What I build with
The day-to-day stack, chosen to fit the project, not the other way round.
- WordPress
- PHP
- JavaScript (ES6+)
- React
- SCSS
- jQuery
- Node.js
Over a decade building for the web
Bristol-based
web developer.
I build clean, considered websites that work properly. Currently a senior developer at Noble Performance in Bristol.
About
I care about
getting it right.
I'm a web developer based in Bristol, working day-to-day at Noble Performance, a digital agency where I've built up real experience across a range of client projects and industries.
Alongside that, I take on the odd project outside work where I can genuinely add something. I don't cut corners and I don't ship things I'm not proud of. If it's not right, it doesn't go live.
Outside of work: Liverpool fan, golfer, Bristol-based. If working with someone local matters to you, that's me.
How I work
Most projects don't arrive as a neat spec. They arrive as "we need a site that feels more like us". The part I'm most useful for is the gap between that and something real: asking the right questions early, planning the structure properly, then building it with care. The detail matters to me. The spacing, the wording, the things nobody notices until they're wrong.
Skills
How it ships
Version-controlled, deployed properly, and accelerated with AI tooling where it genuinely helps, not where it just sounds clever.
- Git & GitHub
- Vercel
- AI CLI agents
- Prompt design
What I sweat
The difference between a site that exists and a site that works.
- Performance & Core Web Vitals
- Accessibility (WCAG)
- Responsive & mobile-first
- Design fidelity
- Planning & delivery
- Turning client priorities into solutions
Work
A WordPress build for a MedTech executive search consultancy, found through word of mouth. The design came supplied, and my job was to bring it to life pixel-perfect: flexible templates for the inner pages, mail routing, a few nice parallax touches, and a site the client could genuinely manage herself. She has been coming back for updates ever since.
Sam is a PGA-qualified golf coach with a perfectly serviceable Wix site, so I didn't sell him a rebuild. I went through it as a user would and told him what was actually costing him: text locked inside images where search engines can't read it, missing meta titles and descriptions, no analytics, nothing to tap above the fold. He left with a clear list of fixes he could make himself. Not every site needs a rebuild. Sometimes it needs an honest pair of eyes.
The case studies above are the ones I can point you at directly. The day job is where the mileage comes from. I started as an agency apprentice and worked my way up to senior developer at a Bristol agency: tens of bespoke WordPress and WooCommerce builds, custom Gutenberg blocks, Core Web Vitals work, migrations, scoping, and training clients to actually use what they have paid for.
Approach
Three ways a project
usually starts.
Most projects, agency or otherwise, start in one of these three ways. The common thread is working out what's actually needed before anything gets built.
-
Someone needs a site built.
WordPress or something more modern, whichever fits the project, not whichever I fancy using. Built tidy, and handed over so they can run it themselves.
-
A site isn't doing its job.
I go through it the way a customer would and work out what's actually costing them. Sometimes that means a rebuild. Sometimes it's a short list of fixes, and I'll say so.
-
Nobody's sure what's needed yet.
Maybe a new site, maybe a few fixes, maybe nothing at all. Either way it gets an honest read, not a pitch.
Contact
Got something
worth talking about?
I'm fairly easy to get hold of. Find me on LinkedIn and drop me a message.
linkedin.com/in/alex-tonkins (LinkedIn, opens in a new tab)