Site Nine Studios

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Command Web Services. We build websites primarily for small businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

We design everything in-house, but when we have an overflow, we subcontract some of that development work. That’s why we brought Site Nine Studios on.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Site Nine Studios mostly does WooCommerce development, but they occasionally do WordPress development, as well as API integrations and a little bit of Shopify work.

We fully flesh out the designs in Adobe SD, both desktop and mobile designs and sometimes tablet designs. We then set up a call for the design hand-off and give Site Nine Studios all of the raw assets for all of the pages of the websites.

We talk about the functionality that may not be immediately evident just from looking at the static comps. We hand it off to them, and they usually take about six weeks to put that together. Site Nine Studios puts together a staging site, and then we go through some QA together in terms of cross-browser and cross-device responsive compatibility.

Once we're ready to show the client, we give them the staging link. They provide any feedback and then we make changes to their domain. From there, Site Nine Studios offers about three months of support post-launch in case we catch any mistakes.

For one project, one of my clients didn't want the standard checkout page for WooCommerce because it's not a very good template. I asked the team if they had any clients for whom they had developed a more custom checkout flow, and they sent me one on a staging site. 

It was a beautiful, multi-stage checkout page with dropdown accordions. We used that as a guide and put together the design in two days, and Site Nine Studios had it developed in 10–12 days.

What is the team composition?

I primarily interact with David (Owner & Project Manager), but he has a team under him, including a few specialized developers for different tasks.

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

Site Nine Studios cold emailed me, and I checked out their website. I saw some of the work they had done, including some for a reputable brand. I got on a call with David, and he quoted out a few jobs for me.

Their quotes and timelines were great. I’m a frontend developer myself, so I dissected some of Site Nine Studios’ websites, and they were all really strong. We first brought them on board for a smaller job, which went well.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We got our first proposal in June 2020, but we began working with them in September 2020. The engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Their ability to custom develop what would be considered out-the-box solutions like WooCommerce sites is fantastic. It’s been a great experience. 

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Site Nine Studios has never been late. They stick to their word when it comes to the number of business days it’s going to take them to do something, and any time we want to get on a call to talk about something, they’re always open to that.

They give us staging sites where we can track the progress, so that we don’t have to get on lots of update calls. We can just visit the staging site and see what updates have been made. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their custom WordPress development is excellent. They do everything from scratch and do it quickly. They also do all of their own QA and mobile responsiveness before handing it off to us. That’s more than you can say about other development companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. What we send them is what we’re going to get, so it’s our job to catch mistakes before we send them the designs. Their prices, speed, and quality are great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to design both your desktop and mobile views before handoff, otherwise, if you rely on them to make things responsive, you will open the door to having a lot of back and forth.

Site Nine Studios can't read your mind when it comes to design. No one can; even the best agencies can't. So be sure to define everything exactly, and design every view, even if they're minor views.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Found Studios. We’re a full-service ad agency, specializing in high-end design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

We’d been struggling with web development, as we hadn’t found a partner that could translate our high-end design into perfection. We partnered with Site Nine to overcome that challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Site Nine helped us develop a website we were designing for our client. We delivered a layered design file in Illustrator, where each element was a layered graphic. 

The team was able to take those elements and our storyboard instructions and translate those into animated and motion graphics. The site features high-end, custom CGI headers, as well as a lot of graphics that glide into each other.

We built the site in WordPress, using Elementor for the backend.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with David (Owner), who’s my single point of contact. He’s taken ownership of the project, so we don’t have to do conference calls with the entire team. It’s been a huge benefit.

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

We connected online when I was looking for web developers. Site Nine was one of the few companies that pursued us, which demonstrated a proactive approach we hadn’t seen before. I asked for examples of their work, and it was exactly what we were looking for. 

How much have you invested with them?

The total project was about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from August–September 2020, but we’re looking to re-hire them next week for another project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Site Nine absolutely over-delivered. Their work speaks for itself. They’ve brought more to the table than we asked for. Everything is flawless; it’s the best coding we’ve ever seen. Each element of the site loads extremely quickly, and they integrate really sophisticated, elegant animation that glides from one view to the next. 

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is what won us over. Site Nine’s communication style is better than anyone else’s we’ve dealt with, and their follow-through is amazing as well. It’s one of the reasons we’re looking to hire them again. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our biggest problem with web developers is, as the project goes on, the excitement dies down and they get tired out. Site Nine is the opposite. In the eleventh hour, they really rose to the challenge and over-delivered.

The team helped us close our client deal and launch their website. That was the critical piece.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We’re working with them again for a reason.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Deliver your best possible work. The little details we worked on that might have been wasted on another developer all showed through with Site Nine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a package design contractor working for a communications organization that typically deals in the furniture category.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

We were looking to develop a WordPress template that the company could then personalize and sell to clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I worked on the mockups for the site, and Site Nine Studios created the mobile-responsive template based on those. They also made a Visual Composer integration, which allowed me to create pages myself. 

