Custom Web Development Built to a Performance Budget
Marketing sites, web applications and SaaS products in PHP/Laravel, Next.js and React that pass Core Web Vitals on a mid-range phone before launch — with the page-weight and speed targets agreed in writing, a fixed price, and code you own outright.
Speed is an architecture decision, not a plugin
Most slow websites were slow the day they launched. The stylesheet that blocks rendering, the 900 KB hero image, the JavaScript framework shipped to display text that never changes, the six marketing tags each costing a fraction of a second — none of those are hosting problems, and none of them are fixed by a caching plugin. They are decisions made during the build, usually by default.
So we make them on purpose. Before design starts we agree a performance budget for the project: a maximum page weight, a target Largest Contentful Paint and Interaction to Next Paint, and a hard cap on third-party scripts. The budget goes into the proposal next to the price, and every build is checked against it on a throttled connection and a real mid-range Android — not a developer's laptop on office Wi-Fi.
The result is a site that is fast because of how it is put together: server-rendered HTML, semantic markup, images served in modern formats at the size they are displayed, and interactivity added only where it earns its weight. That is also, not coincidentally, what search engines and AI answer engines find easiest to crawl, index and cite. If your current site is the problem rather than a new one, start with our speed optimization service.
What we build
Chosen per project rather than per fashion — the stack that the people maintaining it afterwards will actually be comfortable with.
Marketing & Brochure Websites
Multi-page company sites built server-side in PHP or Next.js, with a CMS for the pages you will actually edit and static output for the ones you will not.
Web Applications & SaaS
Customer portals, dashboards and subscription products on Laravel or a Node/React stack — authentication, roles, billing, background jobs and an admin you can run without us.
API & Integration Work
REST and GraphQL APIs, webhook pipelines and integrations with Stripe, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Salesforce and the long tail of tools your business already pays for.
Headless & Decoupled Builds
A headless CMS (WordPress, Sanity, Strapi) feeding a fast front end, for when editors need flexibility and visitors need speed at the same time.
Performance Rebuilds
Rebuilds of sites that fail Core Web Vitals — often keeping the design and the CMS while replacing the templates, image pipeline and scripts that make them slow.
Hardening, Hosting & Handover
Security headers, a content-security policy, rate-limited forms, automated backups, a deployment pipeline and a recorded handover so your team — or any future developer — can run it.
What you receive
- A written performance budget: page weight, LCP, INP and a third-party script cap
- Server-rendered, semantic, accessible HTML built to WCAG 2.2 AA targets
- Structured data — Organization, Service, Breadcrumb, FAQ and Article where relevant
- XML sitemap, canonical rules and a verified redirect map from any previous site
- Images in AVIF/WebP at display size, lazy-loaded below the fold
- Analytics and conversion event tracking configured before launch, not after
- Full source code, credentials and infrastructure in your name on final payment
- 30 days of post-launch support and 90 days of real-user performance reporting
From brief to a measured launch
Five stages. Each one ends in something you can check yourself, not a status update.
Audit & budget
We benchmark your current site — or your competitors' if you have none — and agree the numbers the new build must hit.
Architecture & scope
Stack, hosting, CMS and integrations chosen for the job. You get a line-item scope, a fixed price and the exclusions in writing.
Design to the budget
Layouts are prototyped on a throttled connection before approval, so what you sign off can actually ship at the agreed speed.
Build in the open
A live staging URL from week one, weekly notes, and the budget enforced in continuous integration on every commit.
Launch, then prove it
Deployment, Search Console setup, redirect verification — then 90 days of field data on Core Web Vitals, indexation and conversion.
Is this the right service for you?
We would rather tell you now than three weeks in.
A good fit if…
- Your website is a sales channel — leads, bookings or checkouts are the point of it
- You have been burned by a redesign that looked better and performed worse
- You need integrations, portals or business logic a page builder cannot do
- You want to own the code and be able to hire anyone to maintain it
Probably not, if…
- You need a one-page site live by Friday for under $500 — a well-chosen template is the right call, and we will say so
- You want to keep a proprietary builder and only change the theme
- Nobody on your side can supply or approve content — we can write it, but the plan has to include it
From $1,019, fixed once scope is signed
Basic Website from $1,019 · Business Website $2,979–$6,750 · Web App / SaaS $10,250–$29,750+. After the audit you get one number, not a range, and it does not move unless the scope does.
Questions we are asked most
Which technology stack will you use for my project?
Whichever fits the job. Content-led sites are usually PHP or Laravel with a lightweight CMS, or Next.js with a headless CMS when editors need a richer workflow. Web applications and SaaS products are Laravel or a Node/React stack, chosen with the team who will maintain them afterwards in mind. We pick per project and explain the trade-offs in the proposal.
What does a "performance budget" actually mean?
A short list of hard limits agreed before design begins: total page weight, Largest Contentful Paint (we target under 2.5 seconds at the 75th percentile of real visits), Interaction to Next Paint (under 200 milliseconds), and a maximum number of third-party scripts. Every design decision and every commit is checked against those numbers, and they are reported on for 90 days after launch.
How long does a custom website take to build?
A performance-led marketing site is typically four to six weeks from kickoff. Web applications run eight to fourteen weeks depending on integrations and the amount of custom logic. The audit and scoping stage adds about a week at the start and consistently saves more than that later, because the scope stops moving once everyone can see the numbers.
Can you rebuild my existing site without changing the design?
Often, yes. If the design is sound and the problem is how it was built, we keep the visual layer and replace what makes it slow — templates, the image pipeline, scripts, sometimes the hosting. The free audit tells us which situation you are in before you commit to anything.
Do I own the code and the website?
Entirely. Source code, design files, domain, hosting and every account are transferred to you on final payment with no licence, no retainer requirement and no proprietary builder. Everything is standard, portable technology, so any competent developer can pick it up.
Will a new website rank better than my old one?
Speed and crawlability are ranking inputs, not guarantees — content and links still decide most of it. What we commit to is the technical foundation: Core Web Vitals passed, clean indexation, structured data, a correct redirect map, and 90 days of monitoring so you can watch the effect in Search Console rather than take our word for it. See how to redesign without losing rankings.
Related services
Further reading
Send us the site you have. We'll tell you what to build.
A free audit of your current speed, indexation and drop-off points comes back within 48 hours, with a fixed-price proposal attached. No sales call required.