Do you build full-site editing themes?

When the brief calls for it. FSE is mature for editorial sites with simple template hierarchies. For complex IA, custom blocks plus a classic theme structure remains the more reliable approach. We will recommend one or the other based on the work you actually need.

What's the typical cost and timeline?

Most bespoke themes run $25,000–$70,000 and 6–12 weeks depending on template count, content modelling complexity, and the depth of editor customization. Headless variants run $40,000–$120,000 and 10–18 weeks.

Do you build child themes?

Sometimes — when there is a strong reason to extend an existing parent (a procurement constraint or an enterprise theme licensed company-wide). Most of the time a bespoke theme is the better long-term answer; we will be honest if that's the case.

Will the theme work with our existing plugins?

Yes — the audit covers existing plugin compatibility. Where a plugin is dragging the site down, we propose a replacement or a custom alternative. The goal is a lean stack you can audit and a theme that does not have to fight it.

Who owns the theme code?

You do. All theme code is delivered into your repository under your license. There are no license keys, no phone-home checks, no perpetual royalties. Take it to another agency in five years if you want to.

WordPress themes

Bespoke WordPress themes — no parent themes, no boilerplate.

Hand-coded WordPress themes for brands that want a real design system on the front-end and a real content model in the back. Modern build pipeline, custom Gutenberg blocks, ACF Pro content fields, performance budgets, and a documented theme repo your team can extend.

Brief a theme build See themes in production

Build

From scratch — no Astra, no Avada

Pipeline

Vite or esbuild, PostCSS, Tailwind

Editor

Custom Gutenberg + ACF blocks

Stack

PHP 8.2+, modern WordPress APIs

What is WordPress theme development?

WordPress theme development is the practice of building a custom theme from scratch — PHP templates, ACF fields, custom blocks, theme.json tokens — instead of customizing a marketplace theme. Custom themes ship lighter, perform better, and stay maintainable for years.

Why bespoke themes

Premium themes are a thousand options for the site you don't have.

A bespoke theme ships only the components your brand actually uses, named the way your team thinks, with editor controls scoped to what writers and marketers should be able to change. Performance is better because there is no compatibility scaffold to load. Editing is better because the controls are designed around your content, not around a marketplace's lowest common denominator. The trade-off is that bespoke themes cost more upfront — and pay back across the years your team will live with them.

What we hear most

Reasons brands graduate from premium themes to bespoke ones.

Theme options panel hides the real settings

Marketing wants to swap a hero. They click through three options panels and still need a developer. The premium theme was built for sales conversions, not for the team running the site.

Performance regressions after every plugin update

The theme bundles assets globally. Page builders inject more. The CSS bundle is 800KB and growing. Lighthouse scores keep slipping despite no real content changes.

Brand fidelity is a compromise

The site approximates the design system. It cannot quite hit the spacing, type, or motion the brand actually uses. Every page is a small concession.

Editor experience is hostile

Out-of-the-box Gutenberg ships dozens of blocks the team will never use and zero of the bespoke ones they need. The theme does not extend it; it just wraps it.

Multilingual and multisite are roadmap items

The premium theme plays badly with WPML at scale. It assumes a single locale. The bespoke theme should be built around the multilingual model from day one.

Code you cannot audit

License keys phone home. Functions live in a vendored framework you cannot patch. Every change is a fight with someone else's architecture.

What we deliver

What ships in a Haxtiv WordPress theme.

A complete, documented theme system — front-end, editor experience, and the build infrastructure underneath.

Front-end

Hand-coded PHP theme with no parent dependency
Modern asset pipeline (Vite or esbuild) with HMR in dev
Tailwind or vanilla CSS with documented design tokens
Component library scoped to your design system
Brand consistency across the unloved corners (404, search, archive)

Editor experience

Custom Gutenberg blocks for hero, callout, pull quote, CTA, gallery
ACF Pro field groups with named fields and validation
Block patterns for repeatable layouts
Editor styles that mirror the front-end
Documented editor conventions for the team

Performance

Critical CSS, font subsetting, lazy-loaded JS by default
Image policy with AVIF/WebP, srcset, fetchpriority, sizes
Performance budget enforced in the repo
LCP, CLS, INP targets verified per template
Real-user CWV monitoring for 30 days post-launch

SEO infrastructure

Schema (Organization, Article, FAQ, Service, BreadcrumbList) at template level
Canonical, hreflang, OG, Twitter meta correctly emitted
XML sitemap and robots.txt configured
Information-architecture-aware internal linking helpers
Programmatic redirect helpers for future content moves

Handover

Theme conventions documented in the repo
Loom-led editorial walkthroughs
Recorded developer handover for new joiners
30 days of post-launch support included
Optional retainer for theme extensions and new templates

Process

How this service runs end to end

The same six-step shape we use across every Haxtiv project — adapted to the specifics of this scope.

01
Discover
Audit, intent, and the part nobody is saying out loud
We open with a working session — not a deck. We pull analytics, crawl the existing site, audit the brand, and interview the people closest to revenue. We surface the friction inside the team, not just the friction on the screen.
02
Define
Sitemap, story, and the metrics that actually matter
We define the audience journeys, the commercial pages we are willing to defend, the SEO architecture, and the measurable outcomes. You get a shape of the project that survives feedback because it was built on evidence.
03
Design
Editorial system, art-directed, never templated
Type, grid, motion, and tone built as a system. We design the hero, the long pages, the unloved corners, and the empty states. Every screen looks like it belongs to the same studio. Nothing is parked for later.
04
Build
Production code your team can keep
WordPress, Shopify, or page builder — we build clean, accessible, performant, and documented. Component-led, naming you'll recognize next year, and a changelog your in-house team can read.
05
Launch
Migration without losing rankings or sleep
Pre-launch crawl, redirect map, schema and metadata cutover, performance baseline, and a launch playbook. We run the deploy with you, not at you.
06
Grow
Care plan, CRO sprints, and quiet improvements
We stay involved. Monthly performance reports, security and core updates, and CRO sprints that compound. The site gets better the longer you keep us.

What this looks like in production

Numbers we earn, not numbers we round up.

Sites shipped

across 27 countries

Studio hours

delivered since 2019

0.0x

Avg conversion lift

post-redesign clients

Client retention

into year two

In their words

Senior teams who chose us.

Haxtiv replatformed our marketing site without losing a single ranking. We saw organic leads up 38% inside the first quarter and the editorial team finally has a layout system they don't fight.

Mara Iglesias

VP Marketing · Lumenwave Health

Headless WordPress redesign

Our previous Shopify build was a Frankenstein of apps. The Haxtiv team simplified the stack, rebuilt the PDP and CRO patterns, and our store is faster and more profitable than it has ever been.

Daniel Korver

Founder · Northbound Goods

Shopify Plus rebuild

Frequently asked

Answers worth asking for.

Don't see the question you're holding? Send it to [email protected] and we'll answer the same day.

Yes — Bricks, Elementor, and Gutenberg play well alongside a bespoke theme. We commonly hand-code core templates and let marketing use a builder for landing pages. Define the lanes early; the result is a theme that is fast where it has to be and flexible where the team needs it to be.

Where to go next

Start here

Let's design a WordPress theme your team will be glad to live with.

30-minute call. We'll sketch the right shape, share a fair quote, and tell you the parts other agencies skip.

Book a 30-min call

Send a brief