Web design and SaaS development in Toronto

Web design in Toronto, without the guesswork

Search for web design in Toronto and you get two kinds of results: agency city pages with a contact form and no figures, and directories that list hourly rates without telling you how many hours your project will take. Neither tells you what you will actually pay.

We take the opposite approach. A landing page starts at CA$1,400, a multi-page business website starts at CA$4,300, and a platform with user accounts and dashboards is quoted after a short brief. The quote is free, and you can be invoiced in Canadian dollars.

What Ontario rules change for your website

AODA and accessibility

Under Ontario's Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the websites of organizations with 50 or more employees must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA. That means readable contrast, real text instead of text inside images, forms that work with a keyboard and a screen reader, and descriptions for meaningful images. We design with these criteria from the mock-up; our AODA website accessibility guide explains what is checked.

HST on online sales

Ontario applies a 13% HST. If you sell online, your store has to calculate tax correctly by province, and Ontario is not the only one you will ship to. Our ecommerce page and our guide to sales tax for online stores in Canada cover the setup; your accountant confirms your registration and obligations.

French, if you sell into Quebec

A Toronto business does not need a French site for Ontario customers. If your site is aimed at customers in Quebec, though, Bill 96 requires a French version at least as accessible as the English one. We can add it from the start or later.

Who we work with in the Greater Toronto Area

Toronto projects come from very different places: a professional firm downtown that needs a clean site and a booking form, a restaurant on Queen West that lives on its photos and hours, a Liberty Village startup that needs its first SaaS version in weeks, a distributor in Mississauga or Vaughan that wants a product catalogue for trade customers, or a contractor in Scarborough or Etobicoke whose clients find them on their phone.

• Professional services: law, accounting, consulting, clinics.
• Restaurants, retail and local services.
• Startups that need a SaaS platform or a client portal.
• Distributors and manufacturers with a catalogue to put online.
• Online stores selling across Canada.

Real projects, honestly presented

Our Canadian references today are in Quebec: CHMT Design and Coiffure Le Ritz in Montreal, and Vitres et Pavés étudiants in Quebec City and the Beauce region. We also designed and publish platforms that are live right now, such as GORIFIT for training and nutrition, Gwadadrop for delivery management and Fidelivet for veterinary clinics. You can open each one before deciding to talk to us; the full list is on our portfolio page (in French).

We would rather show you a working platform than a list of logos.

How to compare Toronto web agencies

Whichever studio you choose, a few questions sort out the offers quickly. Ask them to us as well:

• Is there a starting price, or only an hourly rate with no estimate of the hours?
• Can I open live projects the agency built, not just screenshots?
• Is the design made for my business, or adapted from a template?
• Who hosts the site, and what happens after the launch?
• Are accessibility (AODA) and, if I sell into Quebec, a French version planned from the start?

Our guide on how to choose a web agency in Canada goes through each point, including the questions to ask about ownership and follow-up.

Working remotely with a Toronto business

Toronto and Montreal share the same time zone, so meetings happen during your working day. The project follows four steps:

1. 01
   Brief

   A video call to define your goals, your customers and the pages you need.

2. 02
   Mock-up

   You approve the design before any code is written.

3. 03
   Development

   We build, test a first version with you and correct it.

4. 04
   Launch

   We put the site online on Google Cloud hosting and follow up after launch.

Quotes, the contract, invoices and payments are all in our client space, L'intranet, and the contract is available in English.