Web design in Bury

I went to Holy Cross College in Bury, and a lot of my friends went to Bury College, so I spent plenty of time round the town while I was studying.

If you run a business, charity or community group in Bury and you need a website, I can build you one that's fast, easy to update, and clear about what you do. A straightforward site starts at about £600, with the usual 50% discount for charities, co-ops, artists, musicians, vegan businesses and renewable energy companies. There's also a cheaper £40 a month route using my tickets platform if a full build isn't the right fit.

What I build

I build static sites. The pages are generated in advance and served as plain files, so they load quickly and cost very little to host. There's no database running behind them and no plugins to update, which means fewer things to go wrong and less for you to pay someone to maintain.

You edit the site through PagesCMS in your browser, or by changing plain text files if you're comfortable with that. If you'd rather send me the changes, that's fine too. You own the full source code, so you're never stuck with me if you want to move to another developer or host it yourself.

Hosting costs £10/month without support, or £40/month with updates, monitoring and advice, and charities and the other discounted groups pay half. The sites run on Bunny.net, a European hosting provider, so they stay quick wherever your customers are.

Websites for Bury businesses

Bury has a lot of businesses that live on footfall and local reputation: market traders, independent shops, cafes, tradespeople, and services that people find by asking around or searching on their phone. The site doesn't need to be clever to help with that, but it does need to answer those questions quickly on a phone. It should show what you sell, where you are, when you're open, and how to get in touch.

For a market trader, I'd still want at least three pages: a home page that says what you sell and where you trade, a reviews page, and a contact page. That will do more for you than a bigger site you don't have time to maintain. For a tradesperson, the important thing is usually showing the areas you cover, the work you've done, and the reviews you've collected, because people want to know you're local and reliable before they ring you.

Bury also has a lot of classes, clubs and events. If you run something like that, the tickets route below is often a better fit than a custom build, because it gives you a public page and a booking system without paying for a full website first.

Local work

Sally's Bakes is the example I'd point to first. Sally runs a vegan bakery in Bury, making pies, pasties, cakes and cookies, and delivering to businesses and homes across Manchester. Her site shows the menu, explains the delivery area, and links to her social media. It's a good example of a small food business site that does the job without a big platform underneath it.

Most of the other sites I build on the Chobble Template are edited through PagesCMS. You log in with an email magic link, change the words, and the site rebuilds itself. It's about as easy as editing a shared document.

GFC Muay Thai is a family Muay Thai gym in Bury, built on the Chobble Template. Uke Group North is based in Bury and Ramsbottom and runs ukulele sessions across the area, and I built their site too. I've also built sites for Renegade Solar in Prestwich, Crumpsall Folk Club and Vegan Prestwich, so I've worked with businesses, clubs and community groups across north Manchester and Bury.

I spent ten years as lead developer at Bouncy Castle Network. They were based in Manchester when I worked there and are now in Bury, so the town is part of my working history as well as where I studied.

Gigs, clubs and venues

I was a regular at Siberia, the rock club in Bury that's since closed, so I've spent plenty of nights in the town's venues. Bury still has loads of independent gig venues, and if you run one, Chobble Tickets is worth a look because it takes no cut of ticket sales. Jersey Girls, the ice cream parlour at Burrs Country Park, uses Chobble Tickets for their ticket sales.

A cheaper route for workshops and simple sites

If you run gigs, workshops, classes or events and you don't need a full custom website, I can set you up on Chobble Tickets and use it as your site. The package costs £40 a month with no setup fee, or £20 a month for charities, community groups and co-operatives.

That covers the setup: I'll sort your domain and email, take the details of your listings and business from the chat thread and import them, and then support you while you get used to it. You can ask questions in the thread, or message me on Signal or WhatsApp. Chalkie's School for Dogs is a good example of the arrangement.

The site is built around listings and bookings, with news and content pages, so it suits gigs, workshops, classes, appointments, hires and events. It's not a bespoke page builder, and if your business needs a lot of custom pages I'll tell you before you sign up. The prices page explains what's included.

What it costs

Everything is billed at £200 an hour, or £100 for the discounted groups, and I'll send a written breakdown before I start. A basic site usually lands between £600 and £800; a custom design between £1,400 and £1,600; and anything with more involved functionality from £2,000. The price calculator can give you a closer figure.

Get in touch

I'm based in Prestwich, which is a straightforward trip up the road from Bury, and I'm happy to come to you or meet somewhere in town. The first conversation is free, and if I'm not the right person for the job I'll say so.

Use the form below if you'd like a quote, or if you just want to talk through what your business needs online. If you're over towards Rossendale, I've also written a page for web design in Rossendale.