Digital products in 2026 aren’t chasing the next shiny thing. They’re getting smarter about what matters: long-term use, clarity, and systems that hold up under real pressure. From startups to enterprises, teams are making grounded choices driven by business requirements, scale, and regulation rather than tech for tech’s sake.

This piece draws on our experience at Wolfpack Digital, building web and mobile products for fintech, healthcare, IoT, media, transport, and many more. The trends below reflect what we’re seeing in actual product development, not theoretical forecasts.

1. AI becomes specialised and AI-native

AI in 2026 is shifting from a complementary capability to a core layer of modern digital products. This transition is directly tackling user pain points such as overwhelming manual data analysis, delayed decision-making, and inconsistent process automation. For instance, imagine a supply chain manager previously bogged down by manual data entry and complex spreadsheets, now experiencing the flawless integration of AI agents that automate everyday tasks and offer real-time analytics. This change enables them to focus on strategic initiatives rather than operational minutiae. Companies are adopting AI agents that automate processes, analyse data in real time, and support independent decision-making, including these capabilities straight into operational flows.

One clear direction is AI specialisation. General-purpose models are increasingly replaced by solutions trained and fine-tuned on industry data, niche knowledge, and proprietary datasets, which deliver more relevant results in specific business contexts.

At the same time, more products are being designed as AI-native from day one. Instead of adding AI later, models are embedded directly into the product architecture, determining how key features behave. Imagine an online retailer looking to help users navigate thousands of book titles without relying on static filters or generic recommendations. An AI-native approach would weave conversational intelligence directly into the browsing experience, making discovery feel natural rather than bolted on.

AI also changes how software teams work. To reduce execution time while sustaining high technical standards, we actively use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude models, and Copilot to speed up development work throughout code generation, testing, and delivery processes.

2. Accessibility moves into early design decisions

Accessibility is increasingly addressed at the beginning of the design process, not as a final compliance step.

As products become more complex and regulations such as the European Accessibility Act take effect, accessibility-first design results in clearer navigation, more predictable flows, and interfaces that work better for everyone, not just users with disabilities.

This approach is reflected in platforms designed to support passengers with reduced mobility across rail networks. Imagine such a system where users are able to request assistance, track its arrival, and communicate needs across dozens of stations. We helped build such an app, Passenger Assistance, with Transreport. Built in accordance with accessibility standards from the start and informed by consultation with users with disabilities, products like these show how accessibility-by-design improves both usability and reliability in critical services.

3. Business processes consolidate into unified digital platforms

Digital transformation increasingly focuses on replacing fragmented systems with unified product ecosystems.

Instead of multiple disconnected tools, companies centralise ordering, payments, loyalty, analytics, and account management into coherent platforms that reduce friction for both users and internal teams.

Imagine a business running on legacy systems and manual workflows, where customer data lives in separate places and ordering happens through disconnected channels. Replacing that with a unified web and mobile platform improves operational visibility and creates a more consistent customer experience across touchpoints.

4. IoT integrates quietly into everyday experiences

IoT continues to expand throughout healthcare, wellbeing, and beauty products, propelled by the need for live data, monitoring, and personalisation.

What changes in 2026 is not the importance of IoT itself, but how it is positioned within digital products. Instead of being treated as a standalone feature, IoT is incorporated into broader product systems where hardware, mobile applications, and data processing work together to support meaningful outcomes.

In the beauty and wellbeing space, think of a product where users scan their skin with a connected device. The hardware captures the data, a mobile app processes it in real time, and personalised product recommendations follow. We’ve built products like this with Walgreens Boots Alliance, where IoT provides the technical foundation, while the user experience focuses on insight, guidance, and usability rather than connectivity.

5. Applications built to develop alongside the business

Modern architectures such as MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) and composable approaches are no longer new to the industry. However, in a context where markets move faster and digital products are expected to adapt continuously, these architectures become an increasingly dominant direction in 2026.

Companies need systems that can evolve without major technical bottlenecks or rigid component dependencies. By separating functionality and adopting API-first strategies, products can be extended, updated, or integrated more easily, without requiring large-scale rebuilds.

This approach also provides faster launches across web, iOS, Android, and other platforms, reduces development time, and offers greater flexibility in how products scale over time.

