Frequently asked questions.

A fixed price is firm for exactly the scope listed on that service's page — not an estimate that can move once work starts. If your requirements sit outside that scope, the extra work is scoped and quoted separately in writing before it begins, so the published figure doesn't change against you part-way through. See the full price list for what each fixed price covers.

A price marked “from” is a starting point rather than a fixed figure, because the final cost depends on scope that genuinely varies — a bespoke platform build or a knowledge base sized to one filing cabinet costs a different amount to one sized to a shared drive spanning a decade. We confirm the real figure in writing before any work begins, usually after a paid discovery or assessment phase. See the price list for which services are quoted this way.

No. Every price on this site — in the price list, the quote builder and each individual service page — is shown before VAT, which is charged where applicable. We state it the same way everywhere a figure appears, so a price never means one thing on a card and another on the invoice. See our terms of use for the full wording.

A price we've quoted you in writing is held for 30 days. If you decide within that window, the figure doesn't change; after it, we requote against current pricing and scope, since our published rates can be revised over time. See our terms of use for the full detail on how quotes and published prices work.

The published price for a service covers exactly what's listed under “What you get” on that service's page — nothing more is assumed and nothing is silently added. Extra pages, a larger catalogue, additional integrations or more development time than a Care Plan includes are all scoped and quoted separately in writing before they start. The payment schedule for a project, and any other project-specific terms, are set out in that written quote rather than fixed here. Browse the full service list to see what each one includes.

Because the most common complaint about this industry is that nobody will tell you what anything costs until you've sat through a call. Publishing fixed prices lets you work out whether a service is realistic for your budget before you get in touch, and it means the figure quoted to you is the same one everyone else sees rather than a number adjusted on the day. Read more on the About page.

Try the website cost calculator for a rough figure based on what you need, or read the website cost guide to see how these prices compare with the rest of the UK market. Either is a quicker starting point than reading all eighteen service pages end to end, and both link back to the relevant service pages once you've narrowed things down.

The person who scopes your project is the person who builds it. Swick Labs works as a boutique studio rather than an agency floor, so there's no handoff from a salesperson to a delivery team you've never spoken to. The process page sets out the stages a project runs through, from the initial direction to the final handover, and the same people are involved throughout.

Briefing starts in writing rather than on a call: the quote builder lets you select the services you're interested in and send that through, or you can describe what you're trying to do directly on the contact form. Either way we reply within one working day with a straight answer about fit and cost. Anything more detailed — the copy, images, product data or access a build needs — is confirmed once a project is agreed, as part of the written scope.

Build timelines range from 1–2 weeks for the AI Readiness Audit to 10 weeks and up for the Bespoke Platform Build — most website and AI product builds fall somewhere between the two, and Care Plans and ongoing retainers start immediately rather than running to a fixed build timeline. Each service page states its own expected timeline next to its price, and the process page explains what happens at each of the stages in between.

What's needed varies by service, and the specific list is confirmed in your written quote before work starts. Two things apply generally: you'll be asked to sign off the direction before we build anything, as set out on the process page, and if you already have brand guidelines we build to them rather than starting from scratch — see Brand & Identity if you don't yet have any. Beyond that, requirements such as existing content, product data or system access depend on the specific service and are agreed in writing at the outset.

Extra work outside the agreed scope — additional pages, a larger catalogue, more integrations, or functionality that wasn't part of the original brief — is scoped and quoted separately in writing before we start it. It's never added to an invoice as a surprise, and the price you were originally quoted for the agreed scope doesn't move. This applies across every fixed-price service; see the individual service pages for exactly what each one covers.

Yes — the free website check is a quick, no-commitment way to see where your existing site stands before you talk to us about a rebuild or a migration. If it points to real problems, Website Rescue & Migration covers moving off a platform that's failing you, with a full redirect map so your rankings survive the move.

Everything we build for you — code, design and content — transfers to you on final payment, as set out in our terms of use. That's true across the catalogue: a Brand & Identity project hands over the source files rather than just exports, and a Bespoke Platform Build hands over the code, database and documentation outright. There's no proprietary system holding your own content or design hostage to us afterwards.

