Professional CMS platforms for teams tired of fighting data

A brand new Laravel or WordPress platform designed to spec, for complex relational data management.

Discuss a build Book a strategy call

Who it’s for

You run a content-rich organisation with a real need for secure, reliable data management — and you keep hitting a wall with your CMS.

  • Bugs, errors and inefficiencies stop you updating data.
  • Too many plugins cause bloat and security issues.
  • Training new team members on a legacy system becomes a chore.

Maybe you’re an editorial team, a membership body or a regulated business. You already know the overall shape of your data, and your team knows the tricky subtleties of managing it. You know how that data has to work for your organisation to succeed — and you need a powerful tool to manage that data that you can trust and rely on.

But when those tools fall short and your team struggles, you lose time and money. Perhaps you’ve outgrown your existing tools, or simply never had the systems in place from the start to manage data of this complexity.

The goal is a system that lets your team run content admin quickly and without errors, built with them in mind. No off-the-shelf solutions — a custom-built platform that works around your specific requirements.

What you’ll be getting

  • A powerful relational data model configured to match how your organisation is ordered internally, with links and connections set up so your team can maintain the data in a way that makes sense to them. No flat fields, no duplicated data that needs syncing across multiple pages.
  • Intuitive tools. Administration interfaces shouldn’t need documentation. A team that knows the data should also know the system, so a content update takes a few minutes, not half an hour and a call to tech support.
  • Clean, optimised front-end structure. Your team get a streamlined system shaped around your requirements, and your public visitors get exactly what they need to see, when they need to see it.

I usually work with Laravel or WordPress to build platforms like this, though other options are available — whatever fits your requirements, we’ll work out a plan together.

How it works

  1. Planning it out. An initial strategy call helps both of us understand what data already exists and how it needs to be served. We’ll figure out the workflows and completion criteria. You’ll leave with a plan even if it goes no further.
  2. Built to a spec. Delivered in scoped blocks, the project takes shape on a suitable staging server so you can see progress as it happens. You won’t need to wait weeks to see results.
  3. Handover on completion. After the project is done and you’re happy with everything, it’s yours. The full codebase IP is handed over and you retain copyright. Third-party and open-source libraries keep their own licences, and any general, reusable code I’ve written stays outwith that transfer — but your bespoke build is entirely yours.

Ready when you are

The first step is a paid strategy call to outline the scope and work out what your team needs, rather than relying on guesswork. Your input — and that of your critical stakeholders — is crucial at this stage. So let’s get going!

Discuss a build Book a strategy call

Before you brief a build

The questions worth answering up front.

Laravel or WordPress?

Both are great systems, excelling in their respective niches. WordPress is a powerful editorial tool, with tried-and-tested techniques for managing blog content, membership sites, e-commerce and more — a great fit for certain types of site. Laravel, on the other hand, is a fully customisable option with genuinely relational data. I’ll tell you which is the better fit on our strategy call.

How long does a build take?

I’ll give you an idea of timeframes after our strategy call — either a solid timeline, or a rough indication that needs a short discovery period to nail down. Either way, we’ll get those numbers in place before you commit to the full build. An average-sized CMS build usually takes a couple of months, delivered in defined, scoped blocks.

How will I onboard my team?

I’ll involve your critical stakeholders throughout the process, so I understand not just what needs building, but who’ll use it and how best to communicate how it works. The interface will be intuitive — guiding people through clear labelling and straightforward workflows — and additional documentation plus optional onboarding calls with me are always available.

Will it work with our existing stack?

Depending on the technology you’ve got in place, almost certainly. We’ll work with what you already have and build the migration strategy into the plan — whether that’s moving content over fully or getting your existing components talking to the new ones. There’s always a clear path forward.

Let's talk.

I help content-rich organisations understand their data and fix broken admin. Tell me what specific problems you're having and I'll be happy to talk solutions with you.