Most Craft CMS enquiries from Gloucester come down to one of two things: an install that's stable but ignored, or one that's broken with whoever built it long gone.
Karl deals with it personally, start to finish. Craft CMS and ExpressionEngine are the only platforms Expression 37's touched since it started in 2007. You're speaking to him, not a team.
Before quoting anything, he reviews the install itself. What that shows decides whether it's a fix, a version upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
What connects a cathedral, a rugby club, and the old docks?
A business community that spans heritage tourism through to marine and engineering trades built around the historic waterfront, all needing sites that hold up under different kinds of pressure. Quite a lot of that runs on Craft installs that were solid when they launched and have quietly gone unmanaged since.
Karl works with Gloucester businesses whose install has reached that stage: a developer who's stopped taking on Craft work, several major versions behind, or bespoke functionality nobody currently on staff properly understands. Nothing gets quoted before the actual codebase has been read.
Common questions Gloucester clients ask:
What's involved before you'll actually quote anything?
A proper read of the templates and plugins first, since a content update that turns out harder than expected, an old plugin flagged by a security scan, or simply nobody knowing how part of the site works are the usual triggers that bring someone to us in the first place.
Is Gloucester being outside your immediate area a real problem?
No. The work's carried out remotely from start to finish, and getting down here for a conversation is easy enough the rare time it's genuinely worth doing.
Can you take on an install from a developer who's stopped supporting Craft?
This is one of the more typical ways an engagement starts. Establishing what's genuinely custom-built versus a modified plugin takes an honest look at the code, nothing more, nothing less.
Is an old Craft version a genuine problem?
Usually less than people expect. The core software rarely causes issues by itself. It's the unmaintained plugins sitting alongside it that tend to cause the actual trouble.
Do you handle the Stripe side too, or just the CMS?
Yes, as one piece of work. Payment connections are usually wired directly into the templates, so separating them from the CMS itself tends to be where problems get missed.
How does pricing work?
One-off work like audits and upgrades is quoted as a fixed cost. Ongoing support runs as a monthly retainer, agreed upfront either way, no open-ended hourly billing.
Where this tends to matter:
A heritage or tourism organisation where getting something wrong publicly costs reputation, not just revenue. A marine or engineering firm around the docks publishing genuinely technical specification content, not dressed-up marketing copy. Retail sites taking money through Stripe that need the payment side treated with the same seriousness as everything else. And an install carrying enough age that no plugin gets assumed compatible, checked individually instead, Composer dependencies included, before anyone touches an upgrade.
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.
