Umbraco development
Umbraco is what we know best. Not “we also do Umbraco” — it's the platform we've spent most of our career in, and it's the first thing we reach for when a business needs a site its own team can actually run.
Why we keep recommending it
Not for everyone — but when it fits, it fits properly.
Editors stop needing a developer
Built well, Umbraco lets your team change content, add pages and reorder sections without filing a ticket. Built badly it does the opposite, which is most of what we get called in to fix.
It's genuinely yours
Open source, .NET, no licence fee, no per-seat cost, and nothing stopping you taking the codebase to another developer. We'd rather earn the next project than trap you into it.
It scales past the brochure
Members and logins, custom sections, integrations, multiple sites and languages from one install. You won't outgrow it the moment the business changes shape.
What a build includes
Every project is different, but this is the floor — not the upsell list.
Build
- Document types and compositions structured around your content, not the template
- Block List or Block Grid editing so pages can be built without new code
- Responsive front end, hand-written — no page builder bloat
- Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA as standard, not as an extra
- Forms, search, and integrations with whatever you already run
- Headless via the Delivery API where a decoupled front end makes sense
Launch
- SEO fundamentals: metadata, sitemaps, redirects, structured data
- Core Web Vitals passing on real devices, not just on our laptop
- Hosting set up properly with TLS, backups and monitoring
- A training session for whoever edits the site, recorded so you keep it
- Written documentation of how the thing is put together
- Source code in your repository, hosting in your name
The shape of a typical build
Three rough sizes, so you can place yourself before we talk. Every project gets a fixed price in writing once we understand what it actually needs.
A credible site that loads fast
For a business that needs to look the part and be found, without a lot of moving parts.
- A handful of page templates
- Contact forms and SEO fundamentals
- Editor training and handover
- Hosting set up properly
A full marketing site
Flexible page building your team controls, plus a few pieces built specifically for you.
- Block-based page building
- Search, forms and integrations
- Full SEO and accessibility pass
- Hosting and ongoing care set up
Portals and applications
Members areas, multi-site or multi-language, and heavy integration work.
- Scoped in a discovery phase first
- Delivered and quoted in phases
- Or on a day rate, if that suits better
Umbraco questions
What will it cost?
We don't publish a price list, because a five-page brochure site and a members portal aren't the same conversation and a headline figure would mislead you either way. What you get instead is a fixed price in writing before any work begins — usually within a few days of talking — and that number doesn't move afterwards.
Which version do you build on?
New builds go on the current major version unless there's a reason not to — usually an integration or package that hasn't caught up yet. We'll tell you if that's the case before we start rather than after.
Umbraco Cloud or self-hosted?
Both work. Cloud is simpler if you want deployments and upgrades handled for you and don't mind the monthly cost. Self-hosted is cheaper and more flexible, and since we run servers anyway we're happy either way. We'll give you a straight comparison for your situation.
Can our team edit the site without breaking it?
That's most of the job. Block-based editing with sensible constraints means editors can build new pages from approved components without being able to produce something that looks wrong or breaks on mobile.
Do you do headless / Delivery API builds?
Yes, when there's a real reason — a mobile app sharing content, a separate front-end team, or an existing framework you're committed to. If it's just for the sake of it, we'll say so; headless adds moving parts and cost.
What if we want to move to another developer later?
Then you move. The code is in your repository, the hosting is in your name, and it's a standard Umbraco install rather than something only we understand. That's deliberate.
Thinking about an Umbraco build?
Tell us what the site needs to do and who has to maintain it. We'll come back within one working day with an honest view of scope and cost.