Montreal web design,
bilingual from the first wireframe.

In most Canadian cities, language is a minor design decision. In Montreal it is the first one. The Charter of the French Language makes French the language of commerce and business in Quebec, and the Government of Quebec's summary of business obligations includes making catalogues, advertising and websites accessible in French. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), which oversees the Charter, states that consumers have the right to access a complete French version of a business's website, along with French content on its social media.

At the same time, Montreal is one of the most multilingual places in the country. Statistics Canada's 2021 census release found that 69.8% of people in Montreal could hold a conversation in two or more languages, ahead of Ottawa-Gatineau and Toronto. Your customers may browse in French, English or both, sometimes in the same household.

That combination shapes the whole project. The French version has to be complete and first class, and the English version has to feel just as natural. Getting there is far easier when it is planned into the structure of the site than when someone tries to retrofit it later.

A bilingual site is an architecture decision, not a plugin. Here is how we approach it:

• Separate, parallel pages for each language. Every page has a French version and an English version with its own address, so visitors land in the right language and can switch with one click to the equivalent page, not back to the homepage.
• French text that fits the design. French copy typically runs longer than English. We design buttons, menus and headlines with room to breathe in both languages, and we test every layout in French, not just English.
• Forms, emails and checkout in both languages. Confirmation emails, error messages, booking reminders, receipts and terms all follow the visitor's language.
• Easy editing for your team. Your staff can update both versions side by side, so the French site never falls behind the English one.

On copy, we are direct about how it works: Velle writes in English, and the French content comes from professional translators we bring into the project. We brief them on your brand and terminology, build their review into the timeline, and place the final French text ourselves so nothing is lost between the document and the live page. If you already work with a translator or have French copy, we use that instead.

See examples of our build work on our work page, or read more about our website development service.

Montréal International lists sectors including artificial intelligence, video games, visual effects and animation, life sciences and health technologies, aerospace, fintech and IT services among the region's strengths. Alongside those, the city's everyday economy is full of businesses where a strong bilingual site pays off quickly:

• Restaurants, cafes and hospitality in areas like the Plateau-Mont-Royal, Ville-Marie and Le Sud-Ouest, where menus, reservations and events need to read well in both languages.
• Clinics and professional services that serve a mixed French and English clientele and need booking, intake forms and policies in both.
• Tech companies and studios recruiting internationally while selling locally, often with a product site, a careers section and investor information.
• Retail and ecommerce brands selling across Quebec and the rest of Canada, where product pages, checkout and invoices have to meet Quebec's French requirements. Our ecommerce builds are set up for this.
• Businesses expanding into Quebec from elsewhere in Canada that already have an English site and now need a complete French version done properly.

Velle operates from Delta, BC. There is no Montreal office, no Quebec address and no local staff. Instead, projects run on video meetings, a shared project board and written updates that you can review whenever suits you. Montreal is three hours ahead of us, so we plan calls for your late morning and afternoon.

The process runs in five steps: discovery, site plan and wireframes in both languages, design, build with translation running alongside, then launch with redirects and training. You deal with one accountable team the whole way, and you own the finished site, domain and content.

On budget, the factors are page count, features, integrations and translation volume. A bilingual site costs more than a single language one, mainly because of translation and the extra testing. For a breakdown of what pushes a quote up or down, see our website cost guide, and we give you a fixed quote with translation included before work begins.