Website development

The trouble with 'out of the box' templates, even commercial ones that you have paid for, is that you are reliant on the third party developer to continue support for that template and to keep up with updates to the Joomla core and latest PHP versions.  If the developer decides to drop the template you have chosen or even goes out of business, you may be left with a website that no longer functions and needing to find a new template into which to squeeze your carefully crafted content.

Because I develop a template just for you, it has a much simpler structure,  is less likely to become out dated and easier to update, even by another developer.  All the templates I have developed are very long-lived and rarely require updating unless design changes or additional functions require it.

Wordpress is a reliable platform which has many fans.  However, my experience of Wordpress is that it is ideally suited to blog sites and is not optimised for more complex content structures.  Joomla comes with many standard features that allow you to easily move content around, order it in the way you want and display it in many different layouts all without touching any core code.

This gives much more flexibility over page layouts and how to display information and makes further development, adding new sections for example, quicker, easier and therefore cheaper.

The Joomla core programme and all its features are free to use however, many of the extensions that provide specific functionality such as ecommerce or event management are not free.

Sometimes you can find good free extensions but more and more are now requiring a small annual subscription fee or one off payment. 

Paying for extensions means it's more likely that the developer will maintain the extension and provide updates in the future.  It also means that you're more likely to get support should anything go wrong.  Many free extensions either become obsolete as Joomla is upgraded or the developer loses interest or decides that the upkeep of their extension is too time consuming or difficult.

There are still some very good, well maintained and supported extensions to be had and, where possible, I will recommend these.  However, sometimes, in order to get all the features and a stable long-term function it will be necessary to buy a subscription.

It's worth noting that, for most premium extensions a subscription means access to updates and support.  When the subscription expires, the extension will still work with the current version of Joomla.

No.  I ask clients to sign up and pay for their own hosting accounts directly with one of my recommended suppliers.

Currently, for Joomla sites I recommend the following hosting companies:

• Siteground:  A good stable supplier with reliable support and server security.  They can be expensive, however, so probably best for larger websites.  Also, they do not use standard Cpanel so some tasks, such as creating a staging site can be more time-consuming.
  Affiliate link:  https://www.siteground.com/index.htm?afcode=dca023e411dfd26f9ed63745d15e998d
• Unlimited Web Hosting:  Very reasonably priced hosting with good support and all the features you would expect.  Their shared hosting uses Cpanel for account admin so it's nice and easy to set up. 
  Unlimited Web Hosting features:  https://www.unlimitedwebhosting.co.uk/cpanel-hosting

Of course, I am on hand to help with setting up a hosting account and will need access to develop your website.

If you already have a website hosting account, I may be able to use it but would need to check whether it's suitable for Joomla hosting.