WordPress development services that ship real sites, not slide decks
Full Scale is a WordPress development company that delivers custom themes, plugins, WooCommerce builds, and headless WordPress projects through senior Filipino engineers who join your team. We have shipped hundreds of WordPress sites for publishers, agencies, e-commerce stores, and enterprise marketing teams, including the engineering team behind AMC Theatres. You direct the work; we handle hiring, payroll, and HR. First sprint in 7 days.
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]);WordPress teams trusted by publishers, agencies, e-commerce, and Fortune 500s
Previously founded VinSolutions ($150M+ exit) and Stackify
Why WordPress still earns its place on the stack
My first run-in with WordPress was a long time ago, hosting a small site next to a Nagios install for server monitoring. It looked like a glorified blog tool then. The way every developer I knew talked about it, WordPress was the thing you used until you could afford to build something real.
Twenty years later, WordPress runs more than 40% of the web, and most of the businesses we work with at Full Scale rely on it for at least one mission-critical surface: the marketing site that brings in pipeline, the publisher arm that monetizes content, the WooCommerce store that ships product, or the headless build that feeds a Next.js front end. WordPress is not the cheap option anymore, it is the default operating system for a lot of real companies, and the engineering bar for working on it well has gone up a lot since the early days.
The reason most WordPress projects go sideways is the same reason most PHP projects go sideways. The framework is forgiving, so people who do not know how to write production code can ship something that looks fine until it does not. Full Scale delivers WordPress development services through engineers who treat it like a real platform: custom blocks instead of plugin sprawl, proper coding standards, real performance work, and a security posture that does not collapse the first time a plugin gets popped. If you need WordPress development services from a team that actually builds things, rather than a vendor that subcontracts the work, you are in the right place.
Five reasons WordPress is the right call for content and commerce
If you've already committed to WordPress, you don't need to read this. If you're still evaluating whether WordPress is the right call for your project, or whether to migrate an existing site toward it, these are the technical arguments that hold up in production, not in a vendor slide deck.
The CMS that runs a huge share of the web
WordPress powers a large fraction of all websites, which means a deep pool of themes, plugins, and patterns and an editor non-technical teams already know. For content and marketing sites, that maturity gets you live faster than building a CMS from scratch.
Fast time-to-launch for content and marketing
Built-in content management, block editing, and a mature theme layer mean a marketing team can publish and edit without filing a ticket for every change. When the goal is shipping and iterating on content quickly, that self-service is a real advantage.
WooCommerce for ownable ecommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most-used ecommerce platforms in the world, and unlike a hosted SaaS cart you own the data, the checkout, and the roadmap. For stores that need custom flows or margins that a transaction fee would eat, that ownership matters.
Headless when you need a modern frontend
WordPress also runs as a content API behind a React or Next.js frontend, so editors keep the CMS they know while users get an app-grade experience. We build headless when the frontend demands it, and keep it classic when that's the pragmatic call.
Open-source and free of lock-in
You own the code, the data, and the hosting. There's no platform that can change terms on you. The honest trade-off is the maintenance and security burden of a self-hosted CMS, and the fact that heavy custom application logic belongs in a real framework, not in WordPress. We'll tell you when that line is crossed.
AI-powered WordPress engineers, trained on Product Driven principles
Most WordPress teams adopting AI are shipping more code without shipping better software. The plugin count climbs, the page speed drops, and engineers whose only skill is typing faster end up costing more in cleanup than they save in keystrokes.
Full Scale WordPress developers are trained on something different: the Product Driven approach from Matt's book, combined with the full modern AI toolkit (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor). They think first, type second, and use AI for the parts where judgment does not add value. That combination is rare, and it is what WordPress teams should actually be hiring for in 2026.
Product Driven engineering
Our engineers are trained on the five pillars from Matt's book: Vision, Focus, Clarity, Ownership, and Courage. The result is WordPress developers who push back on the request to install a 31st plugin, ask whether a custom block should exist before scaffolding one, and own the outcome of what ships. They are not order takers.