Our experience with API-driven architectures, cloud-based systems, and cross-platform or multi-platform development supports the delivery of applications that remain adaptable as business needs evolve. Working across startups, scaleups, and enterprise environments reinforces the importance of building products that can grow without being restricted by their initial technical decisions.

6. Sustainability influences digital product decisions

Sustainability increasingly informs how digital products are designed and what behaviours they encourage.

Rather than being treated as standalone initiatives, environmental and social aspects are integrated into core product decisions, including infrastructure efficiency, data usage, system longevity, and the behaviours products encourage. As regulatory pressure grows and expectations around transparency increase, sustainability becomes a practical design constraint.

In practice, this leads to products that prioritise efficient resource use, long-term reliability, and informed user choices, while preventing unnecessary operational overhead as they scale.

This approach is reflected in products that support transparent investment in renewable energy initiatives, or applications designed to encourage responsible tourism in protected natural areas. Through features like carbon footprint awareness and offline access, digital tools have the ability to support lower-impact decisions without adding friction to the experience.

7. Media products adapt to life on the move

Media consumption continues to shift toward formats designed for fragmented, mobile-first routines.

Audio and short-form content prioritise speed, clarity, and continuity over feature density. Users expect media products to function reliably across everyday contexts, such as commutes, short breaks, or parallel activities, without requiring sustained attention or elaborate interaction.

As a result, product decisions increasingly focus on performance, offline access, smart resumption, and intuitive playback controls. Content discovery and personalisation also become more important, helping users quickly reach relevant media with minimal friction.

8. Fintech and Regtech absorb complexity behind the scenes

As regulations become stricter, fintech and regtech products increasingly hide their complexity from users.

Automation, structured data flows, and clear interfaces allow users to operate confidently without having to understand regulatory details. In these environments, trust, stability, and predictability outweigh experimentation.

Consider a regtech platform supporting compliance with transport regulations. Imagine logistics companies managing fleets across multiple routes, each trip generating mandatory reports, GPS data, and compliance documentation. Without automation, this becomes a manual administrative nightmare.

We built LoadHub to solve exactly this problem for Romania’s e-Transport system. The platform automates reporting, GPS tracking, and regulatory workflows, pulling data directly from vehicle systems and formatting it according to regulatory requirements. The product lowers administrative burden while maintaining compliance by design: users simply do their work, and compliance happens in the background.

Similar principles apply in fintech products where clarity and infrastructure stability are essential. Users need to trust that transactions process correctly, data is kept secure, and regulatory requirements are accomplished without them having to think about it.

Closing perspective

Together, these trends show a broader shift toward products that are more adaptable, inclusive, and anchored in real-world use cases. The impact is more resilient products that address business goals, user needs, and evolving environments free of the pitfalls of constant reinvention.

These trends signal a future in which effective digital products are defined by adaptability, inclusivity, as well as strategic integration. By prioritising products that fit realistic needs, teams are positioned not just to keep pace but to lead in creating lasting industry impact.

8 Trends Shaping Digital Product Development in 2026 was originally published in Wolfpack Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In recent years, the fintech world has shifted in two critical ways: users expect faster access to funds and greater inclusivity in financial services. According to industry analysis, digital-platform cash advances are growing faster than other short-term finance options. At the same time, payment behaviours are evolving rapidly: mobile wallets, real-time payments, and app-based services are mainstream — no longer niche.

Why does this matter? Because the old model — waiting days for funds, rigid credit checks, limited language or user-experience support — is increasingly out of sync with how people manage their financial lives. They want control, immediacy, and clarity.

In this environment, being able to offer a cash advance quickly, with minimal friction and across user segments (including multilingual users), becomes a meaningful differentiator.

Introducing the solution: Cashli Funds

That’s where our project with Cashli Funds comes in. We partnered with Cashli Funds to create a mobile application designed for fast, reliable cash advances, built from the ground up to be inclusive and user-centred.

Key features include:

• Multilingual support (English, Spanish, Haitian Creole) for non-English-speaking users.
• Very rapid access to funds (for eligible users) to meet time-sensitive needs.
• Simple eligibility criteria: no heavy traditional credit checks.
• A clean, intuitive UX that keeps the process clear and accessible.

The outcome? A product aligned with the broader market trend of instant, inclusive money access, enabling the kind of financial flexibility users expect today.

