Services / Consultancy
Not every WordPress problem requires implementation work. Sometimes you need a second set of expert eyes on a plan, a codebase, or a proposal before committing to a significant decision. I provide independent technical assessments without commercial relationships with vendors, without an agency's interest in upselling a rebuild, and without the conflict of interest that comes from a developer reviewing their own work.
£75/hour
Or £600/day
Written output
Every engagement
No vendor ties
Independent assessment
The value
A developer recommending a technical approach has a conflict of interest: they benefit from the work being complex and from the solution requiring their specific skills. An agency proposing a rebuild is not a neutral party. A plugin vendor's support team is not going to tell you their plugin is wrong for your situation.
Independent consultancy removes that conflict. When I assess a proposed architecture, a plugin choice, or a quoted project, my only obligation is to give you an accurate assessment. I have no financial relationship with WordPress plugin companies, no referral agreements with agencies, and no interest in recommending work I will then be paid to deliver.
The most common outcome of a consultancy engagement is not that the proposed work is wrong — it is that it is right, and the client proceeds with confidence rather than uncertainty. Occasionally the proposed scope is substantially wrong, and catching that before commitment is worth several times the cost of the review.
What is included
All consultancy engagements produce a written output: a findings report, a specification, or a written assessment. I do not deliver verbal advice that disappears after the call.
A structured assessment of your current WordPress setup against what you are trying to achieve technically and commercially. I identify mismatches between your architecture and your requirements, flag technical debt that is costing you in maintenance overhead or performance, and produce a prioritised recommendations report. This is frequently the first engagement before a larger body of work.
Independent assessment of specific plugins, themes, or technical approaches you are considering. Not a generic review — a targeted evaluation against your exact requirements, your existing stack, and the maintenance implications of each option. I have no commercial relationships with plugin vendors and no interest in recommending what I sell.
Inheriting a WordPress project from another developer and not confident in the quality of what you are receiving? I review the codebase, the database structure, the plugin choices, and the hosting configuration — and give you an honest assessment of what you are taking on and what it will cost to bring it to a maintainable standard.
If you are procuring development work and want a precise specification to take to a developer or agency, I can write it. A well-written specification reduces scope creep, eliminates ambiguity, and gives you a basis for comparing quotes. It also ensures the developer builds what you actually need rather than their interpretation of an imprecise brief.
A developer or agency has quoted for work and you are not sure whether the scope is right, the price is fair, or the proposed approach is technically sound. I provide an independent technical assessment: whether the proposed solution addresses the actual problem, whether the scope is appropriate, and whether the approach is the right one.
Before a new or redesigned WordPress site goes live, a structured technical review covering security configuration, performance baseline, accessibility compliance, structured data implementation, and canonicalisation. Finding problems before launch is significantly less disruptive than finding them after.
FAQs
The other services — performance engineering, security hardening, troubleshooting, development — are hands-on technical work on your site. Consultancy is assessment, advice, and specification: situations where you need expert judgement rather than direct implementation. These often combine: a consultancy engagement frequently leads to a project.
Consultancy is charged at my standard day rate of £600 (or £75/hour for shorter engagements). I agree the scope and time commitment before starting. There is no open-ended billing — you know the maximum cost before I begin.
This is within scope for an ongoing consultancy arrangement. A regular engagement where I review your technical roadmap, assess proposed work, review vendor proposals, and provide strategic technical guidance is something I can structure as a monthly retained relationship with a defined number of hours.
Yes, and I do so regularly. The most common request is a code review of a plugin or theme built by a previous developer, or an assessment of a quoted project scope. I review these against WordPress Coding Standards, current security best practice, and the specific requirements I am given. The output is always a written findings report.
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Describe what you are assessing — a proposed project, a codebase, a technology choice. I will tell you what I can tell you about it and what it will cost to do so properly.