Read Product Driven, the bookAI as a thinking partner
Every WordPress engineer on our bench works with GitHub Copilot, Claude, and Cursor every day. They use AI to scaffold custom blocks, generate plugin boilerplate, write the WP-CLI scripts nobody wants to write by hand, and review their own pull requests before a human ever sees them. Judgment stays with the engineer, the grunt work moves to the machine.
The WordPress engineers I want on my team do not get caught by the AI slop trap. They reason about the data model and the editor experience before they reach for Copilot, and they use AI for the parts where judgment does not matter. That is who we hire and train at Full Scale.
The engineering team behind AMC Theatres
The WordPress development services we deliver across the full build lifecycle
Custom theme builds, plugin products, WooCommerce checkout rebuilds, headless front ends, performance fixes that have been open for six months: our engineers ship across all of it. The difference is how we deliver. Every one of these WordPress development services runs through staff augmentation, so you get senior WordPress engineers embedded in your team and billed for engineering hours, not a fixed-bid project shop that disappears at handoff. As a WordPress development company we bill for engineering hours, not project milestones. Here are the WordPress development services we get hired for most often.
Custom WordPress theme development
Custom WordPress theme development means a block-first theme.json design system, custom post types and taxonomies that match the actual content model, and an editor experience your marketing team can use without a developer in the loop. The resulting site survives the first 18 months without a rewrite.
Custom WordPress plugin development
Plugin work goes well past dropping in something from the WordPress.org directory. We build plugins that integrate WordPress with your CRM, your billing system, and your data warehouse, with proper capability checks, hooks for extensibility, and clean uninstall paths.
WooCommerce development
Hire dedicated WooCommerce developers for stores that go past the default checkout. We build subscription billing, B2B pricing tiers, ERP integrations, custom shipping logic, and high-volume catalogs that survive Black Friday. Engineers on the bench have shipped WooCommerce for retailers doing real revenue.
Hire dedicated PHP developersHeadless WordPress development
Headless WordPress pairs the editorial experience nobody wants to replace with a Next.js, Nuxt, or Astro front end. We ship the REST API and WPGraphQL layer, preview workflows, ISR-friendly cache strategy, and the CI that keeps the two sides honest.
Hire dedicated Next.js developers for the front endWordPress migration and modernization
We run production WordPress migrations from legacy hosts, dying page builders, hand-rolled CMS systems, and multisite consolidations. We know which patterns break in a PHP 8.x bump, where serialized data goes wrong, and how to stage the cutover so traffic does not stop.
WordPress performance and security
Our WordPress performance work covers Core Web Vitals, full-page caching with Varnish or NGINX FastCGI, object caching with Redis, query optimization, image pipeline tuning, and CDN strategy. Security work covers plugin auditing, hardening, OWASP review, and incident response when something already got in.
The patterns our WordPress engineers apply in production
Most offshore WordPress shops deliver a working site at handoff. What determines whether it's still fast, secure, and maintainable 18 months later is the decisions made in the first sprint. These are the patterns our engineers reach for, and the reasoning behind when each one earns its complexity.
Custom Themes, Not Page-Builder Bloat
Purpose-built block themes (or classic themes where they fit) instead of an Elementor or Divi install that ships 2 MB of CSS and locks your content into a builder. The result loads fast, stays maintainable, and doesn't trap you in a plugin you can never remove.
Purpose-Built Plugins Over Plugin Sprawl
When custom behavior is needed, we write a small, well-scoped plugin instead of bolting on the fortieth third-party plugin. Fewer moving parts, fewer security holes, and code your team actually controls. Plugin sprawl is the number-one source of slow, fragile WordPress sites.
WooCommerce Done for Scale
Custom checkout flows, payment gateway integrations, and the query and caching work that keeps a catalog fast as it grows. WooCommerce will run a serious store, but only if the database and the cart path are engineered rather than left on defaults.
Headless WordPress
WordPress as a content API (REST or WPGraphQL) behind a Next.js frontend, with the editor and preview workflows kept intact. We build headless when the frontend genuinely needs it, and we plan for the editor experience instead of breaking it.
