Custom website design in Toronto.
We design and build websites from scratch for Toronto businesses — around your buyers, your products, and the way you sell, not around a template someone else was given. Fixed quote, fixed scope, and everything handed to you at launch.
Custom websites we have designed and built.
Our recent builds across manufacturing, professional services, ecommerce, and the public sector.
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A template answers a question somebody else asked. It does the job when your requirements are ordinary — a few pages, a contact form, nothing connected to anything else — and we will say so when that is the situation.
What we get called in for is the point where that stops working, and it is fairly predictable: a product range people need to filter, a quote process that has to reach the right person, a second language, an accounting or CRM system the site should talk to, or a search term other companies are actively competing for. Custom design costs more up front and earns it back there. We have built both since 2007, so the first conversation is usually about which one your business actually needs — including when the honest answer is the cheaper one. If your project is more application than website, that is our web development services in Toronto.
Custom web design services in Toronto.
Design, build, and everything that decides whether the site gets found and stays usable.
Custom website design
We design every page from scratch around your buyers and how they decide, starting with structure rather than pretty design. You see the design in Figma and click through a working prototype, considering user experience (UX).
Custom CMS and WordPress development
Most sites run best on a custom WordPress theme, written for your design rather than a page builder carrying weight you will never use. Past a certain size — thousands of pages, several brands, a publishing team working in parallel — we move to headless WordPress or an enterprise CMS such as Craft, where the content system and the front end are separated so neither slows the other down.
Ecommerce and B2B websites
Online stores on WooCommerce and Shopify, including wholesale. If you sell to trade customers and to the public, those buyers need separate paths — different pricing, different minimums, different checkout — as we built for Caviar Centre.
Accessible web design and AODA compliance
Ontario’s minimum under AODA is WCAG 2.0 Level AA. We build to 2.1 Level AA, which covers that and matches where federal requirements are heading, and we design for it from the start — retrofitting accessibility costs several times what building it in does.
Multilingual and bilingual websites
If you sell into Quebec or hold government contracts, the second language cannot be an afterthought. We use WPML or Weglot on WordPress and Translate & Adapt on Shopify or Weglot, with a person reviewing every translation — and we rebuilt Genrep from two drifting sites into one bilingual build.
SEO and AI search visibility
A custom website nobody finds is an expensive one. Our in-house SEO team works with the web design team to build a website that ranks — and that same structure is what gets a page quoted by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, where a growing share of B2B research now starts.
How a custom website design project runs at Arete
Four stages. The same senior person runs all four, so you are never re-explaining your business to somebody new.
Discover and scope
The project kick-off meeting goes into details about the business, process, business rules, internal logic followed by your sales team, or other details that were not discovered earlier. This is the base for the project to ensure we have captured every tiny detail before we head into the design phase.
Design
Structure comes first — what goes on which page and in what order — then the design in Figma and a prototype you can click through on your own phone. Revisions happen at this stage, while a change costs an afternoon rather than a rebuild, and nothing moves to development until you have signed it off.
Build and QA
Development, content and integrations come together on a staging site you can visit any time, tested as we go across browsers, screen sizes, forms and assistive technology. We use AI through this stage to check content and spec sheets for inconsistencies and prepare product data for import, which is a large part of how the price and the date hold.
Launch, train and support
Go-live, then training for your team on the parts they will actually use, and everything handed over — code, hosting access, admin accounts and documentation. The 90-day warranty starts here, and website maintenance services pick it up from there if you would rather not maintain it yourself.
Custom website design case studies
Custom web design measured on pipeline, not applause.
We have been designing custom websites since 2007 and hold everyone to the same test: is it bringing in leads, calls, and revenue?
You get one senior person from first call to launch, and design, development, ecommerce and SEO all sit under this roof — so nothing is handed off and lost.
A fixed quote for a fixed scope. The number you approve is the number you pay.
You own all of it at handover — code, hosting, admin accounts, documentation. No lock-in, including to us.
Why choose our Toronto web design company
Thirty industry awards since 2007, and certified partnerships with the platforms we build on — so the people designing your site are the ones accredited to develop it.
Awards & Ratings
Technology Partners
Custom website design in Toronto — questions answered
After eighteen years, the first call tends to cover the same ground. Here is what we would tell you on it.
Start with what the site has to do. If it is a few pages, a contact form, and a straightforward story, a template will do the job, and we will tell you so.
You need custom design when the site has real work to do: a large product catalog people need to filter by specification, a quote process that has to reach the right person with the right detail, pricing that changes by customer, a second language, or a connection to your accounting, ERP, or CRM system. Those are the points where template projects stall and the workarounds start.
A template is a finished design you fit your business into. A custom design is built around your business from the start.
The difference shows up in three places.
Speed. A commercial theme has to suit thousands of businesses, so it loads the code for every feature it might be asked to perform — sliders, galleries, booking modules — whether your site uses them or not. A custom build ships only what your pages need, usually a fraction of it. That gap is what a visitor feels on a phone connection and what Google measures.
