WordPress Development
Themes, plugins and WooCommerce stores — built properly, not assembled from a page builder
WordPress done properly
WordPress powers a large share of the web, and it's easy to see why — the editing experience is familiar, the plugin ecosystem is enormous, and most hosting environments support it without much fuss. The trouble is that most WordPress sites aren't built with much care: a premade theme, a pile of plugins from the directory, and a page builder that produces bloated output nobody can maintain. Whoooop Ltd takes a different approach. We build custom WordPress themes from scratch, write plugins when nothing off the shelf fits, and treat performance as a requirement rather than an afterthought — because a WordPress site can be genuinely fast if you build it that way.
What we build in WordPress
Custom theme development
Themes written against your design, not adapted from a marketplace starter. Clean markup, no page-builder cruft, and a template hierarchy that makes sense to whoever looks after it next.
Plugin development
When the plugin directory doesn't have exactly what you need — a custom post type that maps to your business's structure, a widget that pulls from your own system, or an integration with a third-party API — we write it properly rather than shoehorning a close-enough plugin into place.
WooCommerce development
Online shops on WooCommerce — products, variants, shipping rules and checkout flows configured around how you actually trade. There's more on the shop-build side of it on our e-commerce web development page.
WordPress maintenance
Core, theme and plugin updates run before they're overdue, a backup strategy that actually works, and someone to look at the site when something breaks. Our website maintenance page sets out what ongoing support looks like.
Performance and security
WordPress is commonly targeted because so many installations go unpatched. We harden it — minimal plugin footprint, sensible user roles, file-permission hygiene — and tune for speed so it doesn't fail Core Web Vitals on a phone.
Migrations to and from WordPress
Moving a site onto WordPress from an older platform, or moving it off a version of WordPress that's become a maintenance liability — keeping URLs and search rankings intact in either direction.
On page builders
We don't build with Elementor, Divi, or similar. They're quick to demo and slow to load — the generated markup is heavy, the output is hard to maintain without the same tool installed, and they add a layer of complexity that doesn't pay off over a few years of running the site. If the brief is purely editorial and a team genuinely needs maximum layout flexibility without any developer involvement, we'll say so. But for a site that performs well and won't become a problem to hand over, a clean custom theme is the better approach.
When WordPress is the right fit
WordPress suits a large editorial team with varied technical confidence, content that maps naturally to its post and page structure, or an existing site with years of working content that doesn't need rebuilding from scratch. It's less suited to complex web applications — the plugin architecture and request model aren't designed for heavy business logic. If the project is more app than website, our web application development page is the better starting point.
For a broader look at the CMS landscape — headless setups, structured content models, and how we'd decide between a traditional and a headless approach — see our CMS development page.
Why work with Whoooop on WordPress
- 15+ years of full-stack development experience — WordPress is one tool in a wider kit, not the only one we know
- Custom themes written by hand, so there's no third-party framework to unlearn or update around
- Performance built in: sensible caching, image handling, and database queries that don't pile up
- Clear documentation and a handover your team can actually follow
- We maintain the site after launch rather than disappearing once the build is done
Need a WordPress developer?
Tell us what you're working with — new build, existing site, WooCommerce, or migration — and we'll tell you what's realistic.
Get in Touch