9 Things Web Developers Don't Want You to Know

The uncomfortable truths about web development

I'm going to lose some developer friends with this one. But after a decade building websites and inheriting dozens of projects from other agencies, it's time someone said it.

Most business owners are being kept deliberately in the dark about how websites actually work, what they really cost, and what you're actually paying for.

Not because developers are malicious. But because opacity = higher margins and fewer difficult questions.

Here are nine things most web developers would rather you didn't know.

1. That "custom" website is probably a template

"We're building you a fully custom website designed specifically for your business."

Translation: We bought a £60 theme, changed the colours, swapped in your logo, and we're charging you £5,000 for it.

The reality: There's nothing inherently wrong with themes. Many premium themes are excellent foundations. The problem is the £4,940 markup for six hours of customisation work presented as "custom development."

What to ask: "Are you building this from scratch or using a theme/framework as a foundation?" Honest developers will explain their approach. Evasive answers = you're buying a template at custom prices.

2. You don't own your website (probably)

You paid £8,000 for a website. You assume you own it.

But then you want to move hosting providers, or switch developers, and suddenly: "That's quite complicated because of how the site was built. We'd need to charge £1,200 for the migration."

The reality: Many agencies retain control of critical components—hosting access, domain registration, content management—to make leaving expensive and complicated.

What to check: - Is the domain registered in your name at a registrar you can access? - Do you have direct hosting account credentials? - Can you export your full website (code, database, content)? - Is the site built on open-source platforms or proprietary systems?

If the answer to any of these is "no" or "we handle that for you," you don't really own your website.

3. Your website probably doesn't need a monthly retainer

"You need to keep us on a monthly retainer for security updates, backups, and maintenance."

£200/month sounds reasonable for peace of mind.

The reality: If you're on WordPress or any modern CMS, automated updates, backups, and monitoring cost about £15/month for the actual tools. The other £185 is margin.

When retainers make sense: - You're actually getting ongoing development work (new features, content updates) - You need guaranteed response times for critical fixes - Your site requires custom plugin maintenance

When they don't: - "Maintenance" means clicking update buttons once a month - Backups run automatically - You're paying for "monitoring" that never identifies issues

4. "We don't give you analytics access for security reasons" is nonsense

Some agencies insist on keeping Google Analytics access to themselves, providing monthly reports instead of direct dashboard access.

They'll cite security concerns or complexity.

The reality: They don't want you to see: - How little traffic you're actually getting - That those "1,000 monthly visitors" include 600 bots - The actual conversion rates from their SEO work - How bounce rate has increased since their last redesign

The fix: Demand direct access to Google Analytics, Search Console, and any other tools tracking your website's performance. This is non-negotiable. It's your business data.

5. Most websites are absurdly overpriced for the actual work involved

A competent developer can build a solid 5-7 page business website in 15-20 hours. Add design time (10-12 hours), project management (5 hours), content entry (4 hours), and you're at roughly 35-40 billable hours.

At £100/hour (generous rate), that's £3,500-4,000 for a quality small business website.

Yet agencies routinely charge £8,000-12,000 for the same work.

The reality: You're not paying for time. You're paying for: - Sales and account management overhead - Office costs - Their desired profit margins - The "brand" of working with an agency

None of which adds value to your website.

The nuance: Complex applications, e-commerce systems, and custom functionality do justify higher costs. But a brochure website for a law firm doesn't require a £10k budget.

6. "SEO-optimized" usually means almost nothing

Every proposal promises "SEO-optimized development." It sounds impressive.

What it actually means: - They'll add meta descriptions - Install an SEO plugin - Submit your sitemap to Google - Maybe run the site through PageSpeed Insights once

What it should mean: - Proper heading hierarchy - Schema markup for rich snippets - Core Web Vitals optimization - Internal linking strategy - Technical SEO audit and fixes - Content optimization for target keywords

The first list takes 90 minutes. The second takes 15+ hours. Guess which one most agencies deliver while charging for the latter?

7. Your slow website is their lazy development

"Websites just take time to load all the images and content."

No. Your website is slow because it wasn't built properly.

Common lazy development patterns: - Loading 3MB of uncompressed images - Including entire icon libraries for the 5 icons actually used - No lazy loading on images below the fold - Dozens of third-party scripts loading synchronously - No caching headers configured

All of these are fixable. Most developers just don't bother because: 1. Optimization takes time (which reduces their margins) 2. You probably won't notice until it's too late 3. They can blame hosting or your content later

The test: Use PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. If your scores are below 70/100, you've got a development quality problem, not a hosting problem.

8. Cheap hosting isn't your problem—over-engineered websites are

"Your website is slow because you're on shared hosting. You need to upgrade to our managed hosting for £80/month."

The reality: A properly built website performs perfectly fine on £8/month shared hosting. If your site needs expensive hosting to function properly, the problem is the site, not the hosting.

Modern reality: Edge hosting (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages) is essentially free for most small business sites and faster than any traditional hosting. The only reason to use expensive managed hosting is: - Your site is on WordPress or another legacy system - It was built inefficiently and needs expensive hosting to compensate - Your developer gets a hosting reseller commission

9. You can probably rebuild it better and cheaper

"You can't switch developers mid-project, the new team would need to start from scratch."

This is sometimes true. But more often it's a threat designed to prevent you from leaving.

The reality: If your site is built on standard platforms (WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, modern frameworks), competent developers can pick it up relatively easily.

The "start from scratch" warning usually means: - Your current developer built it in a proprietary or unnecessarily complex way - They know their code is messy and don't want another developer to see it - They're trying to discourage you from getting competing quotes

The test: Ask another developer for a technical audit. £300-500 for an expert to review your site's codebase and tell you whether it's salvageable or genuinely needs a rebuild.

What should you actually be paying?

Here's realistic pricing for quality web development in 2025:

Small business website (5-7 pages): - Fair price: £2,500-4,500 - Premium service: £5,000-7,000 - Agency pricing: £8,000-15,000

Medium website with custom features: - Fair price: £5,000-10,000 - Premium service: £10,000-18,000 - Agency pricing: £15,000-30,000

E-commerce website: - Fair price: £4,000-8,000 (platform-based) - Premium service: £8,000-15,000 (custom features) - Agency pricing: £15,000-40,000+

The difference between "fair" and "agency" pricing isn't quality. It's overhead.

Get the full breakdown

We've compiled everything you need to know before commissioning a website into a detailed guide covering red flags, questions to ask, typical costs, and what you should actually own.

[Download: 9 Things Web Developers Don't Want You to Know (Complete Guide) →](/contact?interest=developer-secrets)

Free guide including pricing breakdowns, contract red flags, and questions to ask before hiring.

The bottom line

Good web developers provide enormous value. They solve complex problems, build reliable systems, and create experiences that generate revenue.

But the industry has too much opacity, too many inflated margins, and too much deliberate complexity designed to keep business owners dependent and uninformed.

You deserve to know: - What you're actually paying for - What you should own - What's reasonable to expect - When you're being overcharged

Most developers won't tell you these things. Now you know anyway.

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[Download the full guide](/contact?interest=developer-secrets) or [discuss your project honestly](/contact).