Now is an ideal time to hire a WordPress developer, if not any kind of software developer and engineer overall. With massive layoffs ongoing and big tech companies restructuring their development teams, skilled WordPress developers are becoming available. This creates a buyer’s market for your business if you want to enhance your website.
This article will teach you how to hire an expert WordPress developer tailored for your needs, whether you’re hiring onshore, nearshore, or offshore.
What are the Salaries for WordPress Developers in 2025?
Salaries for WordPress developers vary based on project scope, developer experience, location, and the chosen employment type. In the U.S., according to ZipRecruiter, salaries for WordPress Developers range from $18,500 to $156,500 per year, with an average of $84,542.
| Hourly Range | HourlyAverage | Annual Range | Annually Average | |
| WordPress Developer | $8.89-$75.24 | $41 | $18,500-$156,000 | $84,542 |
That being said, by hiring developers Nearshore or Offshore, their costs might be reduced dramatically. Offshore developer rates are often 40–70% lower than onshore (U.S./Western Europe) rates. Nearshore rates are a bit higher than that, but their skill-to-ratio is also higher.
Factors to Consider When Hiring WordPress Developers
When you hire a WordPress developer, pay attention to the experience level of your candidate, the project they will be working on, the location, and the employment type.
1. Experience
The more experience a WordPress developer has, the more expensive they will be. No rocket science.
2. Project Scope
If the idea is just having a website, like a small blog, you don’t need a senior WordPress developer.
However, if you’re in e-commerce or your website needs custom features, you might want to hire a WordPress developer with more experience.
3. Location
Onshore will be the most expensive, but the more experienced WordPress developers are in the US or Europe. In fact, this is where most WordPress developers reside. A survey of WordPress developers from WP Offload Media showed that 52.5% were located in North America and 33.6% in Europe.
Next, we have Nearshore WordPress Developers. Nearshore developers are the best cost-benefit. They are as qualified as Onshore developers and are cheaper. That being said, with political instability, costs might rise.
Finally, offshore developers are less expensive, but they will be more difficult to vet due to distance, limited references, cultural differences, and many difficulties in evaluating the real experience of coders when they work remotely. While many companies complain about offshore abilities, the truth is that there are plenty of top-notch offshore developers! Outsourcing is rarely the best strategy, as outsourcing companies’ vetting might be compromised to quickly get a large number of developers in a B2B contract. The best way to find the best offshore developers is to headhunt them, as we do at DistantJob.
4. Employment Type
Freelancers
Freelancers are independent professionals available for specific tasks, project-based work, or ongoing minor updates. You can find them on large marketplaces like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, and People Per Hour, as well as specialized platforms such as Toptal, Codeable, Elementor Experts, and job boards like WordPress Jobs, Stack Overflow Careers, WPhired, and Remote OK.
When to employ Freelancers: Small, well-defined tasks, bug fixes, plugin installations, content updates, or one-off theme customizations. They offer flexibility for evolving projects and temporary tasks.
WordPress Development Agencies
WordPress Development Agencies are specialized firms that provide a comprehensive range of WordPress services, including strategy, design, development, deployment, and ongoing maintenance. They offer a team of professionals (developers, designers, project managers, QA specialists).
When to employ a WordPress Development Agency: Larger, more complex projects, enterprise-level solutions, custom e-commerce, and custom plugin or theme development. Ideal for businesses that prefer a more hands-off approach.
In-house/Full-time Developers
Hire a WordPress developer as a permanent employee for your company. This is usually the best idea for your company if your website is a crucial part of your business, for security reasons and from a business perspective. It’s not wise to let the heart of your business in the hands of other companies.
When to use an in-house developer: Businesses with continuous development needs, ongoing iterations, or when the website is central to business operations.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing allows you to hire pre-vetted WordPress developers through a managed partner who can work part-time, full-time, or as part of a dedicated team. Since you are not part of the vetting and hiring process, and you have a lack of direct employee ownership, the WordPress developer might not be a cultural fit. The developer remains the outsourcing partner’s employee, not yours, limiting your control over their work priorities, availability, and long-term commitment to your projects.
When to use Outsourcing: Businesses building complex sites on a budget, scaling operations quickly, or those lacking technical experience to manage build quality, speed, or security on their own.
Skills to Look For When Hiring WordPress Developers
Pay attention to the following hard skills while searching for WordPress Developers. They help you filter the hobbyists from the experienced developers. Don’t forget to check their soft skills as well.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
These are the bread and butter of web development and, therefore, WordPress development. One should know how to use HTML and CSS to structure webpages and JavaScript to make pages interactive and fast. For example, your WordPress developer can implement video and audio features with JavaScript. The good news is that most developers, not only WordPress ones, are familiar with these tools.
