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Can somebody please tell me what language this particular website is written in or the site builder?

Hi all

My relative wants to have a new website built for his company so we poked around locally trying to get a price for what he wants.  However, the 3 local companies we approached both said similar things such as 'You need to look around the internet and find a site that you like.  Then, when you find a site, just tell us the site name and we will build a site based on that'  However, a friend of a friend told us...'It's all well and good having a site built like somebody else's website but you will need the site built in a language/format etc where you can make changes to it yourself, without having to keep contacting the site builder (and subsequently paying them for any changes they make).  Those comments are 100% true because my relative's business regularly has special offers, discounts, new product lines etc. so we don't want to keep asking for changes (and paying) by somebody else.  With this in mind, we spent last weekend trawling the web for site designs and ideas that we think will fit the business and we narrowed it down to a website that he likes.  the site is safestyle windows.  Even though his business is in food and drink retail the site he has seen contains about the right amount of images, contents and options on the home screen that he will use for his own site.  We initially tried to find the site author/builder so we could ask them to build us a similar site but we couldn't find their details.  I hope I'm not doing anything wrong in naming the site but I assume I'm not because the site is freely viewable and the company is even advertising on TV.  Any help would be greatly appreciated so we know where we can start off.  The main thing is being able to change images and parts of the site without paying somebody else. 

Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • Neil_Jones
    Neil_Jones Posts: 9,418 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    "This particular website" being...?  I note "safestyle windows" so is it safestyle-windows.co.uk?

    All websites are built in a standard language.  There are various ways to generate this language.

    There are also various other ways to build what you want, but if you want more control it's not just a case of copy a website and change all the text and all the images.

    Looking at the source code of the safestyle windows site I posted, that looks like a variation on Boostrap, looking at some of the class entries.
  • tacpot12
    tacpot12 Posts: 9,024 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 9 March 2023 pm31 1:41PM
    I'm not a web expert, but as far as I can tell the Safetsyle Windows site is built with HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Javascript. In that respect, it uses a very common set of tools/languages. However, these tools are proper programming languages, and learning to code in them is not a trivial task. Programming in these languages will require your relative to get to grips with Content Management and Release Management. 

    I think your relative might be better off looking at a hosting provider (for their website) that has tool that allows 'ordinary' business users to build a website . You need a provider that has a good product catalogue feature, and which allows offers, discounts, coupons etc. to be easily added and withdrawn. 

    This link lists some of the website builders you might want to look at: top10best-WEBSITEBUILDERS

    Note that this list is complied by someone that has been paid to include certain providers, so I would treat their scores for the websites with some sceptism. Ultiamtely, your relative needs to evaluate the features of each builder and how easy it will for them to make the common changes they think they will be making regularly.  
    The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.
  • Cornucopia
    Cornucopia Posts: 16,374 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Web Designers will be asking for a look-a-like site not because of the underlying technology, but because they want some guidance on the required look & feel, and perhaps also on the extent of requirements for transactions (ordering, customer profiles, etc.)

    A large company like the one you found will either have its own in-house developers or it'll have a web design company on permanent contract.   

    The issue for anyone looking for a web site these days is that the costs can vary hugely based on what you want and how credible your web design company needs to be.    If you want to do some light maintenance yourselves, you'll be best looking at a standard site builder app, which will usually avoid the need to get involved with actual programming languages.    Wix and Wordpress are two of the most common, though pretty much every web hosting company will have their own free/cheap option included.  

    The other option is to get web development done by a large generalist business services company like Yell or GoDaddy.  I have no idea on costs or results from that option, but it's a possibility especially if they are already known to you.  
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 9 March 2023 pm31 6:35PM
    Even though his business is in food and drink retail the site he has seen contains about the right amount of images, contents and options on the home screen that he will use for his own site.
    You are probably better off finding an example in the same sector as your business. The number of images and options on the home screen is easily changed on any template website, the designer is looking more for the branding and style as inspiration. To be brutally honest the Safestyle website is garish and not particularly pleasing to the eye at all but that suits their brand.

    eg some independent food/drink retailers near me with much more appealing websites:

    https://thecheesehamlet.co.uk/
    https://www.lapwingdeli.co.uk/

     we don't want to keep asking for changes (and paying) by somebody else
    You may find some web developers who will let you do this but they'll most likely develop the website on a proprietary system such as WordPress or Squarespace and give you the keys to it when they have finished the initial design, but bear in mind there is a reason professionals get paid so much for creating websites, it can soon look amateurish or get broken when people who don't know what they are doing start editing it.

    I'd suggest if you aren't confident enough to design your own website on one of the many easy-to-use platforms then you won't be very good at editing it either.

    Also, there is more than that involved in the upkeep of a website, who will do the software updates to keep it secure, renew domains and SSL certs etc?

    The main thing is being able to change images and parts of the site without paying somebody else. 
    Not at all, the main thing is getting traffic to your website. No point in updating offers if nobody is actually visiting it to see them and that's where you need expertise in SEO and social media to complement the website.
  • Sarahspangles
    Sarahspangles Posts: 2,698 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It can be cost effective to procure your website design with a price for periodic changes (e.g. to amend catalogue/add discount codes) and to use email or social media for marketing.  You can ask the developers to build in a ‘feed’ on the webpage so that offers posted on Instagram or Facebook are visible to people who land on the website under their own steam.   There’s keeping costs down, and there’s diverting yourself from using your skills for something that does make money!


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  • Newcad
    Newcad Posts: 1,465 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    As suggested above look at a hosting provider and their website building tools.
    If your relative wants to have control of the content without paying another company each time he wants a minor change then it's the way to go.
    Although I don't have a website myself I have had a web domain with Ionos for several years now and have never had an issue with them.
    Here's their website building tool: https://www.ionos.co.uk/websites/website-builder
    Or if you want they will build and maintain it for you. (Theres a button/switch just above the pricing info).
  • Thanks all
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