We're on a mission to help organisations and their customers thrive.

Our history
The Leighton story

For as long as we can remember (and we’ve been around for over 32 years), organisations have struggled to deliver digital change. Technology continues to change. User expectations continue to rise. Getting the right resource, skills and expertise to deliver on time, on budget and to the highest quality is a real challenge.

That’s where we come in. We are a software development agency that accelerate digital change by bringing the right blend of people and technology together to deliver successful software applications.

1992

Having realised the potential of the internet in 1992, brothers Paul and Gerrard Callaghan founded Leighton as an internet services business and our early days were marked by our offerings in design, consultancy, and domain name registration.

1996

As the 90s unfolded Leighton rapidly evolved into a prominent internet publisher, providing a suite of internet and multimedia services. From web server hosting to web page design, and even screensaver development, Leighton was at the forefront of the digital revolution.

1997

By 1997, Leighton’s domain registration service evolved into DomainNames.com which rapidly grew to become the biggest registrar of .com domains in Europe before eventually being sold to Verisign in 2000.

2000

The early 2000s marked another milestone for Leighton as another brother, Bernie Callaghan joined the fold, stepping in to lead the team as CEO over the next six years as Leighton became a breeding ground for the development of high growth ventures including 4Projects.

2001

In 2001 British Airways selected to partner with Leighton, joining a portfolio of start-ups, SMEs and local enterprises. Giving us a strong foothold in the aviation industry, this is a partnership that has lasted over 22 years (and counting).

2003

In 2003 Communicator was spun out of Leighton, an email and SMS marketing platform that aimed to help ambitious brands achieve breakthrough results, before going on to be acquired by Trinity Mirror in 2012.

2008

By 2008 another platform was born out of Leighton in a bid to make webinars as easy to use and simple to scale as video and WorkCast was born. WorkCast is now considered one of the best webinar platforms in the world and the leading webinar service provider in the US and UK.

2010

With several high growth ventures under our belt by this point, in 2001 behavioural marketing platform SaleCycle was built to help online retailers reduce cart abandonment and improve conversions. SaleCycle now has two global offices and over 500 international clients.

2015

The final addition to the Leighton portfolio (so far) is Footy.com, the UK's leading price comparison site for football and sporting apparel and merchandise. Footy.com, SaleCycle and WorkCast remain within The Leighton Group and have all gone on to operate at a global scale.

2017

After several years managing Leighton spin-out, Communicator, former Leighton alumni James Bunting rejoined Leighton in 2017 taking the helm as CEO and still leads us today as we accelerate our customers digital capabilities.

2020

In 2020 we joined the AWS Partner Network, the first step on our journey to becoming the North’s leading AWS software developer. In 2022 we gained AWS Select Partner status in recognition of our technical expertise, certifications and accreditations with AWS.

2023

Having spent the last three years building a strong team of trained and certified AWS specialists, in 2023 we gained AWS Advanced Partner status. Fast forward to today and Leighton has grown from a small start-up operation to the North’s leading AWS software development business, building high-performing teams and developing successful applications for some of the world’s biggest brands.

Our values guide us. They underpin everything we do and how we act.

Curiosity

Our curiosity inspires the amazing. It’s boundless. We ask lots of questions. We’re open-minded. We love exploring new ideas. We aren’t afraid of failure. We love to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Passion

We’re passionate about what we do and proud of what we achieve. We love what we do. We never settle for second best. We’re driven by our commitment to our craft and desire to make meaningful impact. We make the improbable, possible.

Honesty

We act with honesty and truth, always. We do what we say we are going to do, when we say we will do it. We use good judgement and do the right thing. We always take ownership of our actions.

Nurture

We nurture our amazing people to be the best version of themselves. We foster an environment where our people and their ideas can thrive. We never stop learning. We constantly want to improve.

Collaboration

We collaborate to bring our purpose to life. We really care about our customers and about each other. We bring together diverse perspectives and talents from our customers and our colleagues to co-create exceptional solutions.

Sister companies
We practice what we preach.

For over 32 years, Leighton has served as a hub for innovation, not only in building successful software applications for some of the world’s biggest brands, but in generating business ideas and creating innovative companies that now operate on a global scale.

4projects logo
Communicator logo
Domian-names logo
footy.com logo
Salecycle logo
WorkCast logo

Parnerships, memberships & accreditations
Proud partners. Certified suppliers.

Driven by a passion for innovation and commitment to excellence, we are a software development agency that is proud to be trusted partners and certified suppliers with industry-leading bodies.

AWS Advanced Tier Supplier logo
Azure logo
Google Cloud logo
Crown Commercial Service Supplier logo
G-Cloud Supplier logo
ISO 27001 logo
Cyber Essentials logo
TechUK logo
DynamoNE logo
WCAG logo

Who we work with
Experienced and agile software development services. Trusted by some of the world's biggest brands.

Atom bank logo
Avios logo
BA Holidays logo
BBC logo
Beyond Housing logo
British Airways logo
Equans logo
Geoteric logo
Greenbean logo
Greggs logo
HC-one logo
iamproperty logo
IAG logo
IKEA logo
MWW logo
NWG logo
Opencast logo
SaleCycle logo
Tharsus logo
The WineFlyer logo
Workcast logo

Testing market viability with an MVP in 12 weeks.

iamproperty

View case study

Streamlining access to apps with a single sign-on solution

HC-One

View case study

Scaling SLAM portal invocations by over 1000%

Equans

View case study

Ready to talk about your project?

Ready to turn your ideas into a reality? We'd love to hear more about your project goals and discuss how our expert software development team can turn them into reality.

Let's talk
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