COLO gives independent web designers a single workspace for scoping the build, running it through discovery, design, development, and launch, and turning the post-launch maintenance into a recurring retainer — without spreading work across a project board, a contract tool, and a separate invoicing app.
TL;DR
Independent web designers use COLO to scope the build, run it through discovery, design, development and launch, and turn post-launch maintenance into a recurring retainer. The project workspace delivers against milestones so a slipped launch has a visible cause, proposals turn into the project, and tasks map to the phases you actually work in.
Who this is for
You are a solo web designer or a tiny studio shipping marketing sites, portfolios, or small commerce sites — usually on WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, or a static stack. Projects are quoted as a fixed fee with a phased timeline, and post-launch you often hold the site on a small monthly retainer.
The bits that drain your weekend tend to be the same:
- Milestones slip and nobody is sure why. Discovery dragged because content was late, design dragged because feedback was vague, and now launch is three weeks behind the date on the proposal.
- The post-launch retainer is invisible. The client agreed to a monthly maintenance fee verbally; you remember to invoice it sometimes; they remember to pay it sometimes.
- Hand-off documentation is an afterthought. Login credentials, hosting details, CMS instructions — they live in three different emails and one Notion doc the client cannot find.
Three features web designers use every week
Project workspace with milestone-based delivery
Run each build with milestones (discovery, sitemap, design, development, QA, launch), attach assets and decisions to the right milestone, and let the client see progress against the timeline you signed up for. With COLO's project system, you can implement your project plan by assigning tasks, allocating resources, and coordinating activities. Track your project's performance against the plan, provide regular updates on progress and milestones, and communicate any changes.
Proposals that turn into the project
Quote phases, deliverables, hosting plan, and the post-launch retainer in one proposal. Win more clients with branded proposals and a modern way to collaborate. When the client signs, the milestones in the proposal become the milestones in the project workspace — no re-typing the scope into a Trello board.
Tasks that map to what you actually do
Break each milestone into the tasks that ship it (write the brief, design the homepage, build the contact form, set up analytics, run the launch checklist). Our task control system provides users with the tools to effectively manage and track their tasks within the application. Comments, files, and decisions stay against the task, so the audit trail for "why did we choose this nav pattern" is one click away six months later.
For more, see project management and task management.
A typical project in COLO for a web designer
- Enquiry — a referral comes in; the lead becomes a client record with the brief and the existing-site URL attached.
- Onboarding — you send a branded proposal with phases, fee, timeline, and the post-launch retainer; the client signs, pays the deposit, and the project workspace opens with the milestones from the proposal pre-loaded.
- Delivery — each phase runs in its own milestone with tasks; the client sees only the milestones, comments where you ask for feedback, and approves at each gate; launch ships the site and the post-launch retainer flips on.
- Payment — milestone invoices fire as each phase closes; the retainer invoice fires monthly on a recurring schedule; everything is paid from the same client portal.
How web designers use COLO today
Monday morning, a referral pings about a small marketing site — five pages, content from the client, target launch in six weeks. By lunchtime the lead is a client record and your "Marketing Site — Webflow" proposal template is on screen. Forty-five minutes later the proposal is sent: phases, deliverables, hosting plan, the post-launch maintenance retainer, a 50/30/20 fee schedule. By Tuesday afternoon the client has signed and the deposit has cleared; the project workspace opens with the discovery, sitemap, design, development, QA, and launch milestones pre-loaded.
Through the next four weeks the build runs against milestones, not against a Trello board nobody reads. Working files in Figma and Webflow stay where they belong; their URLs drop onto the relevant tasks so the audit trail is intact. The client comments on the homepage design as inline feedback against the actual mockup; sign-off on each gate is timestamped against the milestone. When content slips by a week and launch needs to move, the calendar updates once and the client sees the new launch date in their portal — not as a "sorry, delayed" email.
Launch day, the site ships and the QA checklist closes. Hand-off documentation — admin login, hosting access, CMS instructions, analytics URLs — lives on the client portal under their existing login, durable for as long as you hold the maintenance retainer. The balance invoice fires automatically; the post-launch retainer flips on; the recurring monthly invoice schedules from then on. Six months later, when the client wonders why a particular nav pattern was chosen, the answer is in the comments on the design task — not in someone's archived email.
What it costs vs your current stack
Most independent web designers carry a four-tool stack — a proposal-and-contracts tool, a project board, a file-sharing tool, and a separate invoicing app. The monthly bill comes to roughly $90–100 before the first build of the quarter is booked. COLO replaces the four with one workspace, and the Solo plan covers the cycle end-to-end at zero.
| Tool | Plan | Cost/month |
|---|---|---|
| Current 4-tool stack | HoneyBook + Asana + Dropbox + Stripe | ~$95 |
| COLO Solo | Free | $0 |
| COLO Pro | Per user/mo | $18 |
| COLO Grow | Per user/mo | $24 |
You swap a $95/month stack for one tool that already does this work. Pro adds a developer seat and per-project budget tracking; Grow adds the white-label client portal on your studio's custom domain.
FAQ
Q: Can I run a recurring monthly retainer for post-launch maintenance?
Yes. Set up a recurring invoice schedule against the client; the invoice fires automatically, the client pays from the portal, and you focus on the work rather than the chasing.
Q: Can I keep my Webflow or Figma workflow and just use COLO for the business side?
That is the most common pattern. COLO holds the client, contract, project plan, milestones, invoicing, and finance; your design and build tools stay specialised. Link Figma and Webflow URLs from the relevant task and the trail is intact.
Q: How do I hand off credentials and documentation at launch?
Use the client portal as the durable home for hand-off docs — admin login instructions, hosting details, CMS guide, analytics access. The client keeps the same login they used during the build; the docs do not get lost in email.
Q: Is COLO suitable if I work with agencies as a subcontractor?
Yes — you can run the agency as a client, scope work against their projects, and invoice them on net-30 terms. The client portal works the same way regardless of who the client is.
Q: How does COLO compare with Asana plus Stripe plus a separate contract tool?
For most solo web designers, the all-in-one is cheaper and stops the copy-paste. See the Asana comparison for a factual comparison and client management systems for freelancers for the broader picture.
Q: Can I quote a build with a separate post-launch retainer in the same proposal?
Yes. The proposal lists the build phases and fee schedule plus a recurring monthly retainer as a separate line. When the client signs, the build invoices fire on the milestone schedule and the retainer schedules from launch day onward.
Q: How do I run multi-stage QA and bug-fix tasks without losing the trail?
Each QA cycle is a task list under the QA milestone — bugs log as sub-tasks, screenshots and reproduction notes attach inline, and the close-out comment is timestamped. Useful when a bug surfaces post-launch and you need to see whether it was raised during QA.
Q: Can I run sub-contractor developers without giving them access to every client?
Yes. Invite a sub-contractor as a workspace user with access only to the projects they are staffed on; they never see the rest of the client book.
Q: How do I track the hosting and domain costs I pass through to the client?
Log them as project expenses against the build; mark "billable" so they appear on the next invoice as itemised pass-throughs. The finance view shows the real margin per build, not just the headline fee.
Q: Can I save a project as a template for the next site build?
Yes. Save any project as a template — milestones, tasks, time estimates, the QA checklist — and clone it for the next client with dates rolled forward. Your second build of the year is faster than the first.
Pricing
Solo plan is free forever for one designer. See our pricing when you bring on a developer or a project manager.