The scope of work included five unique page designs, with the understanding that I’d create more pages based on the templates they made. Another important aspect they helped us with was product uploads. 

We had to upload 1,500 products to the site, and, rather than doing it individually, Site Nine Studios created a CSV template for us to put product information into. They helped migrate the site as well.

What is the team composition?

I worked with David (Owner & Project Manager).

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

My colleague from the company I’m working for made a Craigslist post, and David was one of the people that responded. I looked at each candidate’s portfolio, and Site Nine Studios was the closest to what we were trying to do. 

They’d worked on some business websites, and I liked the clean, light page animations on those. The biggest component for us was uploading multiple products through a CSV. David seemed confident that he could handle that, and I felt confident in him.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $18,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Site Nine Studios in June 2020, and the bulk of the project wrapped up in late-August 2020. We realized that we needed a filter component once we started working on the site, and that extended the project a bit. I reached out to David a couple of weeks ago for another update.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They were really responsive to the small changes I asked for.

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

I made the mockup designs in InVision. We mainly communicated via email, and we had a couple of calls to clarify some questions I had. They also helped me with hosting. We ran into an issue with the first client we were working with. 

We were developing a site for their furniture store, and their old developer wouldn’t hand over any of the files or login information for the current site. I called David, and we were able to sort it out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Site Nine Studios was able to capture our mockups pixel perfectly, which isn’t something I’ve always run into working with developers in the past.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not on their end. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

There were things I didn’t anticipate while making the visual layout of the website. It’s important to think through the website design thoroughly. I feel confident that Site Nine Studios can do anything that the client wants to see on their site.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former art director at The Fullest, an online media company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

Our website was outdated, so we wanted to improve the UX. We were going to do the design, but we didn’t have an in-house development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Site Nine Studios did an overhaul of our website. We initially gave them PSD templates, and they converted them on WordPress and WooCommerce. They did all of the custom coding for our templates and redeveloped the website to make it more user-friendly. 

What is the team composition?

David (Owner & Project Manager) was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

I found them through Google. We had worked with different development companies but we hadn’t had a good experience. We found Site Nine Studios and their quote was much lower than everybody else’s, which was worrying.

However, when we had our initial consult with David, we saw that he was very capable and understood the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a couple of thousand dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from June 2019–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I’ve never worked with a developer that stays as true to the design as Site Nine Studios did. They were also easy to work with.

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We used to have a lot of back and forth with other developers, but David provided a more professional experience. The team fixed bugs very quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was refreshing to know that I could trust them with the design and that they were going to stay true to it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go with Site Nine Studios because once you finish the designs, your work will be done. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal of a small graphic design studio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

We needed a partner we could send overflow work to.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the project we worked on together, I worked on the design of a WordPress website, and then they built it out for me from scratch. I provided mockups of what the site should look like and they created it based off of that.

What is the team composition?

David (Owner & Project Manager) was my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

I received a direct mail postcard and held onto it. I called David and things worked out great.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $1200.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2020 and we wrapped up in June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I’m extremely happy with Site Nine’s work. The work they did in taking my mockups and building the site was great. Compare to other vendors I’ve worked with, they needed less guidance and delivered what I needed. The work that they did was of high quality.

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Whenever I called or emailed, David would get back to me promptly. My emails were always returned.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver high-quality work and are very responsive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I had no complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be very transparent and upfront in terms of your abilities, what you’re looking for, and what you want to get out of Site Nine. Be honest with your level of experience and things will work out well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Project Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Site Nine Studios?

Multiple custom WordPress sites

What were your goals for this project?

Build out custom WordPress sites according to designs

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Company selected

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

WordPress site built according to design.

What was the team composition?

Owner and developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Met timeline, easy to work with

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

David does a great job at managing projects from start to finish and is so easy to work with. He is responsive and hits our agreed-upon deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

David is great to work with. He's honest, quick to respond, and his team completes great work. They continually meet our deadlines and have made my life easier. I know I can always depend on them which I really appreciate.

