33% of websites are built in WordPress, and this stat alone indicates a market demand, which calls for a market offer of many WordPress developers. The competition is fierce, leaving you with a vast choice and a hard decision in front of you – which WordPress development experts to hire. Read on to find a complete list of the most skilled WordPress teams reputed for building successful websites on the most popular CMS. Just below the table, you’ll discover the key steps to consider before locking down a company and find answers to the most asked questions.
To ensure we single out the very best of the best companies offering WordPress services, we follow a strictly defined evaluation methodology. It includes assessing the WordPress development agency’s portfolio and customer satisfaction, their services and proficiency, and more. Read on to find out the details behind our rankings.
First of all, we visit the agencies’ websites to get a bigger picture of their policies and values, how they operate, and what they offer.
We check whether they specialize in specific industries or niches and whether they work solely with WordPress or also with other CMSs. Ideally, we look for primarily WordPress development companies; however, you can also find Joomla and Drupal development agencies on this list, as we always double-check competence in other CMSs.
Going beyond their specialization, we check their portfolios, which give us more details regarding their work. If a WordPress agency doesn’t have its portfolio on the site, we reach out and ask them to provide one. We take notice of a few critical factors:
Another critical aspect we examine is the suite of services they offer and each team’s level of proficiency.
Many of the companies listed here offer both services; however, we double-check that they don’t just use these two terms interchangeably. They need to provide each.
For instance, WordPress developers should take care of the site’s functionality. Therefore, agencies that specialize in WordPress need to have thorough PHP knowledge. As you’d expect from PHP development experts, the staff needs to be agile in creating customized solutions.
On the other hand, a WordPress designer should focus on aesthetics, working only on the website’s front end. Similar to the basics we’re expecting from web developers, the team members should be experts in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to start.
Plugins add functionality to WordPress sites. When the ones offered by the platform don’t fit the client’s vision, the WordPress website development company should be adept in getting their way with the custom options available. We check whether WordPress web developers are ahead of the curve when it comes to the latest trends and best practices, and they should also be able to create a flawlessly functional and optimized plugin. For that purpose, we look at their project history, their skills, and any certifications from industry leaders.
WordPress has an extensive theme directory and a premium theme marketplace with countless options to use right away. However, many clients would prefer a custom theme in order to get the exact aesthetics they want. Some WordPress professionals can build a custom WordPress theme for any type of site, while others use page builders that enable easy building and editing on grid-based pages. Also, we try and learn what they’re going for and highlight that in our specifications.
We don’t even consider the WordPress developers that haven’t yet embraced a mobile-first approach. We make sure each agency listed here is skilled at creating websites that are fully responsive and mobile-ready.
Next, we check whether the WordPress web development company excels in WooCommerce development. We want to cater our list to clients who look for ecommerce solutions, so we’ve included WordPress ecommerce developer agencies with experience in this fully customizable platform. Having dealt with the 400+ WooCommerce extensions, countless customization options, custom AJAX endpoints, and webhooks, every WordPress WooCommerce developer listed has a spotless track record.
WordPress has built-in security; however, the top WordPress developers we’ve selected make sure to implement the most effective practices. These involve installing a security plugin, activating the site’s SSL certification, disabling file editing, updating the latest WordPress version, setting up a strong password, hiding the wp-config.php and .htaccess files, and more.
Besides having the best WordPress development company to handle the build, there has to be a QA experts team that ensures there aren’t any bugs, broken links, or page-load delays. We check whether the agency has a QA team in place that adheres to the best practices and tests the sites from every angle to ensure a top-notch experience for the end-user.
The above-listed services are a must for professional WordPress website developers. However, there are still more services that we expect the agencies to offer. Here are some of them:
We favor companies that provide seamless content and data migration from a site with another CMS to WordPress. This saves time and money for clients, as they won’t need to hire a separate agency or a freelancer to take care of it.
The companies that offer hosting, maintenance, and support are also ranked higher on our list. Such companies usually provide performance monitoring, malware protection, hassle-free management, and proactive support that helps clients fix problems and maintain excellent site quality.
We also appreciate the WordPress programmers that are skilled in using APIs. WordPress API integration makes it possible to manage and use data from other sources efficiently. However, this needs to be planned and executed correctly, so we make sure to check the WordPress company’s experience in working with diverse APIs in different niches.
