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Case study · Singapore · Online communities

Built PandanBot, Smolheart's Discord moderation bot, on time in five months.

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How did InApps help Smolheart build PandanBot?

Smolheart, a Singapore company that makes online safety tools, wanted a Discord bot any server admin could set up without code. Between September 2023 and January 2024, InApps, a software company in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, built PandanBot with a team of two to five: the bot, a dashboard for server admins, a super admin dashboard and the public website. Smolheart's CEO rated InApps 5.0 on Clutch.

PandanBot logo PandanBot by Smolheart · Singapore
  • 5monthsSep 2023 to Jan 2024
  • 2–5specialistsInApps team
  • 2,145+serversUsing PandanBot, Oct 2026
Industry
Online Communities Trust & Safety
Services
Custom Software Development Software Product Development System & API Integration
Main technologies
Node.js Discord.js React MongoDB Docker

What the client says

“The CEO is very experienced, and was able to explain and add value to my project.”

Apple Ng, CEO, Smolheart · Verified Clutch review, Feb 2024

About Smolheart and PandanBot

Smolheart is a Singapore company whose mission, in its own words, is “to keep users safe” online. PandanBot is its Discord bot: free moderation that any admin can run, to verify new members, stop raids and give the bot its own name and avatar.

The challenge

Smolheart needed one bot to serve many Discord servers at once, each with its own settings, on a backend that keeps up with API requests and bot activity as servers join. Moderation and scheduled jobs, such as welcome and timed messages, had to run with no admin watching.

One bot, many servers, and every server's rules kept apart.

The solution

We built the bot in Node.js 18 with Discord.js, behind an Express API with secured endpoints, and ran scheduled jobs through Agenda on MongoDB, so moderation and timed messages run on their own. Server admins configure their own server in a React dashboard; Smolheart runs the whole platform from a super admin dashboard. Every part ships in Docker containers, so each environment runs the same. We built the public website too, and kept the work moving while the client's CEO was travelling or offline.

How we build software products
2–5 specialists
  • Project manager, the client's one contact
  • Node.js and Discord.js engineers
  • React front-end engineers
  • Meetings in person and online

The stack

Node.js 18 Express Discord.js Agenda MongoDB React Vite Tailwind CSS Docker Compose
Two PandanBot dashboard illustrations from pandanbot.com: the Anti-Raid settings for status, duration, action and detection, and the Select a server window listing six Discord servers

The outcome

Delivered on time, and still running for thousands of Discord servers.

  • Delivered on time, per the client's verified review.
  • No stalls while the client was away: the work kept moving through two weeks the CEO was offline.
  • 2,145+ Discord servers use PandanBot today, by its own site's count.
  • 5.0 overall on Clutch, from Smolheart's CEO.
5.0/5 Clutch, overall rating See PandanBot

Sources: verified Clutch review (February 2024); server count and pictures from pandanbot.com, October 2026.

Questions about this project

InApps built PandanBot for Smolheart, a Singapore company that makes online safety tools. Between September 2023 and January 2024, InApps, a software company in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, built the Discord bot, a dashboard where server admins configure it, a super admin dashboard for Smolheart, and the public website at pandanbot.com.
PandanBot is a free moderation bot for Discord. Server admins use it to verify new members and flag alternate or automated accounts, stop raids when a flood of accounts joins, send welcome, goodbye and timed messages, set custom commands, manage embedded messages and reaction roles, and change the bot's name and avatar.
The bot runs on Node.js 18 with Discord.js and an Express API, with Agenda for scheduled jobs and MongoDB as the database. The dashboards are built in React with Vite and Tailwind CSS. Every part runs in Docker containers, managed with Docker Compose.
Five months, from September 2023 to January 2024, with a team of two to five from InApps led by a project manager. The client's verified Clutch review says InApps was on time, and that the team kept the project moving while the CEO was offline for two weeks and travelling for work.
In a verified Clutch review from February 2024, Apple Ng, CEO of Smolheart, rated InApps 5.0 overall and wrote: “The CEO is very experienced, and was able to explain and add value to my project.” The review also describes the InApps project manager as clear and communicative.
Yes. Singapore is one hour ahead of Vietnam, so the two working days almost match. On PandanBot, InApps met Smolheart both in person and online, and kept in touch by email and messaging apps between meetings.
One team builds the bot, its backend and the dashboards together, so every setting an admin changes reaches the bot through one API. That is our software product development work, and connecting to a platform's API, such as Discord's, is part of our system integration service.

Building a bot or a community platform? Scope it the way Smolheart did.

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4.9 / 5 across 39 verified reviews on Clutch

Two InApps engineers at their laptops in the Ho Chi Minh City office