Custom Development & Setup

WordPress development, without the assembled-from-parts problem.

Three kinds of WordPress work — bespoke themes, custom plugins, and complete site builds. All built lean, documented, and handed over so you are never locked into us to make a change.

Starting at $250 starting
First response Within 48 hours
Scope Fixed, agreed upfront

Most WordPress sites are slow because of how they were assembled.

The standard build is a premium theme, a page builder, and thirty plugins to cover the gaps. It gets a site live quickly, and every one of those layers stays there permanently, loading on every request forever.

Then the compounding starts. The theme cannot be updated without breaking the builder. Two plugins conflict and nobody knows which. Core Web Vitals fail and no amount of caching fixes a problem that is structural.

We build the other way: minimal dependencies, code written for your actual requirements, and a handover package that means the next developer — us or anyone else — can understand it in an afternoon.

Sound familiar?
  • Your site takes several seconds to load and caching plugins have stopped helping.
  • You are afraid to update anything in case the whole thing breaks.
  • Simple content changes require a developer and a support ticket.
  • Your previous developer disappeared and left nothing documented.
Get a Quote

Every engagement delivers all six

No tiered feature lists. The scope below is the standard engagement — anything beyond it gets quoted separately and agreed before we start.

Custom theme development

Built to your design from scratch — no page builder, no bloated framework. Loads fast because there is genuinely less to load.

Custom plugin development

Bespoke functionality built to WordPress coding standards, properly namespaced and structured so it survives core updates rather than breaking on them.

Complete site setup

Hosting, SSL, email deliverability, backups, staging, security hardening, analytics and Search Console — configured correctly once, at the start.

Migration and rebuilds

Moving from Wix, Squarespace, Shopify or another WordPress build, with redirect mapping that preserves the rankings you already earned.

Performance engineering

Core Web Vitals treated as a build requirement rather than something to patch afterwards with a caching plugin.

Documentation and handover

Written documentation, a recorded walkthrough, and clean code you own outright. No lock-in, no proprietary licence, no hostage situation.

Four stages, no mystery

You know what happens at each point, what we need from you, and when.

1

Scope

We work out what you actually need, which is usually less than the initial brief. Fixed scope and fixed price before any code is written — no hourly billing that drifts.

2

Build

Development on a staging environment with weekly demos. You see progress continuously rather than receiving one large reveal at the end.

3

Test and launch

Cross-browser and device testing, performance verification, redirect checks, and a launch executed at a time that suits your traffic rather than our calendar.

4

Handover and support

Documentation, a recorded walkthrough, and 30 days of post-launch support. Ongoing maintenance is available but never required.

What's in the engagement

  • Fixed scope and fixed price agreed before build
  • Custom theme built without a page builder
  • Staging environment with weekly demos
  • Core Web Vitals targets treated as build requirements
  • Security hardening and automated backups
  • Email deliverability configured and tested
  • Analytics and Search Console connected
  • Redirect mapping on any migration
  • Written documentation and recorded walkthrough
  • Full code ownership — no licences, no lock-in
  • 30 days of post-launch support

A good fit if

  • Businesses whose site has outgrown a theme-and-builder setup
  • Anyone migrating from a hosted platform onto WordPress
  • Teams needing functionality no existing plugin provides
  • Site owners who want to own their code outright

Probably not yet if

  • Projects that need a full site live next week — a proper build needs time, and rushing it produces exactly the technical debt you would be hiring us to avoid.

Priced by what you actually need

Three different jobs with three different buyers, so three prices rather than one number that fits none of them.

Custom Theme
from $250

A bespoke theme built to your design — no page builder, no bloated framework. Straightforward marketing and brochure themes start here.

  • Built from your design or ours
  • No page builder dependency
  • Advanced layouts, custom post types and bespoke editor blocks priced higher
Get a Quote
Custom Plugin
from $500

Bespoke functionality built to WordPress coding standards — properly namespaced and structured so it survives core updates rather than breaking on them.

  • Scoped to your exact requirement
  • A single integration sits near the bottom of the range
  • Multi-service or data-heavy plugins priced on scope
See full details

Hosting is not included in any tier. Bring your own, or we will quote it separately.

Every tier is scoped and quoted individually before any work begins · First response within 48 hours

Questions people ask before booking

We will maintain and improve an existing builder site, and we will tell you honestly what its performance ceiling is. For new builds we do not use them — the performance and maintenance cost is real and it compounds for as long as the site exists.
Fixed price against fixed scope, agreed in writing before anything is built. Scope changes are quoted separately and you approve them before we proceed. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices at the end.
You do, outright. No licence fees, no proprietary framework, no dependency on us. If you want to move to another developer, everything they need is in the handover package.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. We start with a short assessment of what is there, then give you an honest read on whether it is worth improving or worth replacing — including when the answer costs us the bigger project.
Yes, as a separate monthly arrangement covering updates, backups, monitoring and small changes. It is optional. Every site we build is documented well enough for you or anyone else to maintain it.

Tell us about your site.
We'll tell you what it needs.

Send us a few details and we'll come back within 48 hours to scope it properly.

No obligation · No sales sequence · A real person replies