Frequently asked questions.

We design, build and look after websites and web platforms for complex organisations. If you run several brands or websites, our Drupal multisite platform puts them on one codebase. We build ecommerce around how you sell, connect your systems, and build custom web applications where off-the-shelf software doesn’t fit. Our in-house team also covers UX/UI design and brand development.

You can work with us across the whole cycle of digital transformation. We learn how your business works and recommend what to change. If you go ahead, we build it, then host, support and improve it. When you need to change direction or grow again, you start from the foundations you already have.

Any industry. Most of our clients work in regulated or high-compliance sectors, such as healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace and listed companies who need investor relations websites, but the way we work suits every industry. You can see examples in our case studies.

Your project runs in four stages:

1. Understand before you commit. We look at your systems, your teams and your goals before we recommend anything.
2. Decide what needs to change. You get a shared order of priorities: what to fix, what to keep and what to retire.
3. Build while staying in control. We deliver in visible stages against an agreed plan, and you make the calls.
4. Monitor, expand and evolve. After launch we keep your systems secure and monitored, and improve them as your business changes, with no lock-in.

Start with the goals, then choose the technology. In discovery we learn your objectives and agree with you how to measure success. Each recommendation in your roadmap links back to one of those goals, so you can see what each piece of work is for and judge it on results.

First we map your current systems and the data that moves between them, so we know each integration point before we build. Then we connect your CRM, ERP, PIM, DAM or bespoke platforms using queues, retries and monitoring. If an API fails, you see the problem and keep the data. Read more about integrations.

We build your platform from modular parts and follow Drupal and web standards. As you add sites, features, languages or integrations, you build on what’s there instead of starting again. On a multisite, each new site reuses the shared code and design system, so each one costs less than the last.

Yes. One website can serve several countries and languages, with each visitor seeing the right language, products and content for their region. When you run separate websites for different brands or countries, a Pivale multisite manages them all on one platform. Which suits you depends on how your organisation works, and we help you choose.

Across a region such as EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), your product range can change from one country to the next, so you decide whether to localise by language or by country. Virtus Health runs 12 websites across Australia, Asia and Europe on one multisite.

Most of the websites, online shops and applications we build for clients run on Drupal and Drupal Commerce. Where off-the-shelf software doesn’t fit how you work, we build custom web applications: customer portals, dashboards, workflow and compliance tools.

Lightweight websites have no CMS. They’re built from parts we’ve already tested, the same way as this website.

In layers. Your site runs on secure hosting behind Cloudflare, which blocks attacks, bad bots and traffic floods before they reach you. Drupal is set up with role-based access control and two-factor authentication.

After launch, our support team checks your site’s uptime every 60 seconds and applies security updates weekly or fortnightly.

Yes. Your sites run on Upsun’s certified cloud behind Cloudflare, and we manage the infrastructure, security and updates. We’re an Upsun Gold Partner. The certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS Level 1 and HIPAA) belong to Upsun’s environments. Read more about secure hosting.

Your website is built to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, so more people can use it. Our accessibility statement shows how we test this website against that standard: automated tools including axe and Lighthouse, keyboard and screen reader testing, and code review.

You own it. Drupal is open source with no licence fees, and any capable Drupal team can work on what we build. On custom web applications you own the code and the roadmap, and on ecommerce you pay no commissions or licence fees.

If you take support with us, you can leave with three months’ notice.

Lightweight websites are a managed service, so we look after the hosting and make the changes for you. You still own the copyright in the site’s build, set-up and content. If you move on, we can hand it over, and you’ll need a capable developer or agency to run its hosting, content delivery and cookie consent.

Often, yes. We first look at the site to check its state and what it would take to look after it. Taking on an existing build involves a one-off migration cost, which we agree with you before we start. From there, our support team keeps it secure and improving.

Yes. We work alongside your people and share what we know, so you don’t come to depend on us. On web applications, we set priorities with you and build in short iterations alongside your team.

You get a wider mix of skills than most in-house teams have, and you can scale the work up or down without hiring for a peak.

It depends on the project. Some examples:

• A lightweight website can be live within as little as two weeks of your interview.
• An audit takes 7–15 working days.
• A campaign microsite on your existing platform goes live in weeks.
• Adelco’s new Drupal website went live in nine weeks.
• Drainfast’s online shop, built around their own ERP, took 11 months from the first discovery workshop to launch.

For larger platforms, discovery sets the plan, and you see progress at each step.

Where we can publish a price, it’s on the page. Prices are + VAT.

• Lightweight websites: from £2,995, plus hosting and technical care from £45 a month. Content care is priced to what you need.
• DayOne Digital™, a Drupal website your team edits: from £7,500, plus from £590 a month for hosting, support and security.
• Audits: £1,950 for a customer experience audit, £2,950 for a website systems audit.
• Support: £600 a month for Essential, or £1,200 a month for Extended, which gives you more room for fixes and changes. Development packages are priced to fit your plans.

Larger platforms, integrations and custom software depend on what you need. Discovery sets the scope, and we give you a price once it’s agreed.

Only if your team wants to make changes themselves. A CMS lets several people write, review and publish content without technical knowledge. Before we build, we agree with you which parts of the site your team should control, then set up the CMS to match.

If you’d rather email us your changes, a lightweight website has no CMS: we make the updates for you.

If your website has outgrown WordPress, yes. Drupal is a CMS and a development framework, so it handles complex content, several sites and custom features. Its user roles and permissions control who can see and change each part of the site. It’s open source, so you pay no licence fees and own your platform.

Signs you may have outgrown your WordPress website:

• You worry about security and keeping plugins up to date.
• You rely on lots of plugins, and they don’t always work well together.
• Your content is no longer easy to manage.
• Bugs keep appearing.
• Changes to your website have become slow or difficult.
• Upgrades have become complicated or risky.
• The site slows down as it grows.
• You need several sites, languages or detailed user roles, and WordPress makes them hard work.

For a simple marketing website, WordPress or a lightweight website may be all you need. Read more about Drupal development.

Yes. If you run a creative or marketing agency, we can act as your Drupal development team. Read more about agency partnerships.

No. By white label we mean one agency using another to deliver the work and hiding that from the client. It tends to cause problems: messages pass through extra hands, accountability gets blurred, decisions wait on a middleman, and the project suffers.

We prefer to work in the open. We collaborate with your agency and talk to your client directly, so we hear their problems first hand and can do what we do best. We never take another agency’s clients, and we’ve worked alongside other agencies for years. Our agency partnerships page explains how we work with agencies.

Yes. We like supporting small businesses and tradespeople, and being a sole trader or a small firm shouldn’t mean missing out on what our enterprise clients get. Lightweight websites bring the same fast, secure technology to local trades, small firms and sole traders.

Give us two hours to learn about your business, and we write, design, build and launch your website, from £2,995 + VAT. Hosting and technical care costs from £45 a month + VAT. When you need a change, email or call us. There’s no login or software for you to learn.

Pivale is a portmanteau of pivot and scale, which is what we help you do: change direction fast and grow. It also sounds like prevail. Everything about the brand starts from that idea.

Book a 30-minute call or email hello@pivale.co. One of our experts will talk through your situation with you and suggest next steps.