Web design without WordPress · Lancashire
WordPress? I don't do any of that.
Most web design agencies in Lancashire build on WordPress, then charge you every month to keep it standing. Here is everything that comes with a WordPress website, and what happens here instead.
The treadmill, item by item
Everything a WordPress website makes you pay for.
Plugin updates
A typical WordPress site runs twenty to forty plugins. Each one is software somebody has to keep updating, forever, and they update on different schedules and break each other.
Hand-built. There are no plugins, so there is nothing to update and nothing to break on a Tuesday.
Security patches and hacks
WordPress is the most attacked platform on the web, and most break-ins come through plugins. Somebody has to patch it, or you find out the hard way.
Nothing to get into. Your pages are served as finished files from a global edge network, not generated on a server that can be broken into.
The maintenance retainer
£30 to £100 a month, at most agencies, for "updates and monitoring". It is rent on complexity you never asked for.
No maintenance fee, because nothing needs maintaining. The monthly work here is your Google listing, your content and your report.
Page builders
Elementor, Divi, WPBakery: a builder on top of a platform on top of a theme. Every layer loads its own scripts, and your customers wait.
Written as plain, fast code for your site only. Howard's site scored 97 for performance on Google's own test the day it launched.
Theme and plugin licences
The premium theme, the form plugin, the gallery, the SEO plugin, the backup plugin. Each renews yearly, each in a different account.
Nothing to renew. The only thing you pay for separately is your domain name, which you own.
Hosting and backups
A hosting account, a backup plugin, a security plugin, a caching plugin to claw back the speed the others took.
Hosting is included, backups are automatic, and there is no cache to clear because there is nothing slow to hide.
"SEO-friendly"
An SEO plugin with a traffic-light score. Green does not mean found.
Every page written for a real search and marked up so Google and the AI tools can read what you do and where. On-page SEO on every page, not a plugin.
The developer who holds the keys
When the person who built it moves on, the next one has to work out what the last one did.
You deal with John. Every build is checked before it goes live and documented so it never depends on one person's memory.
The redesign every three years
The theme dates, the builder changes, the plugins stop being supported, and you start again.
The site grows instead: a new page for every job you want more of, every project, every review. The site you launch is the smallest it will ever be.
And to be fair to WordPress: it runs a third of the web and it is fine when somebody's job is to look after it. For a five-page local business website, that somebody is you, paying monthly. That is the part I take away.
Live now
Three live sites, built without WordPress.
Three live sites, hand-built, checked before launch, and growing. Scroll through them.
Client work
Our latest work
Howard Wing · Fleetwood
Built to turn a couple who found him into a booked meeting. Three enquiries in the first three days.
Total Building North West · Wyre
Thirty years of building work, shown properly: every project on its own page, found town by town across Wyre, Fylde, Preston and Lancaster.
L Wilson Digital & Security · Fleetwood and the Fylde coast
A page for every town he covers, every enquiry answered in seconds, and a site that keeps growing. Lee is already thinking about a second one.
What it costs
The same five pages, without the meter running.
A WordPress agency
- The build~£1,500 once
- Maintenance£30 to £100 a month
- A chat assistant£20 to £46 a month
- Year one, site only£1,860 to £2,700
- Year three£2,580 to £5,100
INKON Launch
- The buildIncluded
- MaintenanceNothing to maintain
- Violet, INKON's AI assistant, replying in secondsIncluded
- Year one, everything£1,188
- Year three£3,564, and the site has grown
Figures from the agencies ranking for web design in Lancashire this month and their published maintenance fees. The four routes compared over three years · every INKON price.
WordPress questions, answered straight
Is an INKON website built on WordPress?
No. INKON websites are hand-built as plain, fast code and served from a global edge network. There is no WordPress, no page builder and no plugin stack, which is why there is no maintenance fee.
I already have a WordPress website. Can you move it?
Yes. The pages, the content and the domain come across, and every old address is redirected to its new page so you do not lose a link or a ranking. L Wilson Digital & Security moved off Shopify the same way without losing a link.
Can I edit my own site without WordPress?
Yes. Text and photo changes go through a simple content editor, or you email them and they are made in minutes. On a plan, changes are never billed.
What about the things plugins did, like bookings, galleries or a shop?
Galleries, forms, enquiry chat, maps and reviews are built in. For bookings or payments the site connects to the tool you already use, such as a booking app or GoCardless, rather than bolting a plugin onto the site.
Is WordPress bad?
No. WordPress is fine when there is a team whose job is to look after it. The cost for a local business is the looking after: the updates, the retainer, the redesign every few years. INKON removes the platform, so the cost goes with it.
Do you offer WordPress maintenance?
No. If your WordPress site is costing you a maintenance fee every month, the free audit will tell you what it is actually doing for you and what it would cost to move.
Start here
Free audit of your website.
Paying a maintenance fee? Find out what it is actually doing.
Send me your address. I will tell you what the site is costing you in speed, security and money, and what it would take to move. Free, no meeting.