Performance & Caching
Object caching (Redis), full-page caching, a CDN, and database query work with Query Monitor to kill the slow queries WordPress generates by default. Core Web Vitals are a ranking and conversion factor, so we treat performance as a requirement.
Security & Maintenance
Hardening, least-privilege roles, a real staging environment, version control instead of editing in production, and a patch cadence for core and plugins. A self-hosted CMS is only as safe as its maintenance discipline, so we build that discipline in.
Opinionated takes on WordPress from engineers who ship it
Most vendors tell you WordPress is the right choice for everything. We'll tell you when it isn't. These are the actual opinions we hold based on building and maintaining WordPress sites in production, not talking points from a sales deck.
Content and marketing sites, publishers and blogs, and stores on WooCommerce, especially anywhere a non-technical team needs to edit content without a developer in the loop. If the job is to ship and iterate on content fast and let marketing own it, WordPress is hard to beat.
Heavy custom application logic and complex business rules belong in a real framework (Laravel, Rails, Node, or .NET), not bent into WordPress. High-scale custom SaaS is the same story. When a project is really an app wearing a CMS, we'll tell you to build it as an app instead of fighting WordPress the whole way.
We ship purpose-built custom plugins, block themes, real caching, a staging environment, version control, and hardened security. We refuse plugin sprawl (dozens of plugins doing what a little custom code should), edits made directly in production, page-builder lock-in that traps your content, modifications to WordPress core, and abandoned or nulled plugins that are a breach waiting to happen.
Sites trapped in a page builder (Elementor, Divi) where the content can't leave without a rebuild. Un-versioned sites edited live in production, so there's no safe way to test a change. PHP version upgrades that break a pile of old plugins at once. Headless migrations that underestimate the editor and preview workflow. And security incidents traced straight back to an abandoned plugin nobody updated.
From first call to production: how a WordPress project runs at Full Scale
Staff augmentation without a delivery framework is just headcount. Here is what the engagement actually looks like from the first conversation to a deployed production site and the ongoing work that comes after.
We scope the engagement together: what to build first, what specializations to staff, what the first sprint should deliver. You walk away with a staffing plan and a candidate shortlist, not a 40-page requirements document.
You interview our pre-vetted candidates and select who starts. We handle employment, payroll, and equipment setup on the Philippines side. Your engineer gets access to your repo, your tools, and your standups. First commit typically happens within the first week.
Your engineer works in your sprint cadence, under your tech lead, committing to your repo through a staging environment. You see the work in progress, not at a scheduled demo. Architecture decisions happen in your standups, not behind a project management wall. The sprint velocity is yours to direct.
Our engineers test as part of delivery, not as a post-sprint cleanup task. PHPUnit for plugin logic, Playwright for the critical user and checkout flows, and a staging environment that mirrors production. AI-assisted PR review (Copilot, Cursor) before human review. Code that ships is code that's been tested.
Your engineers own the production deployment: version-controlled releases, automated backups, a security and update cadence, and observability with Query Monitor or New Relic. They stay on after launch. Post-launch bugs go into your backlog like any other work, not into a 'warranty period' clause in a contract.
How a WordPress development project starts at Full Scale
No discovery phase you pay for before a line is written. No 6-week RFP process. We scope in a single call, assemble pre-vetted engineers, and have code shipping in the first week.
Scoping call
30 minutes. We learn what needs to be built, what's already in the codebase (if anything), what the first sprint should deliver, and what specializations the project needs. We don't pitch on this call. We scope.
Team assembly
We pull 1–3 pre-vetted WordPress engineers whose skills, seniority, and prior project experience match what the project requires. You see their full profiles and actual project history before the interview.
Technical interview
You interview candidates the way you would any senior hire: live theme and plugin architecture, performance and security questions, and WordPress-specific technical depth. Pass on anyone you don't believe in. We keep looking.
Contracts & setup
One contract with Full Scale. We handle all employment, payroll, equipment, and HR logistics in the Philippines. Your engineer gets repo access, tool access, and sprint 1 is planned.
