Web Development

A website you can change yourself. And that people can find.

Business sites, online stores and web applications. Most of what a business needs here is simpler and cheaper than it has been told — and we will say so before you spend the money, not after.

The short version If you will be editing your own pages, the answer is almost always WordPress. If people log in and do a job, it is not a website at all — it is an application.
Where the money usually goes wrong “A five-page site quoted as a custom build, then a fee every time a price changes.”
What we build

Three kinds of web work

In rough order of how often a business actually needs them.

Business websites

the common one

Five to fifteen pages that answer the questions a stranger has: who you are, what you sell, whether you are real, and how to reach you. For most businesses this is the entire requirement, and everything else on this page is a distraction from it.

  • Pages that read properly on a phone, because most of your visitors are on one
  • Structured so search engines can understand what each page is about
  • Contact forms that reach you, and a WhatsApp route for people who prefer it
  • Fast to load on a slow connection
  • Your own content and photographs, not stock images of other people's offices
  • Editable by you afterwards

Built in WordPress unless there is a reason not to be. The reason is usually that the site needs logins or calculations — at which point it is not a website at all, and belongs under app development.

WordPress, Shopify & WooCommerce

the ready-made platforms

Three systems that already exist, already work, and already have thousands of people who know them. Almost every business website and online shop should be built on one of these rather than written from nothing — and the only real question is which.

WordPress — a site you can edit yourself

WordPress lets you change your own pages without a developer. You log in, edit the text, swap a photograph, add a page, and it is live. It runs a very large share of the world's business websites, which means it is well understood and easy to find people to work on.

That last point is the one worth caring about. A site written from scratch ties you to whoever wrote it. A WordPress site can be picked up by any competent developer in any city — including when that developer is not us.

  • Right for business sites, brochure sites, blogs and catalogues
  • Right for anyone who will change their own content
  • Right for a shop, with WooCommerce added
  • Wrong for anything with logins, roles and permissions
  • Wrong for heavy calculation or complex business rules
  • Wrong for a product you intend to sell as software

Online stores — Shopify or WooCommerce

A catalogue, a cart, payments, delivery charges, and stock that goes down when something sells. Building a shopping cart from nothing is a solved problem, and we do not charge anybody to solve it again.

 ShopifyWooCommerce
What it isA shop you rent, monthlyA shop you own, added to WordPress
Hosting and securityHandled for youYours to arrange
Ongoing costMonthly fee, alwaysHosting, plus what you choose to add
Speed to openFastestSlower, more setup
How far you can bend itFar, within their rulesAnywhere — it is your code
If you already have WordPressA second, separate systemSame site, same login

Shopify if you want to be selling in weeks and never think about servers. WooCommerce if you already run WordPress, or would rather own the whole thing than rent it. Both are honest answers — the wrong one is being sold a custom-built cart. And whichever you pick, it needs keeping up to date.

If people will log in, it is not a website. The moment there are accounts, roles, records or something being calculated, you are past this page and into software — different work, different price, and it is covered properly under app development.

Maintenance & support

after it is live

A website is not a thing you finish. Software underneath it gets updated, security holes get found and patched, backups need taking, and occasionally something breaks at an inconvenient hour.

  • Updates to WordPress and everything running on it
  • Backups, kept somewhere that is not the same server
  • Uptime watched, so you are not told by a customer
  • Content changes when you would rather we did them
  • A person to ring who already knows your site
  • Support in English and Urdu

An unmaintained WordPress site is the most common way a small business gets hacked. If nobody is doing this, it is not being done.

Included as standard

Things we do not charge extra for

Some of these get quoted as upgrades elsewhere. They are not upgrades. A site without them is not finished.

MobileEvery page laid out for a phone, not shrunk to fit one
Search enginesTitles, descriptions and page structure set up so your pages can be indexed and understood
SpeedImages sized properly and pages kept light — assume a slow connection
ContactA form that reaches you, plus WhatsApp for people who will not fill in forms
Secure connectionHTTPS, so browsers do not warn your visitors away
HandoverYou are shown how to edit your own site before we call it finished
LanguagesEnglish and Urdu
FAQ

Questions, answered

Will I be able to update the site myself?

On WordPress, yes — text, photos, prices and new pages. That is the main reason we recommend it for business websites. On a custom-coded site you would be ringing a developer for every change, which is a cost that never appears in the original quote.

What is the difference between a website and a web application?

A website is pages you read. A web application is something you use — people log in, have different permissions, create records and get things calculated for them. The moment logins and roles appear, it stops being a website.

Shopify or WooCommerce?

Shopify if you want to be selling in weeks and never think about servers again, and you accept a monthly fee. WooCommerce if you already have a WordPress site, or you want to own the whole thing outright and pay for hosting instead.

Do I need to understand any of this to work with you?

No. Describe what your business does and what you want to happen, and choosing between WordPress, Shopify and custom code is our job. If we ever answer you in jargon, ask us to say it again in plain words.

Can you take over a site somebody else built?

Usually, provided you have the hosting and domain logins. WordPress and Shopify sites are the most straightforward to inherit. A custom-coded site depends on how it was written and whether anything was documented.

Not sure this is you?

The rest of what we do

Describe the site you think you need

Fifteen minutes on a call, no charge. You will leave knowing what it should be built in — whether or not you build it with us.

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