Custom websites and online stores, built in Colombo

Universal Networks is a web design and development agency in Colombo, Sri Lanka. We have been building websites since 2008. The work splits into three parts: designing and building websites and WooCommerce stores, writing custom code for jobs an off-the-shelf site cannot handle, and keeping sites fast, secure and online afterwards. We work directly with businesses and quietly behind other agencies.

It means we build under your name and your client never hears ours. You keep the relationship, the branding and the invoice. We work to your brief and your deadlines, and we do not appear in credits, footers or emails. A lot of agencies use us as the WordPress and WooCommerce team they do not have in house.

We are in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Most of our work is for clients elsewhere: the UK, the US, Europe, Australia and the Gulf. Everything is in English, and our working day overlaps with European and Middle Eastern business hours. Time zones have not been a problem in eighteen years.

It depends on what you need, so we quote after the first conversation rather than publishing a price list that would be wrong for most people. As a rough guide, a business website usually takes four to six weeks from agreed scope to launch. An online store with custom rules takes longer. You get the schedule in writing before we start.

Yes, and that is deliberate. We build on content management systems so you can edit pages, change images, add products and post news without paying us to do it. We show your team how it works at handover and stay available for anything structural.

Mostly WordPress, with WooCommerce for online stores. It runs a large share of the web, it is easy for your own team to edit, and it will not trap you with one developer. When a job needs something WordPress cannot do cleanly, we write custom PHP and web applications rather than bolting on another plugin.

Yes, that has been a large part of our client list since 2008. Start-ups, small businesses and new online stores need the same things larger companies do, a site that loads fast, can be found and can be edited, just scoped to a smaller budget. We are straight with you about what is worth building now and what can wait.

Yes. After launch we can look after updates, automated backups, security monitoring, malware cleanup and speed work, so the site stays online and safe without you having to think about it. We quote maintenance separately from the build, and you are never locked into it.

Yes. We migrate sites between hosts regularly, including the files, the database, email and the domain settings, and we plan the switch so visitors do not notice. If your current host is slow or unreliable, moving is often the cheapest speed improvement you can buy.

Often, yes. We clean up malware, install SSL and firewalls, set up automatic backups and monitoring, and do speed work. We also handle hosting moves and payment gateway installs on sites built by someone else. Send us the URL and we will tell you what we find.