Do I need a web designer or a web developer?
The difference, which one a small business needs, and why for most it is neither in the old sense.
See the templatesThe short answer: a designer decides how it looks and reads; a developer makes it work. For a small business website the two jobs are small enough that one person does both, and often the design is already done in a template. You need a developer when the site has to do something unusual: a booking system, a customer login, a connection to your stock.
Designer
Layout, colours, type, photos, the words in the right order. On a small site, the biggest difference a designer makes is restraint: what to leave off.
Developer
Code. Forms that send, shops that take money, pages that load fast, anything that talks to another system. Also the boring parts: hosting, the padlock, backups.
What a small business usually needs
A page that looks right, says the right things, and works on a phone, with a form that reaches your email. That is a small amount of design and a small amount of development, and it is why bespoke quotes for it feel high: you are paying two skills for a small job.
When you need a real developer
- Online bookings with availability
- Member areas or customer accounts
- A shop that syncs with a till or a warehouse
- Anything that stores customer data
Where we fit
Our templates are the design done once, properly, and the development done once, properly, which is why we can charge £99 and £20 a month. When a project needs more, we quote it per project and say so plainly.
Want to see yours? Pick a website template and fill it in for free. You only pay when you want it live. Already have a site? Bring it in and we fill a template from it.