Rebuild of De Stadskerk's website

The challenge

De Stadskerk in Groningen had a website that still worked fine for the community in terms of look and feel, but under the hood the codebase was seriously dated. Updating to newer PHP versions was no longer possible, small adjustments took disproportionate time, and ongoing management was getting risky. A renewal was needed, but without visitors noticing anything: the face of the site had to stay exactly the same.

Our solution

We analyzed the entire site and rebuilt the codebase from the ground up. The new version runs on PHP 8 and uses Twig for page rendering. That neatly separates logic from presentation, and turns adjustments into template tweaks instead of expeditions through scattered PHP files.

Nothing changed for visitors

For visitors of De Stadskerk, nothing visible deliberately changed. Same layout, same style, same flow towards services, livestreams and events. What did change is stability and speed: pages open faster, and management is much less prone to mistakes.

The impact

De Stadskerk now has a future-proof website. Updates run smoothly, new functionality can be added without wrestling legacy code, and management can be picked up by anyone without worry. The look that fits the community remains fully intact.

Why this project stands out

The strength is in the combination of:

• A complete codebase rebuild while preserving the existing look and feel

• Migration to PHP 8 with Twig for maintainable templates

• No interruption for visitors during or after the transition

• A church website that can run for years without worry