First delivery
Your engineer joins your standups, commits to your repo, and ships code in the first week. Our delivery team stays in the loop through ramp-up to make sure velocity doesn't stall. They own the work through launch and beyond.
Signing a contract is not the same as shipping software
Most WordPress outsourcing failures aren't engineering failures. They are delivery model failures. The fixed-bid agency model creates incentives that work against you: speed over quality, handoffs over ownership, scope control over outcomes. Staff augmentation realigns those incentives. Here are the six ways the agency model breaks down on real WordPress projects.
Fixed-bid scope creep destroys budgets
Agencies win the bid with an optimistic estimate, then recover their margin through change orders. Every requirement that wasn't in the original spec becomes a billable revision. By go-live, the 'fixed' price has doubled and the relationship is adversarial.
The agency disappears after handoff
Fixed-bid projects end at deployment. The engineers who built your site move to the next bid. You own every production bug, every plugin update, and every security patch without the institutional knowledge of the people who built it. Post-launch support becomes a new contract negotiation.
No visibility until it's too late to change
Black-box delivery means you see the site at the end of a cycle or, worse, at handoff. By the time you learn it's a pile of page-builder shortcodes you can't maintain, the content is already trapped in it. Staff aug keeps engineers in your repo and your standups from day one.
Speed incentives drive wrong architecture
Fixed-bid agencies are paid to ship fast, not right. That means plugin sprawl instead of purpose-built code, edits made live in production with no staging, and a page builder bolted on so nothing is in version control. You inherit a WordPress site optimized for handoff velocity, not for the next three years of maintenance.
Engineer rotation breaks continuity
Agencies staff projects with whoever is available, not whoever is best-matched. Project managers cycle. The developer who built your custom checkout gets rotated to another engagement. New engineers inherit code they didn't write, and the velocity cliff arrives around sprint 8.
Production failures become "out of scope"
A site that buckles under a traffic spike, a checkout that drops orders, a breach through an abandoned plugin, agencies classify these as new work. With staff augmentation, your engineers own what they shipped and have incentive to build it secure and maintainable the first time.
WordPress expertise tuned to your industry
As a WordPress development company that has been around for over a decade, we have placed dedicated WordPress developers into nearly every industry that runs on the LAMP stack. Domain knowledge cuts onboarding time in half, so we match developers to projects where they have already shipped real code.
Publishing & Media
Publishing WordPress is our home turf, with engineers who have shipped custom blocks, editorial workflows, ad ops integrations, paywall and subscription flows, and headless front ends. Our team has carried sites through news-cycle traffic spikes without taking the homepage down.
From block-first themes to headless WordPress front ends
Whether you want to hire dedicated WordPress developers for a greenfield theme build, WooCommerce engineers for a checkout rebuild, plugin developers for a product launch, or take an offshore WordPress development approach to a legacy multisite, the bench covers every layer of the modern WordPress stack. Pick what you need. We will match a WordPress engineer fluent in it.
Hire dedicated WordPress developers, two ways
Most clients start with a single dedicated WordPress developer and grow into a full team. Either way, you get full-time engineers who sit on your standups, work your hours, and ship code against your roadmap. Both options are our staff augmentation model at the core: dedicated, long-term engineers embedded in your team rather than freelancers, shared resources, or a project shop on the side. See the full breakdown of how we hire dedicated developers across every engagement we staff.
Dedicated developer
Full-time, exclusive, sits on your standups.
- Full-time WordPress engineer assigned only to your project
- Works your hours, your tools, your codebase
- Joins your standups, reports to your tech lead
- We handle payroll, HR, equipment, retention
- Replace within 30 days if it isn't a fit
Dedicated team
Multiple engineers, embedded as a pod.
- 2-10 WordPress engineers staffed together as one pod
- Optional QA, DevOps, and tech lead included
- Operates as a team inside your engineering org
- Scale up or down by a head with 30 days notice
- Account manager you can escalate to in the US
Dedicated WordPress developers, starting at $35 an hour
That rate is fully loaded. Every engineer we staff on your WordPress project is a senior developer in the Philippines working full-time under your direction, and we cover the payroll, benefits, HR, and equipment. The same role hired locally in the US costs $110K to $160K a year for a senior engineer with custom theme, plugin, and headless experience, which is the delivery math that brings most teams to the table.