The Impact Behind the Product

The shift toward instant, app-based financial tools is reshaping how people bridge cash gaps and handle unexpected expenses. When a product is built for speed, clarity, and accessibility, it can meet real needs in ways that traditional systems often can’t.

Meeting real user needs

Many people face cash gaps, urgent bills, or limited access to traditional credit. Cashli Funds addresses this with a simple, guided process — from connecting a bank account to requesting an advance — helping users when timing matters most.

Serving users beyond the “credit-ready” norm

By offering multilingual support and keeping requirements simple, the app reaches communities often underserved by mainstream financial services.

Matching the direction of fintech

As behaviour shifts toward real-time, mobile-first services, Cashli Funds fits directly into this environment. Its flows are designed for quick decisions and smooth navigation.

Reducing hesitation in urgent moments

When users need money right away, confusing interfaces or unclear terms can create barriers. Cashli Funds keeps eligibility, repayment details, and steps easy to understand, helping users move with confidence.

Final thoughts

At Wolfpack Digital, we believe in building products that bring meaningful benefits to real people. The Cashli Funds project exemplifies that: riding a strong market trend while staying grounded in user needs, clarity, and accessibility.

Awoo 🐺

Your app is live. Users are active. Growth is happening, and that’s exciting. But with that growth comes a new set of challenges: performance starts to dip, your team is spending more time on maintenance than new features, and requests are piling up faster than your app can handle.

These are common growing pains. But they’re also signals that it might be time to scale your mobile app.

At Wolfpack Digital, we work with product teams from the very beginning, not just to launch their apps, but to prepare them for what comes next. We build with scalability in mind and help teams confidently move from version one to a robust, future-ready product.

In this article, we’ll walk you through 5 clear signs you’re ready for mobile app scaling, what that process actually involves, and how to scale your app without compromising performance, UX, or momentum.

What does it mean to scale a Mobile App?

Scaling mobile apps isn’t about starting over , it’s about building on what already works. It means preparing your app to handle more users, more data, and more complexity without sacrificing speed, reliability, or experience.

When you scale a mobile app, you’re evolving the architecture, optimizing your development workflow, and investing in the right infrastructure to support long-term growth. The goal? To grow without breaking.

It’s not a rebuild, it’s a strategic upgrade.

So how do you know when it’s time to make that move?

Let’s walk through 5 clear signs your mobile app is ready to scale.

1. Your app slows down or crashes as more users join

If you’re noticing laggy screens, delayed interactions, or random crashes, your app may be hitting capacity. As your user base grows, your backend, database, and APIs face increasing pressure, and without changes, performance will suffer.

Start by monitoring your application’s performance and running load tests to identify areas for improvement. Doing this early is the first step in scaling your mobile app the right way.

2. Your team is stuck fixing instead of building

If every new feature breaks something else, or your backlog is full of issues and tech debt, your team is in maintenance mode. That’s a sign that your current structure isn’t built to support growth.

To scale a mobile app effectively, your development workflow needs to support stability and velocity, not constant firefighting.

3. It’s getting harder to add the features users want

Your users are asking for more: real-time chat, payments, advanced notifications, and it’s starting to feel like a stretch to implement. That’s a natural point in your product’s journey, where the original architecture might not offer the flexibility needed for new, high-impact features.

This is where scalable technologies come into play. Moving toward a microservices architecture, or incorporating containers and serverless functions, can make it easier to add new functionality without destabilizing the rest of your app.

4. Your tech stack is starting to show its limits

Cross-platform tools can be great for speed and efficiency early on, but as your app grows, you may need more advanced capabilities. Sometimes, it’s a specific programming language or an outdated library that starts holding you back, especially when you need custom integrations, better performance, or platform-specific features.

In these cases, scaling a mobile app may require introducing native enhancements or evolving your stack to support more complex requirements across both iOS and Android.

And while cross-platform tools can still offer more scalability than no-code, low-code, or AI app builders, those platforms tend to hit limits much sooner. Many teams are drawn to their speed and affordability, only to run into major barriers around customization, performance, and integration — making future migration both time-consuming and expensive.

5. Your backend can’t keep up with frontend demands

Even the most beautiful UI can’t compensate for a struggling backend. If your API is slow, your server crashes under load, or your database can’t handle increased data processing, your users will feel it.

