WordPress development

Custom WordPress development. No templates.

Freelance WordPress developer based in the UK, building fast, conversion-focused sites that look funded rather than templated. Every build starts from scratch. No bloated themes, no page builders pretending to be design, no plugin stacked on plugin until the site takes six seconds to load.

Start a project See pricing

The philosophy

Why no templates.

Most WordPress sites sold to small businesses are the same premium theme with the colours swapped and twenty plugins bolted on to cover the gaps. It works for about a year. Then the theme author stops updating, a plugin conflicts with a WordPress core release, and the site nobody fully understands becomes the thing nobody wants to touch.

A custom build avoids that. The theme is written for your site and nothing else, so there is no dead code for features you never use. Plugins are added deliberately, not to patch around a theme fighting you. When something needs changing in two years, the person opening the files can actually read them.

Speed follows from the same decision. A page builder ships the layout engine to every visitor before showing a single word. Hand-built templates send markup and the CSS the page needs. The result loads faster on a phone on mobile data, which is where most of your traffic actually is.

Search visibility follows too. Clean heading structure, proper semantic markup, sensible internal linking, and metadata that describes the page rather than repeating the business name eight times. None of this is a growth hack. It is the baseline a site should ship with.

What you get

Built properly, start to finish.

Custom theme, no page builder

Templates written by hand for your content. Mobile-responsive from the first breakpoint, not retrofitted afterwards. Fast on real devices and real connections.

Editing you will actually use

Content fields that match how you think about your business, so updating a page does not mean fighting a layout grid. Written handover notes included.

Integrations that do something

Payments, bookings, memberships, CRM, email. Connected server-side and secured properly rather than dropped in as a third-party embed.

Typical stack:

WordPressCustom PHPBuddyBossStripeCustom fields

Process

How a build runs.

Brief

Send a short note about the business, the pages you need, and anything you already have. Sitemap and content requirements agreed in writing. No call required.

Quote

Fixed-price quote with scope and timeline within 1 to 2 working days. Everything included is listed. 50% deposit to start.

Build

Built on a staging URL you can watch as it comes together. Written updates throughout, one revision round included, no status calls unless you want them.

Launch

Analytics and search console set up before go-live, with migration and redirects quoted in if you need them. 50% on delivery. You own the code, the design, and every account.

Pricing

From £1,200. Fixed before we start.

Multi-page WordPress builds start at £1,200 and most land between £1,200 and £2,500 depending on page count and integrations. Single-page sites start at £450. Every project is quoted as a fixed price after a short brief, so the number you agree is the number you pay.

Full pricing detail See a WordPress build in production

WordPress questions

Can you work with my existing WordPress site?

Depends on the current state. If it is well-built I can extend it. If it is a bloated theme with plugins stacked on plugins, a clean rebuild is usually faster and cheaper long-term. I will tell you honestly after seeing it.

Will I be able to edit the site myself?

Yes. Content is editable in the WordPress admin using fields built around your content, not a freeform canvas you can accidentally break. You get written handover notes covering the parts you will touch regularly.

Do you handle hosting and migration?

Migration and DNS cutover are available but not included by default — they are quoted as part of the project scope so you can see what they cost. Either way the site goes on hosting you own, with the accounts in your name from day one. You are never locked into my infrastructure.

Do you offer ongoing support after launch?

Yes. Optional monthly retainer for updates, maintenance, and new features. Not mandatory — you own everything and can take it elsewhere if needed.

Google Ads

A fast page is where paid clicks should land.

If the plan is to run Google Ads to the site once it is live, the account build, campaign structure and conversion tracking are quoted the same way everything else here is — a fixed fee agreed upfront, never a percentage of what you spend. The ad account is opened in your name and stays yours. Start with a £95 audit if you are not yet sure it is worth it.