O'Brien Media Limited

What O'Brien Media Limited does

O'Brien Media Limited is a Swindon-based web design, hosting, support, and SEO agency serving small and micro businesses across the United Kingdom, with a concentration in Swindon, Wiltshire, and the South West. Founded in 2006 (incorporated as O'Brien Media Limited in 2014) and now operated as a trading brand of Pembroke Digital Limited since February 2024, the business has cumulatively designed or supported 500+ websites across verticals including beauty and therapy, trades and construction, ecommerce, charities, and professional services. Customer reviews and 6-year client tenures (e.g., Holly Andersen Makeup Artist) indicate a focus on long-term SMB relationships rather than transactional project work.

The technical stack is built around WordPress with the Elementor Pro visual page builder, supplemented by WooCommerce and BigCommerce for ecommerce, Shopify partnership coverage, Cloudflare for security and bot management, self-hosted Matomo for analytics, Brevo for email marketing, and Square and Tide for payment and banking referrals. The principal proprietary asset is Client Connect, a customer portal rebuilt from the ground up in summer 2025 that consolidates helpdesk tickets, invoices, real-time website statistics, site health monitoring (uptime, SSL, domain expiry), document vault, QR code tracking, AI-crawler blocking, and a CRM (Beta). Infrastructure is Cyber Essentials certified annually since 2019, and the company holds Disability Confident Leader status (through 2027) and Living Wage Employer accreditation.

The revenue model mixes one-time project fees (quote-based web design and development, typically delivered in 2-4 weeks) with monthly recurring subscriptions: managed hosting from £45/month, pay-as-you-go website support at £50/month, and SEO tiers ranging from £195 to £475/month. A referral programme launched in 2025 and affiliate income from Square and Tide complete the monetization stack. Go-to-market is sales-led inside-sales with direct phone (01793 239 239), email, Client Connect, and an instant online estimate tool; marketing runs through a 176+ page blog, organic social on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and Threads, and partner directories via BigCommerce and Shopify certifications.

Name

O'Brien Media Limited

Legal name

Pembroke Digital Limited

Website

https://obrienmedia.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

O'Brien Media Limited is a Swindon-based web design, hosting, support, and SEO agency serving UK small businesses. Operating as a brand of Pembroke Digital Limited, it builds WordPress/Elementor and ecommerce sites, delivers managed hosting and recurring SEO subscriptions, and runs the proprietary Client Connect customer portal.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Web Design and Development Services

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services (MPAAACAA)

Keywords

• Website design services
• Managed web hosting
• Wordpress maintenance
• Local SEO services
• Ecommerce store development

Headquarters

HQ city

Swindon

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Website Design & Development: One-time project fees for designing and building new websites, including WordPress, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce stores. Pricing is quote-based and project-scoped.
2. Managed Website Hosting: Monthly recurring hosting fees. Fully managed hosting from £45/month (Just Hosting, no inclusive support) or £70/month (Hosting & Support, with 30 minutes inclusive support). Includes SSL, daily backups, uptime monitoring, Cyber Essentials-aligned security, and SSD disk space. Based on three-month rolling contracts.
3. Website Support & Maintenance: Pay-as-you-go website support at £50/month for one hour of support time. Support covers CMS and plugin updates, malware scanning, vulnerability checking, content changes, and new features. Three-month rolling agreements. Additional support time invoiced monthly at £70/hour (or agreed rate).
4. SEO Services: Monthly recurring SEO subscription tiers: SEO Basic at £195/month, SEO Silver at £325/month, SEO Gold at £475/month. One-time setup options include Google Business Listing (£495) and Search Console setup/monitoring (£185/month). SEO Report at £55/month per report. Billed monthly on rolling agreements.
5. Financial Services Referral: Referral partnerships with Square (card payment processing) and Tide (business banking). O'Brien Media receives referral compensation for each new customer acquired through their referral links (e.g., £1,000 fee-free processing or £20 hardware discount for Square; affiliate terms for Tide).
6. Custom Elementor Links Pages: One-time fee for custom Elementor social links pages for WordPress sites, starting at £95 or less.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

O'Brien Media designs, hosts, and supports small-business websites primarily on WordPress with Elementor, and also builds WooCommerce and BigCommerce eCommerce stores. The company sells managed hosting, ongoing website support/maintenance, and tiered SEO services, all tied together with its proprietary Client Connect portal that customers use for helpdesk, invoices, site-health monitoring, QR tracking, and website security controls.