While you don’t need these to use WordPress, WordPress development is another story.
PHP
WordPress is written in PHP. That should be reason enough. PHP is open-source, easy to learn, and use. It can run on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Unix. It has a large community support and supports many databases. Finally, PHP is capable of handling varying levels of traffic and can be scaled to support large-scale applications and websites.
MySQL
WordPress utilizes MySQL as its primary DBMS to store and retrieve all website data, including posts, pages, comments, user information, settings, and other dynamic content.
WordPress Core and Plugin Architecture
Sorry for sounding obvious. However, there is a difference between knowing how to use a WP Admin panel and knowing how to use files like wp-config.php, wp-load.php, and others in the root directory. These files are responsible for bootstrapping WordPress, managing configurations, and loading the necessary components. And if truly needed, a WordPress Developer can write a custom plugin, which is different from just using plugins from others. It will only take more time.
REST API Architecture
APIs connect your WordPress site to a CRM, email marketing platform, or any other external system. Your future WordPress Developer will likely need to understand how to send and receive data via APIs, select the correct version, use authentication methods, and utilize the best pagination strategy.
Headless CMS Architecture
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just have a single back-end to post and update all your websites, social media, web and mobile apps, chatbots, voice assistants, and IoT devices? And having all your content delivered to it through APIs? Hire a WordPress developer to create an omnichannel communication!
WooCommerce
If you manage an e-commerce website, WooCommerce might already be familiar to you. WooCommerce is the most widely used e-commerce plugin for WordPress. A WordPress Developer who works on an e-commerce site must know it.
Hiring Process for WordPress Developers
Hiring a developer skilled in WordPress can be frustrating and time-consuming. Every WordPress Developer has a certain range of skills, from amateur to high-level engineer. To assess WordPress Developer skills, conduct a structured hiring process.
1. Search For WordPress Developers
Assuming you have already chosen the hiring model that suits you best, you can start the chase for your WordPress Developers.
Job postings attract candidates who might not be performing so well. Your best bet is to headhunt developers who are already working well in other companies, and outbid them. You can find them on platforms like Stack Overflow, GitHub, Smashing Magazine, Hackerrank, and GeekforGeeks.
But if you don’t want the very best, just a common WordPress Developer, you can find them on any freelancer platform.
2. Vet Them Thoroughly
While vetting WordPress developers, focus on skills assessment, communication evaluation, and cultural fit examination. Don’t focus on the resume, dig into their actual work on their portfolio (GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket).
3. Interview Your Candidates
Interviewing WordPress developers allows you to assess their technical skills, communication abilities, and overall suitability for your project. Here are some best practices for conducting effective interviews:
Preparation
- Clearly define the job requirements and responsibilities
- Develop a structured interview format with a consistent set of questions
- Review the candidate’s portfolio, work samples, and references
- Prepare technical assessments or coding challenges relevant to your project
Technical Evaluation
- Assess the candidate’s proficiency in core WordPress development skills (e.g., PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL)
- Evaluate their understanding of WordPress best practices, coding standards, and security measures
- Gauge their experience with custom theme and plugin development
- Inquire about their approach to performance optimization, scalability, and integration with third-party services
Soft Skills Assessment
- Evaluate their communication and collaboration abilities through scenario-based questions or role-playing exercises.
- Assess their problem-solving skills by presenting hypothetical challenges and observing their thought processes.
- Gauge their time management capabilities and ability to work under pressure.
Cultural Fit and Alignment
- Explore the candidate’s work style, values, and professional goals to ensure alignment with your organization’s culture and vision
- Discuss their approach to continuous learning and professional development
- Assess their enthusiasm for your project and their ability to contribute fresh ideas and perspectives
By conducting thorough interviews and assessments, you can gain valuable insights into a prospective WordPress developer’s technical abilities, soft skills, and overall fit for your project, increasing the chances of a successful hire.
4. Make your Job Offer
Over 70% of candidates research a company before applying, according to LinkedIn. If they don’t know much about your company, they might feel inclined to apply somewhere else.
Position your company as a good place to grow professionally and offer them your company’s benefits. Company benefits include an attractive compensation package, innovative training, career paths, and flexible work hours. It will make your company irresistible.
Conclusion
The key to a successful WordPress development project lies in finding the right cultural fit. This fit is hard to achieve by using outsourcing or freelancer platforms. Hiring a WordPress developer is usually expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.
We will headhunt a top WordPress developer in just two weeks and find a perfect fit for your company, with nearly half of the cost, and a three-month guarantee. Contact us now and hire a WordPress developer suitable for your business.
