A quote built on guesswork
A price arrives after one call, the scope was never written down, and every change after that becomes a new invoice or an argument.
Web development company · UK
Web Development Company in the UK
We design, build and look after websites and web applications for UK businesses. You get a written scope and a fixed price before the build, a demo every two weeks, speed and accessibility targets agreed up front, and every account — domain, hosting, code — in your name.
- Fixed price agreed after discovery
- Speed and accessibility targets in writing
- Domain, hosting and code in your name
Choosing a web partner
Where web projects go wrong for the buyer.
Most disappointing websites were not caused by bad code. They were caused by a vague quote, an unclear handover or a supplier who kept the keys.
What to insist on from any supplier
- A written scope and a fixed price for it
- Speed and accessibility targets before design starts
- Access to a staging site throughout the build
- Every account registered to your organisation
- Support terms that say what is and is not included
The agency holds the keys
The domain, hosting or analytics are registered to the agency, so moving supplier means chasing logins — or starting again.
Design approved, content missing
Polished mock-ups signed off with placeholder text, then weeks lost when the real copy, images and product data do not fit the templates.
Speed and access left to the end
Nobody set performance or accessibility targets, so the site launches slow and hard to use, and fixing it costs more than doing it right.
A page builder you cannot leave
A proprietary builder or theme locks your content in, and every plugin update risks breaking a page nobody remembers building.
A support contract nobody read
A monthly fee that covers “maintenance” but not changes, updates or the security patch that turns out to be urgent.
Who it is for
Who hires us for web projects.
Buyers arrive with different briefs and different levels of technical knowledge. The way we scope, price and report is the same for all of them.
A site the team can run
You need a faster, more flexible site and a supplier who treats your editors as users — without hiring a technical project manager to manage us.
A first proper website
You have outgrown a template site and want something that wins work, with honest advice on what it needs and what it does not.
A web app for a process
Bookings, quotes, client uploads or approvals that live in email and spreadsheets today, moved into a web application behind a login.
Extra capacity for a big release
A replatform, redesign or new product area delivered alongside your in-house team, working in your repositories and rituals.
A clean handover from an agency
Your current agency is slow, expensive or winding down. We audit what you have, recover access and take over without losing what works.
A supplier that fits your process
Written proposals, fixed prices, clear ownership terms and a contract with a UK company — straightforward to put through a supplier review.
Comparing quotes
What a web proposal should spell out.
Web quotes vary wildly because they describe different things. Put any proposal — ours included — against this list, and the differences become obvious.
Scope by page type and feature
Which templates, integrations and content migrations are included, written down — not “a website with up to 20 pages”.
Speed targets
Core Web Vitals goals for mobile, how they will be measured and on which devices — agreed before design starts, not after launch.
How we build for speed
An accessibility level
WCAG 2.2 AA named as the target, with manual keyboard and screen-reader testing in the plan rather than an automated scan alone.
Testing and QA
A migration plan
For an existing site: a URL inventory, a redirect map and post-launch monitoring, priced in rather than left as an assumption.
Migrations and upgrades
Ownership and hosting
Who owns the code, domain, hosting and CMS accounts — and exactly what happens to each of them if you change supplier.
Running costs and support
Hosting, licences, plugins and support itemised for the first year, with a clear line between maintenance and new work.
Support and maintenance
UK considerations
The UK rules your website has to follow.
A web partner working with UK businesses should build these in without being asked. Accessibility comes first: under the Equality Act 2010, service providers must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, and that covers services delivered online. Public sector bodies have their own accessibility regulations, and WCAG 2.2 AA is the benchmark most organisations work to.
Privacy is next. PECR and UK GDPR decide which cookies and tags need consent before they run, and the ICO expects rejecting to be as easy as accepting. Some low-risk analytics may not need consent, with conditions, so we check the ICO’s current guidance for each tag. If your forms, hosting or marketing tools send personal data outside the UK, the transfer rules apply too.
