The verdict in three sentences
In St Helier the local agency pool is small, so a charter broker is really choosing between a Jersey studio, a UK mainland agency that flies in for meetings, and a remote studio that works entirely on video. A Jersey agency is worth its premium when your finance-sector clients expect polished in-person reviews and you need shoots organised in the harbour; otherwise a remote studio delivers an English and French site with Kolonell Premium at £6,900 (the multilingual tier, languages set in the quote). In every case, make sure the domain, hosting and code are registered to your company and that the site never suggests you operate the boats or aircraft.
Jersey studio, mainland agency or remote studio: what does each really offer?
The comparison below is descriptive rather than scored, because in a market this size the right answer depends heavily on your own constraints.
| What you get | Jersey studio | UK mainland agency | Remote studio (Kolonell) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-person meetings in St Helier | Easy, at short notice | Occasional visits, travel billed | None, video only |
| Time-zone overlap | Same clock | Same clock | Team on GMT all year, same as Jersey in winter |
| Understanding of island clients | Strong | Variable | Built from your briefing |
| Native French copy for clients from Normandy and Brittany | Depends on staff | Usually an external translator | Premium, languages set in the quote |
| Shoot in St Helier harbour or at Jersey Airport | Organised locally | Needs a local photographer | Briefed remotely, third-party photographer on site |
| Typical delivery | 8 to 12 weeks, depends on capacity | 8 to 14 weeks | 3 to 4 weeks |
What does a St Helier charter broker's site need?
Clients are finance and trust professionals, visiting families and residents planning trips to Guernsey, Sark or the French coast, plus private flights out of Jersey Airport. The site should:
- make the broker role explicit: boat charters run on vessels certified for commercial use, flights are operated by companies that hold the air operator certificate, and cross-border formalities for French ports are handled by the operator and skipper, not promised by the website;
- carry pages for inter-island trips, crossings to Saint-Malo, Granville or Carteret, and private flights to London and European business centres;
- keep the inquiry form short: dates, route, departure marina or airport, number of guests, preferred contact;
- protect discretion: no client names, no tail numbers, no identifiable guests, a particular concern for finance-sector clients;
- use only images licensed from operators or commissioned from a third-party photographer.
What does each option cost over three years?
Build figures are a 2026 ballpark from typical Jersey and UK agency quotes for a 10-page English and French site, excluding GST and VAT. Maintenance uses a market assumption of £150 a month for months 4 to 36 in every column; Kolonell maintenance is on quote.
| Cost line | Jersey studio | UK mainland agency | Kolonell Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build, 10 pages, English and French | £9,000 to £18,000 (mid £13,500) | £7,000 to £15,000 (mid £11,000) | £6,900 fixed |
| French copy | often a third-party translator, £400 to £1,000 (mid £700) | third-party translator, £400 to £1,000 (mid £700) | native copy included |
| Maintenance, months 4 to 36 (market assumption) | £4,950 | £4,950 | on quote (£4,950 assumed) |
| Travel for on-island meetings | none | billed at cost | none |
| 3-year total at midpoints, travel excluded | £19,150 | £16,650 | £11,850 |
An English-only site would sit at £3,900 (Growth), or £2,300 (Starter) for 5 pages. See the international offer for the full scope of each tier.
When is a Jersey agency clearly the better choice?
Be honest about these cases. A Jersey studio is the better fit if your partners expect to review designs around a table in St Helier, if you want one supplier to run a harbour and airfield shoot with permissions arranged locally, or if you value having someone who already knows the island's finance community. A remote studio is enough when your images are licensed, your trip list is written and the priority is a bilingual site live within a month.
Ask every provider the same questions: Will the domain and hosting be in our name from day one? Who owns the code and copy at handover? Where is form data hosted and for how long is it kept? Will the site be tested against WCAG 2.2 AA?
On compliance, inquiry data falls under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018, overseen by the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner; check your registration obligations with the JOIC. Ask for a privacy notice, consent for non-essential cookies as a matter of good practice, and an accessibility statement with WCAG 2.2 AA as the target. This is not legal advice.
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Mini case study
*Illustrative example.* Tom Le Brocq runs a small charter brokerage in St Helier serving finance professionals. He needs an English and French site because many of his summer inquiries concern crossings to the French coast.
He compares three options over three years at midpoints: Jersey studio £19,150, UK agency £16,650 plus travel, Kolonell Premium £11,850. The gap between the Jersey studio and Kolonell is £7,300.
He then counts meetings: the Jersey studio plans 5 in-person sessions of about 2 hours (10 hours), Kolonell 5 video sessions of about 1 hour (5 hours). Tom's partners are comfortable on video, his operators supply licensed images, and he books a local third-party photographer for half a day at the harbour (about £500, paid directly). He chooses Kolonell. Had his partners insisted on reviewing everything in person, the Jersey studio would have been the sensible choice.
FAQ
How many web agencies are there in Jersey?
A small number of studios and freelancers, which means waits of 8 to 12 weeks are common in spring. Adding one mainland and one remote quote gives you a realistic comparison.
Is a French version really necessary?
If a meaningful share of your inquiries concern the French coast or French-speaking visitors, yes. Premium at £6,900 is the multilingual tier, with native copy and languages set in the quote.
How fast can Kolonell deliver?
3 to 4 weeks once content is approved, with 3 months of support included; maintenance afterwards is on quote.
Can we show live empty-leg flights from Jersey Airport?
Only through an integration with an operator or marketplace feed, scoped on quote. A simple availability request form is included in Growth at £3,900.
Who pays for aircraft and yacht photos?
You license them from the operator, or you commission a third-party photographer, roughly £500 to £1,200 for half a day to a day in 2026. To plan the rest, request a free quote.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your routes, languages and launch date, and we will confirm the tier, the fixed price in GBP and a 3 to 4 week plan. See the international offer or request a free quote: detailed reply within 48 hours.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.