Frequently asked questions.

Fixed price after a briefing call. Website builds start from £1,000; larger or complex website builds are scoped individually. No hourly billing, no hidden cost — you know the number before anyone starts working. Full detail on what a build includes is on the web design page.

No. The price agreed after the briefing call is the price, and there is no hourly billing behind it. If the scope genuinely changes partway through, the change is quoted and agreed before any work starts on it.

A focused website usually takes 4–6 weeks depending on scope, content readiness and feedback speed. A concrete timeline with milestones follows the briefing call. Booking and business systems have a separate timeline agreed after reviewing their workflows, integrations and any data migration.

You get a reply within 24 hours. The first step is a briefing call to understand the business, the goals and the scope. For a website, a fixed price and timeline with milestones follow that call. Booking and business systems go through discovery to agree the workflows and requirements before the build price and timeline are set.

Shaun Dower — founder, developer and designer in one person. Every project is delivered directly by the founder, with a small number of parallel projects to safeguard quality.

The studio is in Stevenage, Hertfordshire — projects run UK-wide, across Europe and internationally remote. On-site meetings in Stevenage are available by appointment; kickoffs and workshops can also take place at the client's office. There's more on working locally on the Stevenage page.

Default stack: modern HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with React or Next.js where the project needs it. Every build is planned around speed, responsive behaviour, SEO/AEO foundations and maintainability.

Yes. Every build is fully responsive across devices rather than a desktop layout squeezed down to fit. Speed and Core Web Vitals are checked on mobile as well as desktop, because that is where most people will see the site first.

AEO — answer engine optimisation — is making a site legible to AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews, not just to traditional rankings. It rests on the same foundations as good SEO: clean structure, fast pages, structured data and genuinely useful content. Those foundations ship with every build, and a managed SEO retainer keeps working on them after launch.

Yes. I build custom booking and membership systems with customer accounts, payments and staff tools. Each system is scoped individually, with a fixed quote after discovery and ongoing support agreed separately. See Booking & Business Systems for what a project can include.

Systems are scoped individually, with a fixed quote after discovery. The quote separates the build from hosting, payment fees, other provider subscriptions and ongoing application support. If discovery is chargeable, that is stated before you book it. New requirements are quoted and agreed before work starts on them.

The timeline is agreed after discovery, once the booking rules, customer and staff journeys, integrations and any migration are understood. It includes time for acceptance checks and handover. The 4–6 week website estimate does not apply to a custom business system.

That is assessed during discovery. Your website, current booking or payment software and available integrations are reviewed before recommending a custom system, an integration or a combination. Existing bookings or member records can be reviewed for migration, with data quality, access and the transfer process agreed before they are included in the scope.

Ownership and handover terms are agreed before the build, covering source code, customer data, service accounts, documentation and staff training. Third-party services keep their own licensing and subscription terms. The agreement sets out what you receive and how your team keeps access after launch.

Application support is agreed separately around the system's accounts, payments, integrations and operating needs. The website care plan covers website maintenance; its starting price does not automatically cover a transactional application. Support scope, provider costs and the ongoing price are set out before launch.

Yes. Monthly care plans cover hosting, updates, small changes, uptime checks and support. SEO retainers can be added when you want ongoing search growth after launch.

Yes, as part of a monthly care plan. That covers managed hosting and domain, SSL, security and backups — one place to go when something needs attention, rather than three separate suppliers.

Often, yes. Care plans and SEO retainers can be taken on for an existing site after a short review of how it is built and hosted. If the site itself is the thing holding the business back, that gets said at the review stage rather than after months of retainer.