Custom WP plugin developer · for hire

Hire a custom WordPress plugin developer who actually ships.

Independent plugin developer for businesses that have outgrown off-the-shelf. Booking, quote engines, calculators, REST API integrations, Gutenberg blocks, ACF-driven admin UIs — built lean, owned by you, no monthly SaaS bill.

Book a 20-min scope call → See selected work

◆ Plugin Boilerplate · WP Coding Standards · phpUnit-tested · 6+ years shipping production work

Why teams come to me

When off-the-shelf stops working.

Five patterns that come up in the first scope call, repeatedly. The fix is almost always "stop wrestling with the plugin you have" — not "find a better one."

01 ◆

Your team is paying $99/mo for a plugin that uses 12% of its features. Five years of that is more than the custom build.

02 ◆

You've hit a hard wall in a popular plugin (Gravity Forms, Bookly, Amelia, Forminator, WPBakery) and the only path forward is a fork. Forks are the worst of both worlds — paying for the SaaS AND maintaining the patch.

03 ◆

Custom logic you actually need (per-customer pricing, conditional booking rules, multi-vendor splits, agreed-rate B2B pricing) is "on the roadmap" of every SaaS for years.

04 ◆

The plugin's admin UI is so cluttered your team can't train new staff on it. The configuration page has 40 tabs and your team uses two.

05 ◆

The plugin is a security or performance liability — autoloaded options bloated, page-builder shortcodes everywhere, abandoned by the original author.

What I ship

What gets built and handed over.

Every plugin ships as a self-contained WordPress plugin (your code, your repo, your IP) with phpUnit tests, an admin UI matched to your team's workflow, and a README that explains the integration points.

◆ WordPress plugin scaffolded on the Plugin Boilerplate (PSR-4, OOP, namespaced) — clean enough to maintain, flexible enough to extend.
◆ Custom post types, taxonomies, meta fields, REST endpoints — all properly registered and documented.
◆ ACF (Pro) or native meta-box admin UI matched to your team's actual workflow, not a settings dump.
◆ Gutenberg blocks where front-end editing makes sense — block.json metadata, server-side render, dynamic blocks, Interactivity API where it warrants.
◆ WP-CLI commands for ops/import/migration tasks — your team can script around the plugin, not just click through it.
◆ phpUnit tests covering critical paths. We don't ship code with no test for the conditional discount logic.
◆ Translation-ready (load_plugin_textdomain, .pot file, i18n best practices).
◆ Security baseline — capability checks, nonces, prepared queries, escaped output on every line.
◆ Performance baseline — no autoloaded option bloat, transient/object-cache-aware, queries indexed.
◆ README + docs covering the integration points, hooks, filters, and how to extend it.

Packages

Three plugin tiers.

Single-feature plugin

From $1,800

Delivery 7-10 days

One specific feature (e.g. custom CPT + admin UI + REST endpoint, or a single Gutenberg block)
phpUnit-tested critical paths
Translation-ready
README + handoff doc
7 days post-launch support

Get a quote →

Productized plugin Most chosen

From $4,800

Delivery 2-4 weeks

Booking, calculator, quote engine, multi-vendor, or similar mid-complexity plugin
5-15 admin screens with workflow-matched UX
2-3 third-party integrations (Stripe, Mailchimp, HubSpot, CRM webhook, etc.)
phpUnit + integration tests
CLI commands for ops
14 days post-launch support

Get a quote →

Platform plugin

From $12,000

Delivery 6-10 weeks

Multi-tenant or marketplace-grade plugin (job board, LMS, marketplace, B2B portal)
Custom REST API surface for headless front-end
Gutenberg blocks + Interactivity API integration
WooCommerce or BuddyBoss integration if applicable
phpStan static analysis, full integration test coverage
30 days post-launch support + retainer option

Get a quote →

Process

How a typical project ships.

Scope call

You walk me through the workflow today, where it breaks, and the must-haves for the new plugin. I tell you on the call whether custom is the right answer (sometimes it isn't).

Spec doc + fixed quote

Within 48h: a spec doc with the data model, admin UX, integration points, and a fixed-price quote with a delivery date.

Build + weekly demo

Plugin in your repo from day one. Weekly demo on Zoom, daily Loom updates if you want them. We tune the admin UX as we go.

Handoff + training

Live walkthrough, admin training, written README. 14 days of iteration after launch — bugs fixed for free, scope changes quoted as deltas.

FAQ

Questions clients ask before hiring.

No fluff — the specifics buyers want before booking a call. If yours isn't here, ask on the call.

When should I build a custom plugin instead of buying one?

Three signals: (1) you're paying recurring SaaS that'll cost more than the custom build inside 18 months, (2) you've hit a hard wall in the off-the-shelf plugin's logic and forking it is the only path forward, or (3) your team's workflow is unique enough that no off-the-shelf admin UX fits. The TCO post on the blog walks through the math: /custom-wordpress-plugin-vs-off-the-shelf-tco/.

Do I own the plugin code?

Yes — full IP transfer on final payment. Code lives in your repo from day one (your GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or my GitHub if you don't have one yet). Licensed however you want — GPLv2+ if you might list it on .org, proprietary if you'll keep it internal.

Will it be compatible with my existing theme and other plugins?

Yes — I scope the conflict surface during the spec doc phase. The plugin loads its own assets only on the screens that need them, namespaces all functions and classes, and avoids any global-state side effects. If you have a known-incompatible plugin (page builders, some security plugins), I'll flag it before quoting.

Can it integrate with our existing CRM / ERP / membership system?

Yes — Stripe, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, MemberPress, BuddyBoss, LearnDash. If your tool has a public API, the plugin can talk to it. If it doesn't, we use webhooks or a generic POST to a URL of your choice.

Will the plugin work with WooCommerce?

Yes — most of the productized plugins integrate with WooCommerce out of the box (custom checkout fields, Subscriptions hooks, custom payment gateways, fulfillment routing). For pure Woo-extension plugins, the codebase follows Woo's extension architecture so it survives Woo updates.

How do you handle ongoing maintenance after launch?

Three options: (1) 14 days of free iteration is included by default — bug fixes and small tweaks; (2) a $299/mo or $499/mo retainer covers ongoing maintenance, WP/PHP version bumps, and small feature additions; (3) hourly at $95/h for one-off work. Most clients pick (1) and come back as needed.

Do you write tests?

Yes — phpUnit for unit tests on critical paths (pricing logic, conditional rules, integration handlers). For platform-tier plugins, integration tests against a real WordPress instance via wp-env. Test suite ships in the repo and runs in your CI of choice.

Will it be secure?

Capability checks on every admin action, wp_nonce_field on every form, prepared statements for every database query, esc_html / esc_attr / esc_url on every output, no eval/extract/serialize on user input. I run the plugin through Plugin Check before handoff. If it's a public-facing plugin you intend to list on .org, I help with the WP.org submission process.

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