WordPress Development
for Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane businesses.
Custom WordPress themes, plugin development, WooCommerce stores, headless architecture, and WordPress rescue. Content management that works for your team.
We build new WordPress sites and we rescue, modernise, and maintain existing ones. Perth-based, Australia-wide.
The content management system that powers 43% of the web
WordPress is the world's most popular website platform. It started as blogging software and evolved into a full CMS that handles business websites, e-commerce stores, membership sites, and content publishing platforms. Your marketing team probably already knows how to use it.
Our WordPress work splits into two categories: new builds and rescue projects. New builds are custom themes, WooCommerce stores, and headless WordPress architectures. Rescue projects are hacked sites, broken configurations, abandoned development, and WordPress sites that have been neglected until something breaks.
WordPress is not the right tool for every project. Custom business applications, complex portals, and systems with serious backend logic belong on Laravel or .NET. But for content-driven websites, blogs, WooCommerce stores, and sites where the editing team needs a familiar CMS — WordPress delivers.
WordPress development — by project type
Custom themes, plugins, WooCommerce, rescue, and headless architecture. These are the WordPress project types we handle.
Custom WordPress Theme Development
Bespoke WordPress themes built from design files — not tweaked off-the-shelf templates. Clean PHP, proper template hierarchy, custom post types, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) for content management, and responsive design that works on mobile.
Every theme is built for the site editors who will use it. Custom blocks, page templates, and ACF field groups designed so non-technical staff can update content without breaking the layout. No Elementor or Divi page builder complexity — just clean, structured editing.
Performance-focused development. No bloated theme frameworks carrying 200KB of unused CSS. No jQuery dependency when vanilla JavaScript works. Fast-loading themes that score well in Core Web Vitals without hours of optimisation after launch.
Custom Plugin Development
WordPress plugins for functionality that does not exist in the plugin directory — or where the available plugins are too bloated, insecure, or unreliable for your requirements. Custom booking systems, pricing calculators, integration connectors, membership logic.
Plugins built to WordPress coding standards. Proper hooks and filters, sanitisation and escaping, nonces for security, and database operations through $wpdb. No eval(), no direct SQL without prepared statements, no security shortcuts.
When an off-the-shelf plugin does 80% of what you need, we assess whether customising it or building a lightweight alternative is the better path. Sometimes a $50 plugin saves $5,000 in development. Sometimes a custom plugin saves $5,000 in ongoing headaches.
WooCommerce Customisation
WooCommerce stores customised beyond the default configuration. Custom product types, pricing rules, shipping calculations, checkout flows, and payment gateway integrations for Australian businesses — Stripe, Square, Afterpay, and direct bank transfer.
B2B WooCommerce setups with wholesale pricing tiers, account-based ordering, quote requests, and trade customer registration. Not every WooCommerce store is a simple B2C shop — enterprise configurations need different architecture.
WooCommerce connected to Xero, MYOB, inventory management, and shipping providers. Order data flows automatically to your accounting and fulfilment systems. No manual export/import.
WordPress Rescue & Recovery
Hacked WordPress site? Broken after a plugin update? White screen of death? Previous developer disappeared? We rescue WordPress sites — malware cleanup, database repair, plugin conflict resolution, and recovery from failed migrations.
This is a significant part of our WordPress work. Australian businesses with WordPress sites that have been neglected, hacked, or broken by cheap offshore maintenance. We stabilise the site, clean it up, and put it on a proper maintenance path.
Post-rescue, we audit the plugins, remove unnecessary ones, update everything, configure automated backups, and set up monitoring. Prevention is cheaper than rescue — but rescue is what gets you calling.
Headless WordPress (API-Driven)
WordPress as a content backend with a React, Next.js, or Astro frontend. The editorial team uses the familiar WordPress admin. The frontend is decoupled — faster, more flexible, and built with modern JavaScript.
This approach suits businesses that love WordPress for content management but need a frontend that WordPress themes cannot deliver — interactive dashboards, complex filtering, single-page application behaviour, or performance beyond what WordPress can serve directly.
WP REST API or WPGraphQL provides the data. Next.js or Astro renders the pages. Static generation for speed. Incremental regeneration when content changes. The best of both worlds — WordPress CMS with a modern frontend.
Member portal with 85% online renewal rate
We built a member portal with renewal, event booking, document access and directory features for an industry association. Manual membership admin dramatically reduced.
