Website design in Christchurch, shipped in weeks and owned by you.
A Merlin Wise website starts at $2,000 and takes two to ten weeks. We design and build in Addington, Christchurch, on WordPress, Laravel or Shopify, for businesses across Canterbury and the rest of New Zealand. Every site launches with a 100 Lighthouse target, WCAG AA accessibility, and the repo, assets and credentials handed to you.
A web design company in Christchurch, not a call centre.
Merlin Wise is a Christchurch web design company based at 14 Hazeldean Road, Addington. The people who scope your site are the people who design and build it.
We work with trades, salons, hospitality and professional services around Canterbury, and with clients elsewhere in New Zealand over video calls. Local work you can check today includes Ric Lounge on Riccarton Road, which ranks first on Google for “riccarton nails”, and ProfessioNAIL, a nail salon group with branches at Hornby, Northlands and The Palms. Every build is fixed price and fixed scope, and the repo, assets and logins are yours at launch.
Working with a Christchurch website designer.
A typical website takes two to ten weeks: a brief and sitemap in week one, design, then build, then launch with 30 days of support.
You get one point of contact from brief to launch. We meet in person in Christchurch or on a call, show you the design before any code is written, and build on the platform that suits how your team works: WordPress when you want to edit every page yourself, Laravel when you need custom features such as bookings, Shopify when you sell online. You can see exactly what we charge in the pricing below, and our cost guide explains what moves the price.
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Brief & sitemap
Week one: your goals, the pages you need and who writes what.
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Design
You see and approve the design before any code is written.
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Build
On WordPress, Laravel or Shopify, whichever suits how your team works.
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Launch
Live on your domain, with 30 days of support and every login handed over.
Website design problems we fix.
Three patterns we see in nearly every website design engagement — and what we actually do about them.
Our current site loads like a 2014 dial-up modem.
What we do. We rebuild on a modern static or hybrid stack — Lighthouse 95+, sub-second LCP on mobile, no compromise on craft.
We can’t update the homepage without calling our agency.
What we do. You get a real CMS — WordPress, or a custom admin built in Laravel — that your team can actually use. Training included.
Our designer left and we’re stuck with their files.
What we do. You own every asset, repo, credential and Figma file. Always. We work with what you have, hand back what we make.
What we build website design with.
Website design promises you’ll never hear from us.
Stock phrases from the industry, crossed out, with what we say instead.
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“We use AI to slash your timeline”We use AI, we don’t cosplay it as a moat.
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“Pixel-perfect”We ship typographically-perfect, AA-accessible, fast.
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“Best-in-class”We benchmark against your competitors, by name.
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“Award-winning design”We have awards. They don’t pay your bills. You will.
What your website design project costs.
Published because guessing games waste everyone’s time. Every tier is yours at launch: the site, its files and the logins. All prices NZD excl. GST.
Business
- Bespoke design & art direction, on your stack of choice
- Mobile-first responsive design
- Optional hosting & care from $39/mo
- On-page SEO setup & analytics
Flagship
- Everything in Business, plus
- More pages and sections
- E-commerce: online shop & payments
- Deep SEO keyword research
- Bookings & CRM integrations
- Copywriting & content strategy
Website design projects we can show you.
Website design questions every client asks first.
How much does a website cost in Christchurch?
A Merlin Wise site is $2,000–$4,000 for a typical business site with custom design and on-page SEO, and $4,000–$8,000 for a flagship: more pages, an online shop and deep keyword research. A simple five-page site sits at the bottom of the business range. The NZ market ranges from $800 freelancer builds to $50,000+ agency projects; our cost guide breaks down what moves the price.
How long does a full website take?
A five-page business site ships in 2–3 weeks. A larger business or flagship build with custom design, copy and on-page SEO is 6–10 weeks depending on rounds.
WordPress, Shopify or Laravel — which should I use?
WordPress when your team needs a familiar editor or you already run it. Shopify or BigCommerce when you sell products online, or WooCommerce to keep the shop inside WordPress; BigCommerce suits larger catalogues and B2B pricing. Laravel when you need something a template cannot do, such as bookings across branches, gift cards or a custom admin. We recommend one in the brief and explain why; we do not push a platform we resell.
Can I see websites you have built locally?
Yes. Our case studies cover trades, salons, professional services and subscription businesses across Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington, each with a link to the live site.
Do you do migrations from old platforms?
Yes. Squarespace, Wix, old WordPress, Webflow — most migrations take 1–2 weeks on top of build time. We script the content transfer where we can.
How do payments work?
50% when we start and 50% after launch. Your price is fixed once we agree the scope, so the second invoice is no surprise. Anything you ask for outside the scope is quoted before we do it.
What happens after launch?
30 days of post-launch support is included. After that you can keep us on for managed hosting from $39 a month, an SEO retainer, or nothing at all: every repo, asset and credential is transferred to you on day one.
How much does a website cost in NZ?
Market ranges for 2026, what moves the price, and exactly what we charge.
Website builder or web designer?
Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and Rocketspark prices against a designer-built site over three years.
SEO Christchurch
What happens after launch: local SEO, content and a monthly written report.
Small business websites NZ
For salons, cafés and trades anywhere in NZ, from $2,000.
Ready to ship a site you actually like? Let’s start the brief.
Send us three sentences about where you are and what you need. Within one working day we’ll tell you whether this is a fit — and a rough cost and timeline.