Languages
TypeScript
The quality control we build into your site's code so small mistakes never reach your customers.
TypeScript is a version of JavaScript that checks the code as it's written, the way a spell-checker flags a typo before you send the email. For you that means fewer bugs slip onto the live site, and changes months or years later are quicker and safer to make. You never see it; you feel it in a site that simply keeps working.
Where it shines
- Catches a whole class of coding mistakes during the build, not after your customers hit them
- Makes future changes cheaper and lower-risk, so a small edit doesn't quietly break something else
- Protects the parts that matter most: enquiry forms, integrations and anything that captures a lead
- Any developer who picks up your site later can read the code's intent, so you're not locked to one person
- Validates your structured content (services, locations, posts) so a missing field is caught before publishing
- Adds nothing to page weight, it becomes ordinary JavaScript, so there's no cost to your visitors' speed
Trade-offs to weigh
- Slightly more work up front to set up, which only pays off on real, evolving sites, not throwaway scripts
- It checks our code, not your visitors' input, so live forms and external data still need separate validation
- It reduces a category of bugs rather than all of them, so it never replaces proper testing before launch
What this actually means for your site
You don’t need to know what TypeScript is to benefit from it, any more than you need to know how an engineer specifies a beam to live in a well-built house. But here’s the plain version.
Most expensive website problems come not from the original build but from changes made afterwards: a developer edits one thing and unknowingly breaks another, somewhere else, that nobody spots until a customer does. TypeScript is a way of writing the code so the computer checks it as it’s written, before anyone publishes it. Think of it as a spell-checker for the logic of your site. If two parts no longer fit together, the build stops and tells us, on our screens, rather than letting the problem reach your live site.
It’s not a separate technology bolted on. It’s the ordinary language of the web (JavaScript) with this checking built in, and before your site goes live it turns back into that ordinary language. Your visitors download exactly what they would have anyway, with no speed or compatibility cost. The benefit sits entirely on the build and maintenance side, where the real money is.
Why a business owner should care
Three things matter to you, and this quietly serves all three.
Fewer bugs reach your customers. The worst website faults are the silent ones, a contact form that looks fine but stops sending enquiries, a price or detail that’s wrong on one template repeated across forty pages. These are precisely the kind of mismatch TypeScript is built to catch, and it catches them before launch, not in front of a paying customer.
Lower cost over the life of the site. A website isn’t a one-off purchase; you’ll change it, add to it and update it for years. Most of what it costs you over time is those changes. When the code checks itself, each change is faster to make and far less likely to break something unrelated, which keeps your ongoing costs down and your site stable.
You’re not locked in. You own everything we build, and this kind of code is written to be read. Because the intent is explicit, any competent developer can pick your site up later and understand how it’s meant to fit together. Good code is a handover asset, not a hostage situation.
How we use it, and where we don’t
We write the working parts of a site, the forms, the interactive pieces, the structured content behind your services and locations, with these checks switched on, so problems surface during development. Our build tools run the checks automatically on every change, and the parts that capture leads get the most scrutiny, because those are the parts you can’t afford to have fail quietly.
We’re also honest about its limits. For a one-page throwaway or the simplest static site, the extra setup isn’t worth it, and we’ll say so. It checks our code, not your visitors’ input, so live forms and anything coming from an outside system still get their own validation. And it reduces bugs rather than eliminating them, so we still test properly before anything goes live. We use it because, on the real, evolving sites businesses actually depend on, fewer breakages and cheaper changes are worth far more than the modest effort they cost, which is why it’s our default rather than an optional extra.
If you’d like a straight, jargon-free read on how your current site is built and where it’s likely to cost you later, our free website and marketing audit covers exactly that. Get your free audit and we’ll take a look.
Worked example
The cost of a form that breaks six months after launch
A common, expensive failure: a site's contact form works perfectly at launch, then a later change, a new field, a tweaked layout, quietly breaks the bit that sends enquiries through. Nobody notices for weeks, because the form still looks fine; leads just stop arriving. With TypeScript, the connection between the form and where its data goes is checked every time we build. Rename or move a field and the build stops and tells us, on our screens, before it ever ships. The same check guards every integration and template across the site, so the changes a business makes over the years are far less likely to break the things that earn it money. (Illustrative, every build is scoped to your goals.)
Better together
How TypeScript fits with the rest of our stack
JavaScript
The web language TypeScript adds quality checks to and compiles back into
Learn moreAstro
Uses TypeScript to validate your structured content before it publishes
Learn moreReact
Our interactive pieces are written in typed React for fewer bugs
Learn moreVite
Runs the TypeScript checks as part of the build automatically
Learn morePrettier
Keeps the code tidy; together they make the codebase easy to maintain
Learn moreTypeScript: your questions answered
I'm not technical, why should I care what TypeScript is?
You shouldn't have to care about the tool itself, only what it does for you. It's a quality-control step built into how your site is written that catches a common kind of coding mistake before it reaches your customers. The practical upshot is fewer bugs after launch and cheaper, safer changes down the line. You never touch it; you just get a site that holds together.
Does this cost me more, or does it save money?
It saves money over the life of the site. There's a little extra effort to set it up, but it sharply reduces the slow, costly bugs, the broken form, the change that breaks an unrelated page, that otherwise eat into time and trust later. Most of what a website costs over its life is maintenance and changes, and that's exactly where this pays you back.
Will it make my website faster?
Not directly, and we'd never claim it does. Before your site goes live, TypeScript turns into ordinary JavaScript, so it adds nothing to what a visitor downloads, no speed cost. Its job is dependability: fewer bugs and safer changes, not raw load time. Speed comes from how lightly we build, which is a separate discipline.
Does it actually mean fewer things break on my site?
It meaningfully cuts one of the most common causes of breakage: the mismatches and broken connections that creep in when code is changed. Those get flagged during the build instead of in front of a customer. It can't catch everything, a logic error or bad user input still needs testing, so we test regardless, but it removes a large slice of risk early.
What happens when I want changes to the site in a year's time?
This is where it earns its keep. Whether we make the change or another developer does, the code describes how its own pieces fit together, so editing one part flags anything else that needs to move with it. That means seasonal updates, new pages and tweaks can be done quickly and confidently, instead of becoming a nervous game of "what did that just break?"
Am I tied to HDC if my site is built this way?
No, and that's part of the point. You own your site, domain and code outright. Because TypeScript makes the code's intent explicit and readable, any competent developer can pick it up later and understand how it's meant to work. Well-checked, well-documented code is easier to hand over, not harder, so it protects your freedom to move.
Want TypeScript working for your business?
Tell us what you're trying to achieve, we'll show you, honestly, whether it's the right tool and how we'd apply it.
What are you looking for?