Web development and engineering

Questions people ask before they commit.

How do you decide between a template, a no-code platform and a custom build?

By what has to happen on the site rather than by preference. If it displays information and collects an enquiry, a template or a no-code platform is the honest answer. If anyone logs in, if the site keeps a record that changes over time, or if it has to exchange data with another system, that is a custom build. We also ask how central the site is to your business over the next three years, because that determines whether you should own the code or rent the platform. Choosing the wrong route is the most expensive mistake available in this category, and it is made in the first week, not during the build.

What is the single most common reason projects run late?

Something outside the code — and the one nobody plans for is access. A build can be finished and still not go live, because no one can get into the accounts it has to launch on. The domain turns out to be registered to a former employee, the hosting sits inside a previous agency's own account, the DNS login left with whoever set it up. So the first week includes an inventory of every account the project touches and who actually controls it, and we chase the missing ones while design is under way, rather than discovering them in the week you expected to be live.

What do you refuse to promise?

A search ranking, a specific performance score, and that a site cannot be compromised. None of the three is within any supplier's control, and promising them is how projects get judged failures for the wrong reasons. What we do commit to is the technical groundwork, before-and-after measurements you can check, and a specific set of security and backup practices.

Who owns the site and the accounts at the end?

You do — the domain, the hosting or platform account, the repository where a custom build lives, and every login. Where a platform carries an ongoing monthly fee, or where leaving it later would mean a rebuild, that is stated in the proposal before you commit rather than discovered at renewal.

Do you maintain sites after launch?

Yes, and for anything self-hosted we recommend it. Maintenance means updates applied and tested, backups verified by actually restoring one, uptime watched, and small changes handled. If you would rather your own team kept it, we will configure everything and train your team on what needs doing and how often.

Can you take over a site somebody else built?

Usually. It starts with an assessment — what it is built on, what condition the code and hosting are in, what is out of date, and what is genuinely at risk. Sometimes the answer is that repair is the sensible route, and sometimes it is that the existing site is costing more to keep alive than to replace. We will tell you which before quoting the work.