Our Technology

How we save you thousands

We save you money because the technology we use is largely free or 'open source'. We never hide the technology we use from you. We want you to know what we're doing and why. One of the things we do here at Reservoir Digital is to show you how to use these systems so that you become self-sufficient. (If you want).

You therefore don't have a massive cost overhead when we build you a site. In fact, all you normally have to pay for, in terms of the technology, is your domain name and hosting. We don't do hosting on behalf of our customers, that's because we want you to get the best deal possible from a specialist Internet Service Provider. We have no relationships with ISPs for that reason.

Here's what we use to build your site:

Elementor Page Builder

We no longer have to build websites in code.  Page Builders help us to build websites really quickly and give you incredible power and flexibility.  Elementor has been our Page Builder of choice since we first found it 3 years ago.  We no longer use any other technology for building pages because Elementor is  so powerful and under continual development.  Elementor has a free version and a paid version.  In all cases we use the paid version as it gives you a great deal more capability to build the website you want.  The cost is roughly $50 (£42) per year.  

If you would like to purchase a copy of Elementor PRO then click the link below and we’ll take you directly to the Elementor website.

 Elementor PRO

Elementor Hello Theme

Themes are important because they are the fundamental building blocks of any website. There are so many themes that it’s impossible to work with all of them.  There are specialised themes for Learning Management Systems, e-Commerce, membership systems etc.  For most websites we tend to stick to the ‘Hello’ theme by Elementor, it’s light, fast and works wonderfully well with Elementor Page Builder.  Occasionally we might use a different theme like Kadence if Woo Commerce is used.

WordPress Content Management System

Although there are many Content Management Systems, our belief is that WordPress is the best all-round system for business websites.  It is free, flexible and very powerful.  There are many WordPress developers around who can build specialised requirements if needed.  However, where WordPress scores highly is the number of plugins available to do specific things, and most of them are free.  There are plugins that allow you to build almost any conceivable requirement from specialised navigation menus to e-commerce, Learning Management, Membership Systems, all of which we have used with great success.

Woo Commerce – e-commerce system

Woo Commerce is the WordPress e-commerce system of choice.  It’s powerful and flexible and can be up and running in a few hours (We’re not kidding – ask our customers.)  WooCommerce is a flexible, open-source eCommerce solution built on WordPress. Whether you’re launching a new business or taking an existing brick and mortar store online, you can get started quickly and build exactly the store you want.

Lifter LMS – Learning Management System

Lifter LMS is a comprehensive LMS Plugin for WordPress.  This is one of the best WordPress LMS Plugins that can be used to easily create & sell courses online. Each course curriculum can be made with lessons & quizzes which can be managed with the easy-to-use interface. With Lifter LMS, you can quickly and easily create education, online school, online-course websites.

Membership and Security System

Ultimate Member is the #1 user profile & membership plugin for WordPress. The plugin makes it a breeze for users to sign-up and become members of your website. The plugin allows you to add beautiful user profiles to your site and is perfect for creating advanced online communities and membership sites. Lightweight and highly extendible, Ultimate Member will enable you to create almost any type of site where users can join and become members with absolute ease.

GeoDirectory – Directory Management System

Let’s say you wanted to set up a website for a local restaurant directory or a website for tourist attractions, then GeoDirectory is what you need.

GeoDirectory is the world’s most advanced and scalable WordPress directory plugin.  Today, GeoDirectory is the only WordPress directory plugin on the market that can scale to millions of listings and withstand the battering of traffic that comes along with that.

Mailchimp email Marketing

There are more email systems for Marketing  out there than you can shake a stick at, but the one we keep coming back to is Mailchimp.

If you have a small database of people and if that number is under 2000, then Mailchimp is completely free.  You can go up to 50,000 and it’s still only around £7-8 per month.

 

Hubspot Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation is a vital tool in your armoury.  To us it’s more important than a CRM system.  Marketing Automation allows you to analyse in detail the status of campaigns across the board.  Of all the Marketing Automation systems out there, we believe that Hubspot is the best, and, in its basic form, is free, it also has a free CRM built in.

Comparative Pricing Table

How do we save you money?

Typical Costs from  a Web Agency

Costs from Reservoir Digital

Cost of Design and Build

Typically from £4000-£12000 although it can vary immensely.  Design is usually separate and can cost around £4000-£8000.

Dependant upon complexity but it can be as low as £1000 or as high as £4000.  The higher price includes at least one add-on module like e-commerce.

Domain and Hosting

Typically from £600-£1000 per annum although again it can vary immensely.  

Cost over three years:  £1800 to £3000

You can choose any host you want and this is usually around £100 per annum

Cost over 3 years: £300

Cost of add-ons, themes and plugins.

Varies – possibly included in the Domain & Hosting Charges.

Cost over 3 years: £300 – £1000

Typically there is usually only a charge for one or two elements and this never exceeds £100.

Cost over 3 years: £300

Annual Support

This varies from agency to agency but we have seen prices ranging from £350 to in excess of £4000 per annum.

Cost over 3 years: £1000 – £12000

Our support charge is typically 10% of the original cost of the website build, but it’s not mandatory. Anything from £100 to £400 per annum

Cost over 3 years: £300 – £1200

Additional requirements

Varies – usually an hourly charge from £60 to £300 per hour, but varies immensely.  

Over the course of 3 years this could add up to the same price as the original build  around £4000 or more

Small enhancements are usually free, covered in the annual support charges. 

Cost over 3 years: £0

 

Costs over three years

Low Figure: £8400

High Figure: £50000

Low Figure: £2000

High Figure: £6000

Taking an average of each cost, this is how it turns out over 3 years.

Interested?

If you would like us to help you reduce the costs of your next website then fill in the form below and we'll be delighted to have a chat.

Items marked with an * are required.