Custom WordPress themes and plugins
Block themes, classic themes, child themes and custom plugins written to WordPress coding standards, with Advanced Custom Fields where structured content helps.
Roles · Software Development
A WordPress developer who keeps your site fast, secure and easy to edit
Custom themes, plugins and block patterns your marketing team can use without filing a ticket. Updates, backups and security fixes happen on a schedule, before something breaks.
A site your marketers can change on their own
Plenty of company websites run on a theme someone bought years ago, two dozen plugins nobody remembers installing and a page builder that slows every page down. A WordPress developer cleans that up. They build blocks and templates that fit your brand, cut the plugins you don't need, and keep core, theme and plugin updates from turning into a weekend outage.
What they do for you
- Build custom themes, block themes and Gutenberg blocks from your designs
- Write or adapt plugins for features an off-the-shelf plugin can't handle cleanly
- Run core, theme and plugin updates on a staging site first
- Speed up slow pages: caching, image handling, database cleanup and Core Web Vitals
- Harden the site with security headers, sensible user roles and malware scans
- Set up custom post types and fields so content has a proper structure
- Build landing pages and forms for campaigns on short notice
What separates a WordPress pro from a theme installer
Tools they work in
WordPressPHPGutenbergAdvanced Custom FieldsElementorWP-CLIWPGraphQLComposerGitLocalWP EngineKinstaCloudflareWebflowContentfulSanityMany more
A good fit if:
- Your WordPress site is slow, fragile or full of plugins nobody trusts
- Marketing waits on a developer for every page change
- You're moving to a block theme, a headless setup or off a page builder
- Your site runs on Webflow or another CMS and needs someone who knows it well
Not the right fit if:
- Your store runs on Shopify; see Shopify Developer
- Your store runs on WooCommerce, Magento or BigCommerce and the checkout is the main job; see E-commerce Developer
- You're building a web app with accounts and business logic; see Full-Stack Developer
Interview questions
01
"Our homepage takes six seconds to load. What do you check first?"
Strong answer: a speed test before any changes, then a look at plugin weight, unoptimized images, render-blocking scripts, caching and hosting before touching code.
02
"When would you write a custom block instead of using a page builder?"
Strong answer: when the layout repeats and editors need guardrails. They weigh editing ease against page weight and long-term upkeep.
03
"How do you run plugin updates without breaking the live site?"
Strong answer: staging copy, backups, changelog review, a visual check of key pages, then a scheduled push with a rollback ready.
04
"When does headless WordPress make sense, and when doesn't it?"
Strong answer: they mention speed, multiple front ends and developer capacity, and admit the extra cost of running two systems.
05
"A client site was hacked. What do you do in the first hour?"
Strong answer: take it offline or into maintenance mode, keep logs, restore from a clean backup, rotate passwords and keys, then find the entry point.
Signs of a strong WordPress developer:
- Removes plugins as readily as they add them
- Builds blocks with sensible defaults so editors can't break layouts
- Keeps the theme in Git and deploys through a pipeline
- Writes down which plugins do what, and why each one stays
Signs of a weak WordPress developer:
- Edits theme files directly on the live server
- Installs a plugin for every small request
- Skips staging because "it's only an update"
Gutenberg, Elementor and page builders
Custom Gutenberg blocks and patterns, plus Elementor and other builder sites kept tidy, or moved to native blocks when the builder has become the problem.
Headless WordPress
WordPress as the editing back end, with WPGraphQL or the REST API feeding a Next.js or other JavaScript front end.
Webflow developers
Webflow sites with CMS collections, interactions and custom code, built so your team can publish without help.
Other CMS platforms
Contentful, Sanity, Strapi, Drupal and similar systems, including content modeling and migrations from one platform to another.
How your WordPress developer gets started
- 1
Talk it through
We agree the work, the tools, the hours you share and who they report to. For this role: your hosting, the theme and plugin list, the pages that matter most, and any staging or deployment setup you already have.
- 2
Meet a shortlist and choose
We screen a wide pool for every role and introduce only the few who fit your brief. We source, screen and test candidates against your brief, and run background and reference checks. You interview and decide.
- 3
Start with support in place
They start on the work in the brief, and we stay in contact once they've begun.
WordPress is one of the easier skills to find, so this search often lands at the faster end. Headless builds and less common CMS platforms usually take a little more time, and that's when we widen the search past South Africa.
How pricing works
You can bring on a WordPress developer through any of these options. Pick the one that suits how you work, and ask us anything about them when we speak. Compare the arrangements on ways to hire.
Who does what
Swipe to see more →
| Task | You | JiveTalent |
|---|---|---|
| Brand, content and which pages get built | Own | – |
| Themes, plugins, updates and site speed | Review | Maintained by your developer; we check in on the update schedule and open work |
WordPress and CMS hiring questions
Can they work on a site another developer built?
Yes. Most of these roles start with an inherited site. The first week usually goes on an audit of the theme, plugins and hosting, with a short list of what to fix first.
Will they work during our business hours?
The brief sets the hours and the overlap with your team before the search starts, so every candidate is hired for them.
Who owns the theme and plugin code?
You do. Custom code is written for you and lives in your repository and on your hosting, so a future developer can pick it up.
Do they handle hosting and security too?
They can look after backups, updates, uptime checks and security hardening on managed WordPress hosting. Server-level work on your own infrastructure is a separate skill, so put it in the brief if you need it.
What if it isn't working out?
Talk to your account lead. We go through it with you and agree a way forward.
Can they move us off WordPress, or onto it?
Yes. Migrations between WordPress, Webflow and headless CMS platforms are common requests, including redirects so search rankings carry over.
How do we see what our WordPress developer is working on?
Their hours are tracked in the client app and reported there for you to see.
Give your marketing team a site they can update themselves
Book a call. We'll agree the brief for your WordPress developer and talk you through the ways to hire.