WordPress Theme Development

Off-the-shelf themes are great for proving out an idea or launching a side project. They’re not great for businesses that depend on their website performing — converting visitors, ranking in search, loading fast, and surviving WordPress core updates without breaking. Custom theme development is what you graduate to when a stretched-out template stops being good enough.

What’s Included

• Design implementation — your Figma, XD, or Sketch designs translated to clean, production-ready WordPress code (or designed from scratch if you don’t have a design yet)
• Classic themes or block themes (FSE) — depending on your editorial workflow and customisation needs
• Custom blocks for editors — built specifically for the content patterns your team actually publishes, instead of forcing them into generic page builders
• Performance-first architecture — lightweight code, minimal dependencies, no jQuery if you don’t need it, proper script and style enqueueing
• theme.json for design tokens — colours, typography, spacing managed centrally so updates don’t require touching CSS files
• Accessibility compliance — WCAG 2.2 AA standard, keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, proper ARIA usage
• SEO-ready output — proper heading hierarchy, schema-ready markup, no plugin dependency for basic SEO functionality
• Documentation — how the theme works, what each block does, how to extend it without breaking it

How It Works

1. Discovery — Understanding your content model, editorial workflow, target audience, and technical requirements
2. Design — Either translating your existing designs or producing new ones (UX wireframes through to visual design)
3. Development — Theme built in a staging environment, with regular check-ins and a working preview throughout
4. Launch — Migration, QA, redirects (if replacing an existing theme), and post-launch monitoring

Is This Right for Your Business?

Custom themes make sense when your business has outgrown what generic themes can do — you have a real content model that doesn’t fit “blog posts and pages,” you need editorial workflows that scale, your site performance directly affects conversions or revenue, or you’ve been bitten by theme/builder updates breaking your site one too many times.

If you’re launching a brand-new business and just need a working website, a custom theme is overkill. A well-configured premium theme is fine until you outgrow it.

Why Work With Me on Theme Development

Most custom themes I get hired to fix were built badly the first time — bloated, dependency-heavy, fragile to update. The reason: they were built by agencies optimising for delivery speed, not for the next 5 years of your business. Solo development with a senior developer is slower upfront but produces themes that age well.

I also build with the editor in mind — your team has to actually use the thing after I leave. Most “custom” themes are great for developers and terrible for the marketing manager who has to update content weekly.

Often paired with custom plugin development for site-specific functionality and performance optimisation.

Pricing & Timeline

Custom WordPress themes typically start at $7,500 for small brochure sites and run $12,000-$25,000 for more complex builds (e-commerce, membership, custom post types, integrations). Timelines range from 4 weeks for focused builds to 10-14 weeks for larger sites. Every project is fixed-scope with clear deliverables.

Ready to Talk?

Free 30-minute call to discuss what you’re trying to build and whether a custom theme is the right approach. Schedule a call.