Frequently Asked Questions

We understand how confusing it can be to find the right website solution for you or your business. So we have assembled our Frequently Asked Questions section below, which should answer most questions you may have. If you have any further questions, please email us.
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A Starter Website in simple terms is a website that we personally setup for you. Once setup, you can easily update the website content yourself, as well as add new pages. It has a simple to use Content Management system built in (CMS) . Our Starter Websites use prebuilt templates, are mobile friendly, and include many advanced features. View more information on the features.

It all depends on your website requirements, and what you want a website for. For the vast majority of websites, we believe our Website Starter packages exceed most website requirements, due to the high number of features it offers by default. Over the years we have found up to 80 percent of enquiries we have had, are for clients are looking for a basic online presence, and more of a brochure website, which they can update themselves.  They are mainly looking for a place to introduce and showcase their business, where they can explain what they do, with some examples of their products or services. Many have a photo gallery, and somewhere to place their contact details. This may include a Google map showing their location, which can easily be setup in our Starter Website Packages. In some case, some businesses may want a blog or news section, where they can keep clients up to date with recent happenings. Some businesses are also looking for password protecting some parts of the website for their clients or suppliers. All this is possible with all of our Starter Website packages.

The big plus with our Starter Website packages is that the website can grow depending on the clients future requirements. So if the client is wanting to sell products online, they can upgrade to our E-Store plan, which allows clients to sell either physical goods (pickup or delivered) or  downloadable products(eg. software,  publications or photos).

We don’t however guarantee that our Starter Website Packages will suit everyone’s requirements. For example, if you need a website that needs heavy customisation, more advanced features, or a more advanced Ecommerce solution, that are not included with our start website packages, then our Starter Website Packages may not be suitable, and you may require a customized website setup, perhaps based on WordPress or another CMS or Ecommerce package.

Yes they are.  Our Starter Website packages use some of the more recent technologies in mobile design, called ‘Responsive Mobile Design’. This means that the website automatically reformats for the size of device it is being viewed on. Older generation websites used to have a different website template for Desktop websites, and a different website template for mobiles web browsers. But responsive mobile website designs uses a single unified website template, so the websites design is consistent across all devices and screen sizes it is viewed on.

Yes.  All Starter Websites have access via a secure login to edit all editable parts of their website, in order to update website content. The system used to update the website is often referred to as a Content Management System (CMS)

Not it isn’t WordPress. Our Starter website packages use a far easier to use ‘Proprietary’ CMS, which has been custom developed for the server network it runs on. Unlike WordPress, the Proprietary CMS allows you to edit pages as you see them in a ‘WYSIWYG’ type of environment. It also uses an easy drag and drop interface. Although we do also build WordPress website (our own website is built on WordPress) WordPress is not as simple to use, and WordPress does not allow you to update content on the pages, exactly as you will see them on the live website. Infact it is because WordPress is more difficult to use, that we introduced our Starter Website Packages, as clients were looking for a far easier CMS to use. WordPress also has the disadvantage that it must be kept up to date an secure, which is an additional fee. Whereas with our Starter Website Packages, the updating of the backend of the software is done in the background by the developers. We can set you up with a WordPress website, but it would be a custom website design project, and would not qualify for our Starter Website pricing.

Yes it does. You can use this as a regular blog for you or your company, or as a news section on your website. Blogs are regarded as being very important when it comes to search engines like Google, as it allows you to add new content to your website regularly. This can benefits your rankings with Google, as websites with fresh new relevant content can be ranked higher than websites which aren’t updated as often. The blogging system also allows other people to comment on your blog, and interact with you or your business online.

Effectively you can have as many webpages as you want on your website. There is a fair usage policy on all Starter Website Packages, however we have not yet come across a website that has reached an unacceptably high number of pages to date. When we setup a website, as part of the setup fee, we will have a set number of pages that we will setup for you by default as specified in the plan details. If you need more pages adding, you can either add more yourself via the Content Management System, or pay us to add the additional pages.

No it doesn’t. The client is required to provide all that to us after they order their plan. However we can  provide logo design, images, as well as write content, however this is all work that is charged out at our normal hourly rate.

Yes our pricing is in New Zealand Dollars. Please note that we do purchase many of our services from our upstream providers in US dollars, so should the NZ dollars value change significantly, this may result in us having to re-adjust our pricing.

Absolutely. You can do this via the easy to use content management system. Alternatively you can get us to professionally add your content. The price for us adding content is based at our normal hourly rate at the time.

You can email your website content to files@designlounge.co.nz . Alternatively if you have large files/images to send you can either set up a free  dropbox account and send us the links, or physically mail as a USB stick or CD.

