Is WordPress the right platform for your business?
WordPress suits most content-led business websites: service sites, blogs, brochure sites and small shops. It is free to use, widely supported and easy to edit. It is less suited to complex web applications or high-volume ecommerce, where a custom web development approach or a dedicated platform is usually a better fit.
| Your situation | WordPress fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Service business, 5–50 pages | Strong | Easy editing, mature SEO tools, low running costs |
| Blog or content marketing | Strong | Publishing workflow is WordPress's core strength |
| Small online shop (WooCommerce) | Good | Works well for modest catalogues and order volumes |
| Large or complex ecommerce | Weaker | Dedicated platforms or custom builds scale more predictably |
| Web app with logins, workflows or bookings logic | Weaker | Custom development avoids fighting the CMS |
What is included in a custom WordPress website?
A custom WordPress website includes discovery and planning, a bespoke design, a theme built for your content, a tailored editing experience, essential plugins, performance and security setup, SEO foundations and training. It should also include a clear handover: who owns the hosting, the domain and the admin accounts.
- Bespoke theme: built for your content rather than a bloated multipurpose theme with hundreds of unused options.
- Block editor patterns: reusable sections your team can drop into pages without breaking the design.
- Lean plugin set: only well-maintained plugins you actually need, which reduces security risk and update conflicts.
- SEO foundations: clean URLs, metadata, XML sitemap, structured data and fast load times. See our SEO-friendly website design service.
- UK compliance: privacy notice, cookie consent only where needed under PECR, and accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA.
- Training and documentation: so your team can update content confidently from launch day.
How much does a WordPress website cost in the UK?
As a typical UK market guide, a custom-themed WordPress website for a small or medium business costs around £3,000 to £10,000 excluding VAT. Template-based sites can cost less; large sites with complex integrations, memberships or WooCommerce cost more. Hosting and maintenance are separate monthly costs.
| Type of WordPress site | Typical range | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Template-based starter site (up to 5 pages) | £500–£1,500 | 1–3 weeks |
| Custom-themed business site (5–20 pages) | £3,000–£10,000 | 4–8 weeks |
| WooCommerce shop | £4,000–£15,000 | 6–12 weeks |
| Large site with integrations or memberships | £10,000–£30,000+ | 3–6 months |
These are indicative ranges from the wider UK market, not a Freehand HQ quote. Your price depends on scope; read our guide to website design costs in the UK for what drives it.
How do you keep a WordPress website fast and secure?
Most slow or hacked WordPress sites share the same causes: heavy themes, too many plugins and missed updates. We build a lightweight theme, keep plugins to a minimum, use quality managed hosting with caching and backups, and apply core, theme and plugin updates on a regular schedule.
Speed matters for rankings as well as conversions: Google uses Core Web Vitals as part of its page experience signals. Our guide to Core Web Vitals explains the targets.
- Images served in modern formats at the right size, with lazy loading below the fold.
- Page caching and a content delivery network where it helps UK visitors.
- Two-factor authentication for admin accounts and limited admin roles.
- Automatic daily backups stored off the server, tested by restoring them.
- Ongoing updates through our website maintenance and support plans.
Can you move my existing site to WordPress without losing rankings?
Yes. A move to WordPress protects search rankings by keeping valuable content, mapping every old URL to its new address with 301 redirects, carrying over titles and meta descriptions, and checking Google Search Console after launch. Our website migration service covers this in detail.
How do we build your WordPress website?
We work in five stages: discovery, design, build, testing and launch. You see designs before development starts and a working staging site before go-live, so there are no surprises. A typical custom WordPress site takes four to eight weeks, depending mainly on content readiness.
- Discover: goals, audiences, sitemap and the content each page needs.
- Design: page designs for desktop and mobile, reviewed with you.
- Build: custom theme, block patterns, plugins and integrations on a staging site.
- Test: devices, browsers, accessibility, speed, forms and security.
- Launch and train: go-live, redirects, Search Console submission and editor training.