UK web development agency: bespoke, not bolted together
Custom applications, headless and WordPress builds, and e-commerce that survives a peak-traffic day. Written to be maintained by whoever comes next — including if that is not us.
Should you be building this at all?
A bespoke build is the most expensive way to solve a problem and occasionally the only one. Here is how we tell the difference, including when it costs us the job.
- A template genuinely fits — you need a good-looking brochure site and nothing behind it
- Something off the shelf already does 90% of it, and the last 10% is a preference rather than a problem
- You are testing whether anybody wants this at all — validate first, on something cheap
- Nobody internally can give a decision inside a week; a bespoke build will stall and you will pay for the waiting
- The workflow is the business, and every tool you have tried makes people work around it
- You are paying per seat, per month, for software that still needs three spreadsheets beside it
- The site is load-bearing — it takes the orders, the bookings or the applications
- Something exists and it is slow, fragile or nobody left will touch it
- You need to own it: the code, the data and the ability to hire somebody else
What we build.
Custom web applications
Bespoke apps built around your workflow — dashboards, portals, internal tools and customer-facing platforms.
Headless & WordPress builds
Modern front-ends on a headless CMS, or well-engineered WordPress when it is the right tool.
E-commerce
Storefronts and checkout that convert, integrate with your stack and survive a peak-traffic day.
API & systems integration
Connect the tools you already run so data flows instead of being re-keyed by hand.
Performance & Core Web Vitals
Fast-loading, SEO-ready pages — measured, not assumed.
Six things move the number
We are not going to print a price range and let you guess which end you are at. These are the things we ask about, so you can work it out before you speak to anyone.
How many screens are genuinely different
Forty pages off one template is a small job. Six screens that each behave differently is not. Templates are cheap; behaviour is not.
Whether people log in
Accounts, roles and permissions are the single biggest step change in a quote. Two roles is fine. "It depends who is looking" is a project.
What it has to talk to
A modern API is a day. A twelve-year-old system with no documentation and one person who remembers it is the risk on the whole build, and we would rather find it in week one.
Whether anything is being moved
Migrating content, orders or customer records is rarely the hard part. Deciding what to do with the fifteen years of it that nobody has looked at is.
Who is producing the words and pictures
The commonest reason a build runs late has nothing to do with code. If the content is coming from you, we plan the dates around it.
How hard it has to be pushed
A hundred users a day and ten thousand are different pieces of engineering. Tell us the number you expect and we will build for it, not for a number we made up.
You see it working the whole way through
Each phase says what we do and what you do. The second half is the one that gets left off most proposals, and it is the one that moves the dates.
Interesting is not a compliment
The technology choices on a project you are paying for should be dull ones. Novelty is a cost you carry after we have gone.
Boring where boring is free
Mainstream frameworks with large hiring pools — React and Next.js, or well-engineered WordPress where that is genuinely the right tool. Nothing exotic, no framework of our own invention. The test is whether you could hire someone next year who already knows it.
Bespoke where bespoke earns it
The part that is actually your business gets built properly. The parts that are the same everywhere — auth, payments, email — get a boring, well-supported solution, because paying for a bespoke login form is paying for nothing.
Built to be left
A build that only we can maintain is a build we can charge you for forever, and that conflict is real whether or not anybody acts on it. So: documented, conventional, and yours. Leaving should be an inconvenience, never a rebuild.
What you hold when we are finished
A build only we can maintain is one we could charge you for forever. That conflict exists whether or not anybody acts on it, so we design it out: leaving should be an inconvenience, never a rebuild.
- The full source history, in your own repository
- Every account and domain in your company’s name, not ours
- A README another developer can actually start from
- The design files, and the component library they came from
- Your data, exportable, in a format something else can read
- A written handover call with whoever takes it on
Things we shipped
The questions that decide it
What will it cost?
How long does it take?
Who owns the code?
Do you use WordPress or something custom?
Can you take over something somebody else built?
Do you outsource?
What happens after launch?
What usually comes with it
What does a web development agency do?
A web development agency designs, builds and maintains websites and web applications: marketing sites, ecommerce stores, customer portals, dashboards and internal tools. Devute is a UK web development agency building on Next.js, React and WordPress, with fixed-price builds from £2,400 and code you own outright.
How much does web development cost in the UK?
Marketing websites built by Devute start at £2,400, ecommerce stores at £3,800 and web applications are quoted after a free audit. Across the UK market, agency-built sites typically run from £5,000 to £30,000 depending on scope. You get a fixed price before any work starts.
Next.js or WordPress: which should we use?
WordPress suits teams that want a familiar editor and lots of content pages. Next.js suits sites where speed, security and custom features matter, such as portals, apps and high-traffic marketing sites. We recommend one in the free audit and explain the trade-offs in plain English.
How long does a website or web app take to build?
A marketing website usually takes four to six weeks. A web application with user accounts and dashboards typically takes eight to sixteen weeks, delivered in phases with a working demo every week.
Do we own the code?
Yes. The code lives in your repository, the IP transfers to you, and we hand over documentation and logins. You're never locked in to Devute for hosting or support.
Will the site be fast and SEO-ready?
Yes. We build for Core Web Vitals, set up titles, schema, sitemaps and redirects, and write key sections so Google and AI assistants can quote them. Speed and search are part of the build, not an add-on.
Can you take over a site another developer built?
Yes. We review the code and hosting first, tell you honestly what state it's in, then maintain, improve or rebuild it. Urgent problems go through our Fixes & Rescue service.
Guides that go deeper.
Where we do this most.
Often bought together.
Tell us what you need.
A senior person replies within one working day with a plan and a fixed price. No sales script, no obligation.
- Free audit of what you have now
- Fixed quote before any work starts
- You own the code, content and accounts
Tell us the goal. We’ll tell you the price.
A free audit, a fixed scope and a number — usually within two working days. No obligation, no sales theatre.