Yes we can, and if time allows for it in the budgeted allocated time, there may not be any additional fees for this service. This however depends on the quantity of the number of photos, as scanning photos and adjusting them for the website can be quite labour intensive, so if there are a larger number of photos, we would need to charge this out at our normal hourly rate.

Yes we can, and if time allows for it in the budgeted amount, and it isn’t too complex, there may not be any additional fee for this. If the logo is on a letterhead or business card, you can mail it to us. Mailing  details are on our Contact Page.

It depends on the amount of time it takes. However the approximate number of pages will be shown in the website plan details, for the particular plan you are signing up to. If you have a lot of pages you want us to copy onto your website, we do also have setup fees for larger websites. If you want us to add more information to the website than what was budgeted for, we would just charge this work out at our normal hourly rate.

The setup fee solely covers our time in setting up your website to get it ‘live’ onto the internet. So the setup fee is a labour only charge. From the setup fee we allocate up to a set amount of time to setup the website. Tasks included in the setup fee include the setting up of the account, adding logo to the website, pasting in content and uploading images etc. In some cases the amount of content provided by a client may exceed the amount of time we have budgeted for in the setup fee. In that case we will either charge the work out at our normal hourly rate, or we will do as much work as we have budgeted for, and the client will be able to add the rest of the content themselves through the online website editor.

Absolutely. You are able to switch between different packages at any time. If you are upgrading, you will be billed from the start of the month you are upgrading in. You will also be billed the difference in price between the setup price you paid, and the current normal upgraded plan price.  If you are downgrading, you will be billed the lower amount for the downgraded plan at the beginning of the next month.  No pro-rata refunds are provided, nor are any website setup fees refunded if you are downgrading plans. Please note that if you are downgrading to a lower plan within the initial 6 month minimum contract period, you will continue to be billed for the higher plan, until the initial 6 months are up.

We usually require a 50% deposit before we will commence any work. The outstanding balance will normally be due upon completion of the project.

There is an ongoing monthly fee. There is also an annual Domain Name registration/renewal fee for your domain name. Also if you need us to do any website updates for you, or you need additional help, this is charged at our normal hourly rate.

All Starter Website Packages are hosted on a professional server infrastructure in the USA. With old generation traditional web hosts, your site shares disk space and CPU power with dozens or sometimes hundreds of other customers on a single server. If one of those websites experiences a notable traffic spike, all websites on the server can slow to a crawl.

With our Starter Website Packages, your website is served across the entire server infrastructure that powers millions of websites and pageviews per day. If your website is featured on TV, it shouldn’t cause as much as a hiccup in your site’s performance, or the other websites hosted on the network.

Absolutely not. You will find that many website providers will try to lock customers into a long term contract, anywhere between 12 and 36 months.  However we don’t believe in locking our clients in like this. So we don’t have a minimum contract term, so either party is free to cancel the contract at any time.  You must also provide us with a minimum of 1 months notice if you wish to cancel your website plan.   Your monthly payments  must also always be at least in credit by at least one month in advance. No refunds will be provided on cancellation.

Absolutely. If the domain is a New Zealand domain ending in .NZ, we can transfer your domain for free into our system, and all applied domain credit will be transferred with your domain. If the domain is an international domain such as a .com, it will need to be renewed for an additional year when it is transferred. Please let us know when signing up, if you already have a domain name that you need transferring across.

All Starter website plan owners get free email forwarding using their domain name as part of the setup price and ongoing monthly fee. You can also purchase domain email hosting from us which is an additional fee, or we can setup your domain to work with any third party email provider of your choice, such as Windows Mail or  Gmail. Setup fees do apply for setting up domain email mailboxes or for setting up your domain with third party email providers.

Design Lounge Ltd is a New Zealand Registered Company, and we have been around since 2001. We are a pioneer in the New Zealand Web Design market, and are proud to be one of New Zealand’s Longest Established Website Providers. Our head office is based in Wellington, which is the capital city of New Zealand, and we host websites for organizations and individuals throughout the country. You can read more about us here.

Our Starter Website Package is a Software as a Service. (SaaS for short). This means that you don’t own the actual website, nor the software on the server that runs your website. You instead have the right to use the website, while you are in contract with us. You do however own the content that you have upload onto your website. eg Text, images, videos. If you are wanting a website that you own, we do provide other solutions,. However they do cost more to setup, and have a higher cost of ownership.

In most cases we can do this within the normal setup fee. It however depends on how large your existing website is, and what features your website has. For example we may not be able to copy any dynamic elements, or any elements that are using older technologies, such as Adobe Flash.