Craft CMS sites behind a Basingstoke enquiry usually arrive in one of two states, running fine but neglected, or genuinely broken with the developer who built it long gone.
Karl handles these directly. It's only ever been ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS at Expression 37, since 2007, and every job goes through Karl, not a wider team.
The first step is checking what's actually in the install before recommending anything. From there it's usually a quick fix, a version upgrade, or a monthly retainer.
Where we typically come in:
- Insurance and financial firms running Craft sites that carry real compliance weight and can't afford a careless, undocumented change.
- Corporate teams who inherited a site rather than built it, with little institutional memory of how it actually works.
- Composer setups that have quietly drifted, blocking plugin or Craft core updates without anyone noticing until something breaks.
- Businesses pushing lead data into Salesforce from the Craft install, an integration point that needs the same scrutiny as the CMS.
- Teams tired of a different account manager on every call, who just want a developer they can speak to directly.
How a typical engagement starts:
A looming deadline is the most common trigger here, a launch, a rebrand, or a compliance review that suddenly exposes how little anyone knows about the site's current state. Karl audits the actual Composer setup and codebase first, gives a fixed quote based on what's genuinely there, and a good number of those audits turn into standing monthly cover.
Common questions Basingstoke clients ask:
How do you support us properly if you're not on site?
The same way most Craft support happens anywhere, remotely: code changes, deployments, monitoring, all handled without needing anyone physically present. A visit is possible for the rare occasion it's genuinely useful, it's just not how the day-to-day work gets done.
We're inheriting responsibility for a Craft site none of us built, where do we start?
With a proper audit, custom code mapped against standard plugins, Composer dependencies checked, before anyone commits to a plan. It's a short process and it's the same starting point for most corporate handovers.
What if the site's several Craft versions out of date?
That's the norm rather than the exception for corporate sites left running quietly. Plugin compatibility is usually the harder part of the upgrade, more than the core version jump itself.
Compliance is a real concern for us, does that affect how changes get made?
It shapes the process: staged testing, clear change records, and nothing pushed live without a documented review. That's standard practice for regulated-sector clients here.
Our Salesforce integration occasionally drops leads, is that something you'd investigate?
Yes, that connection almost always lives inside the Craft templates rather than as a standalone system, so debugging it properly means understanding both sides together.
What does a retainer actually include?
Priority response to anything urgent, ongoing plugin and core updates, and a fixed monthly cost agreed in advance, rather than open-ended hourly billing for every small change.
What's the best way to get a conversation started?
Send over the site and whatever's prompting the enquiry, a launch date, a compliance concern, a plugin that's stopped working, and you'll get a clear, specific answer on what's involved.
Ready to get started?
If your website is business-critical and needs a specialist who will take proper long-term ownership of it, get in touch. Karl will respond personally and give you an honest view of how we can help.