I've worked with lots of developers in my career, and it can be hard to find a developer that meets deadlines consistently and is meticulous about details, but David and his team are all this and more. Great to work with, and very highly recommend.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Very little to improve on here. Some small details here and there, but overall very good work. Any feedback we have sent, David and his team have been happy to fix for future projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company’s a startup that has been around for over five years. We sell a technology-related product for scientific testing and measurement purposes. It’s a complex product that I don’t fully understand, as I don’t have a technical background. I’m the creative director, focused more on the visual side of the company — our online presentations, videos, trade shows, and so on.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

Hiring them was our second shot at engaging a web development company that could help us bring a new website to life. I found our first company through a database of people that do HubSpot-related websites. I contacted them to help design and build our website. The project was supposed to take six months, and it ended up stretching beyond a year.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided Site Nine Studios with the design package, which was based on what the other agency had done and what I’d designed. We wanted the site to be developed on WordPress, and that’s what they did for us. They built the site using WPBakery. We have a page editor on the backend, where we can make edits and see page previews.

Site Nine Studios integrated the site with WooCommerce and Stripe. We have to sell through three different stores in order to cover the regions we’re targeting. We have a store for North America, one for Australia, and one for the rest of the world. They implemented a custom navigation system with a mega menu that absorbs a sub-nav on certain pages of the website when scrolling down. 

We also wanted a HubSpot integration, and one of the custom things that Site Nine Studios made was a form that users fill out that goes straight to HubSpot. It required a bit of additional development on their end. They had a solution that they thought would work, but I wasn’t satisfied with it. They were willing to implement another solution for the HubSpot integration.

What is the team composition?

I don’t know how many people were involved. All of my communication was through the project manager. We had an initial discussion on the scope of the work, after which they made a draft that we approved and refined. 

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

I looked on Clutch, which seemed to have a pretty good database of companies. One of the criteria I used to narrow things down was WordPress development. I sent multiple companies a statement of work to see who could do the remaining development, and for what price. Site Nine Studios seemed capable and came in with the most affordable bid, so we started the project with them.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent $5,000–$6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Site Nine Studios between October 2019–February 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I don’t have metrics yet. We pushed it live just last week, so it’s fresh. The things that we need to work are functioning. The flow works, and our products are showing up much better than on the other website. Everything seems to be working fine. We caught stray bugs here and there, but it was nothing that couldn’t be solved, and I’m not embarrassed with the website as it stands.

They continued to answer questions after the website was delivered. The statement of work didn’t include them setting the website up for us; they were just going to code based on our design and then send us the entire package for someone on our team to set it up on AWS. We ran into a few snags, and Site Nine Studios was willing to interact with us beyond their scope of work, without charging us extra.

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We were using Basecamp with the other agency, and I didn’t want to use that because the formatting would get stripped anytime I sent feedback. I set the process of sending Site Nine Studios a Google Doc whenever they gave me an update. We didn’t use any project management tools. We had a lot of back and forth. I’d get an update from Site Nine Studios and would then put together a Google Doc listing the changes I wanted. They gave me access to the platform so that I could co-develop with them, since there were pages that I needed to write content for while they were doing development.

I was pleased with their responsiveness. Site Nine Studios wasn’t the most well-oiled machine for project management, but that could be because they were willing to follow the pace I set. As soon as they sent me the state of the site, I gave them back a document with the changes we needed, and they made those changes. I was fine with that.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s definitely the price; that was what drove us to work with them in the first place. With a decreased price, there comes the expectation that the work won’t come with the bells and whistles that a higher cost website comes with. If we’re saving a lot of money and getting a product that might require a bit more of a hands-on process in the end, then it’s worth it to me. I’m really thankful to Site Nine Studios, and I’ll continue to work with them in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At times, there were little bugs on the site that could’ve been caught earlier. They fixed everything, though. They don’t have a super fine attention to detail. That’s something we’d expect when paying super high bucks, but it was good for the price we paid.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If client wants to have a successful project with Site Nine Studios, they should be willing to document the changes they need and provide clear feedback throughout the process. Site Nine Studios will be able to work with that feedback. However, if you leave them guessing about what you want, they’re not shy about making an educated guess, and it may be that the choice they make is different than the one you would’ve. That’s just them operating with the best that they have, based on the information that has been given to them. 

If the client has a vision for their website, they need to express it. Site Nine Studios will work with it and bring it to life. They’re really good at working without a ton of developer notes, but, if you want the website to be exactly as you imagined it, it’s probably good to take the time right off the bat to make those notes on every aspect of the site. If I wanted a call-to-action or to change a certain color, I had to provide examples and explain it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the product director for a real estate creative marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

We hired Site Nine Studios for added support with building marketing websites because our internal capacities were maxed out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We designed everything in-house and once we had approval from our clients, we would then engage with Site Nine Studios. We went back and forth determining the scope and once that was offset, we established a timeline and roadmap of getting the website built. Once the first preview was established, the process of developing the website began. WordPress was the platform for all of our websites.

What is the team composition?

I only worked with David (Owner & Business Development, Site Nine Studios).

