Asking us to build something

Sometimes you know exactly what you want and would rather somebody else made it. Sometimes what you need is a feature no website builder has. Either way: describe it, we quote it, and nothing is charged or started until you say yes.

The short version

• Start one from Requests, or from the New Website panel.
• Choose a custom design or a custom feature, and describe what you want. Attach anything that helps.
• We reply with a quote.
• Nothing is charged until you accept it.
• The whole conversation stays on the request.

What this is for

Two kinds of thing.

A custom design. A look you cannot get to yourself. A layout that needs to work in a particular way. A whole site built for you rather than by you. Something you have tried and cannot make behave.

A custom feature. Something your business needs that the builder does not have: a booking system, a searchable database of properties or vehicles or adoptable pets, a members-only area with its own tools, a directory, a multi-step application form, a connection to software you already use. We design it and build it into your site. It runs on your domain, in your site's look, with its own management screen in your account for the data it holds, and the pages around it stay editable the way the rest of your site is.

It is not for things that are going wrong. If something is broken or you cannot find a setting, use the Help panel: that is faster and it costs nothing.

Describing what you want

Be specific about the outcome and relaxed about the method. What should somebody visiting be able to do, and what does it need to look like? Those are the questions worth answering.

Links to sites you like are the single most useful thing you can send, more than any amount of description. Attach sketches, photos, logos, existing brand guidelines, anything you have.

The quote

We read it and reply with a price and what it covers. If the request is unclear we ask rather than guess.

You can ask questions, change the scope, or walk away. Nothing is charged and no work starts until you accept the quote.

While it is being built

The request keeps the whole conversation in one place, so you are not hunting through email for what was agreed. You will get email when there is something to see.

When it is done

The work lands in your site like anything else: fully editable, yours to change. It is not locked, and you do not have to come back to us to alter it later. A custom feature keeps its own screen in your account, next to your forms and orders, where you manage what it holds.

If you do not have an account yet

You do not need one to ask. The Custom work page on our website has the same form, and we reply by email. If we go ahead, the work lives in a website on your account, and creating that account with the same email address brings your request along with it.