With each other
Some of our apps are made to complement one another. Where two genuinely make each other more useful, they connect. Where they don’t, they stay out of each other’s way, and every app is complete on its own.
With everyone else
We believe in open source. Not everything we make will be open, but we are committed to creating open source solutions wherever it makes sense, so the useful parts of our work can be used, checked and improved by anyone.
How we work
Three things we hold every app to.
Simple
Every feature has to earn its place. A smaller app that does its job well is worth more than a bigger one that almost does.
Elegant
Elegance comes from clear decisions, not decoration added at the end. In a well-made app, most of the design is the absence of anything in your way.
Functional
It has to work, and keep working. We look after what we ship: fixes done properly, updates for each new version of iOS and macOS, and nothing you rely on quietly taken away.
Get in touch
We would like to hear from you.
Questions about our apps, feedback, or an idea you think we should build — we read everything, and we reply to all of it. We also take on a small amount of custom development for other people, when a project suits the way we work.