Choosing
Hiring for WordPress, Shopify or a custom site
Searching for a WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce or ecommerce agency usually means you have already picked a platform. Here is what to ask each kind of provider, what each costs you to run, and where we fit and do not.
Many searches for a website provider start with a platform name: a WordPress website design company, a Shopify web design agency, a WooCommerce development company. That is a sensible shortcut when you already know the platform suits you. It can also lock you into a choice before anyone has asked what the site has to do.
First, where we stand, so you can read the rest knowing it: we do not build WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce or other platform sites, and we do not build online stores. We build hand-built business websites for enquiries. This guide is here because the honest answer to “should I hire a platform specialist?” is sometimes yes.
Start from what the site has to do
| If the site mainly has to… | You probably want… |
|---|---|
| take orders and payments online, with stock and delivery | an online store: Shopify, WooCommerce or similar, and an ecommerce team |
| publish news or articles several times a week, edited by your staff | a content management system such as WordPress |
| show products or services clearly and bring in calls, WhatsApp messages and quotation requests | a business website, which can be hand-built |
| run logins, dashboards or bookings that check availability | custom backend development |
The guide on catalogue website or online store goes through the first decision in detail.
Hiring a WordPress website design company
WordPress is a content management system: you log in and edit pages yourself. If that matters to your business, a WordPress company is a reasonable hire. Ask:
- Will you build a custom theme, or adapt a ready-made one? (Both are fine; you should know which.)
- Which plugins will the site use, who pays for paid ones, and who updates them? WordPress’s own hardening guide says core, plugins and themes need regular updating.
- Is maintenance included, for how long, and what does it cost after?
- Will the admin login be in our name, with your access removable?
Custom CMS website development
“Custom CMS website development” means a provider builds its own editing system for you. That gives you exactly the screens you need, and ties you to that provider: nobody else knows the system. Ask who can maintain it if they stop, whether the code is handed over, and what a change to the editing screens costs.
A business website with content management system is worth paying for when people in your company will really edit it every week. If changes come a few times a year, an editing system you never log into is still something to update and secure. A hand-built site, changed by the team that built it, can be cheaper to own.
Hiring an online store design agency, Shopify or WooCommerce
An online store design agency or an ecommerce web development agency should talk about more than design. Ask about:
- payment gateway, fees per transaction and settlement time;
- shipping, returns, GST invoices and stock, and who handles each;
- monthly platform and app costs after launch;
- who owns the store account, and what you can take with you if you leave.
A Shopify specialist works on a hosted platform that you subscribe to. A WooCommerce development company works on WordPress with a store plugin, on hosting you choose. Neither is better in general; the right one depends on how many products you sell, who will run the store day to day, and what you are willing to maintain.
When a hand-built business website is the better buy
If your buyers ask for a price rather than paying online, if you sell to other businesses, or if your range changes a few times a year, you may not need a store or a content system at all. A catalogue with clear product pages and quick enquiry routes does the job with fewer moving parts. The guides on static site or WordPress and website platforms compared set out the trade-offs.
That is the work we do. The packages on the pricing page are one-time fees for hand-built sites of 20 to 200 pages; after launch our team makes changes, within an optional maintenance plan or as quoted work. If, after reading this, you are not sure which kind of provider you need, message us what the site has to do and we will tell you honestly, including when the answer is someone else.