Scaling Mobile Apps strategically (not just technically)

Scaling your mobile app isn’t just about upgrading tech; it’s about aligning those upgrades with where your business is headed. Whether you’re preparing for user growth, entering new markets, or aiming to improve engagement, your scaling plan should directly support those goals.

Ideally, scalability is built in from the start with the right tech stack, architecture, and processes designed to support future growth. However, we know that’s not always the case. If scaling wasn’t part of the initial roadmap, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck. With the right team and a smart upgrade path, you can strengthen your app’s foundation and scale sustainably.

At Wolfpack Digital, we don’t just build MVPs, we help them evolve. Our developers work closely with product teams to design, test, and scale mobile apps that can handle real-world growth without losing momentum. Whether your app is built with Flutter, React Native, or native code, we:

• Audit your app’s current performance and scalability
• Identify bottlenecks in infrastructure or code
• Build a roadmap for technical upgrades aligned with your business goals
• Implement changes with minimal disruption to your live product
• Conduct stress testing to ensure your app can perform under heavy load

Smart scaling supports more than traffic. It supports your product vision, your users, and your business.

So, whether you’re noticing growing pains or planning for your next growth milestone, we’re here to help you scale with confidence and without compromise.

Let’s talk about how we can future-proof your app and set you up for long-term success. Contact the Pack.

When you’re developing a new product, it’s essential to test your ideas early on to avoid wasting time and resources. But the question often arises: Should you begin with a Proof of Concept (PoC) or a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? Though these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they have distinct roles in the product development process.

A PoC is focused on assessing the feasibility of a particular feature or technology, helping teams determine if the idea is technically achievable. In contrast, an MVP is a simplified version of the product that’s ready for the market, with the main goal of gathering valuable user feedback.

In this article, we’ll explore the key differences between PoC and MVP, outlining when to use each to guide you in making the best choice for your product development journey.

MVP vs PoC

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a version of your product that includes only the essential features needed to meet the needs of early adopters and gather feedback for future improvements. MVPs are typically created using agile development practices, which promote flexibility and efficiency. This approach is a key component of the Lean Startup methodology, designed to test business hypotheses and validate learnings with minimal effort. By releasing an MVP, companies can collect valuable user insights and data, allowing them to make informed decisions on how to refine and evolve their product.

On the other hand, a Proof of Concept (PoC) is a small-scale version of a product that is developed to test whether an idea or technology can be successfully integrated into a larger system. Its primary purpose is to assess the feasibility of a concept before scaling it up.

Though both an MVP and a PoC are designed to test and validate product ideas, they have distinct objectives. An MVP is centered around testing the product’s market potential and gathering user feedback, while a PoC focuses on evaluating the technical viability of a concept.

What are the key differences between an MVP and a PoC?

Both Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Proof of Concept (PoC) are important tools for testing and validating business ideas, but they serve distinct purposes and have different scopes, features, testing environments, and outcomes.

• Purpose: A PoC is primarily focused on testing whether a particular idea or technology is feasible. It answers the question, “Can we build this?” In contrast, an MVP aims to test market interest and validate the business model, answering the question, “Do people want this?”
• Scope: A PoC typically has a narrower focus, usually testing a particular aspect of the product or technology. It’s a small-scale implementation designed to prove that the concept is technically possible. On the other hand, an MVP has a broader scope, containing the essential features needed to solve a problem for early users.
• Features: A proof of concept typically has only a few features, enough to show that the idea is technically feasible. However, an MVP only has a small number of features that are necessary for the product’s usefulness and value proposition. It is designed to be useful for early adopters.
• Testing: In order to verify the technical components, PoCs are typically tested internally within the development team or organization. However, in order to obtain practical feedback and insights, MVPs are tested with a small group of external customers or users.
• Outcome: A PoC usually results in a conclusion regarding the technical feasibility of moving further with development. However, an MVP results in a proven business model and a clear grasp of market demand, which informs future investment and development decisions.

When should a proof of concept be built?

Imagine you have a business idea and would like to test it before investing a lot of time, money, and other resources.

