Recommend a website developer London/Essex pls

Recommend a website developer London/Essex pls

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Deep

Original Poster:

2,225 posts

250 months

Monday 30th January 2023
quotequote all
Need a reasonably priced website developer in London/Essex please.
Nothing complicated, website needs to look slick but there won't actually be any sales or bookings directly on it.

Thanks

Harveybw

131 posts

101 months

Tuesday 31st January 2023
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Hi,

Not based where you need but we do work nationwide with ease. If you need anything from simple pages upwards we'd be happy to help. https://www.trustmark.uk.com/websites/


Geoffcapes

828 posts

171 months

Tuesday 31st January 2023
quotequote all
Deep said:
Need a reasonably priced website developer in London/Essex please.
Nothing complicated, website needs to look slick but there won't actually be any sales or bookings directly on it.

Thanks
I've built a number on my own using Square Space. Surprisingly it's not as difficult as it looks.

akirk

5,624 posts

121 months

Tuesday 31st January 2023
quotequote all
There are a number of options depending on your needs. They roughly fall into several categories:

SAAS - software as a service, where you subscribe monthly to a system that allows you to design your own website
Squarespace is probably one of the best of these - others like Wix are a lot worse.
They are adequate for someone who has basic needs / doesn't require anything unusual - easy to use, cheap to run.

CMS - content management systems where you pay for hosting / space on a server and then software is run which allows you to non-technically maintain the content - may need someone technical to set it up for you, but thereafter you can modify it.
Best known is Wordpress, but there are lots of options on the market from free to commercial (for example our in-house version allows very sophisticated and complex processing systems to be put online to run a business - others simply allow you to change text and images).

Static HTML websites
This is where you simply have a (free or commercial) template, into which content and images are inserted / colours are changed.
Needs some technical knowledge to create / update - but can be the cheapest route for a more custom website and esp. appropriate if little changes over time - more of a brochure website.

mw88

1,457 posts

118 months

Tuesday 31st January 2023
quotequote all
As a developer (Full stack although mainly backend api stuff these days), I'd say take a look at something like SquareSpace if all you want is a simple site that looks good.

Deep

Original Poster:

2,225 posts

250 months

Tuesday 31st January 2023
quotequote all
Thanks guys but I have zero IT skills and it doesn't make sense for me to distract myself from other endeavours to do this myself.
I know you clever guys will tell me it's easy but I've been down that rabbit hole before...this kind of stuff is never easy for me lol.

As my needs are relatively simple I'm hoping we're not talking large amounts of money for someone to sort it out for me.

Deep

Original Poster:

2,225 posts

250 months

Tuesday 31st January 2023
quotequote all
Harveybw said:
Hi,

Not based where you need but we do work nationwide with ease. If you need anything from simple pages upwards we'd be happy to help. https://www.trustmark.uk.com/websites/
Thank you, will take a look

Harveybw

131 posts

101 months

Tuesday 31st January 2023
quotequote all
Deep said:
Thank you, will take a look
No worries, if you want to know more ask for Harvey when you make contact. If nothing else we can help point you in the right direction if we're not for you.



jammy-git

29,778 posts

219 months

Wednesday 1st February 2023
quotequote all
Deep said:
Thanks guys but I have zero IT skills and it doesn't make sense for me to distract myself from other endeavours to do this myself.
I know you clever guys will tell me it's easy but I've been down that rabbit hole before...this kind of stuff is never easy for me lol.

As my needs are relatively simple I'm hoping we're not talking large amounts of money for someone to sort it out for me.
Yea - websites are 70% content and if you don't have an eye for it then it's easy to turn a professional looking off-the-shelf template into something that looks a little amateurish.

Do they have to be local to you? Do you have a budget? I know of a few agencies or freelancers that might work, but really need to know the answers to those two questions to see who is suitable.

Al Gorithum

4,204 posts

215 months

Wednesday 1st February 2023
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Can recommend my mate who owns www.metserve.com based in Chelmsford and East London. Dm me if you want a name and contact info.

Deep

Original Poster:

2,225 posts

250 months

Thursday 2nd February 2023
quotequote all
Al Gorithum said:
Can recommend my mate who owns www.metserve.com based in Chelmsford and East London. Dm me if you want a name and contact info.
That's not a million miles away from me, thanks.

Altrezia

8,614 posts

218 months

Thursday 2nd February 2023
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Can I recommend myself? heh.

Link in profile. Done a few PHer's sites over the years.

Deep

Original Poster:

2,225 posts

250 months

Tuesday 14th February 2023
quotequote all
Altrezia said:
Can I recommend myself? heh.

