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Studio Retained
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We know what procurement, legal, and leadership teams need to see before they commit. Here it is.
UK data protection standards applied as standard. Privacy-by-design across all projects. Documented and compliant with UK GDPR.
Every engagement starts with a mutual NDA before a single file is shared. Your IP and project details are protected from day one.
Staging and production always separated. No direct commits to live. Git version control on everything. Documented change management on every deployment.
Role-based access on all platforms. Principle of least privilege — we only hold the access we need, and it's cleanly revoked at the end of any engagement.
All client sites hosted on our own managed UK server infrastructure. Your data stays in the UK. No unknown third-party shared hosting.
Client data stays in client infrastructure. We do not store production data locally or on personal devices. Backups are encrypted and stored in isolation.
You work directly with Ryan, the founder of SmartaStudio. The person you brief is the person doing the work — and they know your business inside out.
All code lives in Git with pull request workflows. Every change is documented, reversible, and auditable. Nothing goes to production without a clear record of what changed and why.
Every change is built and reviewed on a staging environment before touching your live site. No live experimentation. No surprises.
Every Studio Retained client receives a monthly report — tasks completed, hours used, open items, and next priorities. Full visibility, every month, without having to ask.
All hosted sites are monitored 24/7. Alerts fire immediately on any downtime — you don't find out from a customer. We respond before you know there's a problem.
If you move on, we make it easy. Full documentation, clean access handover, and a knowledge transfer session. No lock-in. No hostage-taking.
Every Studio Retained client gets access to a dedicated client portal from day one. Submit new tickets, track the live status of open tasks, share files and briefs, leave feedback on work in progress, and keep up to speed — without sending a single email.
You always know what's being worked on, what's next, and what's been done. Full visibility, all the time.
Predictable, transparent, and human. The way support should be.
Your site is down or completely unusable. Payment flows broken. Full failure affecting all users.
A core feature is broken or severely degraded. The site is up but a key function is failing — contact forms, key pages, checkout.
Non-blocking issues, cosmetic bugs, minor UX inconsistencies, or low-traffic edge cases.
No complicated onboarding. No lengthy procurement. Most Studio Retained clients go from first call to first deliverable in under two weeks.
No hidden fees. No variable invoices. Choose the tier that fits where you are now — you can move up as your needs grow.
Managed UK hosting is included for WordPress and compatible platforms. Shopify, headless CMS, and custom SaaS platforms use their own hosting infrastructure — hosting management is still included in scope. Additional project work outside retainer scope is quoted separately. Tier changes available at monthly renewal points. Prices are exclusive of VAT
Not sure which tier fits? Book a 20-minute call — we'll tell you honestly.
Book a callStudio Retained works best for businesses that have moved past the 'build it and leave it' stage. You've got a site, you know it needs ongoing attention, and you're done with unpredictable ad-hoc work.
A great fit
A bad fit
Start now
Book a free 20-minute discovery call or enquire now. We'll talk through your current situation, which tier makes sense, and what the first month would look like. No hard sell. Honest advice on whether it's the right fit.
FAQ
What businesses, procurement teams, and decision-makers usually ask before they get in touch.
Every tier covers four areas: website development and updates, hosting and infrastructure management, graphic design and marketing assets, and strategic recommendations. The balance shifts depending on your priorities each month — but all four are always available within your hours.
Yes. Design work — social graphics, print-ready assets, email headers, campaign imagery — is included within your monthly hours. There's no separate design quote for standard marketing collateral. Larger brand or identity projects are scoped separately.
Mainly hours and depth of relationship. Maintain (£495/mo) covers 5 hours — enough for a stable, healthy site. Grow (£895/mo) covers 10 hours with priority response and quarterly strategy. Partner (£1,500/mo) covers 20 hours with monthly strategy calls, flexible hour carry-over, and discounted additional time.
There's a 3-month minimum commitment on all tiers — this gives us enough time to get properly up to speed and you enough time to see the value. After that it's rolling monthly with 30 days notice. No complicated exit clauses.
On Maintain and Grow, unused hours don't roll over — the fee covers dedicated availability and reserved capacity, not just raw time. On the Partner tier, up to 5 unused hours carry forward to the following month.
Yes, at any monthly renewal point. We'll flag it if we think your needs are growing beyond your current tier before you notice.
Yes. UK GDPR standards are applied as standard across all client work. Privacy-by-design is built into every project, not bolted on at the end.
Yes. A mutual NDA is in place before any project files, credentials, or confidential information are shared. Your IP is protected from day one.
All client sites are hosted on our own managed UK server infrastructure. Your data stays in the UK. We do not use unknown third-party shared hosting environments, and production data is never stored locally on our devices.
For WordPress and compatible platforms, managed hosting on our own UK infrastructure is included — covering daily backups, uptime monitoring, security patching, SSL, and staging environments. For Shopify, headless CMS platforms (Contentful, Sanity, Storyblok, DatoCMS), and custom SaaS products, we manage and optimise within your existing hosting infrastructure. Either way, hosting and infrastructure is fully within scope.
Yes. We work with existing sites and applications regardless of platform — WordPress, Shopify, headless CMS builds (Contentful, Sanity, Storyblok, DatoCMS), custom-built SaaS products, or bespoke codebases. We'll do a technical audit during onboarding and flag anything that needs addressing before we start. Most sites are ready to go within a week.
P1 critical issues (site down) get a 1-hour response during UK business hours. P2 high-priority issues (core feature broken, site still up) get a 4-hour response. P3 standard issues are handled in the next monthly cycle. All response commitments are documented in your service agreement.
From discovery call to first deliverable is typically 7–10 working days. We do an onboarding audit in the first week, agree Month 1 priorities, set up your client portal, and start work — all before the end of your first billing cycle.
No. Smartastudio is based in Nantwich but we work with clients across the world. All retainer work is handled remotely — most clients never need us on-site. We're just as accessible to a business in London or Edinburgh as one down the road.
We make it clean. Full documentation, access handover, and a knowledge transfer session so nothing is lost when you transition. No lock-in. No hostage-taking.
