Hire senior WordPress developers to build a custom theme, write a plugin, speed up a slow site, extend WooCommerce or sort out what someone else left behind. Fixed quotes, a Melbourne-based team, and code you own.
Send enquiryAustralian team
Based here, working your hours, not a timezone away
projects delivered
Over 10+ years building and maintaining sites for Australian businesses
One developer, start to finish
The same person every time: no re-explaining your site
Straight answers, on your terms
We only take work we can finish. Ask us anything first: no obligation
CloudyWP's WordPress developers in Melbourne build custom themes and plugins, extend WooCommerce, speed up slow sites and repair broken ones, for businesses across Australia. You work directly with a senior developer. Ad hoc WordPress work is $100 AUD an hour, a fixed-quote diagnostic is $249, and full custom WordPress builds run from $300 to $15,000, with most business sites between $2,500 to $5,500.
A WordPress developer writes and fixes the code underneath your site: the theme that controls how it looks, the plugins that add features, and the server and database settings that decide how fast it runs. These are the six jobs we are hired for most.
A theme built for your content rather than a marketplace theme with forty layouts you will never use. We build classic PHP themes and block themes with custom blocks, so editors get exactly the layouts they need and nothing that can break the design. The detail is on our WordPress theme development page.
When no plugin does what you need, or five plugins half-do it, we write one that does exactly that job. Typical examples are booking rules, member pricing, custom post types with their own admin screens, and connections to CRMs, payment gateways and accounting software through their APIs.
Slow WordPress sites are usually slow for a handful of reasons: too many plugins loading scripts on every page, unoptimised images, no page caching, an old PHP version or a database full of leftovers. We measure first, fix the causes in order of impact, and show you the before and after.
Custom product pages, checkout changes, subscriptions, wholesale pricing and shipping rules for WooCommerce stores, built so they survive plugin updates. Australian specifics such as GST, Australia Post rates and MYOB are covered on our WooCommerce services page.
Most of our WordPress work starts with a site that already exists. Something broke after an update, the last developer stopped replying, or the site has simply grown messy. We find the cause, fix it and leave notes so the next person does not start from zero. See improving an existing WordPress site.
If your team edits in a page builder, we build in it properly rather than fighting it. We work in Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Beaver Builder and YOOtheme, and we compare them on our page builder development page.
Choose a page builder if your team wants to design new pages without a developer; choose a custom theme if you mainly edit text and images and want the fastest, lowest-maintenance site. Both are legitimate. The mistake is choosing one without knowing the trade-off.
A page builder such as Elementor or Divi gives editors drag-and-drop control over layouts. The cost is weight and fragility: every page carries the builder's scripts and styles, the builder becomes another thing that needs updating, and a careless edit can break a layout on mobile. Our Melbourne developers build page builder sites with global styles and locked templates to keep that risk small. If you are already on a builder, our Elementor developers and Divi developers pages cover that work in detail.
A custom theme, built with the native block editor, loads only the code your site uses. Editors still change text, images and blocks in the normal WordPress admin, but the design system is fixed in code, so the site stays consistent no matter who edits it. Custom themes cost more up front and less every year after. For most small business sites that are edited weekly rather than redesigned monthly, that is the better deal.
Still deciding whether WordPress is the right platform at all? Our web development agency overview compares it with Shopify, Framer and custom builds. Selling online with a standard checkout? Our Shopify developer in Melbourne page covers hosted stores, and if you mainly need a new look rather than custom features, see our website design in Melbourne.
We start by making the site safe to work on, then find out why it behaves the way it does before changing anything. This is the order we work in.
We collect admin, hosting and DNS access, then take a complete backup of files and database that we have tested can be restored. Nothing is changed until that backup exists.
We list every plugin and what it does, check for abandoned or duplicated ones, see whether the theme has been edited directly instead of through a child theme, and check the PHP version and server limits against what WordPress currently needs.
Error logs and the database usually explain problems that look random from the front end. In one case, a site returning 500 errors had a database that had hit its hosting cap, filled almost entirely by one plugin's logging. Clearing it cut the database by 91 percent. That story is in our 500 error case study.
You get a plain-English list of what is wrong, what it risks and what each fix costs. The diagnostic is $249. You decide what to fix and when; nothing is done without your approval.
Changes are made on a staging copy, checked, then pushed live at a quiet time. If the site is down or hacked right now, skip the queue: use WordPress site down help or malware removal instead.