Product overview

O'Brien Media is a website design and digital services company based in Swindon, Wiltshire, founded in 2006. The company operates as a single unified offering rather than a platform-with-modules architecture, providing end-to-end website design, development, hosting, and support services primarily built on WordPress. The core product portfolio centers on Web Design & Development using WordPress CMS, with specialized eCommerce capabilities through WooCommerce and BigCommerce platforms. Client Connect serves as the proprietary customer portal providing unified access to account management, support tickets, analytics, and security features. Supporting services include managed hosting, website maintenance, SEO/local search optimization, social media marketing, and financial services integration (Square payments, Tide banking). The company specializes in serving small businesses across the UK with a focus on conversion-focused design, mobile-friendly development, and accessible website practices.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Client Connect: Bespoke customer portal rebuilt from the ground-up, giving customers access to their account information including helpdesk tickets, invoices, website statistics, and site health monitoring

Products and services

• Client Connect Proprietary customer portal providing customers with 24/7 access to account information, helpdesk tickets, invoices, real-time website statistics, site-health monitoring, document vault, service status, website-security controls, QR-code tracking with editable destinations, and CRM features. Available to O'Brien Media customers.
• Web Design and Development Bespoke website design and development service for UK small businesses, covering single-page sites, standard business websites, and custom builds with conversion-focused design, mobile-friendly responsive development, and ongoing support. Quote-based pricing.
• WordPress Website Design Design and development of WordPress CMS-based websites using the Elementor Pro visual page builder, intended to be easy for customers to self-manage after launch.
• WooCommerce Stores Design, build and ongoing support of WooCommerce eCommerce stores on WordPress, including product management, multiple payment providers, and mobile-shopper-ready templates.
• BigCommerce Stores Design, build and support of BigCommerce SaaS eCommerce stores, including hybrid integrations with WordPress for content and catalogue management.
• Website Support and Maintenance Ongoing pay-as-you-go website support and maintenance at £50/month for one hour of support time, covering CMS and plugin updates, malware scanning, vulnerability checks, content changes, bug fixes, and new features, with additional time invoiced at £70/hour. Covers WordPress, Drupal, and other CMS platforms.
• Managed Website Hosting Fully managed website hosting from £45/month (Just Hosting) or £70/month (Hosting and Support, with 30 minutes inclusive support and bundled Elementor Pro and Essential Addons Pro licences). Includes SSL, daily off-site backups, 24/7/365 uptime monitoring, and Cyber Essentials-aligned security. Hosted on three-month rolling contracts.
• SEO and Local Search Monthly SEO subscription tiers — SEO Basic at £195/month, SEO Silver at £325/month, SEO Gold at £475/month — covering Google My Business optimisation, Bing Webmaster improvements, local keyword targeting, monthly audits, competitor analysis, meta-data changes, image optimisation, heading-tag updating, technical audit, and monthly reporting. Also offers AI-search preparation.
• Custom Elementor Links Page Self-hosted custom social links page built with Elementor for WordPress, with full branding control, unlimited links, custom calls-to-action, and analytics integration. Starting at £95 or less, one-time fee.
• Social Media Marketing Managed social media marketing services including Meta Business Suite management, social-login integration setup, and custom social-links pages for Facebook, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn and X (Twitter).
• Payment Processing and Banking Referrals Referral-based offering that introduces customers to Square card payment processing (£1,000 fee-free transactions for new signups, or £20 hardware discount) and Tide business banking, with affiliate compensation retained by O'Brien Media.
• Client Connect Website Security Controls Security controls module within Client Connect allowing customers to manage Cloudflare-based encryption, firewall and bot protection, AI-crawler blocking, content protection (email-scraping prevention, hotlink blocking), 'I'm under attack' emergency mode, and country blocking without affecting search engine rankings.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2–4 weeks from design consultation to launch for standard business websites