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

I was searching for web development companies that were small and could pair with us and work the overflow projects that we couldn’t do in-house. I reached out to 3–4 companies and I have a good rapport with David after talking to him. It ultimately came down to the availability pricing, and turnaround time. We had one great experience with them and then we just started using them for all of our sites, which was really nice.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2015–December 2019.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They helped with a lot of our marketing websites but one, in particular, was a teaser site that we were trying to launch at the same time as a full-marketing website. Even when David was out of the country during development, his team was still able to turnaround a website and deliver the work that our client needed. He provided a standout experience and we were very thankful for him. 

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They had good customer service and stayed in touch every day.  There were some delays in communication because David was traveling, but they’re not working here internally so sometimes I might have to wait a little bit, which was understandable. It was every once in a while, but it never negatively impacted us. They were very flexible in terms of timing and billing as well as with how we billed our clients, which was really nice.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a small team and we are as well, so they understood how we both work, which I liked. They were very flexible in terms of timing and billing with our clients, which was really nice. David was a pleasure to work with and he’s a really lovely guy. I really enjoyed working with him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with them because they deliver on their promises and have great quality.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal for Sovic Creative. We’re a marketing and design-focused agency. We work with branding, digital marketing, and web design. We have a few bigger clients, but we focus on helping small businesses create valuable visual solutions for their business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Site Nine Studios?

We have a gap within our development team, so we wanted to seal that by using an outsourcing team. They’ve become more of a permanent dev solution for us, building some of the web structure’s we’re building for our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We generally provide the wireframes and design ahead of time, and they’re responsible for the development process. We apply our high thinking process which defines all the functions we need and create site map. We define functionality, some backend things need to be assessed, and they take it from there.

Then, once the scope of work is defined, they give us some feedback on industry standards or things to consider before they begin development. They’ve done several different things for us—e-commerce, Shopify, Woo-Commerce, Salesforce, WordPress, Java, animations, custom CMS, you name it.  

What is the team composition?

I always work directly with David (owner, Site Nine Studios). He’s always on point.

How did you come to work with Site Nine Studios?

Initially, we weren’t really looking for a developer, but came across their profile on LinkedIn and began to consider using an outsource partner. They messaged us, and it was the perfect situation.

We started with one small project but that quickly became two, then three, then four, and our partnership developed from there.

How much have you invested with them?

It depends on the project, but we probably average $20,000–$25,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2018 and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They always create the most functional websites we have, and we’re super happy with their work. We’ve never had a single complaint. They’re easy to communicate with ahead of time to set clear guidelines for each project, which really ensures that our development proves runs smoothly.

How did Site Nine Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very communicative. They're very good about emailing back. They set realistic timelines and are very honest with us. We’ve struggled with that while working with other developing teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They pay attention to detail and are very intuitive, which is hard to find. They always mention if they see something wrong. They’re able to flag things that might cause problems in the long term for our clients. Sometimes in the ideation process, we think something is a viable solution, but when they run through development, it can create a lot of issues. They’re great at spotting that ahead of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish they were a little closer because I’d prefer to have more one-on-one meetings, but that’s a common disadvantage working with any remote team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They work really well when they have a plan. So, when you’re approaching them, if you give them a plan, they’ll be able to execute easily.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a senior designer at a brand development and marketing communications agency. As specialists in brand development and integrated B2B marketing solutions, we focus on value creation by concentrating on customer engagement. We work with clients to understand their objectives, audience, and business challenges. We then distill our findings to get to the core of a brand’s differentiators. After, we address the needs of the audience by designing communications and experiences that resonate and drive business growth.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Site Nine Studios?

Web development for multiple projects.

What were your goals for this project?

To create an engaging website the clearly differentiates the client's brand and capabilities as well as drive leads. For Site Nine Studios, their objective was to develop the site to match our designs (to the pixel) as well as have them dcdcload quickly and consistently on any device.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

David reached out to our company in 2017 to establish a new business relationship. His team did an outstanding job on the first test project, and we've been using them ever since.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Web development based on illustrator mockups.

What was the team composition?

I'm not sure. My main/only point of contact has been David. I know he has a team of developers that whip out great work, but I've never needed to communicate with them directly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

I don't have hard numbers to support this but I do know that because their team pays such close attention to detail and doesn't need a lot of hand-holding, it has improved our overall efficiency on for the development phase of the website project.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had one point of contact for the entire project, David. He was professional, courteous and, above all, efficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What sets Site Nine Studios apart from most website development companies is they do not require constant hand-holding in order to get the job done right and on time. Not only do they execute the design beautifully and seamlessly on the frontend, the backend is built to be user-friendly and customized to our exact needs.

As a marketing agency, we have to move at warp speed to keep up with the needs of our clients. This makes having a development partner that is as responsive, communicative, and flexible as Site Nine Studios an invaluable asset for our team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Can't think of any right now.