Structure. A template fixes your page hierarchy and heading order in advance, and that structure is exactly what Google and AI assistants read to work out what your business does. Fitting your services into someone else’s outline costs you clarity where it matters most.
Limits. Templates handle ordinary requirements well. The first unusual one — trade pricing, a second language, an ERP connection — has to be forced in with plugins, and those workarounds are what make a site slow and fragile over time.
If you are a small firm that needs five pages and a contact form, a template or a builder will do the job, and we will tell you that rather than quote for something larger. If the platform you are on is working, stay put.
It becomes worth it when the site has to do work: a large or technical product range, a quote process, a second language, integrations, accessibility obligations, or search terms other companies are actively competing for. At that point, the cheaper site starts costing you enquiries, which is the expensive kind of saving.
It comes down to how much is built from scratch and how many of your other systems the site has to talk to. Three bands cover nearly everything we quote.
Business websites: $5,000 – $15,000 CAD. A custom-designed site for an established business.
Custom and B2B websites: $10,000 – $50,000 CAD. Product catalogues, quote engines, dealer locators, bilingual builds and connections to your CRM or ERP.
Ecommerce websites: $10,000 – $100,000 CAD. WooCommerce and Shopify builds and migrations, scaling with catalogue size, B2B pricing rules and integrations.
We quote a fixed price for a fixed scope after a discovery call, so the figure you approve is the figure you pay. There is a fuller breakdown of the cost of a website in Canada on our blog.
Because you are paying for the decisions, not the pixels. Research into your buyers, a structure designed around how they decide, a design drawn rather than chosen, and code written for that design alone.
The cost difference narrows over time. Template projects tend to accumulate workarounds — plugins to force behaviour the theme was not built for — and those workarounds are what make a site slow, fragile, and eventually due for replacement earlier than it should be.
Your quote covers design, development, the included revision rounds, testing, launch, training and a 90-day warranty on the original scope.
Commonly added: content writing, photography, stock imagery, logo and brand work, hosting, domain and SSL, and ongoing maintenance. We would rather show you both lists up front than have anything arrive as a surprise.
A custom business website takes 4 to 6 weeks. A custom B2B site with a product catalogue and quote engine takes 8 to 12. An ecommerce build or migration takes 8 to 16.
The date is set at kickoff, and the schedule is built around hitting it. The one thing that genuinely moves it is content, which is why you get the list of what we need in week one.
Four stages, and the same senior person runs all of them.
Discovery and scope is the kick-off meeting where we get into your business, your process, and the rules your sales team works to — that is what makes a fixed quote possible.
Design covers structure, then Figma, then a prototype you click through, and it is where the revisions happen.
Build and QA run on a staging site you can visit any time, tested as we go rather than at the end.
Launch, training, and handover close it out, and the 90-day warranty starts there.
Most of the effort sits in the first two stages. Get the structure and the business rules right, and the build is largely mechanical. Get them wrong and no amount of development time fixes it.
Two things, and the second one catches people out. Content is the obvious half: copy for each page, product information, photography, logos and brand assets, plus access to anything the site connects to.
Your business rules are the half that matters more. How pricing works for different customers, volume discounts, minimum order quantities, who is allowed to see trade pricing, what happens when a quote request comes in, and who it goes to. Those rules are what we are actually building, so the earlier they are written down, the less rework there is later. You get a specific list in week one saying what is needed and by when, and our writers can take the content on if your team is stretched.
You do, completely. Code, hosting access, admin accounts, documentation, and training are handed over at launch, and none of it is contingent on you staying with us.
We build on WordPress specifically so there is no lock-in — no proprietary platform, no licence that stops working when the relationship does. You could move to another agency tomorrow and take everything with you without needing our involvement. Worth asking any agency this early: the answer tells you what kind of relationship you are signing up for.
Yes, and we build the admin around that. The things you will change often — page content, products, team members, posts, images — are set up as editable fields with sensible limits, so updating them does not require a developer or break the design.
Training is included at handover, and we leave documentation behind for whoever joins later. What still needs us is structural work: new page types, new functionality, integrations. If you would rather not touch any of it, website maintenance services cover updates and changes on a retainer.
Yes. Design and development are the same in-house team, so there is no handoff between an agency that designs and a contractor who builds it — which is where most of the compromises in a website project happen.
That covers custom WordPress themes, headless and enterprise CMS builds, API integrations with systems like QuickBooks, Sage, Dynamics 365, Salesforce and HubSpot, platform migrations, and custom applications such as portals and dashboards. There is more on our web development services in Toronto page.
No. We are on Yonge Street in Toronto with a second office in Ottawa, and work with clients across Canada and the United States. Most projects run remotely with regular calls.
Recent work includes web design in Mississauga for a construction equipment manufacturer selling into the GTA, Canada, the US, and the UK.
Tell us what the site has to do
Tell us what you are trying to build and what is getting in the way. We will come back within one business day with a straight answer on what we would do first — and a fixed quote once the scope is clear.