We just rebuilt last year. Is it too early?

It's the opposite — that's the cheapest possible moment to start, because nothing needs fixing first. The expensive time to switch is year four, when there's a backlog to work through before anything improves.

Does this replace our marketing agency?

No, and we'd rather you kept them. They own campaigns, content and voice; we own the layer those land on. No referral fees move in either direction, so neither of us has a reason to encroach.

Is it really unlimited?

There's no scope and no change orders. What there is instead is a monthly priority conversation, because nobody can do infinite work in a month and we'd rather say that than pretend otherwise.

What if we want to leave?

You leave with everything — domain, hosting, code, content, analytics — and we help with the handover. Month to month throughout. A provider who makes leaving painful is telling you what they think of their own work.

AliveCommerce / Capabilities / Stop rebuilding the website

Stop rebuilding the website

Every site follows the same curve. It launches, everyone's proud of it, the business changes, the site doesn't, and four years later someone says the only fix is starting over. That's not a design problem. It's what happens when websites are bought as projects.

Does this sound like you?

Tick what applies. The count changes what we'd recommend, and sometimes the recommendation is to do nothing yet.

What's actually causing it.

Almost never carelessness. Usually the predictable result of a decision that made sense at the time.

It was bought as a project

Projects end. The agency moves on, nobody is assigned to it, and the site begins diverging from the business the week after launch. The decay isn't neglect — it's the delivery model working as designed.

Every change became a negotiation

Under a scope, each request costs money and takes a conversation. So small improvements don't get made, they accumulate, and eventually the backlog is large enough that starting over looks reasonable.

Marketing owns the content, nobody owns the layer

Your team or agency runs campaigns and content. The platform underneath — speed, structure, templates, accessibility, measurement — belongs to no one between rebuilds.

What we do about it.

In this order, because doing them out of order is how these projects fail.

Take it off the cycle

The site changes every month in response to data rather than being reinvented every three years. There's never a version far enough behind that starting over looks sensible.

Remove the scope conversation

One fixed monthly fee, no change orders. What replaces the commercial argument is a priority argument — of everything we could do this month, what matters most.

Work alongside your agency, not instead of it

We don't do campaigns, content or social. Agencies tend to be relieved: they stop being blamed for page speed and stop waiting weeks on a landing page.

Measure and keep measuring

Performance, accessibility and conversion get tracked continuously instead of audited once and forgotten until the next rebuild.

Engagement

Month to month

No lock-in, no notice period beyond the current month

Cheapest time to start

Right after a rebuild

Nothing needs fixing first, so nothing is catch-up work

Most common trigger

A rebuild quote

Usually the third one in a decade

Which way in.

Same team either way. The difference is whether this has an ending.

Continuous ownership

DARWIN

The web and e-commerce layer, managed monthly. Design, development, conversion, technical SEO, hosting, security and accessibility under one fee.

See DARWIN

A defined project

AliveCommerce

When there genuinely is a project — a platform migration, a complex B2B build, or accessibility work with a compliance deadline attached.

Web and e-commerce

What it looks like in practice.

Industrial supply · 45 staff · ongoing

Customers phoned for order status all day

A self-service portal against live ERP data, plus a companion app for the outside sales team. Built for the VP of Sales rather than the IT department.

62%

fewer status calls

Straight answers.

Related.

These tend to travel together.

Sell to customers online“Contract pricing and stock levels don't survive the handoff.”Meet accessibility rules“AODA obligations with a date attached to them.”Give customers self-service“The phones ring all day for order status.”

Tell us what's breaking.

We'll tell you which part of this we'd put on it, roughly what it costs, and whether it's worth doing at all — including when the honest answer is that you don't need us.

Start the Conversation

Knowledge and process

Applications and data

Customer and web

Browse by symptom instead

The structure

Continuous ownership

Before you commit

Start with one problem

Priority sectors

Also

Or by situation

Not sure you fit?

Reading

Most read

Proof

Nobody owns the application layer