Design, Development, Marketing & Consulting for Toronto Businesses

Digital Services for Toronto Businesses — From a Ukraine-Based Senior Practitioner

If you run a company in Toronto or the metropolitan area — fintech in Liberty Village, B2B SaaS in King West, a DTC brand in Leslieville, a media platform in downtown Toronto, a hospitality business in Queen West — you've probably worked with US-based agencies and noticed the gap: $200/hr for a mid-level designer, $300/hr for a Senior, six-month engagements that produce two screens. There's another model that works for Toronto clients without compromising on quality: a Ukraine-based Senior practitioner with 15+ years of experience, transparent fixed-fee pricing in USD, and an async Slack/Zoom workflow that bridges the seven-hour time-zone gap with morning-handoff cadence.

I'm Alex Filiuk, a Senior UI/UX designer / web developer / digital strategist. I've worked with US founders (Toronto, San Francisco, LA), European startups (London, Manchester, Edinburgh), and Ukrainian clients across 130+ projects. On this page I've collected what's worth knowing for an Toronto business owner or product manager before hiring a remote senior — the services I offer, how I price them in USD, how the async workflow actually works, and what I deliver vs. what Toronto agencies typically deliver at 2-4× the cost.

Why hire a Ukraine-based Senior instead of an Toronto agency

Toronto has a deep pool of design and development talent — and rates that match. A typical Senior UI/UX designer at a downtown Toronto agency: $180–280/hour. A full-stack Senior dev: $200–350/hour. A 12-week web design project at a respectable King West studio: $80,000–180,000. The work is excellent, but the cost makes it inaccessible for most early-stage startups, mid-sized DTC brands, and bootstrapped B2B SaaS companies.

The remote Ukraine-Senior model gives you:

• 30–60% cost reduction. Same Senior expertise, same deliverables, transparent fixed-fee USD pricing.
• Single point of contact. No account manager, no project coordinator, no creative director "stepping in" mid-call. You talk directly with the person doing the work.
• Async-friendly cadence. The 7-hour gap (Toronto EST → Kyiv) is actually a feature: I work while you sleep, you wake up to demos and questions in Slack, we sync 1× per week on Zoom.
• Production-grade quality. Same design tokens in Figma, same accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA, ADA-compliant), same modern stack (Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind), same handoff specs as a top-tier Toronto agency.
• Transparent fixed pricing. No hourly invoices, no scope-creep surprises. You know the total before we start.

What I do for Toronto clients

The full set of services. Each is a separate landing page with deeper detail — links below.

• UI/UX design — websites, web apps, B2B SaaS dashboards, design systems in Figma. Most-used by Bay Street fintech startups, B2B SaaS founders, DTC brands.
• Web development — Next.js 15 / React 19 / TypeScript, headless CMS architectures, payment integrations (Stripe, Plaid), CI/CD on Vercel. The stack Toronto clients actually want.
• Mobile app design — iOS / Android / cross-platform, with retention metrics in mind from day one.
• Mobile app development — Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Flutter. App Store / Google Play release pipelines.
• Branding and logo design — full identity systems, brand books, applied across digital + print.
• E-commerce — Shopify Plus, headless commerce on Next.js + Strapi. Toronto DTC brands typically work with this combination.
• CRM / ERP / SaaS — custom internal tools and B2B platforms. Stack: Next.js + Node.js + PostgreSQL + Prisma.
• SEO, Google Ads, SMM, email marketing — full digital marketing stack with proper GA4 + Meta Pixel + Search Console attribution.
• UX audit — fastest way to find what's quietly killing your conversion rate. 30-80 prioritised findings with session-recording evidence.
• Business consulting, product strategy, CRO — for founders who need a strategic-thinking partner, not just an executor.