WordPress is easy to start and easy to break. The difference a specialist makes shows up a year later, at update time.
We never edit WordPress core or a parent theme. Changes go into child themes, custom plugins and hooks, so the next core, theme or WooCommerce update does not wipe them out.
Every plugin is another set of updates and another security risk. We check how a plugin is maintained before installing it, and write a few lines of code instead when that is the smaller risk.
Custom fields, blocks and editor restrictions are set up around how your staff actually update the site, with a short guide at handover, so routine edits never need a developer.
Most WooCommerce work happens on stores that cannot stop selling while it is done. These two examples show how our WordPress developers approach that.
A store's orders were failing at payment on every attempt. The cause was an expired API token inside a plugin nobody suspected. We traced it from the logs and had the store trading again within hours.
Read the payment outage fixA store kept going down under load. The traffic was bots hammering the product filter, each combination generating another heavy database query. Blocking them brought CPU use back down to about 10 percent.
Read the product filter fixHiring one of our WordPress developers costs $100 an hour for ad hoc work, or $500 for a prepaid five-hour block. Larger pieces of work are fixed-quoted instead, so you know the total before we start.
Custom WordPress builds range from $300 for a single page or feature to $15,000 for a large site with WooCommerce and custom plugins. Most business sites sit between $2,500 to $5,500. Our guide to what a WordPress website costs in Australia explains what moves a project up or down that range.
After launch, sites that need regular updates and backups can join a WordPress care plan from $159/mo, or $700/mo with 10 developer hours a month included for ongoing changes.
Our WordPress developers are Melbourne based. Our area pages for Hallam, Clayton and Narre Warren describe WordPress work for trades, clinics and suppliers in the south-east, and we work with clients across Australia. Every area is on our locations page.
A slow, insecure, or outdated website costs you Google rankings, customer trust, and revenue every day. A custom-built, performance-optimised website is one of the highest-ROI investments a Melbourne business can make.
Free website review: we assess your current site's performance, security, and SEO health, and show you exactly what a custom development project would deliver.
Our WordPress developers charge $100 an hour for ad hoc work, or $500 for a prepaid five-hour block. Bigger jobs are fixed-quoted: custom WordPress builds run from $300 to $15,000, and most business sites cost $2,500 to $5,500.
Yes, and most of our WordPress work starts that way. We take a full backup, audit the plugins, theme and hosting, read the error logs, and give you a written report with a fixed quote. The diagnostic costs $249.
All three. Our default for new sites is a custom block theme, because it is faster and needs less upkeep. If your team wants to design pages themselves, we build in Elementor or Divi properly, with global styles and locked templates. We also maintain and fix sites in WPBakery, Beaver Builder and YOOtheme.
Yes. We write plugins for features no existing plugin covers well, such as custom booking rules, member pricing, custom admin screens and API connections to CRMs, payment gateways and accounting software. You own the plugin code outright.
Usually it is a mix of heavy plugins loading on every page, large images, no page caching, an outdated PHP version or a bloated database. We measure each page template, fix the biggest causes first and show you the before and after Core Web Vitals.
Yes. We customise product pages, carts and checkouts, set up payment gateways and shipping rules, and build subscriptions and wholesale pricing. We regularly work on stores while they keep trading, with changes tested on staging first.
Yes. It is still the normal WordPress admin. We set up the fields and blocks around the content your team edits and hand over a short guide, so routine updates do not need a developer.
Yes. Our WordPress developers are based in Melbourne and work with businesses across Australia, by phone, video call and email. Hours are 9 to 5 AET, open all week.
Hire senior WordPress developers in Melbourne for custom themes, plugins, WooCommerce, speed fixes and rescuing existing sites. Fixed quotes, code you own.
Get in touchEvery CloudyWP project runs the same way, whether it is a one-page site or a store with a thousand SKUs. Here is exactly what happens.
A single scoping call, then a written plan: what gets built, what it costs, and when it ships. No discovery-phase invoices, no moving targets.
48 hrs to your quote
Custom WordPress or Shopify on clean code you own outright. Every build ships fast, passes Core Web Vitals, and is handed over documented.
95/100 average PageSpeed
Your site talks to the tools you already run: CRM, invoicing, email, stock. The repetitive admin stops being someone's job and starts running itself.
15 hrs saved every week
