Genius Division

Multi-site platforms

One system running a group of websites. Every brand keeps its own identity, nobody rebuilds from scratch, and a new site goes live in days rather than months.

Running several websites separately means paying for the same work several times. The same security update, the same accessibility fix, the same new feature, once per site, forever. And when one of them falls behind, it’s the one a customer happens to land on.

A multi-site platform is one system underneath a group of websites. Shared machinery, separate personalities.

What that gets you

  • Fix it once. A security patch, a speed improvement or a new component lands everywhere at the same time.
  • New sites in days. A new location, brand or campus launches from the existing platform rather than from nothing.
  • Consistent where it matters, different where it counts. Shared components and standards, but each site keeps its own brand, tone and content.
  • Separate teams, separate control. Each site’s own people edit their own site without being able to break anybody else’s.
  • One bill, one team, one set of standards, instead of four agencies and a spreadsheet of renewal dates.

Who this is for

Hotel and hospitality groups. College and education groups. Franchises. Businesses with a site per location, per brand or per market. Anybody running more than about three websites that share anything at all.

It also works internationally. The sites don’t have to be in the same country to sit on the same platform.

What it looks like when it works

Barnsley Premier Leisure run ten leisure clubs, the Barnsley Metrodome, a golf business and more, and all of it used to sit on separate websites with separate providers. It’s one platform now, taking more than 1.5 million visits a year, with a custom streaming service built on top of it.

Crest Hotels Group run nine hotels with nine different brands on one shared system. Every property looks sharp and like itself, every property pushes guests to book direct, and a brand new hotel can be online without starting from a blank page.

RNN Group is five sites across four colleges and the group itself. The colleges now pull more than 365,000 visitors a year between them, all growing, with social and paid traffic up several hundred per cent.

What it costs

From £12,000, and this is the one area where the sums get better the more you need. Five separate websites cost roughly five times one website. A platform with five sites on it does not, and every site you add afterwards is cheaper than the one before.

Fixed price before anything starts. Our pricing is on the website.

We've built this before

Barnsley Premier Leisure

Barnsley Premier Leisure (Your Space)

Ten leisure clubs, a waterpark, a golf business and a home streaming platform, spread across four different web providers and drifting …

Read the case study →
Crest Hotels Group

Crest Hotels Group

We built one website platform that runs an entire hotel group — nine hotels, nine brands, one shared system. Every property looks sharp, …

Read the case study →
RNN Group

RNN Group

We rebuilt RNN Group's family of websites — five sites across four colleges and the group. The colleges now pull 365,000+ visitors a year, …

Read the case study →

Questions we get asked about multi-site platforms

What is a multi-site platform?
One shared system that runs several websites. They share the underlying build, the components and the hosting, but each one looks like itself with its own brand, content and audience. Fix something once and every site gets the fix.
Won't the sites all look the same?
No. Crest Hotels run nine hotels on one platform and every property looks like its own hotel. What’s shared is the machinery underneath, not the personality on top.
How much does it cost?
From £12,000, and the economics get better with every site you add. Building five separate websites costs five times as much as one. Building a platform and putting five sites on it does not.
How quickly can we add a new site?
Days rather than months, once the platform exists. That’s most of the point. A new hotel, a new campus or a new brand goes live without anybody starting from a blank page.
Can different teams manage their own site?
Yes. Each site can have its own editors who only see and change their own content, which matters when you’ve got separate marketing people across a group.
Is this only for big organisations?
It’s for anybody running more than about three websites that have anything in common. That’s often a group, but it’s also franchises, multi-brand businesses and companies with a site per location.