Most Craft CMS enquiries from Darlington fall into one of two camps: an install that's ticking along untouched, or one that's genuinely misbehaving while whoever built it has stopped replying.
Karl's the person who takes it on, every time. Craft CMS and ExpressionEngine are the only two platforms Expression 37's worked in since 2007. You're dealing with him directly, not an account manager.
He checks what's actually in the install before recommending anything. What that turns up decides whether it's a fix, a version upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
Where we typically come in:
- Manufacturers with export or trade-facing Craft sites, where product and pricing data has to stay accurate and available.
- Organisations bound by accessibility standards, where content structure and compliance carry as much weight as design.
- Long-established businesses running installs older than their current staff, with little institutional memory of how they were built.
- Businesses taking payments through Stripe directly within Craft Commerce, needing a developer across both the CMS and the integration.
- Teams who'd rather have one dependable developer than cycle through account managers at an agency.
How a typical engagement starts:
The prompt tends to be tangible: an accessibility complaint against a public-facing site, a trade customer flagging out-of-date pricing, or a new employee realising nobody can explain how the Craft install actually works. Karl reviews the codebase and Composer lockfile properly before quoting, and a decent share of that work becomes ongoing retainer cover.
Common questions Darlington clients ask:
Can you support us properly without being based here?
Yes, the whole job runs remotely, code, deployments, day-to-day fixes. Darlington's within reach on the rare occasion a face-to-face conversation genuinely adds value.
We've got accessibility obligations, how does that factor in?
It's built into the process from the start: markup, structure, and testing are all done with those requirements in mind, rather than checked as an afterthought once something's already live.
Is it strange that nobody here understands how our own site works?
Not remotely, it's the norm for long-established businesses. The first step is always working out what's genuinely custom versus standard plugin behaviour, before touching anything.
Our Craft version is a long way behind, how much of an issue is that?
Security first, regardless of version number. Beyond that, the real friction at upgrade time is usually plugin compatibility rather than the core jump itself.
Is the payment side of the site something you'd take on as well?
Yes, that's typically built directly into the Craft templates rather than kept as a separate system, so it needs the same level of attention as the rest of the site.
How is the cost worked out?
A fixed price for scoped project work, a monthly retainer for anything ongoing. Both figures agreed before work starts.
What's a sensible way to kick this off?
A short conversation about the site, its current Craft version, and what's actually driving the enquiry right now.
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.