Read the full case study →Why WordPress remains a strong choice for content-driven websites
The CMS your team already knows how to use
WordPress powers 43% of websites. Your marketing team, content editors, and administrators have almost certainly used it before. No training required for basic content updates. Blog posts, page edits, media uploads — they know how.
This matters more than developers think. A technically superior CMS that nobody on the team can use without training is worse than WordPress. The best CMS is the one your team will actually update.
ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) extends this to structured content — pricing tables, team profiles, service descriptions, testimonials. Editors fill in fields, the theme handles the presentation. Clean content without HTML knowledge.
60,000+ plugins for almost every feature imaginable
Forms, SEO, caching, security, e-commerce, membership, booking, multilingual, analytics — there is a mature plugin for nearly every common website feature. This means less custom development for standard functionality.
The caveat: not all plugins are good. We vet every plugin for code quality, security history, active maintenance, and compatibility. A plugin that saves $2,000 in development but introduces a security vulnerability is not a bargain.
The WordPress ecosystem also means a large pool of developers, designers, and agencies who can work on the site in the future. You are not locked into one provider or a niche technology.
Lower development cost for content-driven websites
For a business website, portfolio, blog, or content-driven site with 10–50 pages, WordPress is typically 30–50% cheaper to develop than a fully custom solution. The CMS, user management, media library, and SEO tools come built-in.
Hosting is inexpensive — $10 to $50 per month for most business websites. No app server costs. No database licensing fees. Shared hosting for simple sites. VPS or managed WordPress hosting for performance-critical sites.
The total cost of ownership is low when the site is maintained properly. Annual costs of $500 to $2,000 for hosting, domain, SSL, and plugin licenses. Compare that to $5,000+ per year for SaaS website platforms with fewer features.
Built-in structure that search engines understand
WordPress generates clean URLs, proper heading hierarchy, XML sitemaps, and meta tags out of the box. Yoast or Rank Math adds page-level SEO controls, schema markup, and content analysis.
Google has explicitly stated that WordPress is a good choice for SEO. The platform handles technical SEO fundamentals — canonical URLs, robots.txt, sitemap generation, breadcrumbs — without custom development.
For Australian businesses where organic search is a primary traffic channel — trades, professional services, hospitality, retail — WordPress with proper SEO configuration delivers measurable results.
Hacked? Broken? Abandoned? Previous developer gone?
WordPress rescue, security cleanup, PHP upgrades, speed optimisation, and ongoing maintenance. We fix WordPress problems and prevent them from recurring.
Hacked Site Cleanup
Malware removal, backdoor elimination, file integrity verification, and security hardening. We clean the infection and prevent re-infection. Same-day emergency response.
WordPress & PHP Upgrades
Stuck on an old WordPress or PHP version? We update WordPress core, plugins, themes, and PHP — testing compatibility before applying changes to production.
Site Takeover & Stabilisation
Previous developer left? We audit the WordPress site, document its architecture, fix critical issues, and take over ongoing development and maintenance.
Speed Optimisation
Slow WordPress site? We audit plugins, implement caching, optimise images, minify assets, and tune the server. Core Web Vitals improvement with before/after benchmarks.
Hosting Migration
Move from shared hosting to managed WordPress hosting, VPS, or AWS. Better performance, proper backups, SSL, and staging environments.
Monthly Maintenance Plans
WordPress core updates, plugin updates, security monitoring, backups, and uptime monitoring. Proactive maintenance so problems are prevented, not reacted to.
WordPress Rescue
Need a WordPress site rescued?
Hacked site, white screen, broken plugin update, or abandoned by the previous developer — tell us the symptoms and we will diagnose and fix it.
Common WordPress project scenarios
Business website, WooCommerce store, rescue, membership, publishing, or headless — if one of these matches, WordPress is worth considering.
Business Website
Professional business website with content management. Service pages, blog, team profiles, contact forms, and Google Analytics. The standard WordPress project.
WooCommerce Store
E-commerce store with product management, checkout, payment processing (Stripe, Afterpay), shipping calculation, and accounting integration (Xero, MYOB).
WordPress Rescue
Hacked, broken, or abandoned WordPress site. Malware cleanup, recovery, stabilisation, and ongoing maintenance. Emergency response available.
Membership / Subscription Site
Content gating, user registration, subscription billing, drip content, and member directories. WordPress with membership plugin or custom member management.
Content-Heavy / Publishing Site
News, magazine, or content publishing with editorial workflow, categories, tags, author profiles, and newsletter integration. WordPress at its original best.