You can either create a prototype or a proof of concept (PoC):

• When you need to determine whether the technology you want, such as an algorithm, a piece of hardware, or a certain capability, is feasible, you should choose a proof of concept.
• You should test the prototype with users to determine whether they like the design, flows, interface, and overall experience. An excellent way to see how a prototype looks is to visit Flexidrive’s page here and scroll down to experience the app's feel. A clickable, interactive prototype will be simple to experiment with and navigate between screens.

When is the right time for building an MVP?

The MVP is a real product that you put on the market for people to use, but it only contains a few features. With the least amount of work, an MVP enables teams to collect as much validated consumer learning as possible.

After you have a clear understanding of your audience and their requirements, and wish to introduce a teaser for what is to come, we advise creating an MVP. Following the launch, you just collect as much information and feedback as you can, then add the necessary features and functions to the MVP. Additionally, we’ve already covered how to create your MVP in this article.

Methodologies and development process

It takes a systematic approach to development to create a successful product, not just a brilliant idea. Proven methodologies can help businesses mitigate risks, optimize resources, and develop products that genuinely engage users.

Final thoughts: Choosing the Best Strategy for Your Product

Whether you’re launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to attract early adopters or exploring a Proof of Concept (PoC) to assess viability, the secret to success is organized development, user feedback, and ongoing iteration.

If you are still uncertain about the best course of action for your project, let’s talk! Our team can assist you in improving your product strategy and creating a digital solution that meets your company’s objectives.

Cross-platform development is revolutionizing mobile app development, offering cost-effective and time-saving solutions. In our latest comprehensive guide, we delve into the top platforms for 2024, comparing the pros and cons of cross-platform versus native development.

Discover the best approach for your next project and how it can impact your app’s performance, cost, and user experience.

To gain deeper insights and expert advice, read the full article on our website. 👇

Explore the complete guide to cross-platform development in 2024

Cross-Platform Development in 2024: A Comprehensive Guide was originally published in Wolfpack Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing web and mobile app development, driving innovation with personalized user experiences, advanced analytics, and intelligent automation.

Wolfpack Digital is at the forefront of this transformation, integrating cutting-edge AI solutions to deliver high-quality applications. Explore the latest AI trends and see real-world applications that showcase how AI is shaping the future of technology.

To delve deeper into how AI is impacting web and mobile app development, visit our website and read the full article. 👇

Read more about AI trends in web and mobile app development.

AI Trends: Shaping the Future of Web & Mobile App Development with Wolfpack Digital was originally published in Wolfpack Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Choosing a software development collaborator can be a complicated and challenging task. For startup founders and not only, the journey involves exploring many possibilities, each presenting potential success or the imminent risk of failure.

The stakes can’t be overlooked. Opting for the right app development company becomes an investment in your product and business’s future.

However, with plenty of options, each having its merits and drawbacks, decision-makers may feel overwhelmed. While researching potential software development partners can offer valuable insights, it might not paint a complete picture of their capabilities, work ethic, and collaborative approach. Engaging directly with the agencies enables more profound conversations and interactions, which are crucial in making well-informed decisions.

In the full article, we will explore crucial factors to consider, various approaches to assess them, and a set of questions to pose, facilitating a thoughtful decision-making process.
Check it here: https://www.wolfpack-digital.com/blogposts/a-founder-s-guide-to-assessing-and-selecting-the-ultimate-software-development-partner.

Navigating the Selection of a Software Development Ally: A Guide for Founders was originally published in Wolfpack Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In an era where AI’s transformative potential echoes the groundbreaking revolution of Software as a Service (SaaS), its influence ripples through industries, reshaping the very fabric of user experiences and industry landscapes. From healthcare to fintech and across the ever-expanding social sphere, AI has bestowed applications with the power to achieve feats once deemed unattainable.

Today, the digital landscape is adorned with the fingerprints of AI-powered applications. Voice assistants gracefully manage our schedules while personalised recommendations curate our entertainment choices, creating a seamless fusion between technology and human existence.

Yet, as technology continues its relentless evolution, a pivotal question confronts founders and tech experts alike: Should their creations embrace the formidable potential of artificial intelligence? In this article, we embark on a journey into the heart of this question, illuminating the vital considerations that must guide the incorporation of AI into your applications. We introduce you to the pivotal questions that demand answers to the strategic actions that need to be taken, and, perhaps most illuminating of all, we paint a vivid picture with use cases and real-life examples at every turn. Join us as we navigate the exhilarating landscape of AI integration, forging a path toward innovation and excellence.

