WordPress website design that isn't a template with your logo on it.
A theme bought from a marketplace was designed to demo well for ten thousand different businesses. Which means it was designed for none of them, including yours.
- Fixed-price quote in 1 business day
- Built on WordPress
- US business hours
There are three ways to get a WordPress site designed, and they are not close in outcome. You buy a theme and fill it in. You buy a theme and hire someone to bend it into shape, which usually costs more than starting clean. Or you have it designed for your business and built as a custom theme.
The middle option is the most common and the worst value. You pay design rates to fight a layout somebody else decided, and you inherit all the page weight of a theme built to demo well across ten thousand unrelated businesses.
We design from your content and your goals, then build it as a lean custom theme with proper editing fields. It ends up faster than a marketplace theme, easier for your team to run, and it looks like your business rather than the same layout your competitor bought.
What's costing you
enquiries right now.
A layout your content has to fit
The theme wanted three equal service columns and you have five services of different weight, so the page gets trimmed to suit the design rather than the customer.
Demo bloat you cannot remove
Marketplace themes ship with sliders, portfolio types and demo importers you will never use, all loading on every page.
Mobile as an afterthought
Designed on a wide monitor, then squeezed. Most of your visitors see the squeezed version.
Design changes that need a developer
Wanting a different button colour and discovering it means a child theme and a support ticket.
What custom design
actually gets you.
Designed for your content
We start from what the site actually has to say, not from a layout that then dictates how much you are allowed to say.
A real design system
Type scale, spacing, colour and components defined once, so every page is consistent and new pages do not drift.
Mobile designed, not squeezed
Layouts designed at mobile widths as their own problem, because that is where most of your visitors are.
Custom theme, no page builder
Clean markup, typically a fraction of the weight of a builder site, and Core Web Vitals treated as a design constraint.
Structured editing
Proper fields for everything that changes, so your team edits confidently and cannot break the layout.
Accessible by construction
Contrast, focus states, keyboard navigation and semantic structure handled during design rather than patched afterwards.
Every build ships with this.
- Discovery covering goals, audience and what the site must hold
- Wireframes for every template, approved before visual design
- Full visual design at desktop and mobile widths
- A documented design system with type, colour, spacing and components
- Custom theme build with structured editing fields
- Core Web Vitals pass on real devices before launch
- Accessibility pass to WCAG 2.1 AA
- Team training and written documentation at handover
Why we'd build this on WordPress
WordPress separates content from presentation properly, so a custom design does not lock your content in. You can redesign again in five years without rebuilding the site, which is not true of a page-builder build.
- Design and content stay separate, so a future redesign is not a rebuild
- Structured fields keep editing safe for non-technical staff
- No page builder, so the markup stays light and the site stays fast
From first call to launch.
- 01
Discovery
Goals, audience, competitors and what the site needs to hold now and in two years. This decides the content architecture before anyone opens a design tool.
- 02
Wireframes
Structure and hierarchy for every template, agreed before visual design. Far cheaper to move a block here than after it is designed and built.
- 03
Visual design
Full design at desktop and mobile, with a design system behind it so the site stays consistent as it grows.
- 04
Build
Custom theme with structured editing fields, on staging, with weekly previews so nothing is a surprise at the end.
- 05
Launch and train
Redirects live if we are replacing a site, then training so your team can run it. Documentation included.
What moves the price on
WordPress design.
We quote fixed prices per project rather than by the hour, so scope is what determines cost. These are the four things that move it most.
Number of unique templates
The main driver. Twenty pages sharing four templates is a small project. Twenty pages that each need their own design is roughly five times the work.
Design from scratch or existing brand
If you have brand guidelines, colours and type already, design moves faster. Developing a visual identity alongside the site is a separate piece of work.
Content: yours or ours
Adapting existing copy is quick. Researching and writing from scratch is usually the largest line item on a design project.
Functionality behind the design
A brochure site is predictable. Membership, booking, commerce or integrations each add development beyond the design itself.
Every project is quoted individually. Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with scope, timeline and a fixed price.
Get your fixed-price quoteThe gap between a bought theme and a designed site is not really visual. It is whether the site was shaped around what your business needs to say, or whether your business had to be edited down to fit a layout.
That difference shows up in enquiries long before anyone comments on how it looks.
Get a fixed-price quote Back within 1 business day
Questions businesses
ask us most.
Why not just buy a theme?+
For a very small site with no particular requirements, a good theme is a reasonable answer and we will tell you so. The trade is that you fit your content to someone else's layout, you carry the page weight of features you will never use, and meaningful changes usually cost more than building clean would have. Past a handful of pages, custom is normally better value.
Do you use Elementor or Divi?+
No, and it is the main reason our builds are faster. Page builders generate heavy nested markup and lock you into that plugin permanently. We build custom themes with structured editing fields, so your team gets the same freedom over the things that should change without the page weight.
Will we be able to edit the design ourselves?+
Content, yes, easily, and that is the point. Layout and design, deliberately not, because a site where anyone can move anything drifts within months. If you want that level of control we will say so up front and build differently, but we would advise against it.
How long does design take?+
4 to 8 weeks for most business sites. Discovery and wireframes take longer than people expect, and rushing that stage is where expensive mistakes happen.
What if we don't like the design?+
You approve wireframes before visual design and visual design before development, so there is no point at which we build something you have not signed off. Revisions at each stage are included within the agreed scope.
Do you design mobile separately?+
Yes. Most of your visitors are on a phone, so mobile is designed as its own problem rather than being whatever the desktop layout collapses into.
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Get a quote for your WordPress design.
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