Domain ownership is set out in your written quote, since it depends on whether you already hold the domain or we register one as part of the project. Where a Care Plan includes domain renewal management, as Care Plan — Essential does, that's administration of the renewal rather than a change of ownership. If you're ever unsure who holds a domain for your site, ask us directly through the contact form.

You receive the code or repository, hosting and any relevant account access, and the content itself, plus — where a service includes one — a handover session covering day-to-day edits, as described on the process page. Exactly what's included is listed under “What you get” on each service page, since a five-page starter site and a bespoke application hand over different things.

Yes. Because you own the code, hosting and content outright, there's nothing stopping you taking the site to a different developer or host afterwards — see the process page. If you're moving an existing site onto our stack rather than away from it, that's what Website Rescue & Migration covers, including a full redirect map so your search rankings survive the move.

A Care Plan is ongoing cover for a site once it's live — security patching, backups, uptime monitoring, and a set amount of monthly development or content time, depending on the plan. There are three: Care Plan — Essential at £79/mo, Care Plan — Business at £149/mo, and Care Plan — Commerce at £299/mo a month, sized in turn for a brochure site, an active sales channel, and a shop taking payments.

The build itself doesn't include ongoing maintenance, security patching or further development once the site is live — a Care Plan covers that separately, and one can be added once the build is finished. Without one, updates and fixes are scoped and quoted individually as they come up, rather than covered by a standing monthly arrangement. See Care Plan — Essential for what ongoing cover includes.

It depends on how the site is used, not just its size. Care Plan — Essential suits a starter or small business site that mainly needs to stay secure and online. Care Plan — Business suits a site that's an active sales channel and benefits from a couple of hours of development each month. Care Plan — Commerce is sized for an online shop, where downtime costs money directly and faster response matters.

No. All three Care Plans — Essential, Business and Commerce — are billed monthly and you can stop at any time. If you do, backups and access are handed over to you rather than held back, the same as with any other Care Plan. This is confirmed on each plan's own page, not just here.

It means the chatbot answers by retrieving passages from your own documents, pages and product data, and citing them — rather than drawing on general internet text the way a general-purpose assistant does. This is what the AI Chatbot & Site Assistant and the AI Knowledge Base are both built around: answers grounded in material you actually provided, which can be checked against the source.

It won't invent an answer your content doesn't cover. When nothing relevant is retrieved, the AI Chatbot & Site Assistant says it doesn't know and offers a handover to a person instead, and this is tested deliberately before launch with questions the content can't answer. The AI Voice Agent introduces itself as automated rather than pretending to be a person; we don't build agents designed to pass as human.

For the AI Chatbot & Site Assistant and AI Knowledge Base, your documents and conversation logs sit on infrastructure we control in the EU or UK — or in your own cloud tenancy, for the Knowledge Base — and are never used to train a third-party model, which is confirmed in writing as part of the project. For anything you submit through this website itself, such as the contact form, see our privacy policy.

Not quite. AI Search Optimisation (GEO) and the AI SEO Retainer share the same technical foundations, but GEO adds entity consistency, claim-level extractability and citation tracking across assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews — none of which conventional SEO reporting measures. If you only need one and your business is mainly local, SEO is the sensible place to start. See the glossary for both terms defined side by side.

Swick Labs' registered office is in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter — the full company details are in the footer of every page. That's a legal registered address rather than a public studio: design and development work is carried out remotely, for clients across the UK rather than only locally.

Yes. Work is carried out remotely, and several of our services explicitly serve businesses across the West Midlands and the rest of the UK, not just Birmingham itself — see, for example, the AI Business Website or AI Chatbot & Site Assistant pages. There's no requirement to be local to commission a project; briefing happens through the quote builder and the contact form rather than an in-person visit.

By email, at the address on the contact page, or through the contact form there — either way we reply within one working day with a straight answer about fit and cost. There's no walk-in studio: the registered office is a legal address rather than a public office, and all work is coordinated remotely, in writing, from first enquiry through to handover.