Web development in practice: how we build websites fast
We often build a complete website in a day or two. Here's how we work, what a new website costs, and why we usually recommend something other than WordPress.
Niamh runs a mobile nail business just outside Bristol. She needed a website, asked for something pale pink and low-maintenance, and would rather not have to update it all the time. We took the brief in the morning and had the site live that evening ( niamhnails.co.uk ). That's not unusual: most of the sites we build for small businesses are live within a day or two.
That doesn't mean we cut corners. It means we've built enough websites to know what's actually needed — and we leave out what isn't.
What a website costs
The honest answer is that it depends on what the site has to do. A simple business site — home, about, services, contact, some local visibility on Google — is a small job. An online store, or anything with logins, booking and payments, is a bigger one.
We always quote the price before we start, and we break it down so you see what you're paying for. No surprises at the end. Usually it pays to start simple and expand when you actually need more, instead of paying for features you may never use.
WordPress or something custom?
We've built websites on most things. WordPress for the Hos Naboen restaurant, a light static setup for Wreck Cutting at Kristiansand Bygg, and custom builds for Niamh and others. Each approach has its place.
WordPress is a good call when you want to edit everything yourself, need a specific plugin that already exists, or have a budget that drives everything. It's familiar, it's cheap to start with, and almost any developer can work in it.
The downside shows up over time. WordPress needs regular updates — the core, the theme and every single plugin — and each plugin is another door someone can try to walk through. A site that looked fine last year can be slow, hacked or broken by an update this year, if no one is watching it.
Why we usually recommend emdash — even though it's young technology
We prefer to build on emdash, a newer CMS that runs on Cloudflare. Let's be honest about what it costs you: emdash is young. It has fewer ready-made extensions and a smaller community around it than WordPress. If you need a specific WordPress plugin, it may not exist yet.
In return you get a site that loads almost instantly, doesn't carry a forest of plugins that need security patches every week, and costs less to own over time because there's less that can break. This website runs on emdash. So do most of the ones we build now.
We take that risk on the client's behalf, not the other way around. When we pick new technology, it's because we've used it ourselves, we operate it ourselves, and we fix it if something creaks. You shouldn't have to think about what the site is built on at all.
Need a new website?
Tell us what your business does and what the site needs to achieve, and we'll suggest the simplest path there — and tell you what it costs before we start. Get in touch , or see the projects we've built.