Web Development
WordPress, Shopify, or custom. Built by the same team handling your search and ads, so the technical decisions serve the traffic instead of quietly working against it.
Why builds cause problems later
Most development problems don't show up at launch. They show up six months later when you try to grow.
01
Every feature solved by installing something else. Now the site is slow, half the plugins conflict, and updating any of them is a gamble.
02
Unoptimised images, render-blocking scripts, and a page weight nobody measured. It feels fine on fibre and takes eight seconds on a phone on 4G.
03
Custom code with no documentation, a page builder locked behind a licence they own, or a CMS that makes a simple text change into a support ticket.
04
Content loaded by JavaScript, headings used for styling, no schema, and a URL structure that made sense to the developer and nobody else.
What we build
A brochure site, a store, and a web application are three different engineering problems.
Built to your requirements rather than assembled from whatever plugins came closest. Clean code you can hand to anyone.
Custom DevelopmentShopify or WooCommerce built to handle a real catalogue, with product feeds, faceted navigation, and checkout that doesn't leak.
eCommerce DevelopmentPortals, dashboards, booking systems, and internal tools. Software that happens to run in a browser rather than a website with logins.
Web ApplicationsTechnologies we work with
We pick the stack that fits the problem and your team's ability to maintain it, not the one that's interesting to build with. If WordPress does the job, we'll say so rather than quoting you a custom application.
What you get
Scope varies with the project. These are in every one of them.
How we work
Most budget overruns come from work starting on a vague brief and being rebuilt once everyone sees it.
STEP 01
What the site has to do, who maintains it afterwards, and what already exists.
STEP 02
Requirements written down, platform chosen, and a fixed quote against the scope.
STEP 03
You watch it come together on a live staging URL rather than waiting for a reveal.
STEP 04
Devices, browsers, speed, and SEO checks. Redirects mapped if you're replacing a site.
STEP 05
Go live, monitor for a fortnight, then documentation and a training call.
Our SEO team reviews the build before launch. They're not handed a finished site and asked to fix it, which is how most sites end up needing a technical audit three months after going live.
Investment
Quoted against a written spec, not billed by the hour.
Hourly billing punishes you for the developer's learning curve and gives nobody a reason to work efficiently. We quote the project. If it takes us longer than expected, that's our problem rather than an extra invoice.
What moves the number: how many unique templates, whether it's eCommerce, what has to integrate with what, and whether you need ongoing maintenance after launch.
Starting from
$800
per project
Final pricing depends on scope. We quote the full build after the spec call.
Get a scoped priceWorth knowing
A rebuild is expensive and disruptive. Sometimes the existing site is closer to fine than it feels.
Common questions
Four to eight weeks for a standard site once design is signed off. eCommerce and web applications run longer, sometimes considerably, depending on integrations.
We give you a timeline with the quote and tell you which parts depend on you rather than on us.
For most businesses, WordPress. It's well understood, easy to hire for, and does everything a content-led site needs. Shopify for product-led eCommerce. Custom only when there's a genuine reason.
We'd rather build you something boring and maintainable than something impressive that nobody else can work on.
Yes. The code, the hosting, the domain, and every account are yours. We don't use proprietary systems that keep you tied to us, and we'll hand everything to another developer without a fuss if you move on.
Not if the migration is handled properly. Every old URL gets mapped to a new one, redirects go live at the same moment the site does, and our SEO team reviews the build before launch rather than after.
Ranking drops after a launch are almost always a missing redirect map or content that quietly disappeared. Both are avoidable.
Yes, as an ongoing plan covering updates, backups, security, and small changes. It's optional. If your team would rather handle it, we'll document everything and show them how.
Yes. Send us the files and we'll build from them. We'll flag anything that will cause a speed, accessibility, or SEO problem before we start rather than building it and mentioning it later.
Thirty minutes on what you need built. We'll tell you the platform, the timeline, and whether you need a rebuild at all.
Or email hello@culmen.digital