Websites that ship fast — and belong to you.
I build lean, very fast Astro websites for trades, practices and studios in and around Winterthur. No agency ping-pong: you talk to the developer directly.
From first call to live site — in three steps.
Small projects don't need waterfall. We talk, I build, you go live — and you can keep working on it yourself.
A short talk
20 minutes on the phone or at your place. I listen, you get a clear recommendation and a fixed price.
Day 1I build
Astro setup, content, design, forms, payments. You follow progress live on a preview URL.
Week 1–3You take over
Launch, handover in the client area, a short training. You own the content — I keep the tech running.
From day XClick your website. Type. Live.
Every site I build runs on melt — the CMS that looks like your website, because it is your website. You edit copy, images and menus right in the preview. Every publish is saved as a version, and melt.ai, the AI assistant, handles the rest.
melt runs right on your Astro site on Cloudflare — no third-party platform, no monthly CMS licence. More at melt.mauricenaef.ch.
Modern tech — without you having to understand it.
I work with a small, proven set. Each piece has one job, and what counts for you is only what it does for your business.
Astro
Framework · Performance
Your site loads in under a second. Google likes that, and your customers feel it immediately.
Astro ships your site as pure, static HTML — JavaScript loads only where it's actually needed. The result: load times under a second and top Google scores.
melt.cms
Inline CMS · versions · preview
You edit copy, images and menus right in the preview of your website. Every publish is saved as a version — with history, undo and an AI assistant.
melt is the CMS that looks like your website — because it is your website. You edit copy, images and menus right in the preview; every publish is saved as a version. No database, no licence fees.
SEO & GEO
Visibility
Clean technical SEO — plus GEO: your site isn't only found by Google, it gets quoted correctly by ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Technical SEO is part of the foundation: clean structure, meta data, load time. Plus GEO — so ChatGPT and Perplexity find and quote your site correctly.
E-Commerce
Stripe · Shop · Abos
Payments, subscriptions, deposits. Customers pay on your site, you see everything in one dashboard.
Payments run on Stripe: cards, TWINT, subscriptions and deposits — right on your site, with a clean dashboard and automatic invoices.
Pocketbase
Data & logins
Bookings, sign-ups, member areas: a small database that grows with you, without monthly licence fees.
Pocketbase is the small, fast database behind bookings, sign-ups and member areas — self-hosted, without monthly licence fees.
Interactive websites
JavaScript
Configurators, filters, calculators, motion. Interactive where it earns you enquiries and orders — not everywhere.
Calculators, filters, configurators and motion — used precisely where interaction earns you enquiries and orders. Lightweight, no framework baggage.
WordPress, PHP and legacy systems are no problem — you don't throw away 15 years of that. I migrate, combine or maintain what you already have.
Three projects, three very different demands.
From shop to community platform. Dive in — each case study shows the starting point, the solution and what happened after.
fairtogood
Fairly produced fashion needs a shop as transparent as the supply chain behind it.
birthhood
A platform around birth and early parenthood — sensitive content that has to be found fast and calmly.
19hilltop
A place with a view needs a page that carries the mood and still leads straight to an enquiry.
fairtogood
Fairly produced fashion needs a shop as transparent as the supply chain behind it.
A shop slower than its own shipping.
The old WooCommerce install had grown for years: many plugins, long load times, no clean multilingual setup. The brand's impact story never landed on the page.
Astro frontend, Stripe at the core, content in Pocketbase.
Product data and impact figures live structured in Pocketbase; checkout runs on Stripe. Astro ships static pages and only what must be interactive is: filters, size choice, cart.
Fast, multilingual, self-maintained.
The team publishes collections without me, impact values per item included. Operations and updates run automatically, with no downtime.
birthhood
A platform around birth and early parenthood — sensitive content that has to be found fast and calmly.
Lots of knowledge, scattered across tools.
Course data in spreadsheets, sign-ups by email, payments by invoice. For a small team that meant manual work every week.
One system for courses, sign-up and payment.
Courses and dates live in Pocketbase; sign-up leads straight into Stripe. The content design is calm and optimised for reading in stressful moments.
Less admin, more time for people.
Sign-ups and payments run automatically and the team maintains dates itself. New course formats can be added in minutes.
19hilltop
A place with a view needs a page that carries the mood and still leads straight to an enquiry.
Guests only arrived via booking portals.
High commissions, no direct contact, no brand of its own. There were beautiful photos but no place for them to work.
A calm, image-led page with one clear enquiry.
Large image areas, short copy, an enquiry bar that stays reachable. Deposits optionally run through Stripe.
Direct enquiries, set up in a week.
Four working days from first message to live. Enquiries now come in directly, without commission.
Your project, always in view — in your own client portal.
The portal comes with every project, at no extra cost. You sign in without a password, see how far along it is any time, and decide right there when something needs your input.
Progress, next milestone, open to-dos for you and me, at a glance.
Every phase up to the launch date. You see what's running and what comes next.
Approve offers with one click, follow the payment status any time.