Headless WordPress
WordPress as CMS backend with React, Next.js, or Astro frontend. Editorial team keeps WordPress. Frontend gets modern performance and flexibility.
Common WordPress migration and modernisation paths
Rescue, rebuild, migrate hosting, go headless, or move off WordPress entirely — these are the paths we execute.
Technologies paired with WordPress
The plugins, platforms, and hosting services that extend WordPress beyond its defaults.
WordPress + PHP
WordPress is PHP. Our WordPress development includes PHP 8.x, proper hook architecture, and WordPress coding standards.
WordPress + WooCommerce
The standard open-source e-commerce platform for Australian businesses. Product management, checkout, Stripe/Afterpay, and accounting integration.
WordPress + ACF
Advanced Custom Fields for structured content. Custom field groups, repeater fields, flexible content, and relationship fields. The tool that makes WordPress a proper CMS.
WordPress + React (Headless)
WordPress REST API feeding a React or Next.js frontend. Static generation, dynamic routes, and incremental regeneration.
WordPress on AWS
WordPress hosted on AWS — EC2, RDS, S3 for media, CloudFront CDN. Enterprise WordPress hosting for high-traffic sites.
WordPress + Xero / MYOB
WooCommerce orders synced to Xero or MYOB. Invoices, payments, and contacts flow automatically to your accounting software.
Our WordPress site was hacked for the third time in eighteen months. Every time it was fixed cheaply offshore and hacked again. HELLO PEOPLE cleaned the infection properly, replaced two insecure plugins, updated PHP, moved us to managed hosting, and set up monitoring. That was eleven months ago — no incidents since. The cost of doing it properly was less than three rounds of cheap fixes.
Common questions about WordPress development
How much does a WordPress website cost?
A business website with a custom theme, 10–20 pages, blog, and contact forms starts from $5,000 to $12,000. WooCommerce stores are $8,000 to $25,000 depending on product complexity and integrations. WordPress rescue projects are $1,000 to $5,000. Fixed-price quotes after scoping.
WordPress or custom application — which do I need?
WordPress for content-driven websites — business sites, blogs, portfolios, simple e-commerce, and publishing platforms. Custom application (Laravel, .NET) for business systems with complex logic — CRM, project management, booking systems, multi-role portals. If the primary purpose is content management, WordPress. If the primary purpose is business process automation, custom application.
Is WordPress secure?
WordPress core is well-maintained and regularly patched. Most WordPress security issues come from outdated plugins, weak passwords, and cheap hosting. A properly maintained WordPress site — updated core, vetted plugins, strong passwords, security headers, and a good host — is secure. We configure security properly during development and maintain it through ongoing support.
Can you rescue a hacked WordPress site?
Yes. We clean malware, remove backdoors, verify file integrity, update everything, and harden security. Same-day emergency response. After cleanup, we configure monitoring and maintenance to prevent re-infection. Rescue projects typically cost $1,000 to $3,000.
Do you use Elementor or page builders?
No. We build custom themes. Page builders (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery) add bloat, create plugin dependency, and produce messy HTML. Custom themes load faster, are easier to maintain, and give editors a cleaner content management experience through ACF fields instead of drag-and-drop.
WooCommerce or Shopify?
WooCommerce for businesses that want full control, custom functionality, and lower ongoing costs. Shopify for businesses that want simplicity and are happy with the standard e-commerce template. WooCommerce is more flexible but requires more development. Shopify is simpler but has platform limitations and ongoing subscription fees.
Can you maintain our WordPress site ongoing?
Yes. Monthly maintenance plans from $100 to $500 per month covering WordPress and plugin updates, security monitoring, automated backups, uptime monitoring, and a pool of development hours for small changes and fixes.
What about WordPress performance?
WordPress performance depends on the theme, plugins, hosting, and configuration. A bloated theme on shared hosting is slow. A custom theme on managed WordPress hosting with caching loads in under two seconds. We optimise during development and recommend hosting that matches the performance requirements.
Get Started
Need a WordPress developer in Australia?
New website, WooCommerce store, rescue, or maintenance — tell us the situation and we will come back with a plan, timeline, and fixed-price quote.
Tell Us About Your WordPress Project
New site, WooCommerce, rescue, or maintenance — describe the project and we will respond with a practical plan.
Prefer a quick chat? Call 0425 531 127 – we're Perth-based and we answer the phone.