Work website overhaul but with who?

Steveocee · 23 Nov 2025 at 06:27

My works website is due to be updated shortly and I’ve been asked to look at some alternatives.

Currently we go via a company who designed and deployed on something they’ve developed on Wordpress. It’s a bit blocky and we can’t easily update anything.

We have been offered a rebuild from a designer we work with, again on Wordpress. So far my input has been that it needs to be simple enough a lehperson could easily build an additional page and advertise a new service. We’re not heavily IT involved despite what we work with.

My thoughts are, is this the time to move to an even easier WYSIWYG website builder? Something like squarespace or wix for example? We only need something to show what we do (page per service) and all pages will have a link to contact us.

Any thoughts please?

OspreyO · 23 Nov 2025 at 09:18

Maybe it would be easier than trying to save money by updating it yourselves just pay the designer to do it. Basic website is very simple stuff, but if no one wants to take it on internally. Stop trying to.

I'm bias though I really dislike wordpress websites. They all the same and most are clones of each other.

In our place marketing took the website off the IT Dept because they hated being unable to do it themselves. They outsourced it and still can't update it themselves. Only now it outsourced, expensive and looks awful.

Steveocee · 23 Nov 2025 at 10:52

OspreyO said:
Maybe it would be easier than trying to save money by updating it yourselves just pay the designer to do it. Basic website is very simple stuff, but if no one wants to take it on internally. Stop trying to.

I'm bias though I really dislike wordpress websites. They all the same and most are clones of each other.

In our place marketing took the website off the IT Dept because they hated being unable to do it themselves. They outsourced it and still can't update it themselves. Only now it outsourced, expensive and looks awful.

This isn't a cost saving exercise. We don't have a support contract on our current setup which we aren't enammered with and we are wanting to be able to dynamically add or remove content as we need without waiting days. This is something that internally we are very up for doing which is why I'm looking at exploring easier to use frameworks.

We want to peel away from the team who designed what we have, we have a new designer lined up but it's not their 9-5 so again changes may not be in the timeframes we want.

We are only a small business so it's not like we get thousands of visits per day.

InkZ · 23 Nov 2025 at 11:02

I would go with Wix or Squarespace for a simple brochureware. The problem is with Wordpress is you've constantly got to review and update the plugins etc so you don't get hacked. Get a Wix site and you can just forget about it.

Even if you outsource and get a designer to do it, they still use a template. I started building websites in the late 90s, and everything was bespoke, we just aren't in those times anymore.

We have an inhouse site built on Umbraco, but that's only because we have a load of custom functionality. We still use an off the shelf template.

Limenote · 23 Nov 2025 at 17:04

InkZ said:
I would go with Wix or Squarespace for a simple brochureware. The problem is with Wordpress is you've constantly got to review and update the plugins etc so you don't get hacked. Get a Wix site and you can just forget about it.

Even if you outsource and get a designer to do it, they still use a template. I started building websites in the late 90s, and everything was bespoke, we just aren't in those times anymore.

We have an inhouse site built on Umbraco, but that's only because we have a load of custom functionality. We still use an off the shelf template.

+1 to this. I’m a professional web developer and would never suggest hand rolling brochure sites as these platforms do such a good job these days.

Steveocee · 23 Nov 2025 at 17:05

InkZ said:
I would go with Wix or Squarespace for a simple brochureware. The problem is with Wordpress is you've constantly got to review and update the plugins etc so you don't get hacked. Get a Wix site and you can just forget about it.

Even if you outsource and get a designer to do it, they still use a template. I started building websites in the late 90s, and everything was bespoke, we just aren't in those times anymore.

We have an inhouse site built on Umbraco, but that's only because we have a load of custom functionality. We still use an off the shelf template.

Limenote said:
+1 to this. I’m a professional web developer and would never suggest hand rolling brochure sites as these platforms do such a good job these days.

Thank you both

Steveocee · 3 Dec 2025 at 20:57

Thanks all who chipped in. We’re day 2 of a Squarespace trial. Replicated and improved current which has proved what we wanted.

ChroniC · 3 Dec 2025 at 23:33

I'm curious what you mean by this..

It’s a bit blocky and we can’t easily update anything.

I have developed a page builder using ACF which does require development to customise it to your branding but otherwise it allows you to add section / columns / blocks in a way to build anything you would like on any page....

I don't sell it because I developed it for a company I work for, what I wonder is what problems you had with your old site that meant you couldn't change stuff, because when done correctly WordPress is no different to square space.

Usually you pay a developer to make the blocks more specific to your brand or design.

radderfire · 4 Dec 2025 at 00:52

Steveocee said:
Thanks all who chipped in. We’re day 2 of a Squarespace trial. Replicated and improved current which has proved what we wanted.

Let us know how it turns out. I would imagine it will be just fine.

Steveocee · 4 Dec 2025 at 06:56

ChroniC said:
I'm curious what you mean by this..

I have developed a page builder using ACF which does require development to customise it to your branding but otherwise it allows you to add section / columns / blocks in a way to build anything you would like on any page....

I don't sell it because I developed it for a company I work for, what I wonder is what problems you had with your old site that meant you couldn't change stuff, because when done correctly WordPress is no different to square space.

Usually you pay a developer to make the blocks more specific to your brand or design.

This is the problem. The current framework isn’t user friendly, is aged and our company didn’t take any kind of service contract so any niggles don’t get sorted and if we want to add content, we can ask the company to adhoc but it’s expensive. My idea of moving to an off the shelf is to bring the content back into our hands and move to a fluid platform that we do pay for and gets updated.

radderfire said:
Let us know how it turns out. I would imagine it will be just fine.

Thank you. Have replicated current site over last day or 2. Then its present as draft and wait for the crazy ideas to come in.

radderfire · 4 Dec 2025 at 14:59

Steveocee said:
Thank you. Have replicated current site over last day or 2. Then its present as draft and wait for the crazy ideas to come in.

Remember to optimise any images, especially photos, in terms of file size.

If you want to get some inspiration, you can have a look at web designs on 99designs:

Discover Design Ideas & Graphic Design Inspiration | 99designs

Explore top designs created by the very talented Global design community at 99designs. Find creative inspiration and design ideas for your next project.

99designs.co.uk

You can also post your own web design competition there for not a lot of money ($500 - 750), and the standard is often pretty high, as long as you give a good brief. This would help you with the design elements of the website (no build). It is very competitive, and a lot of foreign designers on there, but some of them are very good.