Read the full article on our blog: https://www.wolfpack-digital.com/blogposts/does-your-app-need-ai-a-quick-guide-to-determine-whether-artificial-intelligence-is-the-right-choice-for-your-digital-product

How Do You Know If Your App Needs AI? was originally published in Wolfpack Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An overview of cybersecurity for web apps built with Ruby on Rails

Why Cybersecurity Has Never Been More Important for your App? A quick overview of developing secure web apps with Ruby on Rails

No matter if you are an IT company or any other industry, as a business, it is YOUR DUTY to take care of your customers’ data and all the people providing you with information (employees, partners, etc.).

In the past years, everything in terms of data was overlooked and underestimated, until a few big data breaches changed the way we look at it (Cambridge analytics is just a simple example to think of.

But with no further ado, a security breach can lead your business to customer loss, damage to the companies you work with, reputation damage, PR crisis, brand management challenges, higher lead & customer acquisition costs and efforts, and, of course, financial problems.

Type of business information at risk

• employees’ information (salaries, names, addresses, IDs, e-mails, roles, etc)
• Databases (be it with customers, users of your customers, partners, etc)
• business and financial details (budgets, business plans, resource allocations, competitive assets)
• product details (patents, designs, manufacturing processes, development processes, etc)

Developing secure web apps with Ruby on Rails

We do love Ruby on Rails (RoR) — hence, we most of the web applications we build at Wolfpack Digital, no matter if they are in the fintech, healthcare, or transportation industry use Ruby on Rails.

Here’s a short guide to build secured web applications

• Use HTTPS protocols and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to create an encrypted connection within your web app and establish trust (and security) amongst your customers
• Increase your website or app performance and security by using Cloudflare.
• Sanitize user input to prevent web attacks. Similar to the pandemic, if we do not sanitize well, the viruses will get us.
  In the software development world, we keep the users safe by sanitizing input data.
  The process is quite simple and straightforward: each digital product (or most of them, for sure) has a pool of customers (known as users) and a server and in order to use the product there is a data exchange between the user and the said server. Most users are nice and send the data needed for the product to work, but if we think about hackers or just bad guys, then one can try to send malicious or unauthorized data to the product’s server and cause harm.
  Combining validation and sanitization will provide an in-depth defense of your web application.
• Prevent SQL Injections
  If you skip any sanitization or escaping, there is a high risk for your web app to be exposed to vulnerabilities like unauthorized activity or untrusted data inserted in a SQL query. This is called SQL injection and this type of attack manipulates your parameters to influence your database and bypass authorization. Preventing SQL Injections when developing web applications with Ruby on Rails can be done by using dynamic attribute-based finders (and avoid passing a string as an argument, unless it is a dynamic finder), do not accept or/and construct values from “commands”, but from “inputs”.
  Fortunately, Rails provides help in defending against code injection through its automatically escaped plain strings, the sanitize helper while still specifying the tags you want to allow through for your input.
• Whitelist parameters
  When it comes to whitelisting parameters, as a web app owner you can set all the actions and details you want as input and ensure you allow only secured details within your app servers (e.g., use filters like :only => […] instead of :except => […].
• Ensure token expiration and deactivation, and encrypt all cookies.
  Most authentication methods are now token-based as an alternative to session-based authentication. This means that a token-based authentication will create a unique encoded token to be checked every time a request is made, without storing the data.
  The great thing about tokens is that they should have a set lifetime value and you can change it at any point. While the session-based authentication will store a set of criteria or data about each user, hence it should be encrypted.
• Use bcrypt to hash and salt passwords.
  No matter the web app you have, there will always be a need for usernames and passwords to be validated (or at least we hope so). By hashing a password you basically apply an algorithm designed to take a string of any length as input and produce a fixed-length hash value.
  And salting it is not about spicing things up, but it ensures that if you have two people with exactly the same password, the hash will be different because it will add a string of irregular data based on details such as computer type, OS, timezone, etc.

Building an app using Rails provides you with a gem called bcrypt to securely store passwords and to easily handle setting, (some) validating, salting, hashing, and authenticating passwords.

