Website rebuild · New Zealand
A rebuild for the website you quietly regret.
You already have a website — it’s slow, it breaks, it can’t do what the business needs now, or the person who built it vanished and nobody can touch it. Tally Digital rebuilds and replatforms it on a modern stack you own, hand-coded by a senior engineer, with the content and rankings you’ve earned carried across.
In short
What a website rebuild and replatform actually means
A website rebuild means replacing a site that no longer works — too slow, too fragile, or stuck on a platform you’ve outgrown — with one built properly around what your business needs now, while keeping the content, URLs and search rankings you’ve already earned. A replatform is the same job aimed at the foundation: moving off a cheap builder or an aging WordPress install onto a modern stack you control. For a New Zealand business the real question is rarely redesign versus rebuild — it’s whether the thing underneath can be fixed, or whether you’re paying to patch something that will keep breaking.
What we build
What we do in a rebuild
Most rebuilds are one of these, or a combination. If the problem is the foundation and not just the paint, it’s in scope.
A ground-up rebuild
The site rebuilt properly on a modern, mainstream stack — fast, secure and maintainable — keeping what works and fixing what doesn’t, instead of another layer of patches on a foundation that’s already failing.
Replatform off a builder
Moving you off Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy or an aging WordPress install onto a stack you own, so a template’s limits and a monthly subscription stop dictating what your business can do online.
Content & URL migration
Your pages, images and links carried across intact, with every old URL redirected to its new home, so the rankings and inbound links you’ve spent years earning survive the move rather than vanish.
Rescue of an abandoned site
Inherited a site nobody can maintain, with no access, no documentation and a developer who disappeared? We recover what can be recovered, get you the keys to your own accounts, and rebuild the rest.
Redesign, where it earns it
A cleaner, faster front end designed alongside the rebuild — but only where the current design is genuinely holding you back, not a redesign for its own sake while the real problems stay untouched.
A codebase you own
At handover you own the repository, the accounts and the hosting outright, on a stack any competent developer can pick up — so you’re never again locked to one person or one platform.
In depth
How to think about rebuilding a website
Website rebuild or website redesign — which do you actually need
A redesign changes how the site looks; a rebuild changes what it is underneath. If the problem is that the site feels dated but loads fine and does its job, you may only need a redesign — new layout on the same foundation. If it’s slow, breaks under load, can’t take the feature you need, or is built on something no one can safely touch, a fresh coat of paint won’t fix it. That’s a rebuild: the structure replaced, the content preserved. The honest test is whether your frustration is with the surface or the foundation — and I’ll tell you which one I think it is.
Outgrowing WordPress, Wix or Squarespace
Site builders and WordPress are the right first step for most businesses — cheap, quick, and someone else keeps the lights on. You outgrow them at a fairly predictable point: when you’re stacking plugins to force a feature the platform wasn’t built for, when every change risks breaking three others, when the site crawls because it’s dragging years of themes and add-ons behind it, or when a template simply can’t model how your business actually works. Past that point the builder stops saving you money and starts costing you — in speed, in fragility, and in the things you can’t do. A rebuild on a modern stack takes the ceiling away.
When you should not rebuild
Sometimes a rebuild is the wrong call, and I’ll say so before you spend the money. If your site is only a few years old, built on a sound stack, and the real issue is stale content or a tired look, you need a redesign or a content refresh — a far smaller job than a rebuild. If it’s a simple brochure site and a well-supported platform handles it fine, keep the platform. And if one specific thing is broken — a slow page, a form that fails, a snapped integration — that’s a repair, not a reason to start over. Rebuild when the foundation is the problem, not before.
Migrating to a new platform without losing your Google rankings
The fear with any replatform is that traffic falls off a cliff the day the new site goes live. It doesn’t have to, and preventing it is craft rather than luck. Every existing URL is mapped and redirected to its new equivalent, the content and metadata come across intact, the sitemaps and structured data are rebuilt, and the whole thing is checked before launch and watched afterwards. Done properly, migrating a website to a new platform is close to invisible to Google — the rankings and backlinks you’ve earned carry over. Done carelessly, by someone who forgets the redirects, it quietly undoes years of work.
