Here's the thing about traditional web development that nobody talks about enough: once your site is "done," it's basically frozen in time. Sure, you can pay for updates. You can hire someone to add new features. But that shiny new navigation trend everyone's using? That'll cost you extra. Every. Single. Time.

Not with Fido.

We just rolled out flyout menus across the entire platform, and if you're a Fido site owner, guess what? You've already got them. No invoice. No waiting. No awkward email asking your developer if they have time next month. It just... happened.

Welcome to the communal advantage.

Wait, What Are Flyout Menus?

Before we get into the juicy stuff, let's talk about what we actually built. Head over to getfido.app and hover over the "About" dropdown in the navigation. See how the submenu elegantly slides out to the side instead of just dropping down in a clunky list?

That's a flyout menu.

It's clean. It's organized. It gives you way more real estate to showcase your site's structure without overwhelming visitors with a wall of links. For sites with deeper navigation needs, multiple service categories, resource libraries, nested pages, flyout menus are a game-changer.

They've been around for a while on enterprise-level sites, but implementing them on smaller business websites usually meant custom development work. Which meant custom development costs. Which meant most small businesses just... didn't bother.

Until now.

The Magic of the Communal Codebase

Here's where Fido does things differently.

Every Fido site runs on what we call a communal codebase. Think of it like this: instead of building you a custom house from scratch (that you then have to maintain, update, and renovate yourself), we've built a really nice apartment building. You get your own unit, fully customized to your brand and needs. But when we upgrade the elevator? Everyone gets the new elevator.

When we add flyout menus to the navigation system, every single Fido site gets flyout menus. Automatically. For free.

This isn't some gimmick. It's the core philosophy behind everything we do. We talked about this in our post about why your business needs a web partner, not just a web developer, the relationship doesn't end when your site launches. It evolves.

And when we evolve, you evolve with us.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Let's do some quick math.

Say you have a traditional WordPress site or a custom-built website. Your developer notices that flyout menus are becoming the standard for good UX. They reach out and say, "Hey, we should probably update your navigation. It'll take about 8-10 hours of development time."

At average agency rates, you're looking at anywhere from $800 to $2,000 for that one update. And that's assuming everything goes smoothly: no weird conflicts with your theme, no accessibility issues to sort out, no back-and-forth about hover states and mobile behavior.

Now multiply that by every platform update, every new component, every security patch, every performance optimization.

It adds up fast.

With Fido, that math looks very different. We handle the development once, test it thoroughly, and deploy it everywhere. The cost gets distributed across the entire platform instead of landing on your shoulders alone. You get enterprise-level features at small-business prices.

That's not just convenient: it's a fundamentally different economic model for web ownership.

But What About My Unique Brand?

We get this question a lot. If everyone's on the same codebase, doesn't that mean everyone's site looks the same?

Nope.

The communal codebase handles the functionality: the engine under the hood. Your brand, your colors, your content, your layout choices? Those are all yours. The flyout menus on your site will match your brand guidelines, not some generic template.

Think of it like smartphones. iPhones all run iOS, but nobody would say every iPhone user has the "same phone experience." Your apps, your wallpaper, your settings: that's all you. The operating system just makes sure everything works smoothly.

Fido is your website's operating system. And we just pushed a major update.

The Stuff You Don't See

Here's what makes us genuinely proud of this update: it's not just about looking pretty.

The new flyout menus are:

• Fully accessible : Keyboard navigation works exactly as it should. Screen readers announce menu states properly. We didn't cut corners on WCAG compliance.

• Mobile-optimized : On smaller screens, the flyouts transform into a touch-friendly accordion pattern. No weird hover issues on tablets. No rage-tapping required.

• Performance-conscious : Zero additional page load impact. The animations are CSS-driven, not JavaScript-heavy. Your site stays fast.

• Future-proofed : Built with our component architecture so we can continue improving them without breaking anything.

This is the kind of stuff that usually gets glossed over in a "we added a new feature!" announcement. But it's the stuff that actually matters for your visitors' experience.

A Platform That Grows With You

We've been on a roll lately. The flyout menus join a growing list of platform-wide improvements we've shipped recently, including new blog card styles, utility navigation, and spotlight components.

Every one of those updates landed on every Fido site. No extra charge. No migration headaches.

That's the communal advantage in action.

And honestly? We're just getting started. We've got a roadmap packed with components, features, and optimizations that will keep rolling out throughout the year. Each one makes every Fido site a little bit better, a little bit more modern, a little bit more competitive.

Your site isn't a static brochure anymore. It's a living, breathing thing that gets better over time: without you having to manage the process.

The Bottom Line

Traditional web development treats your website like a finished product. You pay for it, you get it, and then you're on your own. Every improvement costs more. Every update requires coordination. Every new trend means another invoice.

Fido treats your website like an ongoing partnership. We're invested in making the platform better because when the platform gets better, everyone wins. Your success is our success. That's not marketing fluff: it's literally how our business model works.

The flyout menus are a perfect example. One development effort. One testing cycle. One deployment. Hundreds of sites upgraded instantly.

That's efficient. That's sustainable. And frankly, that's how web development should have worked all along.

See It In Action

Curious what this looks like in practice? Head over to getfido.app and play around with the navigation. Hover over "About" and watch those flyouts do their thing. Then imagine that same smooth experience on your own site: automatically applied, automatically maintained, automatically improved over time.

That's Fido. That's the communal advantage.

Got questions about how this works for your specific situation? Want to see what other updates are coming down the pipeline? We'd love to chat. Because at the end of the day, we're not just building websites; we're building a better way to own one.