You deal with me, start to finish
No account manager, no handoff to someone junior after you've signed. The person you email is the person building your site.
About
I build websites for businesses around Toronto.
I'm Gleb. Modern Forge Web is me — one person, working out of Toronto, building websites for local businesses across the GTA.
This started while I was doing my computer science degree. A friend runs an HVAC company and needed help with his website, so I picked it up as side income. What I found wasn't a one-off problem. Talking to other owners around Toronto and the GTA, the same thing kept coming up: getting a decent website felt either too expensive or too complicated to be worth starting. So most of them didn't. They stayed on a template from 2016, or a Facebook page, or nothing.
That gap is the whole reason this exists. Not to build the fanciest websites in the city — to make a genuinely good one affordable enough that a small business actually says yes.
The part I'm good at is finishing. I'm difficult about details: spacing that's a few pixels off, a button that doesn't feel right under your thumb, text that goes unreadable in bright sun. Most of that is invisible when it's right and obvious when it's wrong. I'd rather hand something over that you're glad to show people than something that technically works.
I'm new to running this as a business. I'm not new to building. That's why my prices are what they are, and why they're printed on the page instead of hidden behind a call.
How we work
Four commitments we don't bend on.
These are the things you can hold us to. They cost us flexibility, which is rather the point.
The quote is the quote
The number agreed at the start is the number at the end. If the scope changes, we price it and agree before any work happens.
Plain English, always
No jargon in your proposal, your invoices, or your monthly reports. If you need a glossary to read it, I wrote it badly.
Built to be handed over
Your site is made so any other developer could pick it up. You're never stuck with me because leaving would be painful.
Standard on every build
Not a premium tier. Just how it should be made.
A fixed price, in writing
You get the full number by email before work starts. No hourly clock, no surprise line items at the end.
You own everything
The design, the code, the content, and the domain are yours. Nothing is locked to my hosting.
Built to load fast
Lightweight code and optimised images, tested on a real phone connection rather than a fast office one.
Accessible by default
Readable contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader support are part of the build, not an upsell.
How you pay
You're not taking the risk on your own.
I don't have client testimonials yet, so I'm not going to invent any. Instead, here's how the money works — so the risk of going first isn't sitting entirely with you.
- 25%
To start
A deposit when we agree the scope. This covers the design work, and it's the only money that changes hands before you've seen anything.
- Then
You see the design
I design your homepage and send it over. Nothing is built yet. If you don't like the direction, you say so and I rework it — twice, included.
- Refund
If it isn't right, you get the deposit back
If after those revisions you still don't want to go ahead, I refund the deposit in full and we part ways. You keep nothing, I keep nothing, nobody argues.
- 75%
On launch
The balance is due once the site is live and you've signed off on it. Not before.
Written into every contract, not a handshake. Ask for a copy before you commit to anything.
Let's find out if I'm a fit.
Send an email, no pitch deck. If I'm not the right person for your project, I'll tell you that instead of selling you a website.