Then the details that are easy to miss. UK companies must show their registered name, company number, place of registration and registered office address on their website. Online shops must give customers the required information before they buy, explain the right to cancel, label the final button so it is clear they are committing to pay, and show prices with mandatory fees included from the start. We build to all of this — but we are not lawyers, so your adviser has the final word on wording and policy.
- WCAG 2.2 AA designed in and tested by hand
- Consent set up against current ICO guidance
- Company details and policies in the right places
- Checkout wording and pricing that follow consumer law
Typical timeline
A website project, week by week.
An example plan for a business website rebuild with a new CMS and a migration from the old site. A web app follows the same shape with a longer build.
An illustration, not a promise. Content readiness, integrations and how quickly decisions are made move the dates more than anything else — you get a dated plan with milestones after discovery.
- Weeks 1–2
Discovery and audit
Analytics, Search Console, a crawl of the current site, conversations with the people who edit it, and the integrations it depends on.
Scope, URL inventory and fixed quote
- Weeks 2–4
Content model and design
Page templates and reusable blocks designed around real content, with speed and accessibility targets built into the components.
Approved designs and content plan
- Weeks 4–8
Build on staging
Fortnightly sprints with a demo at the end of each, on a staging site you can use throughout, while your team loads content into the CMS.
A complete site on staging
- Launch week
Test, redirect and switch
Device, accessibility and form testing, redirects checked against the map, and the switch-over planned for a quiet period.
Live site, checklist signed off
- After launch
Monitor and hand over
Search Console, speed and error reports watched while issues are still cheap to fix, then editor training and a handover pack.
Trained editors and documentation
How we work
Seven stages, from audit to handover.
The same stages on every web project. For a website, the content and design stages carry the weight; for a web app, it is the architecture and testing.
- 01
Discovery
We look at what you have — analytics, search data, content, speed and accessibility baselines — and talk to the people who will edit, approve and pay for the site.
Audit and goals in writing
- 02
Strategy
We agree the page types or app features for launch, recommend a CMS and hosting with reasons, and fix the price for the build against that written scope.
Scope, platform choice and fixed price
- 03
UX & architecture
User journeys, wireframes and a clickable prototype, alongside the architecture, data model and integration plan that will carry it.
Prototype and architecture decisions
- 04
Development
Two-week sprints with a demo at the end of each, code review on every change, and a staging site you can click through at any time — no big reveal at the end.
A working site every sprint
- 05
Testing
Automated tests written as we build, then manual QA, accessibility and performance checks before anything goes live.
Test evidence and a release checklist
- 06
Launch
Hosting and DNS switched in a planned window, redirects and forms checked live, analytics and consent verified, and editors trained on the CMS.
Live site and trained editors
- 07
Optimisation & support
Security updates and small changes billed by the hour, a retainer if you prefer predictable costs, or a handover pack for your own team.
Support terms or handover
Engagement models
Ways to work with us on your website.
Web projects start with a short discovery and audit, then move to a fixed-price build. Changes and updates after launch are usually billed by the hour.
Discovery sprint
From £2,000 fixed fee
You have an idea or a problem, but not yet a scope you would trust a quote against.
- Workshops with your team
- Prototype or technical spike
- Written scope, plan and estimate
Fixed-scope project
Quoted after discovery
A defined build — an MVP, a rebuild or a feature set — with milestones and a fixed budget.
- Agreed milestones and deliverables
- Milestone-based billing
- A demo at the end of every sprint
Flexible hours
From £20 per hour
Fixes, small features and support where the work comes in bursts rather than sprints.
- Billed weekly for time used
- Daily written updates
- No long-term commitment
Prices are in GBP. Every estimate is confirmed in writing after a discovery call — the figures above are where engagements start, not a quote.
Relevant work
Web projects from our case studies.
A corporate website, a grocery store with a vendor portal and an education marketplace. Each case study covers the brief, the approach and the stack.
All case studiesConstruction · Web
Blitz Tech
Corporate website and enquiry system for an interiors contractor.
Next.jsTailwindSanityVercel
Read the case studyRetail · eCommerce
Grocery Store
Grocery eCommerce with delivery slots, loyalty and a multi-supplier vendor portal.
