What Is a WordPress Developer? Know What You’re Really Buying.

Not all WordPress developers are the same.

When it comes to hiring a WordPress developer to work on your website, you really need to decide what you want in order to get the right developer for your website.

It might sound daft, but not all WordPress developers are ‘developers’ in the true sense of the term.

Contents.

• What people think ‘WordPress developer’ means.
• What it actually means.
• Why it matters to you.
• Questions to ask before you hire.

What people think it means.

Ask ten people what a WordPress developer is, and you’ll get ten different answers.

To some, it’s the person who installs WordPress, picks a theme, adds some plugins and presses publish.

Others think it’s anyone who can fiddle about in a page builder like Elementor or Divi.

There are even people charging for “WordPress development” when all they’ve done is install a £40 theme and change a few colours.

The label’s been watered down. These days, calling yourself a WordPress developer can mean anything from full-stack software engineer to someone who’s good at clicking buttons in a plugin, but it sfhould always be the former.

What it actually means.

A proper WordPress developer writes code. That’s it.

They build custom themes and plugins. They know PHP, CSS, JavaScript and how WordPress works under the hood.

They don’t rely on drag-and-drop tools or someone else’s template – they build websites from scratch that do exactly what the client needs.

When I say I build WordPress sites, I mean I create bespoke sites using my own bare-bones starter theme, writing every line needed for your content, features and goals.

No unnecessary fluff. No plugin bloat. No code from someone else’s theme with all the branding still on it.

Why it matters to you.

If you’re paying someone to build your site, you should know whether you’re getting a real developer or someone who’s just good at styling templates.

That difference affects everything:

• Performance – bloated templates are slow, bad for SEO and even worse for mobile.
• Flexibility – off-the-shelf themes can only be pushed so far before they break or become a nightmare to manage.
• Ownership – page builder tools often need ongoing licences. So if you stop paying, your site might stop working.
• Future-proofing – if you want to add new features later, it’s easier and cheaper if your site’s been built properly from the start.

Think of it like buying a suit. You can grab one off the rail and have it altered. Or you can go bespoke and get exactly what fits, functions and feels right. Both cost money – but only one’s worth it in the long run.

This is even more true now in the days of AI – people that don’t know how to code can now use AI to generate code that works, but they have no idea how and why it works.

If they add all this code to your website, you end up with a website which even your ‘developer’ doesn’t know how to fix if it breaks or how to add new code to it.

Questions to ask before you hire.

Before you hire someone, ask them how they build their WordPress sites. You don’t need to understand the tech – just listen to how they answer.

• Do they use a page builder? If so, which one – and why?
• Do they build a theme from scratch or start with a commercial one?
• Will you own the site outright, including any theme licences?
• Can you see examples of past builds and get under the bonnet?

And if their answer is full of jargon or they get cagey about showing their work, you probably already have your answer.

There’s nothing wrong with using tools that make building easier – but you should know what you’re paying for. If you want a site that grows with your business, don’t let someone sell you a shortcut as a custom build.