Web developer · UK · hand-coded
Built by hand, so nothing is left to a plugin.
A website is only as good as what happens after the design is signed off. This is the part clients never see and always feel.
Werehouse Media provides bespoke web development for UK businesses that want a site built properly, by hand. Web development here means building the site the way that particular job actually calls for, rather than forcing every project down the same route because it is the one we happen to like. A brochure site, a shop somebody has to run themselves, and a site that gets published to every week are three different problems, and the honest answer to each is a different one.
Whichever route it takes, every change is kept so any earlier version can be put back in seconds, updates go live without the site being down, and nothing launches until it has been measured on a mid-range phone on mobile data. There is no page builder deciding your layout and no pile of add-ons quietly breaking in eight months. You own the domain, the site and every account outright.
What does web development involve?
Development is turning a design into something that works everywhere, loads quickly, survives being edited, and can be read by machines as well as people. It covers the structure underneath a page, the part that makes it fit whatever screen it opens on, the parts you can click and type into, and getting the whole thing online without breaking anything.
Most of the cost is not in making it work once. It is in making it keep working: on old phones, on slow connections, after content changes, and two years from now when somebody needs to add a page.
Which technology should my website be built with?
The honest answer is that it depends on the job, and any developer who gives you the same answer for every project is telling you about themselves rather than about your business.
| Your situation | Usually the right route | What that buys you |
|---|---|---|
| A site that mostly says who you are and what you do | Built for you from scratch | The fastest pages available, and nothing sitting there needing to be maintained |
| A lot of pages that share a look | Built for you, from reusable parts | Consistency across every page without making the visitor download the machinery |
| Something people log into and use, not just read | Built as an application | It can hold a customer’s data and remember where they were, which a website cannot |
| You need to run a real shop | Shopify | Payments, tax and stock already solved by people who do only that |
| You publish something new most weeks | WordPress, or a system you can edit | You add pages yourself without paying anybody to do it |
This website is built from scratch, because at this size anything else would have added weight without adding anything. That is a decision about this one site, not a rule we apply to yours.
Why does website speed matter so much?
Speed is a ranking factor, but that undersells it. Speed is a conversion factor. A visitor on mobile data who waits four seconds for a page has usually gone before it arrives, and you never see them in your enquiries.
Google measures three things in particular, and its Core Web Vitals guidance sets a target for each: the main content should appear within 2.5 seconds, the page should respond to a tap in under 200 milliseconds, and the layout should barely move while it loads, with a layout shift score under 0.1. Every build is checked against those three on a mid-range phone on mobile data, on real hosting, before launch, not on a fast laptop with everything already loaded.
What about accessibility?
Headings in a sensible order, buttons that behave like buttons, form fields that say what they are for, colours you can actually read, and a site you can use without a mouse. This is not a separate line on the quote; it is what building it properly looks like. It is also most of what technical SEO is, because search engines and screen readers read a page the same way.
What you get at the end
- The site itself, in your name. With a full history of every change, so any earlier version can be put back.
- Changes go live in seconds. And can be undone just as fast if one turns out to be wrong.
- No lock-in. Hosting is optional from £9 a month. Move it elsewhere whenever you like.
- Search groundwork built in. The page structure, the information search engines read, and the speed, all done as part of the build rather than sold as a separate retainer.
- Thirty days of fixes after launch, included.
Straight answers
Common questions.
Do you code websites yourself?
Yes. The route is picked for the project rather than the project being fitted to whatever we prefer, and either way the structure of the page is something somebody decided on purpose rather than something inherited from a template. That structure is exactly what search engines read, which is why it is worth deciding.
Is a hand-coded website better than WordPress?
For a brochure or marketing site, usually yes: it is faster, there is no plugin stack to maintain, and nothing breaks when a plugin updates itself. WordPress is the better answer when somebody needs to publish constantly without a developer, and Shopify when there is a real shop to run. The right question is who has to edit it and how often.
How fast will my website be?
Every build is checked using Google’s own measurement, on a mid-range phone on mobile data, on real hosting rather than on a machine that already has everything loaded. The standard here is ninety or above for speed on a phone, or it does not launch.
What happens if something breaks after launch?
Every version of the site is kept, so putting back the last working one takes seconds rather than a rebuild. Thirty days of fixes are included after launch, and ongoing website care is available from £49 a month with no contract.
Can you work with my existing site?
Often yes. Whether it is worth it depends on what it was built with and how much of it can be saved. A one-off audit, normally £495 and free for a limited time, will tell you honestly, including when the answer is that rebuilding is cheaper than repairing.
If you are weighing up who builds it
How to choose a web designer
What to ask about the stack, and what a good answer sounds like.
Why website speed costs you customers
What slow actually costs, and the five fixes that do most of the work.
Agency, freelancer or small studio?
What you actually buy from each, and when an agency is the better purchase.
Is a custom CRM worth it?
When bespoke beats off-the-shelf, and when it very much does not.
Next step
Tell us what it has to do.
Including the awkward parts: the booking system, the stock feed, the thing your current site cannot handle. Those decide the tooling, and we would rather know now than halfway through.