Link in profile. Done a few PHer's sites over the years.
Thank you

DSLiverpool

15,142 posts

209 months

Tuesday 14th February 2023
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Register your own URL DONT let the developer do it.

Deep

Original Poster:

2,225 posts

250 months

Tuesday 14th February 2023
quotequote all
DSLiverpool said:
Register your own URL DONT let the developer do it.
Thanks.
I've registered the domain and it is also being hosted, but nothing on the website yet of course.

Just out of interest, why did you say not to let the developer do it?

Cheers

akirk

5,624 posts

121 months

Tuesday 14th February 2023
quotequote all
Deep said:
DSLiverpool said:
Register your own URL DONT let the developer do it.
Thanks.
I've registered the domain and it is also being hosted, but nothing on the website yet of course.

Just out of interest, why did you say not to let the developer do it?

Cheers
A lot of developers register domains in their own name - and then have leverage over you when you build your brand as technically they 'own' the domain name.

The reality of course is that a decent developer would never do that - over the last 20ish years of running our business we have registered thousands of domain names for our clients - and have never once registered them in our name - why would we, it is the client's - there is also no restriction on a client leaving us and taking website and domain elsewhere - we prefer to work on the basis that there is no reason for them to want to leave...

If there is a concern over the developer then you have bigger issues than domain ownership - choose someone else, anyone decent would automatically register a domain in your name.

Deep

Original Poster:

2,225 posts

250 months

Tuesday 14th February 2023
quotequote all
akirk said:
A lot of developers register domains in their own name - and then have leverage over you when you build your brand as technically they 'own' the domain name.

The reality of course is that a decent developer would never do that - over the last 20ish years of running our business we have registered thousands of domain names for our clients - and have never once registered them in our name - why would we, it is the client's - there is also no restriction on a client leaving us and taking website and domain elsewhere - we prefer to work on the basis that there is no reason for them to want to leave...

If there is a concern over the developer then you have bigger issues than domain ownership - choose someone else, anyone decent would automatically register a domain in your name.
Thank you.
That's what I thought he was getting at but as you say, no honest outfit would operate like that.

Still good advice though.

Redarress

692 posts

214 months

Wednesday 15th February 2023
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akirk said:
A lot of developers register domains in their own name - and then have leverage over you when you build your brand as technically they 'own' the domain name.

The reality of course is that a decent developer would never do that - over the last 20ish years of running our business we have registered thousands of domain names for our clients - and have never once registered them in our name - why would we, it is the client's - there is also no restriction on a client leaving us and taking website and domain elsewhere - we prefer to work on the basis that there is no reason for them to want to leave...

If there is a concern over the developer then you have bigger issues than domain ownership - choose someone else, anyone decent would automatically register a domain in your name.
100 percent the above

Also don’t be tempted to use the cheapest host company. Having servers located away from the UK when your target market is the UK can be a problem with getting fast loading site pages. Also try to get a host that uses C panel administration if possible. Your developer will thank you smile

Edited by Redarress on Wednesday 15th February 21:03

tpalmer

82 posts

106 months

Monday 20th February 2023
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If you decide to venture further a field, we're based in Birmingham and predominantly build bespoke 'brochure' sites (No e-comm, booking tools, specialist functionality etc) for a range of CMS's based on the project needs: https://tristanpalmerstudio.com

Re. Domain names, just to play devils advocate we have had a lot of issues over 10+ years with clients who have not updated their card details, forgotten log-in info etc, for domain name accounts and trying to recover them including some very high traffic/profile sites. We have never has any issues getting hold of a domain from another agency, freelancer etc, so it's not always that straight forward IME.

Thanks, T.

akirk

5,624 posts

121 months

Monday 20th February 2023
quotequote all
tpalmer said:
Re. Domain names, just to play devils advocate we have had a lot of issues over 10+ years with clients who have not updated their card details, forgotten log-in info etc, for domain name accounts and trying to recover them including some very high traffic/profile sites. We have never has any issues getting hold of a domain from another agency, freelancer etc, so it's not always that straight forward IME.

Thanks, T.
not sure that has to contradict - we manage / renew / administer most of our client's domain names for them - however, absolutely key is that we always register them in the client's name. Best of both worlds - always renewed / details never lost - but ultimately owned by the client...

the key point is finding a decent design company - and how domain names are registered is one of the good 'ticks' on the list or red flags...
but I am sure that all on here who run design / web businesses would agree...

Edited by akirk on Monday 20th February 12:35