Next.jsNode.jsMySQLStripe
Read the case studyEducation · Marketplace
Eduglobe Tech
International student recruitment marketplace with application tracking.
Next.jsNode.jsPostgreSQLAWS
Read the case studyWhy Techsleight
What you can hold us to.
The commitments behind every web project we take on — written into the proposal, not implied by a portfolio.
A written scope before a fixed price
Discovery ends with the page types, features, integrations and content migration written down, and the build priced against exactly that. Changes are priced before they are made.
A staging site from the first sprint
Click through the real site as it grows, and see a demo at the end of every two-week sprint.
Targets, then evidence
Speed and accessibility targets agreed up front, and test results against them before launch.
Editors treated as users
The CMS is designed for the people who publish, with training and a short guide at handover.
No hostages
Domain, hosting, repository, CMS and analytics accounts are registered to you. Leaving us takes an email, not a negotiation.
Engineers you can talk to
You speak to the people building the site, and every change is code-reviewed before it ships.
UK hours and a UK contract
Our engineers are based in the UK and India and work UK business hours. We meet by video call, and your contract is with a UK company.
FAQs
Before you choose a web partner.
Straight answers on scope, cost, timelines and how we work. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Why do quotes for the same website vary so much?
Because they usually describe different things. One quote includes content migration, accessibility testing, redirects and a year of hosting; another includes a theme and a handover. Compare proposals on scope, targets, ownership and running costs — and be wary of a fixed price given before anyone has looked at your current site.
What does a website or web app cost with you?
A discovery and audit starts from £2,000 and ends with a written scope. The build is then quoted as a fixed price with milestone billing, so you know the cost before work starts. Changes after launch are billed by the hour, from £20 an hour, or a dedicated developer can join from £2,900 a month for continuous work.
Should we use an agency, a freelancer or an in-house developer?
A freelancer suits a small, well-defined job. An in-house developer makes sense once the site or app needs full-time attention for years. A company like ours fits in between: design, build, testing and support from one team, without depending on one person. We will tell you if one of the other options suits you better.
Do we need a web company near our office?
No. We work remotely on UK business hours, with video calls, a shared staging site and your project tools. What matters more is how often you see working software — with us, at the end of every two-week sprint.
What will you need from us during the project?
A decision-maker who can approve scope and designs, access to your current site, analytics and hosting, brand assets and, above all, content — or a decision about who will write it. Late content is one of the most common reasons web projects slip, so we plan it into the timeline from the start.
Can you take over a website another agency built?
Yes. We start with a short audit of the code, hosting, plugins and accounts, recover access to anything registered in the old supplier’s name, and tell you honestly what is worth keeping. Then we fix what is risky before adding anything new.
What does a website cost to run each year?
Usually hosting, the domain, any paid plugins or CMS licences, and support for security updates and small changes. We itemise all of these in the proposal, so the first-year running cost is visible before you commit — and we will point out where a cheaper option would do the job.
Will you work with our SEO agency or designers?
Yes. We can build from another team’s designs, work to an SEO agency’s technical requirements, or bring our own design and migration planning. We agree who owns each decision at the start, so nothing falls between suppliers.
What happens if we move to another supplier later?
You take everything with you, because it was always yours: code, content, design files and every account. We hand over documentation, credentials and a walkthrough of how the site is built and deployed, so the next team starts with a clear picture rather than a puzzle.
Do you offer support after launch?
Yes. In the weeks after launch we watch search, speed and error reports and fix anything that surfaces. After that, you can keep us on for security updates and changes billed by the hour, agree a monthly retainer, or take the site in-house with our handover pack.
Start a project
Choosing a web development partner?
Send us your current site, if there is one, and what the new site or web app needs to do. We will reply with questions, a view on platform and scope, and what a sensible first step would cost.
What happens next
- 1A senior engineer reads your brief within one working day, and replies with questions or a first view.
- 2A 30-minute call to understand the goal, constraints and what good looks like — no sales script.
- 3A written proposal with scope, milestones, team and a GBP estimate you can take to your board.
Techsleight Labs is a trading name of Krapton IT Consultancy.
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