Website Development & Engineering
Fast, custom-built sites, hand-coded rather than assembled from a page builder.
Sites are hand-built directly in code, with no page-builder layer sitting between your content and the browser. Faster load times, fewer moving parts to break, a codebase you can hand to another developer later.
Every build ships on Cloudflare’s edge, so each visitor is answered from near wherever they are, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban included included, rather than one server in Europe. Why we build on Cloudflare ↗
What kind of site do you need?
“How long does a website take?” has no single answer, because a one-page launch site and an online store are not the same job. These are the shapes we build most often, roughly smallest to largest.
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One-page site
3–5 daysA single offer with a single action: a launch, an event, or testing an idea before committing to more.
1 page
- Everything on one scrolling page
- Enquiry form
- Built for phone screens first
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Brochure site
1–2 weeksMost small businesses: who you are, what you do, proof that you can do it, and how to get hold of you.
4–6 pages
- Pages written around your own material
- Featured work or case studies with galleries
- Enquiry form and two revision rounds
Usually slowed by Waiting on photos and copy.
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Content site
2–3 weeksAnyone who publishes regularly (news, listings, sermons, a portfolio that keeps growing) and wants to add to it without phoning a developer.
7+ pages, plus sections you edit yourself
- Everything in a brochure site
- Admin panel built around exactly what you edit
- Blog or news module, enquiry routing
Usually slowed by Deciding what you actually need to edit yourself.
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Online store
3–5 weeksSelling products, subscriptions or memberships, with the money landing in your account.
Catalogue, product pages, cart and checkout
- South African payment gateways, card and instant EFT
- Delivery rules by weight, area or collection
- Stock levels, orders and automatic notifications
Usually slowed by Product data. Photographing and describing 200 items takes longer than building the store.
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Web app or installable PWA
From 6 weeksLogins, bookings, dashboards. A tool your staff or customers use rather than a site they read.
Accounts and screens rather than pages
- User accounts and permissions
- Installs on a phone or laptop like an app, no app store
- Keeps working on a weak signal
Usually slowed by The number of things a user can do. Every extra permission is more to build and test.
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Integration or automation work
Scoped individuallyJoining systems you already pay for, or handing a repetitive task to an agent instead of a person.
Depends entirely on what's being joined
- We check your specific systems before proposing anything
- Quoted as a defined piece of work, not an open-ended retainer
Every figure here is working time once content and approvals are in hand. The clock stops while a build waits on either, which is why your content is step 4 above rather than an afterthought. Anything unusual gets scoped properly before you're quoted, not estimated on the spot.
How a site actually gets built
Most web design is sold as a black box: you pay, you wait, a site appears. Here is the whole thing instead: every step, who is doing it, and where it usually gets stuck.
- 1–2 weeks A typical brochure site
- 2 included Revision rounds
- 50% deposit To begin
- You own all of it At the end
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We talk about what your business does and who you need to reach. No pitch deck, no jargon, no obligation. If we are not the right fit for what you need, we will say so then rather than three weeks in.
What we need from you A rough idea of what the site must do, and two or three sites you like, or can't stand.
What exists at the end A straight answer on cost and timing, before anyone commits to anything.
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We map out every page and what each one has to do: where someone lands, what convinces them, how they get hold of you. Boring, and the single biggest reason a build stays on schedule.
What exists at the end A page map and a fixed quote. The number does not move later unless you ask for something new.
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We design one page properly first, usually the homepage, so you see the direction before eight more pages get built in the wrong one. You approve it before a line of the real site is written.
What exists at the end A design you have actually seen and signed off, plus two rounds of changes included.
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Words, photos, logo files, prices. This is the step that decides how fast everything else goes. A build waits on content far more often than content waits on a build. Worth starting it early, in week one, not when we ask.
What we need from you Text for each page and any images you own. If writing is not your thing, we can write it from a recorded conversation instead.
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The site gets hand-coded, phone screens first, because that is where most of your visitors will meet it. You get a private preview link from day one that updates as we work, with no waiting in the dark for a reveal at the end.
What exists at the end A working site at a private address you can open on your own phone, any time.
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You click through the real thing on your own devices and tell us what is wrong, missing, or just not you. Send it all in one go rather than in fifteen messages. It is faster for both of us.
What we need from you One consolidated list of changes.
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Domain pointed, hosting live, SSL certificate installed, site submitted to Google. The technical part is ours. You do not need to understand a single word of it.
What exists at the end A live site on your own domain, with the padlock in the address bar.
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The site is yours outright on final payment: design, content, code and domain. You can move it to another host or hand it to another developer without asking us. If you would rather not think about updates and backups, there is an optional maintenance retainer.
What exists at the end Full ownership, and a person to phone when something looks wrong.
Common questions
What does 'hand-coded' actually mean?
A developer writes your site's actual code rather than assembling it inside a page-builder platform. The practical difference: pages carry no platform overhead, so they load faster, and the code is yours to take anywhere.
Can I update the site myself?
If your content changes often, we build an admin panel tailored to exactly what you need to edit, no more and no less, so updating the site is a form, not a coding task.
Who owns the website?
You do. On final payment the code, content and domain are yours outright. The site can move hosts or developers without asking anyone's permission.
Is this a headless architecture?
Yes, in the current jargon. Your content lives separately from the code that presents it, and the two talk over an API, which is a large part of why the sites are fast, and why the same content can later feed an app or anything else without a rebuild. We just tend to say it in plain English: your content is not locked inside your website.
My site is slow / breaking / hard to change. Can you fix it, or does it need a rebuild?
Depends entirely on what's underneath, and that's not something to guess at from the outside. Send it over and we'll give you a straight read on whether it's a fix or a fresh start.