Web Development
WordPress Theme Development
Narrower than a full WordPress build. This is the theme itself, for when the design exists and the rest of the site is already in place.
A custom WordPress theme is hand-coded from your design rather than assembled in a page builder. The Nexclick builds themes with structured content fields, clean markup and no licence fees payable to anyone. Suited to businesses that already have a design and need it implemented properly.
Is this you?
What usually prompts the call
- You have designs from an agency or a designer and need them built in WordPress.
- Your current theme is a marketplace purchase you are fighting rather than using.
- You want to move off a page builder and keep the design you already have.
- A developer built your theme and left, and nobody can safely change anything.
What we do
The actual deliverables
Things that appear on an invoice, not adjectives.
- Build to the design, faithfully
- What was designed is what gets built, at every breakpoint. Where something will not work in practice we raise it before coding rather than silently adapting it.
- Structured content fields
- Custom fields or native blocks so editors fill in content rather than assembling layouts. This is what keeps the site consistent a year after launch.
- Clean, commented template code
- Standard WordPress template hierarchy, readable functions, and no thousand-line file nobody wants to open. Written for the next developer.
- Performance in the theme itself
- Assets loaded only where used, images handled properly, and no library pulled in for one component. Most WordPress performance problems originate here.
- Accessibility built in
- Semantic markup, keyboard operation, focus states and labelled forms as standard rather than as a later audit finding.
- Editor experience configured
- The admin set up so your team sees the fields they need and not the rest, with sensible field help written for a non-technical editor.
- Documentation and handover
- Written documentation and a recorded walkthrough, so the theme can be maintained by any competent WordPress developer.
Checklist
What a design needs to include before a theme can be built from it
Most mid-build questions come from designs that stopped at the happy path. Check yours against this before handing it to any developer — every gap here becomes a question, a delay or an assumption.
- 01Every template type: home, listing, single, category, search, 404.
- 02Mobile layouts at 320px, not just desktop.
- 03Hover, focus, active and disabled states for every interactive element.
- 04What a card looks like with no image.
- 05What a heading looks like at three lines rather than one.
- 06Empty states — no results, no posts, empty basket.
- 07Form validation and error message styling.
- 08Loading states for anything that fetches.
- 09The exact type scale and spacing values, not just visual approximations.
- 10Colour values as hex, with contrast checked.
- 11Which fonts, and evidence the licence covers web use.
- 12How the navigation behaves on mobile.
- 13What happens to a long menu with fifteen items.
- 14Whether any component repeats, so it can be built once.
- 15Icon assets as SVG, not screenshots.
- 16What the editor should be able to change on each template.
How it works
Step by step, with timeframes
Timeframes are typical rather than guaranteed, and they assume we get account access and approvals when we ask.
- 01Week 1
Review the design
Every template, breakpoint and state checked for anything that will not survive real content or a 320px screen. Raised before coding starts.
- 02Week 1–4
Build templates
Template hierarchy and content fields, on staging, with fortnightly review so you see it developing.
- 03Week 4–5
Content and editor testing
Real content loaded and an editor from your team given access, because the editing experience is only testable by the people who will use it.
- 04Week 5–6
Cross-browser test and hand over
Device and browser testing, accessibility check, then documentation and a recorded walkthrough.
What you get
Reporting and ownership
- The theme in your repository, with no licence fees payable to us or anyone else.
- Content fields designed with your editors, tested by them before launch.
- Written documentation plus a recorded walkthrough for the next developer.
- Lighthouse and accessibility results in writing before handover.
- Clean template code any competent WordPress developer can pick up.
Tools and platforms
- WordPress template hierarchy
- Advanced Custom Fields or native blocks
- Git-based deployment
- Query Monitor
- axe-core
- Lighthouse CI
Timeline
How long this actually takes
Five to six weeks for a marketing site theme from finished designs. Longer if the designs are incomplete — missing states, no mobile layouts, or no thought given to what happens when a title runs to three lines. That review happens in week one specifically so the gaps surface before they become mid-build questions. Where you are replacing a page builder, the content has to be rebuilt into the new structure. There is no clean automated route from builder markup to a proper theme, and any quote assuming otherwise has underestimated it.
Pricing model
Fixed-price project
Fixed price by template count. Cheaper than a full WordPress build because the design and the site structure already exist.
Questions
WordPress Theme Development questions
How is this different from your WordPress development service?
This is the theme alone, built from a design that already exists. The broader service covers the whole build — discovery, content model, integrations, migration and hosting. If you have designs and an existing site structure, this is the narrower and cheaper engagement.
Can you convert our page builder site to a custom theme?
Yes, and the content has to be rebuilt into the new structure. There is no clean automated migration from builder markup to a proper theme — the layouts are stored in a proprietary format. We rebuild page by page, which is real work and is why the quote reflects page count.
Will the theme work with the plugins we use?
Generally, and we check the list during the design review. Well-behaved plugins work with any standard theme. Plugins that assume a specific theme or inject their own layout can conflict, and we will flag those before starting rather than discovering them in week four.
Do we need Advanced Custom Fields, or will blocks do?
Native blocks suit flexible editorial content where editors compose the page. ACF suits structured data — team members, case studies, product specifications — where the shape is fixed. Most sites use both, and which goes where comes out of the design review.
Can another developer maintain the theme afterwards?
That is the point of building it this way. Standard template hierarchy, readable code, written documentation and a recorded walkthrough. A theme only its author understands is a commercial risk to you regardless of how well it is written.
What if the designs are incomplete?
We will list exactly what is missing in the week-one review — usually states, mobile layouts and edge cases. You can supply them, or we can make the decisions and document them. What does not work is discovering the gaps mid-build and guessing.
Last reviewed 28 July 2026.
Tell us what you are trying to fix
A 20-minute call, no pitch deck. The Nexclick will tell you what we would do, roughly what it costs, and whether we are the right people for it.