Industries I serve across Toronto and the US

15 years and 130+ projects shipped across the verticals where Toronto concentrates its digital economy. Each industry has its own UX, compliance, and growth signature — so I do not run a one-size-fits-all template. What I work on most often:

• Fintech and regtech. Liberty Village / Bay Street startups and scaleups — KYC dashboards, Plaid / Stripe Identity flows, OSFI and OSC regulations readiness, FINRA / SEC-compliant marketing surfaces.
• B2B SaaS. King West / Yorkville / Queen West product teams — admin panels, role-based access, complex data tables, onboarding optimization, expansion mechanics.
• DTC e-commerce. Leslieville / the Distillery District / Greenpoint brands — Shopify Plus or headless storefronts, Klaviyo / Postscript / Recharge stack, conversion-first PDP and checkout.
• Healthcare and wellness. Toronto-based clinics and wellness platforms — HIPAA-compliant patient portals, telehealth, secure messaging, scheduling.
• Media and publishing. downtown Toronto publishers and creator-led content businesses — paywall flows, subscription apps, audio / video monetization.
• Real-estate and proptech. downtown Toronto / Liberty Village brokerages and developers — listing platforms, building books, investor decks, document workflows.
• Hospitality and restaurants. downtown Toronto / Liberty Village multi-location operators — reservations, online ordering, loyalty programs, multi-location management.
• Cultural and creative organizations. Galleries, foundations, performing-arts groups — institution-grade identity, exhibition microsites, catalogue programs.

If your industry is not on this list, that does not mean I can not help — it usually means I have shipped two or three relevant projects rather than dozens, and we will be honest about that on the discovery call.

How the async workflow handles the timezone gap

The 7-hour difference between Toronto (EST/EDT) and Kyiv (EET/EEST) is the biggest concern most Toronto clients raise — and it's the easiest to solve. The honest answer: most Toronto startup founders and product teams already work async with Slack-first cadence. The remote-Ukraine engagement just formalises what's already happening internally.

• Daily Slack handoff. When you wake up at 8am Toronto time, I've already worked 8 hours. There's a thread in #project with the day's progress, demo link (Figma / Vercel preview), and 2-3 specific questions that need your call. You answer over coffee — by 4pm Toronto time I'm already incorporating your feedback.
• Weekly Zoom sync. One 60-90 minute call per week, scheduled at 8am Toronto / 3pm Kyiv. We walk through what shipped, what's next, what's blocked. No daily standups.
• Loom for async demos. Instead of scheduling a meeting to "show you what I built", I record a 5-10 minute walkthrough. You watch when convenient, comment with timestamps, I respond.
• Notion / Linear for tracking. Whatever you use, I'll join. No new tool to learn.
• Emergency Zoom on demand. Critical decisions get a 15-minute Zoom call within 4 hours of request, regardless of timezone.

If your team is already working async with Slack and weekly syncs, this fits in seamlessly. If you're used to "in-person agency culture" with daily check-ins — we can do daily 15-minute Zoom calls at 9am Toronto time, but in my experience they slow projects down by 30-40% because you spend the morning on calls instead of producing answers.

USD pricing model

All projects are quoted as fixed fee in USD, paid 50% upfront / 50% on delivery (or split into milestones for projects > $20K). No hourly invoices. No "actually it's going to be more" surprises. If scope changes mid-project — we re-quote, you approve in writing, and the change is added with a clear delta.

Indicative ranges to set expectations (every quote is bespoke, but these brackets are realistic):

• UI/UX design — landing or simple website (4-6 weeks). $8,000–18,000. Toronto agency equivalent: $30,000–80,000.
• Corporate website — full design + dev (8-12 weeks). $20,000–45,000. Toronto agency equivalent: $80,000–250,000.
• B2B SaaS / web app — design + frontend + backend (16-28 weeks). $50,000–180,000. Toronto agency equivalent: $200,000–700,000+.
• UX audit (2-3 weeks). $4,000–9,000. Toronto agency equivalent: $15,000–40,000.
• Branding — full identity system (8-12 weeks). $12,000–30,000. Toronto agency equivalent: $60,000–180,000.
• SEO retainer (3-6 months minimum). $2,500–6,000/month. Toronto agency equivalent: $8,000–25,000/month.
• Fractional CPO / consulting (15-20 hrs/month, 6+ months). $4,000–8,000/month. Toronto equivalent: $15,000–40,000/month.

