Deluxe Web, simply put, is a local web-design company based in Bristol and South Gloucestershire, but rather than providing bespoke websites for thousands of pounds, or DIY web builders we’re here for the small businesses and the self-employed, with a local service for local businesses. We are combining custom website design with exclusive premium themes, packaged with great features and affordable monthly prices.
Getting a website doesn’t have to be expensive these days – there are thousands of companies offering them and many other ways to build them yourself – but there appears to us to be problems with many of those routes. For example:
Web Builders
Web builders are DIY website creation tools that allow you to choose a template and then populate it with your content. This is a great idea, as they rely on the advancement of technology to remove the need for coding that used to be the default method of website creation over the last couple of decades. This lowers the cost of getting a website considerably, but there are some considerations if you wanted to go down this route:
- You’re reliant on your own abilities as a designer to make your website fit your content. The template might look great out of the box, but you need to be able to make YOUR content look great in the template. This doesn’t come easily to everyone, and you can sometimes end up spending an enormous amount of time getting your website to look anywhere near as good as it did when you first unwrapped it.
- In some cases, your website builder is a part of your web hosting package. This places web hosting administration into your list of responsibilities alongside website design, and it can be a complex and technical beasty.
- Website builders often have restrictions and boundaries around what you can add in terms of functionality, or the amount of customisation you can make. You may find yourself coming up against a brick wall when you get to the point where you want to add a contact form, but then realise that you can’t customise the form, or change the way it looks, or perhaps you wanted it to integrate with another service and it can’t. There are many ways in which website builders can be good – especially if all you need is a basic site with a few pages, but as soon as you want to expand, are you then a little hemmed in?
- It’s not always easy to take your content (that you’ve laboured over for months) with you if you decide you need to move on to a more advanced site.
Bespoke Website Design Companies
Want to remove all the hassle of running a website? A dedicated website company may be able to help. Not only will they design your website (and it will be unique, tailor made and beautiful – hopefully) but they’ll also take care of all the technical aspects, functionality and get it ready quicker than you ever could on your own. Trouble is, this all comes at a cost. Much of the time, that cost is in the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, and this is before you’ve come to the part where you pay them a maintenance subscription to host and take care of the site for you. That’s why firms are usually employed to design sites for larger companies – it’s usually not affordable for small businesses to shell out for high-end bespoke design. Perhaps you would go to a custom website company if you’re building something that requires unique functionality, like a start-up website application that provides a unique service.
Self Build & Hosted Websites
Whilst services like WordPress.com allow a greater level of customisation and access than many websites builders, you’re still reliant on your aforementioned inner designer skills to make everything look right. On the top-tier plan, you also have access to plugins to extend your site, but now you’re wearing the hat of developer and you need to be able to find and select the appropriate plugin, ensure that it is up to date and secure, with no compatibility problems, and you then have to integrate it with your site.
For self hosting, software such as WordPress or Joomla make it easier than ever for people to host and maintain their own sites, but this does still require a reasonably high level of experience to co-ordinate, and is more suitable for higher level users.
Deluxe Web uses WordPress as a platform for our sites. But there is a world of difference between what we offer (self hosted WordPress) compared to the WordPress.com service. To clear up any confusion, take a look at WP Beginner’s excellent WordPress.org vs WordPress.com article.
How is Deluxe Web Different?
Deluxe Web bridges the gap between custom and self-build websites. We’re a local company based in Bristol and South Gloucestershire, so we know the area and markets, we’re approachable and friendly, and you can actually connect with real humans about your site. Although Deluxe Web is a new service, we’ve been around for over 14 years providing a very similar service to churches and charities by the name of UK Churches (if you’re a church or charity, and you need a website, check it out!) so we’re experienced and established; we’re reliable and trustworthy.
We run 3 affordable packages for individuals, small and medium businesses that are tailored to give you everything you need for a professional website. We take care of all the hosting and technical stuff so you never need to get your hands dirty.
Choose from any of our ever-growing portfolio of exclusive high quality designs, and then either modify them yourself to suit using our advanced visual builder, or we can customise your design’s main pages for you, so you can use that time to just concentrate on your content.
We’ll also help you get up and running with email, Google My Business listings, and social media. We run local services such as photography and training, and can even take care of your social media presence, ensuring that you have a consistent and on-message stream of content going into the world to build your brand.
Choose from a range of add-ons and additional services to bolster your site, and upgrade or cancel at any time – and you can take your content with you easily.
With friendly expert advice and support available, we’ll help you run a website you can be proud of, and that (more importantly) will be a key element in growing and running your business.