How we work

We are a digital-first agency that aspire to be location independent, operating from anywhere in the world. As such, we rely on digital communication such as email, instant-messaging and project planning software and avoid more traditional means such as phone calls and meetings.

It would not be unusual to go through your entire project without ever physically seeing us or hearing our voice, but rest assured we are here and we are hard at work.

While we understand that some people may be apprehensive about this approach we have seen tremendous benefits from working this way. Less time in meetings means more time spent working on your project, annotated emails make problem solving quicker and projet planning software allows you to track progress in real time.

The result of this is lower prices and greater value.

For most projects, we will need to agree on an exact specification before work begins. You will complete a website worksheet and a brief will be created that details the project requirements.

After agreeing on a precise specification for your project, our work together will begin.

We offer two different payment terms depending on your needs and requirements.

Fixed price projects:

A fixed-priced option may be offered if your project is clearly defined and has a specific end goal/date.

All fixed-price projects require an upfront deposit to secure the time and resources required to begin working on your project. This is usually 50% of the total project cost, with the final 50% to be paid upon completion. If the project is particularly large then smaller payment amounts may be scheduled for set milestones.

Our receipt of your deposit/initial payment acts as an agreement to the project terms on this page.

Hourly projects:

Smaller projects – or projects with no clear end goal/date – will be billed hourly at a rate of £40 per hour.

Agency partners and care plan clients benefit from the reduced hourly rate of £30 per hour. Hourly projects are invoiced at the end of each calendar month. 

Care plans:

Care plans are invoiced at the end of each calendar month and cover the work completed during that month. Any additional support time beyond your allocated time will be added to your invoice.

Payment terms & late fees:

Payment is required within 15 days. Unpaid invoices are subject to an additional fee of 2.5% per month until the outstanding balance is settled.

** CHANGES FROM 1st APRIL 2020 ** 

Payment is required within 30 days. Unpaid invoices are subject to an additional fee of 2.5% of the invoice amount or £15 per month, whichever is greater, until the outstanding balance is settled.

Payment is to be made by direct bank transfer into our UK bank account.

For some projects, payment via Paypal or Stripe may be possible. However, these may be subject to additional processing fees.

While every effort will be made to meet our agreed project completion date, we understand that from time-to-time things may not always go to plan.

If for any reason we believe that we won’t be able to meet the deadline we will let you know as soon as possible. Please extend us the same courtesy and let us know if you become aware of anything which may cause a delay.

We understand that projects can evolve in real-time and we will try to accommodate your requests. However, any additional work beyond the initial scope of the project may cause delays to the project. Additional work will be charged at a day rate of £200 and added to the final project invoice.

Fixed price projects:

You can cancel a fixed-price project within 7 days of your deposit payment. After this time your project will be underway and costs will be incurred.

Once work on your project begins your deposit can not be refunded. Any additional work carried out that is not covered by your initial deposit will be added to a final invoice.

Hourly projects:

Any worked carried out on an hourly rate is billable, even if the project is cancelled or if you feel that it does not meet your expectations. We do not offer refunds for hourly work. Once work is stopped you will be invoiced for any hours that we have worked on your project until that point.

Stalled projects:

While we will make every effort to help you achieve your goals we cannot be held responsible for personal or professional issues that prevent you from fully committing to the project. We reserve the right to cancel your project and send your final invoice if we do not hear from you or do not receive project-critical items/decisions within 10 days.

Your website will be created using the latest version of WordPress and our own custom Divi child theme.

The Divi theme will be activated using our purchase license. This activation key is non-transferrable and is valid only for the website we have built for you. You can purchase your own Divi license, however this is only necessary if you wish to create further Divi sites yourself.

Agency partners are welcome to provide their own Divi license code for client websites.

Any quotes assume that we’ll be creating your website using the Divi Page Builder and Divi theme options. Where required, additional HTML and CSS code may be included.