Discounts apply when you bundle services (e.g. design + development + SEO together) — typically 15-25% vs. ordering each separately, because there's less coordination overhead and a single creative direction across deliverables.

Common mistakes Toronto businesses make hiring remote Senior practitioners

• Hiring on Upwork by hourly rate. A $25/hour designer in Eastern Europe is statistically a junior at best. The 30-60% cost gap with Toronto agencies isn't from hourly rate, it's from removing layered agency overhead. Senior remote talent costs $80-150/hour billed as fixed-fee project — still 30-60% below Toronto agency total.
• Skipping the discovery phase to "save money". A 1-2 week paid discovery is the cheapest insurance against a $50K mistake. Always include it.
• Hiring a "designer" who only delivers Figma files. Modern UI/UX includes design systems with tokens, Dev Mode specs, accessibility annotations, and usability testing. If a Senior portfolio doesn't show all three — they're a UI artist, not a product designer.
• Not asking about IP and code ownership. Get this in writing before kickoff. Standard for me: all deliverables transferred to client at final payment, with my name optionally credited in the project case-study (your call).
• Underestimating the value of a single-contact engagement. Talking directly to the person building your product cuts requirement-translation losses by ~40%. The "I told the PM, who told the designer, who told the dev" telephone game is one of the biggest hidden costs in agency work.

2025-2026 trends I apply on Toronto client projects

• Mobile-first because the TTC the TTC. Toronto users spend 30-60 minutes per day on smartphones in the TTC cars with intermittent connectivity. Designs ship with offline states, optimistic UI, and aggressive lazy-loading by default.
• ADA / Section 508 compliance. NY State plus Toronto have specific accessibility laws beyond federal ADA. Every site I deliver to Toronto clients meets WCAG 2.2 AA at minimum.
• Privacy-first analytics. NY SHIELD Act + emerging state privacy laws make GA4 + cookie banners table-stakes. I configure proper consent flows so analytics work without legal exposure.
• Speed as a feature. Toronto users are impatient. Core Web Vitals 90+ across the board, served from Vercel edge or AWS CloudFront.
• Stripe / Plaid / financial integrations. For Bay Street fintech specifically, all my projects use the modern payment stack with proper idempotency, webhook handling, and PCI scope minimisation.
• Dark mode native. 50%+ of Toronto users prefer dark themes. Designs ship with both modes, not "we'll add dark mode later".

Cases — Toronto and US clients in my portfolio

My portfolio contains 130+ projects, including B2B SaaS for US founders, DTC brand sites for Toronto and LA-based companies, and fintech dashboards for clients on the East Coast. For NDA reasons I can't list every client publicly — but on the discovery call I'll walk you through 5-10 most-relevant cases for your specific niche, including the working files (research notes, wireframes, prototype iterations).

Other US and international cities I serve

Toronto is one of several US/EU markets I work with. Same engagement model, same USD pricing, adjusted to local market context:

• Los Angeles — entertainment, creative agencies, e-commerce
• San Francisco / Bay Area — B2B SaaS, deep-tech, AI
• Boston — biotech, ed-tech, university spinoffs
• Austin — startups, gaming, tech
• Miami — fintech, crypto, LATAM B2B
• London — fintech, B2B SaaS, creative
• Manchester — northern tech hub, sport-tech, MediaCity
• Edinburgh — fintech, ed-tech, data science

Ready to discuss your Toronto project?

Fill out the contact form or message me through the channels in the footer. The first 60-90 minute call is free — we'll discuss your business, product goals, indicative scope, USD budget range, and timeline. If you have an existing site / app, I'll do a quick express-review and show you 3-5 issues that can be fixed in the first week, even before signing a full engagement.

For Toronto businesses specifically, the value proposition is simple: production-grade Senior expertise, Toronto agency-level deliverables, transparent USD pricing 30-60% below market, async-friendly workflow that respects your team's existing cadence. Let's discuss how it can work for your specific situation.