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Service Dedicated dev
A dedicated WordPress developer, embedded with your team.
Same developer every sprint. Full stack WordPress engineering. Backed by a senior agency for the spikes. Billed monthly with no surprise overages.
WordPress agency since 2013, retainers are scope-dependent
Why dedicated
Hiring a WordPress developer takes six months. You need code shipped this quarter.
In-house WordPress hires are slow to recruit, expensive to retain, and often narrow in scope. Freelancers ship fast but vanish at the worst moments and cannot cover the full stack. Project-based agencies ship features and walk away, leaving your team to maintain them.
A dedicated developer from us splits the difference. You get a single engineer embedded with your team, working to your sprint cadence, backed by a senior agency for the spikes, with code quality held to standards higher than most in-house WordPress hires would meet.
A sprint in flight
What your dedicated dev is shipping this week.
A live snapshot of the work queue we run for retained customers. Three tickets in flight, a pending backlog, throughput tracked daily. Scroll up and back down to replay.
acme.community active BuddyPress group activity throttle
WooCommerce subscription email override
- #484 · Add 2FA to admin login security
- #485 · Migrate page builders to FSE refactor
- #486 · Custom Stripe webhook handler payments
- #487 · GDPR data export endpoint compliance
- Same engineer every sprint · context compounds, not resets
- Senior backup · vacations and sick days do not stop your roadmap
- Friday status · written, with what shipped, what is blocked, what is next
What you get
A developer your team treats like a hire, billed like a vendor.
Embedded in your sprint cycle. Backed by a senior team. Full WordPress stack covered. Same developer every sprint with backup coverage. Code quality enforced. Predictable monthly billing.
01
Embedded with your team
Your dedicated developer joins your standups, your Slack channels, your Jira or Linear board, your code review process. They work to your sprint cadence, not ours. They feel like a hire, not a vendor.
Velocity matches an in-house developer from week one.
02
Backed by the full agency
When the dedicated developer hits something outside their depth (Laravel infrastructure, Astro frontend, security incident, performance crisis), the rest of the agency steps in for the spike, then steps back out.
You get one developer plus a senior team behind them.
03
WordPress, WooCommerce, BuddyPress, blocks, REST
Full stack WordPress engineering. Custom plugin development, theme work, REST API, Gutenberg blocks, WooCommerce extensions, BuddyPress components. The full surface area, not a narrow specialty.
No "we need a different developer for that" surprises.
04
Same developer, every sprint
No swapping developers between sprints. Context stays. The developer who shipped the feature is the developer who fixes the bug. Vacation cover provided through a designated backup who already knows your codebase.
No knowledge loss between sprints.
05
Code review against agency standards
Every PR reviewed against the same WPCS, PHPStan, and security standards we apply to our own plugins. Code quality stays high even when sprint pressure is high. Your codebase does not degrade over time.
Tech debt growth slowed measurably.
06
Transparent monthly billing
Fixed monthly fee for fixed monthly hours. No surprise overages. Time tracked and reported weekly. Hours rolled forward up to one month if not used. Easy to scale up or down with notice.
Predictable budget, no contract gymnastics.
13 years
of WordPress agency experience behind every dedicated developer
Senior team available for spikes. Production proof across 100+ shipped plugins.
Engagement options
Three rates, picked for project intensity.
Scoped
Half-time
80 hours per month. Right for ongoing maintenance plus small features. Same developer, same backup coverage, same code review standards.
Right for steady-state development.
Scoped
Full-time
160 hours per month. Right for active product development with a real sprint cadence. Embedded in your standups, your Slack, your code review.
Right for product work in active development.
Scoped
Senior + lead
Senior developer with architecture experience, half-time or full-time. Right when you need someone who can lead technical decisions, not just ship features.
Right when you also need engineering leadership.
Common questions
Frequently asked
-
How is this different from hiring a freelancer?
Three things. The developer is backed by a senior team for the spikes a freelancer cannot cover. There is a designated backup so vacation does not stop your sprint. And code quality is enforced against agency standards, not whatever the freelancer happened to learn. You also get a real entity to bill, not a personal invoice.
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How is this different from your retainer service?
The maintenance retainer is hands-off operations (updates, backups, security, performance). The dedicated developer is hands-on engineering on your sprint board. Different scopes, sometimes both make sense for the same client.
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What hours do dedicated developers work?
Default is 4 to 8 hours of overlap with your team timezone, with the remaining hours flexible. Most US and EU clients land on 4 hours overlap (US morning or EU afternoon), with the rest of the day in deep work mode. Full timezone alignment available for a higher rate.
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How do I evaluate the developer before committing?
Two-week paid trial. We assign a developer matching your stack, you set them a representative task, you decide whether to continue. If the match is wrong, we propose a different developer or refund the trial. Most engagements continue past the trial.
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What if my project finishes or shrinks?
30 days notice to scale down or pause. We do not lock you into multi-year commitments. Most clients flex hours up and down across sprints based on what is in flight. Long-term clients usually settle into a steady rate after the first three months.
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What does it cost?
Standard rate is on request for 80 hours (half-time) or on request for 160 hours (full-time). Senior developers (lead engineer level, architecture experience) are scoped per project half-time. Two-week paid trial available. Discovery call is free.
Ready to add a WordPress developer to your team?
Tell us what you want to build.
Discovery call is free. Two-week paid trial available. Engagements are scope-dependent.