Any advanced coding, including custom JavaScript, will require additional resources and should be included in the initial brief. Any coding that is required outside the initial scope of the project will be completed based on a rate of £200 per day.

We test your new website in current versions of major desktop browsers including Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

Older browsers, such as Internet Explorer, are not supported unless this is required. Any additional testing can be factored into your quote.

We also check your website at a variety of different simulated screen sizes.

It is your responsibility to do final checks on your website and we encourage you to do so. However, we cannot guarantee that your website will be fully compatible on every browser and device configuration.

While we don’t offer website hosting or domain registration services we can offer recommendations based on your requirements.

By using one of these recommended website hosting services we can assist you in setting up your account, selecting your plan or migrating your website.

If you prefer to use your own website host then it will be your responsibility to:

1) Choose a suitable hosting package, and

2) Arrange transfer of your new website to your chosen host.

Transferring your website to a host of your choice is charged at the standard rate of £40 per hour. The length of time that it takes to transfer your website will depend on the host and plan that you have chosen.

Additional work to your website is billed at £40 per hour.

If you are subscribed to a Website Care Plan then you benefit from a 25% discount on hourly rates and pay just £30 per hour.

Agency Partners benefit from the reduced hourly rate of £30 per hour.

When things go wrong it can be invaluable to have a webmaster working to help get things back on track.

With Website Care Plan:

Our Website Care Plans offer daily backups, security scans and a monthly report on your website’s health. Due to our intimate approach to website maintenance our Website Care Plans are strictly limited. Check availability and pricing.

Clients on a Website Care Plan can rest assured that their site is being monitored and – should anything go wrong – we will utilise the included free support time to fix any errors. Once the free support time has been used up additional hours can be purchased for the reduced rate of £30 per hour.

Without Website Care Plan:

Costs for investigating and resolving issues for websites without a Website Care Plan are £40 per hour. All costs are payable even if the website cannot be restored to the desired outcome. Once the website has been restored it will be your responsibility to secure and backup the site to prevent further issues.

No guarantee is offered so, for example, if you fail to secure the website and the same issue happens again soon after then more costs will be incurred.

When you need something done as soon as possible you can email us with ‘Urgent’ or ‘Emergency’ in the subject line. These emails will be dealt with as a high priority and any scheduled work may be stopped in order to prioritise your issue.

Urgent/Emergency rates are £60 for the first hour and then £40 for clients/£30 for agency partners for every subsequent hour.

Due to the nature of websites and the variety of systems, browsers and devices that they can be visited on, it isn’t possible to guarantee that your website will be 100% error free at launch.

All of our websites benefit from 2 weeks of post-launch support. This support allows us to fix any issues with the site that may have been overlooked during the development & testing phases.

Post-launch support does not include fixing issues due to theme/plugin updates or any changes you may have made to the site. To receive continued support please sign up to a Website Care Plan.

While we rarely have to provide post-launch support we like to include it just in case.

Your website will be built using the latest stable versions of WordPress and the Divi theme.

We are Divi experts who have been creating websites with the software since 2013. We started building with Divi version 1, have been official beta testers for version 2 and 3 and work with the Divi theme daily. When we design websites with Divi we do so with the intention for them to last.

Both WordPress and Divi receive frequent updates which can add new features, functionality and security updates to your site. However, because we do not develop the software ourselves we cannot guarantee that these updates won’t remove functionality or features in the future. This is also true for any website creation software, such as Squarespace or Shopify, and even general software such as Microsoft Office.

That said, every Divi update so far has added new features rather than remove them and we fully believe that Elegant Themes will continue to make Divi the best, most-accessible premium WordPress theme.

Your website will be delivered on an ‘as-is’ basis.

All of our websites undergo a rigorous testing process pre-launch and we provide an additional two-weeks of support post-launch. We use these two weeks to catch any real-world issues not present during the design & development process. After that, it will be up to you to maintain your website or purchase a Website Care Plan so that we can continue to provide support to you.

Any website changes, software updates or out of date software – and any consequences of these – are solely your responsibility.