WordPress developer
I've been building WordPress sites for about fifteen years now - custom themes, headless backends, a metal album review blog of my own that pulled a reasonable bit of traffic, and a fair number of small business sites. I've also migrated sites away from WordPress when it was clearly the wrong tool for the job - This & That is one of those, and they've been on a much simpler static setup for ages now.
These days when I do take on WordPress work I build clean installations using established open-source plugins, and host them somewhere sensible. The shortest version: from about £400, no surprise annual licences, you own everything.
My WordPress background
The honest version: I've been working with WordPress since the late 2000s, which means I've seen most of what it does well and most of where it falls over. Over the years I've built custom themes from scratch, used it as a headless CMS feeding custom frontends, run my own WordPress sites (the album review one in particular), set up WooCommerce shops, membership sites and booking systems, and migrated sites both onto and off WordPress when it made sense to.
I also know the alternatives well, which means I won't push you towards WordPress if a static site would actually serve you better. If you're in Prestwich or Manchester we can have a coffee and I'll give you an honest read on which way to go.
How a build goes
- Free chat, on the phone or over coffee if you're local, about what you actually need
- Written quote with a breakdown of how many hours I think it'll take and what each hour covers
- Build - most simple sites are ready within a week
- Full handover - you own the code, the content, the hosting
The reason the price varies so much is that you decide how much of the work you want to do yourself. If you're happy picking your own theme and writing the content, a site can be ready in around 2 hours for £400 (or £200 on the charity rate). If you'd rather I handled everything, that's fine too, it just takes more hours.
What I can build with it
- New WordPress sites built from scratch with whatever shape your business needs
- Custom themes that match your brand rather than starting from a generic template
- WooCommerce shops with proper payment processing and stock management
- Membership sites with subscriber content and payment integration
- Migrations from WordPress.com or expensive hosts to somewhere cheaper - see the website migrations page for more on this
- Performance work for sites that have got slow over the years
- Headless WordPress setups feeding a custom frontend
Hosting it on PikaPods
The default WordPress hosting story is full of overpriced managed providers selling you the privilege of running your own software, and I prefer not to push people towards those. The setup I've landed on for most clients is PikaPods, which runs your WordPress site in its own isolated container with automatic updates, for a small monthly fee. I'll usually set up daily backups to two separate providers so there's a real fallback if anything goes wrong.
Initial setup takes about an hour, and after that the thing more or less runs itself. You're free to host anywhere though - I've set WordPress up on more or less every hosting provider going over the years, so wherever you want it, I can do it.
Charities and small businesses
Charities get 50% off - £100/hour instead of £200/hour. The same rate applies to co-ops, artists, musicians, vegan businesses, and renewable energy companies. The charity web development page has the full list and the reasoning behind it.
WordPress tends to suit organisations with specific requirements that brochure sites can't handle - member portals with logins and access levels, event management with bookings, donation processing, newsletter integration, multi-author blogs. The open-source angle is more important for charities than for most: you own everything outright, there are no recurring software licences, and if you ever need to bring someone else in, they can pick up where I left off without paying anyone for access.
Rough WordPress project prices:
- Basic setup (2 hours = £400): WordPress installation, standard theme, you write the content
- Simple business site (4-6 hours = £800-1,200): I set up pages, basic plugins, you provide the content
- Full business website (10-15 hours = £2,000-3,000): Custom theme work, I help with content
- Restaurant website with booking (8-12 hours = £1,600-2,400)
- WooCommerce shop (20-30 hours = £4,000-6,000)
- Membership site (15-25 hours = £3,000-5,000)
- WordPress migration (4-8 hours = £800-1,600)
Monthly hosting options:
- £10/month - Basic hosting, no support. You handle your own content and SEO. Fine for a site that doesn't change much
- £60/month (£30 on the charity rate) - Full support, including updates, backups, Google Search Console monitoring, SEO advice, and being available when something goes wrong
You can start on the supported package while you're learning, then drop to the cheaper one once you're comfortable.
Questions
I already have a WordPress site - can you help?
Yes - I can optimise what's there, move it to better hosting, update an installation that's drifted years behind, or help you escape from WordPress.com's various limitations. I'll give you an honest read on whether to fix what you have or start fresh, and I won't push you towards the option that earns me more hours.
Why open-source plugins only?
Premium plugins tend to stop working when you stop paying, which means the site you thought you owned has a kind of soft lease attached to it. Open-source plugins are free, maintained by their communities, and you're never on the hook for ongoing licence fees. I stick with established ones like WooCommerce, Contact Form 7 and Yoast that have long track records.
What about page builders like Elementor?
I can work with them if you're already using one and don't want to switch, but I'd rather not. Page builders tend to make sites slower and harder for anyone else to maintain. A decent theme with the block editor gives you flexibility without that overhead.
Can you build custom plugins?
Yes, though it tends to be the more expensive end of the work - building a plugin properly is a real job. If you need something that doesn't exist on the plugin directory and a clever combination of existing plugins won't get you there, I can build it.
WordPress vs static sites - which is better?
WordPress is the right tool when you need user accounts, e-commerce that needs live stock, or a few people editing content all the time. For a fairly typical small-business brochure site, a static site is faster, easier to edit, and cheaper to host - so I'll usually point people that way unless WordPress is actually solving a problem static can't. The technical consultancy service is partly for working out which side of that line you sit on.
Do you do ongoing maintenance?
Yes - £60/month (£30 on the charity rate) covers updates, backups, search engine monitoring, and SEO support. Or £10/month if you just want hosting and backups and prefer to handle the rest yourself.
What if I want to leave later?
That's fine and the handover is built into how I do things. You'll get a full export of the site, the database, and all the files. You can take it to any other developer or host - and if you'd like me to help you move it, I will, at the usual hourly rate.
Can you help with SEO?
I'll set up Yoast SEO and make sure the technical foundations are sound for search engines. For the strategy and content side, see the SEO audits service and the free guides and videos.
Local developer in Prestwich
I'm based in Prestwich, just north of Manchester. The development work itself happens remotely (it's a screen, basically) but I'm happy to meet local businesses for a coffee to talk a project through, especially if you're trying to work out which platform makes sense. Bring a laptop and I can show you how WordPress and the alternatives actually look in practice.
Other Prestwich-focused services are on the main Prestwich page.
If you also run events, Chobble Tickets handles flat-fee ticketing without per-ticket charges.
Get in touch
Fill in the form below and tell me about the project. I'll reply within a day with honest advice and a written quote. Mention the discount if you're eligible (the prices page has the full list).