• Don’t store credentials from third parties (or other sensitive data) in the projects directly, we either store them as ENV vars or keep them encrypted in the project (e.g., rails credentials)

Cybersecurity awareness month

October was cybersecurity awareness month, so we decided to cover as many topics as possible to inform people about digital security. If you’d like to read more about the topic here are a few useful links👇

• We started with an intro on Why Cybersecurity Has Never Been More Important for your App?
• Continued the series with Cybersecurity Tips: UX/UI design techniques for secure digital products
• Then we asked our Head of Web Development, Florin Ionce, about the process of developing secure web apps with Ruby on Rails and put together this guide with these 8 practical security measures anyone building a web app should be aware of.
• And just a few days ago Dan Ilies, the Head of Mobile, helped us build a quick guide on How to secure your mobile apps and 3 best practices to keep your iOS and/or Android app secured (with code samples)
• As you know by now, we are constantly following the prevention measures to keep our information and products secure. See how is ISO27001 helps Wolfpack Digital keep information assets secure?

An overview of cybersecurity for web apps and built with Ruby on Rails was originally published in Wolfpack Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The moon keeps changing quarters, and so do we!
2020 has been a test for everyone, and at Wolfpack Digital we’ve been very thankful to have a healthy and constant growth pace even during a pandemic!
Here’s a recap of our third quarter of 2020.

announcements and milestones

This summer we earned 3 awards, 1 certification, 28 active projects, and an amazing 40 under 40 feature of Gina Lupu, the founder & CEO of Wolfpack Digital

• 1st place in the top 70 Best Web Developers from Romania In July 2020 according to The Manifest
• #2 in the Top B2B Leaders from Romania In August 2020 according to Clutch
• #10 in the Top iOS Mobile App Companies In September 2020 according to Mobile App Daily
• Georgina Lupu, CEO of Wolfpack Digital, listed in 40 under 40 mobile app technology leaders report according to Mobile App Daily
• Wolfpack Digital is certified for Innovation Management by IMP³rove

trendsetters and mentors

• StartITup invited Georgina Lupu Florian to be part of the mentoring team 👩‍🏫
• How to Web Startup Spotlight invited Corina Stirbu to be part of the mentoring team for the 40 selected startups 🔦
• Techsylvania was hosted in the virtual world this year, but we are partners for good no matter what! So we joined the event as Bronze Partner for 3rd year in a row and it went great!
• We organized a hybrid satellite event: Fintech & Ruby on Rails for all the startup lovers and Ruby on Rails fans to get together (both virtually and offline — while all the safety measures were taken)t to discuss the Reactive components: Vue vs. Rails and the perks of using Ruby on Rails to build digital solutions.
  Our special guest, Edgar de Picciotto, Co-founder of ikigai — a London-based startup revolutionizing the banking and investment services, virtually joined us to share his journey of building a Fintech application and answered all the questions from our broadcasting viewers and people joining us offline.

we published a lot of learning resources

💎 What is Ruby on Rails and why you should use it for your Web App Development?
📊 What is Personal Data and how it became the new currency for personalized User Experience(s)?
📲 What is an app clip and how to use it?
📱 Must-have features for a food delivery app during COVID-19
🧐 World Suicide Prevention Day. How can an app make suicides preventable?
🔐 Why Cybersecurity Has Never Been More Important for your App?
🔒 Developing secure web apps with Ruby on Rails

culture & events

To keep it short, here is how we managed the culture of Wolfpack Digital with a distributed team or a hybrid version with some people in the office and some working from home.

Here’s how we handled the community glue and kept the team happy👇

🧘‍♀ Weekly sessions of Yoga
🐺 Wolf Gatherings, our very own 15minuted TED Talks to share passions, knowledge or just something we want our team to know
☕ Random 1:1 coffees
🙌 A l e g e n d a r y Wolfest in our back yard!
🧐 Virtual Escape Rooms and all sorts of online quizzes
🍿📺 OutDoor Cinema in our famous backyard
🚀 Training sessions and workshops
🏓 Table Tennis Tournament

And that’s a wrap! The Wolfpack Digital team goes back to what we ace — building powerful web and mobile apps for brands all around the world.

Have a safe Q4!
Yours,
The Wolves 🐺

A summer to remember. The wrap-up of Q3/2020 at Wolfpack Digital was originally published in Wolfpack Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.