Software refresh vs website refresh: which job do you have?
People use "refresh" for everything: a new coat of paint, a new homepage, a full rebuild. Those are different jobs. Mixing them up is how you pay for a prettier site that still drops calls.
Our company is called Software Refresh. One of the things we sell is a Website Refresh. The names sound alike on purpose. The work is not the same.
Website refresh
This is what visitors notice. New layout, clearer copy, buttons that make sense on a phone, photos that do not look like 2018 stock.
Do this first when:
- People land on the site and still cannot tell what you do
- The phone number is buried
- The design looks older than the business
- Traffic is fine and inquiries are not
A website refresh keeps the useful bones (URLs, content you already wrote, the CMS you know) and updates how the site sells.
Software refresh
This is the engine. Plugins, PHP or Node versions, hosting, caching, forms, SSL, backups, the tracking that tells you if anyone submitted anything.
Do this first when:
- Pages take forever on a phone
- The contact form has been silently failing
- You cannot update a paragraph without breaking the layout
- The host or plugin author stopped supporting what you run
- Search Console is yelling about speed or security
No amount of new typography fixes a form that never arrives in your inbox.
Rebuild
Sometimes the platform is done. Old website builders, abandoned themes, a WordPress install held together with five page builders. At that point you are not refreshing. You are replacing.
A rebuild makes sense when the current site cannot be patched without spending more than a new one. How long that takes depends on whether you already have copy and photos.
A simple order of work
If the site is down, hacked, or painfully slow, fix the software first. A redesign on a dying stack is a waste.
If the site loads and the forms work, but nobody calls, refresh the pages people see. Headline, proof, one clear next step. Twelve common lead leaks cover most of that.
If both are true (old look and old stack), phase it. Stabilize, then redesign. Doing both at once is possible. It is also how projects stall for three months while everyone argues about button colors on a staging site that still cannot send email.
What we quote
Website Refresh starts at $1,500 when the structure is usable. A new business site starts at $3,000. A monthly plan after launch is not a surprise invoice every time a plugin updates.
We will tell you which of those you need after we see the URL. If you only need hosting and updates, we will say that.
Request a custom quote if you want that read. Bring the site and what is annoying you. That is enough to start.