Craft CMS Developer & Support in Newcastle

Long-term Craft CMS support, version upgrades, and specialist development for businesses that cannot afford for their website to fail.

Craft CMS Developer & Support in Newcastle

Karl @ Expression 37 ~ Craft CMS Developer, Newcastle

Newcastle and the wider North East has one of the UK's most active and fastest-growing tech sectors, alongside well-established professional services, financial services, and creative industries. Craft CMS has strong adoption in this market, and a number of Newcastle and North East businesses now find themselves with Craft sites that were built by agencies that have since moved on. Without active maintenance, plugin compatibility drifts, upgrades get deferred, and the gap between a working site and a maintained one grows steadily wider.

Most clients come to us with a site that has outgrown its current level of support. Either it was built by an agency that no longer looks after it properly, or it is running on an old version of Craft that nobody has wanted to touch, or it has bespoke plugins that need a developer who genuinely understands them. We work remotely with clients across Newcastle and the North East, and take the time to learn each site properly before making changes. Most clients move to a monthly retainer once the initial work is done.

Who we typically work with:

  • Newcastle and North East businesses where the website is central to how they operate and generate revenue, and where downtime or broken functionality has a direct commercial cost.
  • Companies that have outgrown their agency and want direct access to a Craft CMS specialist rather than being managed through account managers and passed to junior developers.
  • Sites on older versions of Craft CMS that need a proper upgrade path, including plugin compatibility work, Composer dependency management, and thorough pre-launch testing.
  • Businesses with complex third-party integrations such as Stripe, Salesforce, HubSpot, or custom APIs that need ongoing maintenance and specialist knowledge to keep running.
  • Owners who need a long-term partner, not a one-off fix, someone who learns the business, knows the system, and is there when something needs doing.

What working with Expression 37 typically looks like:

Most new clients start with a specific problem: an upgrade that has been put off, a broken integration, or a site left without proper developer support after an agency relationship ended. We work remotely with Newcastle and North East clients throughout the project. The goal is to become the team that knows your Craft CMS site better than anyone, so you always have expert support when you need it.

Common questions:

Do you work with Newcastle and North East businesses remotely?

Yes. All our client work is handled remotely. For businesses in Newcastle and across the North East, where specialist Craft CMS expertise can be difficult to find locally, working with a dedicated remote developer means access to the right skills without being limited by geography. There is no need for on-site visits for the vast majority of work.

Can you take over a Craft CMS site built by another developer?

Yes. This is one of the most common starting points for new clients. We take on Craft CMS codebases built by agencies and other developers regularly, including sites with heavily customised templates, bespoke plugins, and years of accumulated complexity. We take the time to understand what exists before making any changes.

My Craft CMS site is on an old version, can you upgrade it?

Yes. We have carried out upgrades across Craft CMS versions, including major version upgrades from Craft 3 to Craft 4 and Craft 5. This includes auditing and replacing plugins that are no longer compatible, updating template code, and testing thoroughly before anything goes live.

Do you support third-party integrations like Stripe, Salesforce or HubSpot?

Yes. Maintaining and extending third-party integrations is a core part of what we do. Whether that is a payment gateway, a CRM sync, a marketing platform, or a custom API, we can support it alongside the Craft CMS codebase itself.

How much does Craft CMS support cost?

Pricing depends on the nature of the work. We work on a project basis for one-off work such as upgrades and audits, and on a monthly retainer for ongoing support. A clear cost is agreed before any work begins, with no surprises.

What if something goes wrong with our site urgently?

Retainer clients receive priority response for urgent issues. For businesses without a retainer arrangement, we can often respond quickly to critical problems, but consistent priority access is part of what an ongoing retainer provides.

How do I get started?

The starting point is a brief conversation about the site: what it does, what version it is running, and what support currently looks like. We will give an honest assessment of what is involved before any commitment is made.

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.

Can we help?

Most clients come to us when their site has started to feel like a risk rather than an asset. Whether the agency relationship has ended, an upgrade has been delayed, or the site has simply grown beyond what it can handle, a conversation costs nothing.

Get in touch with Karl

Trusted by established businesses and growing brands across the UK

Expression 37 works with a small number of clients at any one time. These are some of them.

About Karl

Karl Bowers ~ ExpressionEngine & Craft CMS Specialist

Karl is the founder of Expression 37 Ltd and has been working exclusively with ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS since 2007. In eighteen years he has supported more than 80 clients across the UK, from long-term retainer arrangements to emergency rescues when something has gone wrong at the worst possible moment. Every piece of work is handled personally by Karl, with no account managers or junior developers between you and the person doing it.

Find out how we work

Client feedback:

Karl has been instrumental in delivering the ExpressionEngine development requirements for our client. Karl very quickly became part of our extended team as he is reliable, dependable and thorough in everything he does. Karl has a genuine desire to see his clients succeed and he will go out of his way to help them achieve that. Karl worked hard on our projects and was so helpful all along the way. He is driven, talented and an absolute pleasure to work with! Any organisation would be lucky to have Karl on their team.

Wayne Smallman

Wayne Smallman
Octane Ltd.

» Get in touch