Your website is a brochure, but your ocean-tech story is live data
A custom website for a Halifax ocean-tech, research or marine firm runs $15,000 to $60,000 over 1 to 4 months. You leave Wix or Squarespace when the site has to do more than describe you: show a live buoy or AIS feed, host a secure client data portal, or publish searchable research output. Template builders make a fine brochure; they can't make your data part of the pitch.
Squarespace gives you a clean brochure, and for a services firm that's often enough. It runs out of road when your differentiator is data. A Halifax ocean-tech company wins by showing it can fuse buoy, AIS and lab readings, but a template site can't render a live feed or an interactive map of the Basin. So your best proof point sits in a separate tool nobody on your site ever sees.
Research-driven firms hit the portal wall. Clients and university partners need a logged-in area to pull reports, datasets or project status, and Wix's member areas are too thin for real access control. You end up emailing files, which is slow, insecure and impossible to audit. When the website needs to be a working tool with live data and secure access, the builder stops being enough.
- Your differentiator is data you need to show live on the site
- Clients or partners need a secure logged-in portal, not emailed files
- You publish research or datasets that need search and structure
- Template performance, SEO or access-control limits are holding you back
- You need a straightforward marketing brochure and nothing more
- Your team must self-edit everything and has no developer support
- Budget is tight and a template covers your near-term needs
- You have no live-data or portal requirements yet
- Live data feeds and interactive maps that demonstrate your capability instead of just claiming it
- A secure client and partner portal with real access control, not a thin template member area
- Searchable, structured publishing for research output and datasets
- Auditable file and report delivery replacing insecure email attachments
- Performance and SEO control a template builder doesn't give you
- A custom site costs more than a template and needs hosting and maintenance you own
- Marketing-team self-editing is easier on Squarespace; custom needs a thoughtfully built CMS
- Live-data features add complexity and a backend you wouldn't otherwise need
- If you genuinely just need a brochure, custom is money spent on capability you won't use
The honest cost picture for Halifax
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Custom marketing site with CMS | $15k to $30k | 1 to 2 months |
| Site with live data + secure portal | $35k to $60k | 2 to 4 months |
| Hosting, maintenance and content updates | $6k to $14k/yr | ongoing |
Feature priorities for Halifax teams
Website services we deliver in Halifax
Everything a website build here can cover: Jamstack, SEO-optimized websites, website redesign, custom website development and web design.
Exactly what you get
A website that works as proof, not just promotion. Live buoy and AIS feeds and an interactive Basin map demonstrate your capability. A secure portal lets clients and university partners pull reports and datasets with real access control and an audit trail. Research output is searchable and structured, and your marketing team can edit the brochure pages without touching the data features. It's fast, accessible and built to rank in Atlantic Canada.
How to choose a developer in Halifax
Choose a team that can build both a polished front end and the data and portal layer behind it. Ask to see a live-data component and a secured portal they've shipped. Understanding the ocean-tech and research audience helps them frame your data as the story. Make sure the site connects to your internal tools and BI dashboards so the live feeds it shows are the same trusted data your team works from.
Timeline: what happens, and when
- !They quote a template price for a data-driven site; ask how they'd embed a live buoy feed
- !No portal security plan; ask how partner access is controlled and audited
- !They can't speak to performance; ask how the live-data features stay fast
- !No CMS plan for your marketers; ask how non-developers edit without breaking the data features
- !They treat SEO as an afterthought; ask their plan for ranking in the Atlantic Canada market
If website is on the roadmap, hr, accounting, business intelligence dashboards usually follow within the year. Budget them as one conversation.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Can't Squarespace embed our live data?
Only crude embeds, and member areas too thin for a real portal. To render a live buoy or AIS feed, an interactive map, and a secured client area with audit logging, you need a custom site. The data is your differentiator, and a template can't put it front and centre.
How secure is a custom client portal?
As secure as you build it: role-based access, encrypted transport, and download logging so you know who pulled which report when. That replaces emailing files, which is slow and impossible to audit. Security scope should be set in discovery, especially for research or government partners.
Will our marketing team still be able to edit the site?
Yes, with a CMS built for them. The brochure pages stay editable while the live-data and portal features are managed separately, so a content edit can't break a data feed. Make self-editing an explicit requirement so the build accounts for it.