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration14 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BigCommercecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2021O'Brien Media is a BigCommerce Certified Agency Partner as part of the BigCommerce Agency Partner Program. The partnership provides access to the latest ecommerce technology, resources, and support from BigCommerce. O'Brien Media can design, build, and support BigCommerce stores for clients. More than 60,000 merchants worldwide are served through BigCommerce partners.
• CyberSmartminorOthers · 1 January 2020O'Brien Media obtains its Cyber Essentials certification through CyberSmart. CyberSmart confirmed O'Brien Media is fully Cyber Essentials compliant and awarded certification for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. Certification renewed annually.
• WooCommercecoreTechnology or IntegrationO'Brien Media is a WooCommerce specialist with over 15 years of experience developing WooCommerce ecommerce websites. WordPress powers over 40% of the web and connects seamlessly with WooCommerce. The company also offers Square payment processing integration with WooCommerce.
• ShopifyminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorO'Brien Media is a Shopify Certified Partner (logo shown in website footer). Provides Shopify store design and support services.
• ElementorcoreTechnology or IntegrationO'Brien Media is a specialist in Elementor and Elementor Pro for WordPress website editing. The company provides access to Elementor Pro and Essential Addons Pro as part of its Hosting & Support package (saving clients over £500/year in licence fees). They also create custom Elementor links pages for clients.
• SquarecoreGTM or Marketing PartnerO'Brien Media has partnered with Square to provide card payment processing for ecommerce clients. New Square customers signing up via O'Brien Media's referral link receive £1,000 of fee-free card payment transactions for the first 180 days, or a £20 hardware discount. Square integrates with WooCommerce and BigCommerce. O'Brien Media receives affiliate compensation for referrals.
• TideminorGTM or Marketing PartnerO'Brien Media uses Tide for its own business banking needs and refers Tide to clients. As of 2020, 1 in 12 business current accounts opened in the UK are with Tide. Tide offers sort codes and account numbers in 5 minutes, auto-tagged transactions, and credit applications. O'Brien Media receives referral compensation.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Engage Web: UK digital agency offering web design, SEO, and digital marketing services to small businesses. Comparable target market (UK SMBs), overlapping service mix including SEO retainers and WordPress-based websites.
• Kaweb: UK digital agency specialising in bespoke WordPress and WooCommerce website design. Directly comparable as a UK SME-focused WordPress/WooCommerce specialist offering design, development, and ongoing support.
• Browser London: London-based digital agency providing web design, WordPress, and digital services. Similar offering around WordPress-based SME websites, design-led approach, and full-service digital support.
• WebDevStudios: Large-scale WordPress and WooCommerce agency with deep platform expertise. Comparable in core WordPress/WooCommerce specialism, though operating at significantly larger scale than O'Brien Media's 2-person team.
• MadeByMany: UK digital product and web agency serving purpose-led organisations. Comparable as a UK design and development agency offering strategy, design, and digital build services, though typically for larger clients.
• Cyber Duck: UK digital agency offering web design, development, and digital strategy for SMEs and enterprises. Comparable as a UK-based web design and digital marketing services provider competing for similar small-business and mid-market clients.

Broad incumbents

• Human Made: Global WordPress and enterprise digital agency. Comparable WordPress/enterprise focus but serves much larger clients, positioning it as a broader incumbent in the same technology and service category.
• Pagely: Managed WordPress hosting provider offering premium hosting, security, and support for WordPress sites. Comparable in the managed hosting and ongoing support layer that O'Brien Media bundles, but operates as a hosting incumbent rather than a design agency.
• SiteGround: Large web hosting provider with WordPress, WooCommerce, and managed hosting offerings plus add-on design services. Comparable in the managed hosting and WordPress stack layer but operates as a much larger incumbent with global scale.

Regional players

• SwindonWeb (Swindon-based local web design): Local Swindon-area web design agency serving small businesses in the same geographic market. Comparable as a direct regional competitor targeting Wiltshire SMBs with overlapping website design and SEO services.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/obrienmediauk
• Facebookfacebook.com/obrienmediauk
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/obrienmediauk
• Instagraminstagram.com/obrienmediauk

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about O'Brien Media Limited