- Full-time, dedicated WordPress engineer
- Pre-vetted by senior PHP and WordPress reviewers
- Works your hours, your tools, your codebase
- Payroll, HR, equipment, benefits handled by us
- US-based account manager you can escalate to
- 30-day replacement guarantee if it isn't a fit
Full Scale has made the Inc. 5000 four years in a row and is Great Place to Work certified. We have been doing this since 2018, and pricing is not the only reason clients stay with our WordPress development company, it is the easiest reason to call.
Why we deliver WordPress projects from the Philippines
Every WordPress project we deliver is staffed from the Philippines. You can also hire dedicated developers in the Philippines across every other stack we work in, with the same vetting bar, retention, and engagement model that WordPress clients get.
English-fluent by default
The Philippines is the third-largest English-speaking country in the world. Standups, editorial calls, and client reviews work the way they do with any US team member.
Real time-zone overlap
Most of our WordPress engineers work US business hours with 4-8 hours of real-time overlap with East and West Coast teams, so editorial requests and launch-day fixes happen live during shared hours rather than crawling through 24-hour async handoffs.
Deep WordPress talent pool
Cebu and Manila have produced WordPress engineers for two decades, and the Philippines is one of the largest WordPress markets in the world, deep enough to staff a full WordPress project team without compromising on seniority. We hire from the senior end of that pool: people who build for product, not just for projects.
Cultural alignment with US teams
Filipino engineers grow up on US business norms, US TV, and US tech culture, so agile rituals, direct feedback, and collaborative editorial workflows feel familiar from day one. These teams integrate fast rather than needing constant management.
Staff augmentation vs the other ways to get WordPress software built
Every WordPress delivery model has a different set of trade-offs. Fixed-bid agencies offer a contract; consultancies offer a proposal. Staff augmentation offers engineers who embed in your team and work under your direction from day one. Here is how those models compare on the things that actually determine whether a WordPress project succeeds.
| Factor | Full Scale (staff aug) | Fixed-bid agency | Consultancy / SI | Build in-house |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to first sprint | 7 days | 4-8 weeks | 6-12 weeks | 3-6 months |
| You control architecture decisions | ||||
| Visibility into work in progress | ||||
| Engineers dedicated full-time to your project | ||||
| Scope flexibility when requirements change | ||||
| Budget predictability | ||||
| Engineers own what they ship post-launch | ||||
| You own all IP from day one | ||||
| Engineer continuity across the project | 93%+ retention | varies | low | varies |
| Fully-loaded cost vs US in-house team | ~40-50% | ~60-80% | ~100-150% | 100% |
The numbers behind a WordPress staffing partner that actually works
From the people we actually staff teams for
With Full Scale's developers, we transformed the commercial real estate landscape. Their team's proficiency in agile development and proactive communication accelerated our product release.
The team at Full Scale brought our vision to life with their development skills. They helped us navigate technical requirements with ease, resulting in a robust platform our users trust.
Deeper guides to WordPress development and architecture
Nearshore vs offshore
When each model wins, from a CEO who has run both.
Outsourcing vs offshoring
The distinction most CTOs get wrong, and why it matters.
What offshore development really costs
The real numbers behind offshore rates and total cost.
The ROI of offshore development
The math behind 50-80% development cost reductions.
Offshore development best practices
How to avoid the common ways offshore engagements go wrong.
Offshore due diligence checklist
What to vet before you sign with an offshore partner.
Everything you wanted to know about WordPress development services
Get WordPress development services from a team that has actually shipped WordPress sites before
30-minute discovery call with the WordPress development company that delivers custom themes, plugins, WooCommerce builds, and headless WordPress projects through dedicated developers from the Philippines. We will learn what you are building, walk you through which WordPress engineers, WooCommerce specialists, plugin developers, or headless WordPress developers are on the bench, and you will meet candidates within a week. You will not get pressure or a sales pitch on the call.