Software Consultancy - Johannesburg, South Africa
Software That Holds Up Under Real Load.
Burtronix builds and runs the data-intensive Drupal platforms behind daily publications, government portals and enterprise systems - and rescues the ones that outgrew their original builders.
- Publishing · Government · Enterprise
- Supporting editorial teams every publishing day
- Engineer-led, AI-accelerated
Services
What We Do
Full-stack delivery from planning and specification through to running production systems - for agencies and direct clients alike.
Drupal Platforms
Data-intensive content management built for scale - the engine behind daily publications and national portals.
Editorial & Publishing Support
We run the platforms editorial teams publish on every day - and stay close enough to fix, tune and extend them as the newsroom works.
Mobile Apps
Cross-platform iOS and Android apps - from municipal field-work tools to consumer-facing products.
Web Apps & Integrations
Node.js services, APIs and the custom integrations that tie a platform into the rest of the business.
Site Rescue & Migration
We inherit ailing sites, stop the bleeding, and run large migrations with near-zero downtime.
Consulting & Training
Planning, specification and custom commercial training - including the tech that lives off the Drupal island.
Approach
Programmers by Heart, in the Truest Sense.
We are engineers first. That means systems that are built to last, documented to be maintained, and secured to survive contact with the real internet - not just a demo that looks good on launch day.
Built to Last
Systems engineered for the long haul - documented, testable and maintainable long after launch.
Ready for the Next Engineer
Every system leaves our hands with the docs and structure a newcomer needs - even when that newcomer is not us.
Secured for the Real Internet
Layered defences, quietly maintained - we have taken sites from constant attack to clean and kept them that way.
AI With Discipline
We put AI to work wherever it genuinely pays - and every line it touches is still reviewed, tested and owned by an engineer.
Selected Work
The Platforms We Run
Platforms we build, host and keep running every day - grouped by the brands they belong to.
Now Media is a family-owned South African B2B publisher that has served the country's freight, travel and specialist trade sectors since 1953, producing the daily-read titles that industry professionals depend on - we build, host and support its platforms.
Freight News is South Africa's leading daily publication for the freight and logistics industry, the digital successor to Freight & Trading Weekly, delivering the news, insight and directory resources that importers, exporters and supply-chain professionals across Southern Africa rely on.
Travel News (TNW) is Southern Africa's premier daily trade publication for the travel industry, the trusted digital successor to Travel News Weekly, keeping travel agents, consultants and managers informed and connected across the region.
Tourism Update is the trade news authority for inbound travel across Southern and East Africa, delivering daily news and weekly features that keep tour operators, destination management companies and tourism stakeholders ahead of the market.
EngineerIT is South Africa's long-running B2B voice for engineering and technology, with roots reaching back to 1998, keeping engineers, IT leaders and technology decision-makers current through its magazine, news website and newsletters.
Energize is a trusted independent journal for Southern Africa's power and energy sector, publishing expert coverage of generation, transmission, renewables and grid infrastructure for the engineers, utilities and decision-makers shaping the region's energy future.
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is a leading public research university in Johannesburg, founded in 1922 and ranked among the top 1% of universities worldwide, with a heritage of four Nobel laureates including Nelson Mandela - we build and maintain the public platforms of two of its schools.
Wits Business School is one of Africa's oldest and most respected, founded in 1968 and AMBA-accredited among the top 2% of business schools worldwide, delivering MBAs, master's degrees, doctoral study and executive education to the continent's current and future leaders.
The Wits School of Governance is the university's dedicated school of public governance and policy, equipping public servants, political leaders and postgraduate students across Africa with the master's degrees, doctoral programmes and executive education needed to strengthen government and drive development.
The Heritage Portal is South Africa's leading history and heritage website, founded by James Ball and running for over a decade, publishing heritage articles, book reviews and sector news alongside a national heritage directory and a database of the country's blue plaques. We migrated it to Drupal 10, and its Heritage Register sibling site runs alongside it.
Our Own Ventures
Products we are building in-house, on the same stack we sell to clients.
Stage Africa is a community platform for Africa's performing arts and entertainment industry, bringing together industry news, a venue-and-talent directory and event listings across theatre, dance, music and film, and serving as the backend for a family of companion apps.
Glissade is a ballet-terminology tutor that helps dancers, students and teachers recognise, pronounce and remember the French vocabulary of the studio, teaching it as a system to understand rather than a list to memorise.
Clients
Trusted Across Sectors
The full picture, across sectors - from national government platforms and enterprise systems to the publishers, institutions and names we have built for over the years.
Government
- gov.za
- GCIS
- Vuk'uzenzele
- Public Sector Manager
- SAnews
Wits University
- Wits Business School (WBS)
- Wits School of Governance (WSG)
Now Media
- Freight News
- Travel News
- Tourism Update
- EngineerIT
- Energize
Enterprise & Finance
- Nedbank
- BMW
- Omnia
- du
- Mubadala
- JunkMail
- Avantgarde
- Flash Entertainment
- Gist!
Institutions & Associations
- SALGA
- CSIR
- University of Johannesburg
- NFVF
- Credit Bureau Association
- Munsoft
- Telamenta
- SA Municipalities
- LED
- LEDNA
- DASA
Media & Culture
- Music in Africa
Live Events & Artists
- Metallica
- Elton John
- David Guetta
- Armin van Buuren
- Shakira
- Snoop Dogg
- Janet Jackson
- Sade
- WWE Raw
- Creamfields
- Thirty Seconds to Mars
- Madonna
- Avenged Sevenfold
- Beady Eye
Capabilities
Deep Across the Stack
We reach for the right tool, not the fashionable one - and we have been down the stack far enough to know the difference.
Day to day that means PHP, JavaScript, TypeScript and SQL; the toolbox runs from C and C# through Java, Swift and Python when the problem calls for it.
Drupal
Enterprise solutions from developers with many years of Drupal experience.
Node.js
Real-time web apps and services alongside the CMS.
Front-End Build Stacks
Modern tooling and standards-compliant, performant interfaces.
Infrastructure & Security
Sensible version control, server config and the quiet defences that keep production clean.
Contact
Let's Talk About Your System.
Whether you're planning something new, need a partner for agency work, or have a site that needs rescuing - get in touch.