WordPress is only as good,
as the person maintaining it.
Most enquiries fall into one of five.
Each needs a different piece of work. Pick the one that sounds like your site — the section below explains what it involves, how long it takes and what it costs. Not sure which applies? The assessment establishes that before any scope is written.
What a WordPress Build Involves
What WordPress development involves
WordPress development is the design, engineering and governance of websites built on WordPress. It covers custom theme development, block and editorial configuration, WooCommerce where commerce is required, bespoke plugin engineering, performance and security hardening, and the maintenance model determining who keeps the installation current after launch.
WordPress powers a very large share of the web because it is extensible without limit and owned outright by whoever runs it. Both of those properties cut in two directions.
We build to reduce both risks, and we name the owner before handover.
Custom WordPress theme development
Bespoke themes built from your brand rather than configured from a marketplace template.
We build with native blocks rather than a commercial page builder. The output is faster, the code is cleaner, and you are not dependent on a third-party licence to edit your own website.
- —Custom theme development, designed before it is built
- —Gutenberg block development and editorial pattern library
- —Custom post types, taxonomies and field architecture
- —Multilingual configuration where required
- —Core Web Vitals engineering, 90+ at launch
- —Accessibility conformance to WCAG 2.1 AA
- —Editorial training, recorded, with written documentation
WooCommerce development
Commerce on infrastructure you control, for businesses where content leads and the store follows.
- —Store setup, catalogue and variant architecture
- —Custom product and checkout flow development
- —Payment gateway integration, including regional providers
- —Subscription and membership configuration
- —Wholesale and tiered B2B pricing
- —Inventory, shipping and fulfilment integration
- —HubSpot and email platform integration
WordPress plugin development
When the plugin you need does not exist, or the one that does carries more risk than it removes.
We work from a written functional specification, build, test and document it, then transfer the source code. You own it outright — no licence, no renewal, no dependency on us.
If an existing plugin does the job adequately, we will tell you that instead of building. It happens often.
- —Bespoke plugin development against written specification
- —REST API development and third-party integration
- —WooCommerce extension development
- —Administrative tooling and custom reporting interfaces
- —Workflow automation inside the WordPress admin
- —Documentation written for the next engineer, not for us
Migration to WordPress
Moving from Wix, Squarespace, Drupal, Joomla or a legacy WordPress installation, without losing rankings.
- —Content audit and structure mapping before transfer
- —Full content and media migration
- —301 redirect mapping across every indexed URL
- —Design recreation or full redesign
- —Plugin equivalence review — what carries across, what does not
- —Ninety days of post-migration ranking monitoring
WordPress speed optimisation, security and maintenance
For sites that are slow, exposed, or inherited from someone else.
Most WordPress performance problems have three causes in the same order: plugin accumulation, unoptimised images, and no caching layer. Most sites recover most of their speed inside two weeks.
- —Full performance audit with prioritised remediation
- —Plugin audit and consolidation
- —Image optimisation and next-generation formats
- —Caching, CDN and database optimisation
- —Core Web Vitals remediation
- —Security hardening, access control and malware scanning
- —Backup, restore and staging procedure
- —Ongoing maintenance retainer, if you want one
When We Advise Against WordPress
When we advise against WordPress
We build on it and we are paid to build on it. These are the conditions under which we will tell you not to.
We are paid by clients, for work delivered. That is the entire model.
Where nobody will own maintenance
The decisive condition. WordPress requires updates, backups and security monitoring indefinitely. Without an internal owner or a retained agency, it degrades into a liability. If neither exists, we recommend Webflow or Shopify instead — and we mean it.
Where the site is primarily a design statement
Webflow gets there faster, stays faster, and gives your marketing team a materially better editing experience.
Where commerce is the whole business
Where the requirement is a fifteen-page marketing site
Where an existing plugin already does the job
Where the inherited site should be rebuilt, not rescued
Where you want to keep building with a page builder
A timeline based on the work, not a promise
We don't give every WordPress project the same timeline. A marketing website, a complex rebuild, and a custom WordPress platform require very different levels of development. We assess the scope, content, integrations, and technical dependencies first, then build against a clear delivery plan.
A few things people ask first.
Do you use page builders like Elementor or Divi?
Generally no. We build with native blocks, which produces faster, cleaner sites and removes your dependency on a commercial plugin licence. Where a team already relies on a builder we will work with it and explain the trade-off, but it is not what we would choose.
Why is our WordPress site slow?
Usually three things in this order: plugin accumulation, unoptimised images, and no caching layer. An audit identifies the specific causes. Most sites recover most of their performance within two weeks.
Can you build a custom plugin for our workflow?
Yes. We work from a written functional specification, build, test and document it, then transfer the source code. You own it outright with no licence fee. If an existing plugin does the job, we will tell you that rather than build.
Who is responsible for updates after launch?
Whoever you designate. We document what is required and train your team, or we hold it under a maintenance retainer. What we will not do is hand over an installation with no named owner.
Can you take over a site another agency built?
Yes, after a technical audit establishing the state of the codebase and its risks. We will tell you honestly if rebuilding is cheaper than inheriting — which it sometimes is.
Is WordPress secure enough for healthcare or finance?
Yes, when hardened correctly and maintained. It is used widely in regulated sectors precisely because hosting location and data residency can be controlled. Governance determines the answer, not the platform.
Will we lose search rankings if we migrate?
Not with correct redirect mapping. We audit every indexed URL, map 301s before launch, and monitor rankings for ninety days afterwards.
Do we own everything at the end?
Yes — theme code, plugin source, documentation, hosting and credentials. Nothing is retained as leverage.
The framework produces a recommendation in a single conversation.
One conversation, followed by a written recommendation: what we would build, in what order, and roughly what it costs.
Written recommendation within five working days.