Craft CMS enquiries from Nottingham usually mean one of two things: an install that's holding up but ignored, or one that's genuinely broken with whoever built it unreachable.
Karl handles every one personally, no wider team involved. Craft CMS and ExpressionEngine are the only platforms Expression 37's touched since 2007. You deal with him, not an account manager.
Before quoting anything, he reviews the install properly. Depending on what's found, that's a fix, an upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
Where we typically come in:
- Retailers running Craft Commerce who need stable checkout performance and someone reachable around peak trading weekends.
- Sites left behind by an agency that no longer supports Craft CMS work, leaving the install live but effectively unmaintained.
- Installs several major versions behind current Craft, where plugins need auditing for compatibility before any upgrade path is safe.
- Businesses with Stripe, Salesforce, HubSpot, or custom API integrations wired directly into Craft, needing a developer who understands the whole stack, not just the templates.
- Owners who want direct access to the developer who actually knows the site, rather than an agency account manager relaying requests.
How a typical engagement starts:
Most Nottingham clients reach out after something specific goes wrong: a Composer dependency conflict blocking a plugin update, a quote from an agency that never turned into action, or the discovery that nobody could explain a piece of custom Twig logic. Karl reviews the actual codebase before quoting, and most engagements settle into an ongoing retainer once the initial issue is sorted.
Common questions Nottingham clients ask:
Does it matter that you're not local to Nottingham?
Not for the work itself. Craft CMS support, from plugin audits to deployment, is handled remotely end to end, and Nottingham is close enough for an in-person meeting on the rare occasion it's genuinely useful. Working directly with the developer tends to be faster than going through an agency's account management layer.
We took this site over from another developer, can you make sense of it?
Yes, that's the most common starting point. Working out which plugins are load-bearing, which custom modules were built for a single client need, and documenting it properly as we go, is routine. A short discovery phase comes before any changes.
Our site gets busy during sales periods, does that affect how you work?
It affects what gets prioritised. High-traffic retail periods need Craft Commerce checkout flows tested in advance, stable hosting, and a support arrangement where someone actually answers if something breaks mid-weekend, not a ticket sitting in a queue.
What if we're stuck on an old Craft version?
That's common, not unusual. Upgrades from Craft 3 through to Craft 5 are regular work, and the real effort tends to be plugin compatibility auditing rather than the core upgrade itself.
Do you look after the integrations as well as the CMS?
Yes. Payment gateways, CRM syncs, and marketing platform connections are usually built directly into the Craft templates, so separating the CMS from its integrations tends to miss where problems actually surface.
How does pricing work?
Project work like audits and upgrades is quoted as a fixed cost. Ongoing support runs on a monthly retainer. Either way, cost is agreed upfront, no open-ended hourly billing.
What if something breaks out of hours?
Retainer clients get priority response on urgent issues. Without a retainer we still respond quickly where we can, but guaranteed priority is specifically what a retainer buys.
What's the first step?
A short conversation about the site, its current Craft version, and whatever's currently broken or worrying you. That's enough to give an honest view before anything is agreed.
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.
