Frequently Asked Questions — Web Design & Development in Toronto

It depends on how many pages you need, whether you are selling online, and how much is custom. A straightforward business website with five to ten pages sits at the lower end; an ecommerce store or a custom-built platform costs more. We quote a fixed price in writing before any work starts, so the number you agree is the number you pay. Our packages page shows what is included at each level.

Yes. We take a deposit to book the work in and schedule your project, with the balance due at launch. On larger builds we split payments into stages so you are never paying far ahead of the work delivered.

Two, and both are small: hosting and your domain renewal. Everything else is optional. Many clients add a maintenance plan so updates, backups and security are handled for them, but you are never obliged to take one.

Usually because of what is inside it. A very low quote often means a purchased template, stock content, no SEO groundwork, and no support after launch. We will happily walk you through our quote line by line so you can compare fairly. If a simpler build genuinely does the job, we will tell you and charge less.

On larger projects, yes. We stage payments against milestones. Tell us your budget early and we will shape the scope to fit it rather than quoting something you cannot proceed with.

A straightforward business website usually takes three to five weeks from approval to launch. Ecommerce stores and custom builds take longer. The biggest variable is almost always how quickly text and photos come back to us — projects that stall usually stall on content, not code.

Often, yes. Tell us your deadline at the first conversation. If it is achievable we will say so and plan around it; if it is not, we will tell you that too rather than agree and disappoint you.

A clear idea of what the site must achieve, any text and images you already have, your logo if you have one, and access to your domain. If you are missing content or a logo, we can produce both — see logo and branding.

Five steps, the same on every project: we talk about the business and what the site has to do; we send a written scope and a fixed price; we design real layouts using your own content; we build, test on phones and tablets, and set it up for search; then we launch and stay on for support. You always know what happens next.

Yes. You see real layouts with your own content in them, not a stock mockup with placeholder text. We change things until you are happy with the direction before a single page is coded.

Enough to get it right. We are not going to nickel-and-dime you over a colour change. What we do ask is that feedback comes in consolidated rounds rather than one message at a time, because that is what keeps projects on schedule.

The people designing and building your site. We are a small team in North York — there is no account manager relaying messages, and nothing is sent offshore. Call (647) 385-5532 and you get someone who knows your project.

Completely. The site, the design, the code, the domain and the hosting account are all yours. There is no proprietary platform holding you hostage. If you ever decide to move to another company, everything goes with you — that is not true of every web company in Toronto, so it is worth asking whoever else you speak to.

Yes. We build on content management systems designed for that — Joomla and WordPress, mostly — and we show you how to edit text, swap images and add pages before we hand over. If you would rather we did it, that is what maintenance plans are for.

We can host it for you, or set it up on hosting you already own. Either way the account is in your name. We will tell you honestly if your current host is too slow — page speed affects both your visitors and your Google ranking.

Every site we build launches with the technical groundwork in place: proper page titles and descriptions, clean heading structure, fast loading, a canonical setup, and an XML sitemap Google can read. That gets you eligible to rank. Competing for terms like web design Toronto takes ongoing work, which is what our SEO service covers.

Expect three to six months before meaningful movement, and longer for competitive terms. Anyone promising page one in thirty days is either targeting phrases nobody searches for or doing something that will cost you later. We would rather tell you the honest timeline up front.

The technical foundation is, always. Ongoing SEO — content, link building, local optimisation, monthly reporting — is a separate service, because it is ongoing work rather than a one-time task.

Yes. For a local business the Google Business Profile is often worth as much as the website itself. We set it up correctly, fix categories and service areas, and advise on the one thing that moves local rankings more than anything else: getting real reviews.

Usually. We start with an audit to find out whether the problem is technical, content, or competition — those need very different fixes, and it is worth knowing which before spending money. Ask us for a free look at your site.

Yes, and we test on real screen sizes rather than assuming. Most of your visitors will arrive on a phone, so we design for that first. See mobile website design.

Whichever suits the project — Joomla, WordPress, custom PHP, React and Node for applications, Shopify or WooCommerce for ecommerce. We pick the right tool for the job rather than forcing every client onto the same one.

Yes. Product pages, payments, shipping rules, stock, tax and the checkout flow — see ecommerce website design. We pay particular attention to checkout, because that is where most online stores quietly lose sales.

Yes, iOS and Android, from first sketch through to the App Store and Google Play. See mobile app development. If your idea works better as a fast mobile website than an app, we will say so — it is often cheaper and reaches more people.

Every site launches with an SSL certificate and sensible security defaults. Sites left un-updated for years are the ones that get hacked, which is the real argument for a maintenance plan. If you have already been compromised, see security and clean-up.

We stay on. Updates, backups, security patches, fixes and changes as the business grows. Most of our clients have been with us for years, and most of our work comes from returning clients and their referrals.

Most questions are answered the same business day. Anything that takes the site offline is treated as urgent regardless of the hour.

Yes, and it is often the cheaper answer. We take on maintenance, redesigns, speed work and security clean-ups on sites we did not build. See website updates.

Yes. We serve Toronto, the GTA and all of Ontario, and we have built sites for clients across Canada. Most projects run perfectly well over calls, email and screen sharing.

For clients in Toronto and the GTA, often yes — some projects benefit from sitting down together. We work from an office in North York rather than a storefront, so we arrange meetings by appointment. Just ask when you call.

Since 2006. We have 115 projects in our portfolio across 14 industries, and a 4.9 rating from 144 Google reviews. You can read what clients have said.

Health and wellness, ecommerce, corporate, real estate, food and restaurant, education, travel, technology, media, non-profit and more. Different sectors need different things — a restaurant needs bookings and a readable menu on a phone; a law firm needs to look trustworthy in three seconds.

Tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you honestly what it takes. Use the contact form, call (647) 385-5532, or message us on WhatsApp. No obligation and no pressure.