Who you actually work with
Not an account manager fronting an offshore team, and not the sort of freelancer who’ll vanish the way the last one did — Isaac Vicliph, a senior software engineer with a decade shipping software in financial services, doing the rebuild himself. You get one accountable person from the first call to launch, direct contact throughout, and a clear plan you can read before anything is touched. It’s a deliberately small operation: fewer projects, no junior hand-off, and the person who understands your rebuilt site is the person who built it. You own the code at the end. NZ-based, priced in NZD, GST-registered.
How a rebuild runs, and how it’s priced
We scope before we quote. The first step is a proper look at what you’ve actually got — the current site, the platform, what’s breaking, what has to survive the move — followed by a written plan: what gets rebuilt, which content and URLs migrate, what you own at the end, and a fixed price for that scope. No hourly meter, no estimate that drifts once work starts. A straightforward replatform of a small site is a smaller job than rebuilding a large one with integrations, so rather than publish a number that’s wrong for yours, I give you a firm one once I’ve seen it. Send me the URL and you’ll get a straight assessment back.
Reviewed July 2026 · written by Isaac Vicliph, Tally Digital
Questions
Frequently asked
What is a website rebuild?
A website rebuild means replacing a site that no longer works — too slow, too fragile, stuck on a platform you’ve outgrown, or impossible to maintain — with one built properly on a modern stack, while keeping the content, URLs and search rankings you’ve already earned. It’s different from a redesign, which only changes how the site looks. A rebuild changes what’s underneath.
What’s the difference between a website rebuild and a website redesign?
A redesign changes the surface — layout, styling, imagery — on the same foundation. A rebuild replaces the foundation itself: the platform, the code, the structure. If your site looks dated but works, you probably want a redesign. If it’s slow, breaks, or can’t do what the business now needs, that’s a rebuild. I’ll tell you honestly which one your situation calls for rather than sell you the bigger job.
How much does it cost to rebuild my website in New Zealand?
It depends entirely on scope — a straightforward replatform of a small site is a very different job from rebuilding a large site with custom features and integrations, so a blanket price would mislead you. I scope your actual site first — what’s there, what breaks, what has to migrate — then give you a fixed price for that scope before any work starts. No hourly meter and no open-ended estimate. Send the URL and you’ll get a firm number back.
Can you move my website off WordPress, Wix or Squarespace?
Yes — replatforming off a site builder or an aging WordPress install is one of the most common rebuilds I do. Your content, images and pages come across, every old URL is redirected, and the new site is built on a modern stack you own outright, so a template’s limits and monthly lock-in stop dictating what your business can do online.
Will I lose my Google rankings if I migrate to a new platform?
Not if the migration is done properly. Every existing URL is mapped and redirected to its new equivalent, content and metadata carry across, and the sitemaps and structured data are rebuilt and checked before launch. Done carefully, migrating a website to a new platform is close to invisible to Google, and your rankings and backlinks carry over. The damage people fear comes from skipping the redirects — which I don’t.
I inherited a website nobody can maintain — can you help?
Yes. This is a large part of the work: sites with no documentation, no access, or a developer who disappeared. I recover what can be recovered, get you the keys to your own accounts and hosting, and rebuild the rest on a stack any competent developer can pick up — so you’re never again locked to one person who might vanish.
Do I own the code after the rebuild?
Yes, outright. At handover you own the repository, the accounts and the hosting. It’s built on a mainstream stack — Next.js, TypeScript, Postgres — with no proprietary lock-in, so any competent developer can maintain it. The whole point of a rebuild is to stop being trapped by the last one, not to trade one lock-in for another.
Are you a web developer or a digital agency?
A senior software engineer. Website rebuilds, replatforming, web apps and integrations — not templates, and not a monthly marketing retainer. You talk to the person who designs and writes the code, every time, from the first call through to launch.
Send me the site you’re ready to replace.
The one that’s slow, that breaks, that can’t do what the business needs, or that nobody can maintain — send me the URL and I’ll tell you honestly whether it needs a rebuild, a replatform, or just a repair, then scope the smallest job that fixes it and come back with a fixed price.