Philadelphia Web Developers
We're a small development shop in Philadelphia that writes every line of code by hand. No WordPress, no page builders, no themes bought off a marketplace. If you're looking for Philadelphia web developers who'll actually explain what they built and why, that's us. Sites start at $150/mo.
You searched for a developer, not a designer. There's a real difference.
Most people use the words interchangeably, and most Philadelphia shops are happy to let them. But you probably searched for a developer for a reason. Maybe you have a build that's more complicated than a brochure site. Maybe the last agency handed you something that looked fine and loaded like a brick. Here's the actual distinction, and where we sit.
Decides how it looks and how you move through it
Layout, type, color, the path from landing on a page to filling out a form. Good design work is genuinely hard and it's the reason a site feels trustworthy in the first three seconds. What it isn't, on its own, is code.
Writes the code that makes it real
Markup, styles, scripts, the server, the database, the integrations with whatever you already use. This is what decides whether the site loads in half a second or four, whether it survives a traffic spike, and whether Google can read it properly.
One shop does one half and subcontracts the other
It works until it doesn't. The design gets approved, then a developer who wasn't in the room has to build it, and the things that were never discussed become your problem after launch. You end up paying twice to fix the seam.
Both halves, same people, no handoff
We design it and we build it. Nothing gets designed that can't be built fast, because the person drawing it is the person writing it. That's the whole reason our sites come in at 90+ PageSpeed instead of whatever the template happened to ship with.
Six things we get hired for
Not a menu of everything under the sun. This is the work we do regularly and do well. If your project isn't on this list, tell us anyway and we'll say honestly whether we're the right fit.
Marketing and service sites
The core of what we do. Hand-coded, fast, structured so search engines can read it. This is the right build for most local businesses that need the phone to ring.
HTML · CSS · JavaScript · Node
Philadelphia web design →E-commerce storefronts
Shopify handles checkout, inventory, and payments. We build the storefront on top of it with the Storefront API, so you get Shopify's reliability without Shopify's theme.
Shopify Storefront API · Custom front end
E-commerce development →Web applications
Dashboards, portals, booking systems, internal tools. When the thing you need is software rather than a website, this is the track.
Node · Express · MySQL
SaaS development →Integrations and APIs
Getting your site to talk to the tools you already pay for. Payments, scheduling, CRMs, email platforms, anything with an API worth connecting.
REST · Webhooks · Third-party SDKs
App development →Performance rescue
You have a site, it works, it's just slow. We audit what's dragging it down and either fix it or tell you straight that a rebuild costs less than the surgery.
Core Web Vitals · Asset pipeline
Get it looked at →Technical SEO work
Structured data, crawlability, internal linking, the things that decide whether good content ever gets found. We do this as its own service, not as a checkbox.
Schema.org · Search Console · Semrush
Philadelphia SEO →Four ways to get a site built in Philadelphia
We're not going to pretend we're the only reasonable choice. Here's the honest comparison, including the cases where someone else is the better call.
| Template shop | Freelancer | Large agency | Fishtown Web Design | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical build | WordPress plus a theme | Varies by person | WordPress or a CMS platform | Hand-coded from scratch |
| Page speed | Whatever the theme gives you | Depends entirely on who you hire | Usually decent, rarely excellent | 90+ PageSpeed, under a second |
| Ongoing cost | Hosting plus plugin licenses | Hourly when something breaks | Retainer, often four figures | $150/mo, everything included |
| Who answers the phone | A support ticket queue | One person, when they're free | An account manager | The person who built it |
| Time to launch | Fast, but it looks like everyone else | Unpredictable | Two to four months | 2 to 3 weeks for most sites |
| Better choice when | You need something live this week on no budget | You've worked with them before and trust them | You're an enterprise with procurement and legal | You want it fast, custom, and maintained |
90+
Page Speed Scores
<1s
Load Time
0
Plugins Used
$150
Per Month
Work we've shipped
Real clients, real sites you can open right now and test yourself. Run any of them through PageSpeed Insights if you want to check our math.
