Your agency is billing senior rates for work done by a junior
Most UK web agencies pitch you with a senior developer's CV, then quietly hand the work to a junior or a placement. You pay senior rates - often £80 to £120 an hour - for code written by someone on £22,000 a year. The fix is to ask for a named developer in writing, or move to someone who actually does your work themselves.
How agencies bill senior rates for junior work
Agency pricing is built on a simple trick. The sales meeting features the senior developer, the technical lead, maybe the founder. They are smart, they know their stuff, and they price the project at their rate.
Once you sign, the work gets passed down. Juniors, placements, and recent graduates do the actual building. The senior reviews it occasionally - sometimes - and signs off.
You are billed as if the senior built it. The gap between what they pay the junior and what they charge you is the margin. That is the whole business model.
Signs a junior is doing your work
You will rarely be told outright. But the symptoms are consistent.
- The person you met in the sales meeting never replies to emails directly
- Replies come from someone with "junior", "associate", or no title at all in their signature
- Simple questions take days to answer because they have to ask someone else
- Basic mistakes appear in the work - typos, broken links, mobile layouts that do not work
- You are told a small change "needs to be checked by the senior dev" before it can go live
- The same fix has to be done two or three times before it sticks
If you have seen three or more of these, the work is not being done by the person you were sold.
Why this is not illegal but still wrong
Agencies will tell you this is normal. "We have a team. The senior oversees everything. Juniors learn by doing." All true. None of it is the issue.
The issue is the price. If a junior is doing the work, you should be paying junior rates. The senior "oversight" is usually a five-minute glance at the end of the week, which is, generously, £40 of your monthly bill.
The contract almost never names a specific developer. That is deliberate. It means the agency can swap people in and out without breaching anything, while continuing to charge you the rate they pitched.
You were sold a senior. You are paying for a senior. You are getting a junior with a senior occasionally looking over their shoulder.
What to ask your agency
Send a short, polite email. Ask three questions:
- Who specifically is working on my site, by name and job title?
- How many hours has each person logged against my account in the last three months?
- What is the internal cost rate for each of those people?
You will not get straight answers. You will get vague language about "the team" and "our delivery model". That is the answer.
If they will not name the person doing the work, they are hiding it because the answer would embarrass them. A reputable developer will tell you immediately who is touching your code.
What to do next
You have two options. The first is to renegotiate. Ask the agency to either put a senior on the work full-time, or drop the rate to match the junior who is actually doing it. They will refuse both. The proposal is useful anyway because it tells you where you stand.
The second is to leave. Whether you run a bakery in Sheffield or a letting agency in Brighton, you do not need an agency for a small business website. You need one person who does the work themselves.
That is what I do. I am SkipTheAgency - one developer, no juniors, no placements, no markup. The Maintained plan is £65/month, against the £100-200/month most agencies charge for the same thing. The person who answers your email is the person writing the code.
Frequently asked questions
How much do junior web developers actually get paid?
UK junior developer salaries are typically £22,000 to £30,000 a year. That works out to roughly £12 to £16 an hour in real cost to the agency. If you are paying £80 to £120 an hour and the work is done by a junior, the agency is keeping the rest.
Is it normal for agencies to use juniors on client work?
Using juniors is normal. Billing them at senior rates is the problem. A fair agency would either price the work at the level of the person doing it, or be transparent about the mix of seniors and juniors and charge a blended rate.
How do I know if a senior developer is actually working on my site?
Ask for a named developer in writing and ask to see a breakdown of hours by person each month. If the agency refuses or gives vague answers about "the team", a senior is not doing your work. A senior would be named without hesitation.
What should I pay for a small business website each month?
For a small site with occasional changes, £40 to £80 a month is reasonable. Anything over £100 a month should come with a clear list of what is being done and by whom. If you cannot get that, you are subsidising someone else's margin.
Can I ask my agency to put a specific person on my account?
You can, but most agencies will refuse to commit in writing. They keep the team flexible so they can move staff around. If they will not name your developer in the contract, assume the named person in the sales meeting is not the one doing the work.
Want the person doing the work to be the one you talk to?
SkipTheAgency is one developer - me. No juniors, no markup, no handoffs. The Maintained plan starts at £65/month and the person writing the code is the person answering your email.
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