Question 1

How do you decide which platform is right for my business?

Accepted Answer

We start with your goals rather than a preferred platform. If you're selling products with variants, inventory and shipping rules, Shopify usually makes sense. If you need a highly custom, design-led marketing site with a visual CMS, Webflow often fits. Squarespace suits straightforward brochure or portfolio sites where simplicity matters more than deep customisation, and WordPress remains a strong choice for content-heavy sites or when you need specific plugin functionality like WooCommerce or membership systems. For genuinely bespoke functionality, an AI-powered custom build can outperform off-the-shelf platforms. We talk through your budget, team's technical comfort and growth plans before recommending anything.

Question 2

Does the platform actually matter, or is strategy more important?

Accepted Answer

Strategy matters more, but the platform still shapes what's achievable. A brilliant content strategy on the wrong platform will hit friction eventually, whether that's a Squarespace site straining under complex product logic or a WordPress site slowed by too many plugins. We treat platform choice as one decision within a broader plan covering messaging, user experience, SEO and conversion design. Get the strategy right first, then choose the platform that lets you execute it without unnecessary workarounds. In our experience, clients who lead with platform choice before strategy often end up needing a rebuild sooner than they'd like.

Question 3

Can you migrate my website from one platform to another?

Accepted Answer

Yes, we regularly migrate sites between WordPress, Shopify, Webflow and Squarespace, and also into custom AI-powered builds. Migration involves auditing your existing content, URLs, redirects, integrations and SEO performance before rebuilding on the new platform. Done properly, it protects your search rankings through careful 301 redirect mapping and preserves the content that's already earning traffic. The main risks come from rushed migrations that lose metadata, break internal links or ignore historical URL structures. We plan migrations as their own project phase rather than squeezing them into a standard build timeline.

Question 4

Are there real cost differences between the platforms?

Accepted Answer

Yes, though the differences are more about ongoing structure than which is inherently cheaper. Shopify, Webflow and Squarespace charge their own monthly or annual subscription for hosting and platform access, which scales with the plan and features you need. WordPress doesn't have a licence fee itself, but you'll need hosting, and depending on your build, possibly premium plugins or themes. None of these platforms are free to run long-term once you include hosting, apps or plugins, so we walk clients through the ongoing cost structure for their specific platform choice during quoting rather than quoting one flat number that ignores those variables.

Question 5

Do some platforms perform better for SEO than others?

Accepted Answer

All four platforms, plus custom builds, can achieve strong SEO results when they're set up correctly. The differences lie in default behaviour and flexibility. WordPress offers the deepest control over technical SEO through plugins and code access. Webflow gives clean, semantic code and good Core Web Vitals out of the box. Shopify has historically had some URL structure limitations for blogs and collections, which we work around. Squarespace has improved significantly but offers less granular technical control. Regardless of platform, we handle schema markup, page speed, local SEO and on-page structure as standard technical SEO work.

Question 6

How does ongoing maintenance differ between platforms?

Accepted Answer

WordPress needs the most active maintenance because plugins, themes and the core software all need regular updates to stay secure, and conflicts can arise between them. Shopify, Webflow and Squarespace handle their own core platform updates as part of your subscription, so maintenance there tends to focus on content, apps and design refreshes rather than security patching. That said, every website benefits from periodic reviews of broken links, page speed and content accuracy. We offer optional care and maintenance plans for clients who'd rather not manage this themselves, regardless of which platform their site runs on.

Question 7

Who owns the website once it's built?

Accepted Answer

You do, fully, on every platform we work with. That means you hold the login credentials, the domain, and all content and design assets, and you're free to move hosting providers, change developers or take the site in-house at any time. We don't lock clients into proprietary systems or restrict access to admin areas. Ownership does come with a caveat worth understanding: on subscription-based platforms like Shopify, Webflow and Squarespace, you're still bound by that platform's ongoing subscription terms to keep the site live, whereas a WordPress site's hosting can be moved between providers more freely.

Question 8

Can I switch platforms later if my business changes?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it's more common than people expect. Businesses that start on Squarespace often move to Shopify once product ranges grow, and content-heavy WordPress sites sometimes shift to a custom build once they need functionality plugins can't deliver cleanly. Switching platforms is a proper project rather than a quick swap, since it involves replatforming content, redesigning for the new system's conventions and protecting SEO through redirects. We'd rather help you choose well the first time, but if your business outgrows its current platform, a migration is entirely achievable without starting your brand or content from scratch.

Question 9

Do you specialise in one platform more than the others?

Accepted Answer

No, we work across WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Squarespace and custom AI-powered builds without favouring one as our default recommendation. Some studios push a single platform because it's what they know or resell, which can lead to businesses being placed on tools that don't suit them. We'd rather match the platform to your actual requirements, even if that means recommending something outside our most frequently used option. If two platforms would genuinely serve you equally well, we'll explain the trade-offs plainly and let you make the call based on your comfort and future plans.

Question 10

How long does a typical build take, and does that change by platform?

Accepted Answer

Most builds take around four weeks from kickoff to launch, with more complex projects, such as large Shopify stores with custom integrations or content-heavy WordPress builds, taking five to six weeks. The platform itself rarely changes the timeline dramatically; what matters more is the number of pages, the complexity of functionality like booking systems or product catalogues, and how quickly content and feedback come back to us. Every build includes two rounds of revisions and professional copywriting, so timelines account for that collaborative back-and-forth rather than just the technical build work.

Question 11

Which platform is easiest for me to update myself?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what you're updating. Squarespace and Webflow both offer intuitive visual editors well suited to non-technical users making text and image changes. Shopify's admin is straightforward for managing products, pricing and orders. WordPress can be just as easy for content edits once we've set up a clean page-builder or block-based structure, though it has more going on behind the scenes. During the build, we tailor the admin experience to your team's comfort level and walk you through it before launch, so day-to-day editing feels manageable regardless of which platform you end up on.

Question 12

What if I'm not sure which platform I need yet?

Accepted Answer

That's completely normal, and it's exactly what our initial conversation is for. Tell us what the site needs to do, whether that's selling products, generating enquiries, showcasing a portfolio or supporting a content strategy, along with your budget and how hands-on you want to be with editing afterwards. From there we'll recommend one or two suitable platforms and explain why, rather than leaving you to research it alone. There's no obligation to have a platform preference before reaching out, and plenty of clients come to us with only a rough idea of what they need.

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