WordPress is SEO-friendly and takes care of most basic optimization practices. Plus, it offers a variety of free plugins that help with search engine optimization. You can look for an agency that does it all under one roof or hire some of the premier SEO companies to help you propel your site to the top of the SERPs.
Also, WordPress offers a set of plugins designed to maximize the client’s social media exposure. Part of these plugins is created specifically to help automate campaigns, embed the website’s social media feed, and add social media buttons. We sourced top WordPress development companies that also include SEO and SMM services. However, you can always consider hiring a specialized social media marketing company.
Agencies that offer training and technical consulting bring extra benefits to the client. During these sessions, in-house WordPress consultants will pass their WordPress knowledge and experience on to the client, enabling them to adequately respond to any problem or challenge.
The opinions of previous clients matter to us, so we make sure to sort our WordPress web development firm rankings depending on what they have to say. To make sure their opinions are unbiased, we vet dozens of reviews and ratings across multiple third-party sites, as well as the WordPress professionals’ social media and Google profiles. Then, we consider these strengths, and we look for any problems they’ve resolved. It’s worth noting that only when the negative reviews overrode the positive ones did we discard a WordPress development agency.
On our list, you’ll find the top WordPress developers that charge less than $25 per hour, as well as ones that cost over $200 per hour. On the other hand, there are agencies that charge by project. Most WordPress website design prices range between $1,000 and $25,000.
Either of these pricing types is fine, but we don’t compromise on hidden policies. We check whether the agencies are clear about the pricing and any hidden costs. Also, when we get a price estimate, we consider whether it fits the industry standard. If there’s a notable difference in the pricing, we make sure there’s a solid reason for it.
Our list offers a good range of WordPress website developers to choose from, but how can you actually choose the right agency for your needs? Below you can find the key points you need to consider to shortlist these companies and discover the best match for you.
Before you start investigating WordPress developers, you need to consider your specific needs. First and foremost, you should think about your site’s purpose, what content you want to include, and plan the general layout. Also, decide on any special features you want your site to include, such as media integration, booking forms, or ecommerce capabilities. Sharing this information with your potential WordPress website development firm is essential because it will tell you whether you’re on the same page.
The price of building a custom WordPress site is more affordable compared to other platforms. Before you narrow down your search, you should know how much you can afford to spend on a custom WordPress development company. You should be aware that the actual price of the WordPress development services will depend on the scope of the project and the complexity of your requirements. Naturally, a basic blog will cost you less than a full-fledged ecommerce site.
Client interaction is an important thing to consider when choosing the right WordPress website developer. If necessary, reach out to their previous clients and ask them how effective the communication was between them and the agency. Before you seal the deal, ask the agency’s team members if they commit to communicating regularly and provide comprehensive progress reports. There are two questions you must ask:
The team’s personality can define your whole relationship, so when you’re choosing among the best WordPress developers, this should be a major deciding factor. Finding a professional WordPress developer that you love means establishing good communication and mutual agreement. This, in turn, will help you avoid any unnecessary and expensive alterations. Here are the key questions to ask your potential candidate:
Building a custom WordPress site requires a lot of work and the alignment of many different parts. To ensure everything goes smoothly, you need to find WordPress development companies that invest time and effort to test the site before launch. Part of this involves checking for lorem ipsum text and placeholder images, examining page links, setting up a 404 error page and redirects, and more.
WordPress is fairly easy to manage, so you don’t need a WordPress web developer that will unnecessarily complicate things. Your chosen agency should be transparent about the CMS features at its disposal, and its team should be able to write simple code wherever necessary. As a result, it should be easy for you to manage menus, content, galleries, headers, footers, and anything else you can think of.
If your budget permits, you should consider trying a test project, especially if you have a large project. It will give you the most accurate information about their WordPress website development services and other capabilities.
WordPress is an extremely SEO-friendly platform that comes with a set of built-in features, making it easy to customize a site. Not only does it have powerful SEO plugins and themes, but it also has a proper HTML markup, and it generates search-engine-friendly URLs.
WordPress web development from scratch takes time. The exact time span will depend on the project’s complexity, but the estimates are close to 14 weeks.
In the past, WordPress faced several security issues. And as the largest CMS, WordPress remains vulnerable to attacks. However, each new version is updated and improved, keeping security problems to a minimum. Plus, the WordPress developers you choose will implement the best security practices to maximize the site’s protection.