Craft CMS enquiries out of Cambridge tend to arrive later than they should, after an install's been quietly ignored long enough that updating it starts to feel risky.
Karl deals with that directly, he's the whole of Expression 37. Craft CMS and ExpressionEngine are the only two platforms he's worked in since 2007.
The install gets a proper look before Karl says what it needs. That's usually a fix, an upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
Why do genuinely good companies end up with neglected websites here?
Because the tech and biotech cluster growing out of the university produces small, sharply focused teams who built a proper site years ago and have spent every waking hour on the science since. A fair number of those run on Craft, quietly, with nobody on the team who has the time or the background to actually keep it maintained.
Karl works with Cambridge companies in exactly that position: a compatibility audit ahead of an upgrade, taking over a site from a developer who's since left, or a standing retainer for teams who'd rather have a specialist on call than deal with it themselves. The code gets read first, always, before anything's quoted.
The install this usually turns out to be:
Something presenting genuinely technical or scientific content, where the CMS shouldn't be a barrier to whoever needs to update it. A fast-growing firm whose site has simply outgrown the structure built for a five-person team. Fairly often there's HubSpot or Salesforce wired in for lead capture that needs the same attention as the core site. Left behind entirely when the co-founder or early hire who understood the tech moved on. And several major versions behind, needing a proper plugin-by-plugin compatibility check.
Common questions Cambridge clients ask:
Is being physically in Cambridge actually necessary?
No. The work's entirely remote, which suits most Cambridge companies fine given how much of the sector already operates that way. A call or a visit's available whenever it's genuinely useful.
Our content is fairly technical, does that make things harder?
It shifts where the care goes rather than making it harder. Technical content needs a structure that keeps it organised and easy to update without breaking formatting, not the same treatment as a standard marketing page.
The person who understood our site's setup has left, is that unusual?
Not here specifically, given how much churn there is in early-stage teams. Establishing what's genuinely custom against a modified plugin takes a proper read of the code, not a guess.
Should the age of our Craft version actually worry us?
Not necessarily on its own. The core software tends to hold up fine. The real exposure sits in whatever plugins and Composer dependencies have gone unmaintained alongside it.
What's the practical value of ongoing support?
Priority when something breaks, proactive checks instead of waiting to hear about a problem, and a developer who already knows the site rather than starting from zero.
What should we actually budget for this?
Depends entirely on what's needed. A defined project is a fixed number. Ongoing support runs monthly. Either way, agreed before anything's touched.
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.
