The bespoke-versus-template debate is framed wrongly in most web design articles. It is usually presented as a moral choice: bespoke is serious and professional, templates are for beginners and cheapskates. That framing suits agencies that charge £10,000 minimums and want to keep you away from the cheaper option. The truth is more interesting and more useful. Templates and bespoke design are two different tools for two different jobs. The skill is knowing which one suits your

Most underperforming websites do not look broken. They look fine. The homepage loads, the logo is in place, the phone number is somewhere on the page, and nothing is obviously on fire. If you ask the owner how the site is doing, they will shrug and say something like 'it is okay'. That is exactly the problem. Websites rarely fail loudly. They fail quietly, by filtering out the customers who would have become leads, and silently suggesting to the rest that you are not quite th

Wix makes it look easy. So does Squarespace. So does every other website builder advertising on the Underground. The pitch is simple: you, a laptop, a weekend, and suddenly your business has a website. No designer needed, no fees, no hassle. I am going to tell you something unusual for a web designer. For some businesses, that is genuinely the right answer. If you are testing an idea, running a side project, or setting up a purely informational one-pager, building it yourself

The most common question I get in a first phone call is also the most awkward one for most web designers to answer: how much does this actually cost? Walk around London and ask ten agencies the same question and you will get ten different answers, ranging from £300 to £30,000. That is not because web design is a mystery. It is because the word 'website' covers an enormous range of projects, and most agencies are reluctant to publish pricing because it pins them down. I am goi

If you have spent any time searching for a new website for your London business, you will have run into the same question every single time: should you go with Wix or WordPress?   It is the first fork in the road, and getting it wrong can cost you months of frustration and thousands of pounds. I have been building websites for small and medium businesses in London for over fifteen years. I have worked inside WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace and Shopify. Today, my preferred pla