Senior Craft CMS developer for UK businesses and agencies
Twenty-five years building, rescuing and maintaining content sites. Craft 3, 4 and 5 work delivered from Leicester to clients across the UK.
Craft CMS development that respects the content model
Craft CMS rewards careful planning. The content model is the long-term contract between the marketing team and the codebase. A senior Craft developer shapes that model before writing a single Twig template. That is the work I do for UK businesses and agencies who already know what they want to publish, and who need the technical layer to match.
Most of my Craft CMS work starts as a rescue or takeover. A site was built by a previous agency, the contact has moved on, and the next round of changes has stalled. I audit the codebase, document the channel and section structure, and stabilise the site before any new feature work. The audit alone tells most clients what they did not know about their own site.
What I work on with UK Craft CMS clients
Craft CMS rescue and takeover
Site audit, plugin and module review, hosting check, security configuration and content model documentation. Done before any new development.
Craft 3 to Craft 5 migration
Craft 3 reached end of life in 2024. I plan and execute the upgrade path through Craft 4, including plugin replacement, deprecated API removal and database schema changes.
White-label for agencies
Senior Craft capacity for UK design and brand agencies who need delivery depth without a permanent hire. I work inside your tools and follow your processes.
Craft CMS performance work
Template caching, eager loading, database tuning and asset delivery. Real measurement, not guesswork. Most slow Craft sites are slow for a specific reason.
Custom plugin and module development
When the off-the-shelf plugin will not fit the editorial workflow. Plugin development that follows Craft conventions and that the next developer can maintain.
Ongoing Craft CMS support
Monthly retainer covering updates in staging, security monitoring, backup verification and a defined block of development hours. Predictable cost, predictable response.
Why Craft CMS, and why now
Craft CMS sits where WordPress cannot and Statamic will not. It assumes a team that publishes structured content, that values predictable updates and that does not want a marketplace of plugins competing for the same job. For UK businesses with a content team and a marketing pipeline, that fit is hard to argue with.
Craft 5 brought a strong update story. The migration path from Craft 4 is well-documented, the developer experience is mature and Pixel & Tonic continue to ship steady improvements. The platform is not a fashion. It is a working tool that pays back the planning effort over years.
I work with clients who have either inherited Craft from a previous agency, or who have chosen Craft for a new build and need a senior pair of hands. Most engagements are project work plus a small ongoing retainer.
Common questions from UK Craft CMS clients
We have a Craft CMS site that the original developer no longer supports. Can you take it over?
Yes. Takeovers are the most common starting point. I audit the codebase, review plugins, hosting and security, and document the content model before suggesting any changes. The audit gives you a clear picture of where the site stands and what needs attention first.
We are still on Craft 3. Is migration urgent?
Craft 3 reached end of life in 2024 and no longer receives security updates. Migration to Craft 5 is straightforward in most cases but requires planning. I run the migration in stages through staging environments and test each step before progressing.
Do you work on Craft Commerce builds?
Yes, including catalogue structure, payment gateway integration, shipping configuration and checkout customisation. Most Craft Commerce projects benefit from the same content modelling discipline that suits a regular Craft site.
How do you charge?
Project work is scoped and quoted upfront with a fixed price. Ongoing arrangements are monthly retainers with agreed hours. I flag scope changes early and never invoice for work that was not agreed.
Can you work white-label for our agency?
Yes. I deliver Craft CMS work under your brand, inside your project management tools and on your timelines. Your clients see your agency. I am invisible to them.
How does Craft CMS compare to WordPress for a serious content site?
Craft suits projects where the content model matters: structured editorial, multi-channel content, custom field types and a clean editor experience. WordPress suits projects where plugin breadth and ecosystem matter more than data discipline. For a marketing site that publishes structured content over many years, Craft is usually the lower long-term cost. For a site that needs to assemble from off-the-shelf plugins, WordPress is faster to start.
Do you work with UK Craft CMS agencies as a senior developer?
Yes. Several UK design and digital agencies bring me in as a senior Craft developer for specific projects or as ongoing technical depth. I work behind the agency brand, attend internal standups when needed, and the client never knows there is a third-party developer. Engagements are scoped per project or run on monthly retainers.
What does a typical Craft CMS engagement cost?
A Craft CMS site audit and stabilisation engagement typically runs between 1,500 and 4,000 pounds depending on the size of the site and the depth of the existing problems. A Craft 3 to Craft 5 migration runs from 2,500 pounds for a straightforward site. Monthly retainers for ongoing Craft work start at 600 pounds. Project quotes are fixed price after scoping.
How does this differ from working with one of the regional Craft CMS pages on this site?
This page is the main UK Craft CMS developer hub. The regional pages cover the same work but written from the angle of clients in that city. The work, the developer and the engagement model are identical. If you are not sure which page is right, this UK hub is the safest starting point.
Craft CMS developer across the UK
For city-specific Craft work, see London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Leeds. For agency-only enquiries, see the Craft CMS agency UK page.
If you are working out whether a developer has the right depth, what a Craft CMS developer actually needs to know covers the skills the role demands beyond surface familiarity.
Working on a Craft CMS project?
Describe the situation and I will tell you whether I can help and what the next step looks like.