This tends to matter for Chester businesses whose ExpressionEngine site has quietly outgrown whoever's supposed to be looking after it, an agency that's moved on, or nobody left who understands the build.
Karl's who takes it on. Expression 37 has done nothing but ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS since 2007, and Karl's the only person who ever works on a project.
He reviews what's actually there first, always. Depending on the outcome, that's a fix, an upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
Who this tends to matter for:
Tourism and hospitality businesses whose booking flow needs to hold up during the city's busiest weekends, not just cope on a quiet Tuesday. Racecourse-adjacent businesses with genuine seasonal spikes that a slow site turns into lost bookings. Retailers running Stripe payments who need that connection properly maintained alongside the CMS itself. And sites left behind by an agency that's stopped taking on ExpressionEngine work, technically live but practically unsupported.
How it usually starts:
A first enquiry is rarely abstract, it's tied to something that just happened: the booking flow choked during a weekend rush, a plugin threw errors nobody recognised, or a client simply admitted nobody in-house could safely touch the site anymore. Karl won't put a number on anything until the codebase has actually been opened up and read, and a first fix has a habit of turning into a standing arrangement once the dust settles.
Common questions Chester clients ask:
Is it a problem you're not based in Chester?
No. Everything from the initial audit to ongoing changes is done remotely, and it doesn't change the quality of the work either way.
We inherited this site from a previous developer, can you pick it up?
That's how most relationships here begin. The site gets read properly first, custom code separated from stock add-ons, before any commitment is made about what happens next.
Our site sees a heavy spike around specific weekends, does that change anything?
It changes what gets prioritised first. Sites with real seasonal load need stable hosting and a properly tested booking flow well ahead of the busy period, not a fix applied after something's already gone wrong.
What if our ExpressionEngine version is years out of date?
Common, not unusual. Expect the bulk of an upgrade quote to cover add-on auditing rather than the core software swap itself.
Do you handle the Stripe side too, or just the CMS?
Yes. A payment integration built into the templates isn't really separable from the CMS around it, so it gets covered by the same work rather than handed off elsewhere.
How is pricing structured?
A single project, an audit or an upgrade, gets a fixed number upfront. If it becomes ongoing, that switches to a monthly retainer instead, again agreed before it starts.
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.