Axel Mechanical Services
Full-service HVAC and plumbing across Lancaster, York, Lebanon, and Dauphin Counties. When a system dies in January, the customer is on their phone and they're calling whoever loads first and looks legitimate. The whole build is organized around that one moment.
- Click-to-call in the header on every page
- Service area coverage map
- Google Reviews pulled in live
- Emergency service messaging above the fold
Lauer Construction
Thirty years of commercial, municipal, and historical restoration work in South-Central PA. Architects and project managers vet contractors before the shortlist gets made, and the website is part of that vetting whether anyone admits it or not. This one is built to hold up to it.
- Project portfolio organized by service type
- Testimonials from clients and architects
- Clear scope of work by category
- Professional imagery throughout
Green Shades Coffee Co.
A purpose-driven coffee company that needed a store, not a theme. We used Shopify's Storefront API for checkout, inventory, and payments, then built the entire front end ourselves. Customers get Shopify's reliability on the money side and a storefront that doesn't look like the other million Shopify stores.
- Shopify Storefront API, custom front end
- Sub-second product page loads
- Cart and checkout handled by Shopify
- Design that belongs to the brand, not a theme
How a project actually runs
No twelve-page proposal, no discovery phase you get invoiced for. Four steps.
A twenty minute call
You tell us what the business does, who you're trying to reach, and what's broken about the current setup. We tell you what we'd build and roughly what it costs. Free, and there's no pitch deck.
We scope it in writing
Pages, features, integrations, timeline, price. One page, plain English. You'll know exactly what you're getting before anyone writes a line of code.
We design and build it
You get one design draft to react to. We make your changes and build it out. Most marketing sites go live in 2 to 3 weeks. Bigger applications take longer and we'll tell you how much longer up front.
We keep it running
Hosting, security, backups, and routine content changes are in the monthly. Need the phone number updated or a new service page? Email us and it's done inside a business day.
Philadelphia neighborhoods we work in
We're based in Fishtown and most of our clients are within a few miles of it. If you want the specifics for your part of the city, start here. For the full service overview, see our Philadelphia web design services, or head back to the Fishtown Web Design homepage.
Industries we build for
A lot of our development work is for trades and service businesses, where the site's only job is to turn a search into a phone call.
Questions people ask before hiring a developer
A designer decides how the site looks and how someone moves through it. A developer writes the code that makes it real, fast, and connected to whatever it needs to talk to. Plenty of Philadelphia shops do one and subcontract the other. We do both in house, which is why there's nothing lost in the handoff.
No. We hand-code sites in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with Node and Express on the back end when a site needs one. WordPress is a reasonable tool for some projects. It's also the reason a lot of small business sites load in four seconds and break after a plugin update. If you specifically want WordPress, we'll tell you honestly that we're not the right shop.
Our subscription starts at $150 per month and covers design, development, hosting, security, backups, and routine content changes. E-commerce builds start at $300 per month. Larger custom applications get scoped and quoted separately. You'll know the number before any work starts. Full details are on the pricing page.
Yes. The code is yours. If you ever leave, you take the site with you. We don't hold a site hostage to keep a subscription, and we'll hand over the files without a fight.
Most marketing sites go live in 2 to 3 weeks from the first call. E-commerce and custom application work runs longer depending on scope. We give you a date on the first call and we tell you early if anything changes it.
Sometimes. If the codebase is clean we can take it over, fix what's slow, and maintain it. If it's a tangle of page builder plugins, rebuilding is usually cheaper than untangling. We'll look at it first and tell you which one it is before you spend anything.
Yes. Most of our clients are in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, and we also work with businesses in Lancaster, York, and across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Everything's done remotely with calls whenever you want them.
Let's talk about what you're building
Twenty minutes, no pitch deck, no obligation. Tell us what you need and we'll tell you straight whether we're the right people to build it.
Book a Free Call