Best WordPress agencies & developers
desk research from public sources- Seven UK agencies that build or run WordPress websites, ordered by how closely their work fits a WordPress buyer and how much of it they can show.
- Illustrate Digital leads for regulated organisations with a large budget. Atomic Smash is the pick if you already have a site and want it improved month by month.
- Toast Design publishes the most usable price list here, with WordPress builds from £2,500. Framework Design and Studio 24 publish no prices at all.
- Choose by situation: Studio 24 for accessible public sector work, Opace for a monthly-fee site, Solve if you want SEO in the same contract.
| Rank | Agency | Best for | Why we picked it | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illustrate Digital | Regulated sectors needing UX research and WordPress | WordPress and UX research for regulated sectors, with results it can show | From £40,000 per build |
| 2 | Atomic Smash | Monthly improvement retainers for existing sites | Planned monthly improvement of an existing WordPress site, at published prices | From £950 per month + VAT |
| 3 | Toast Design | Small and mid-sized organisations wanting priced WordPress and brand work | The most complete WordPress price list on this page | Base rate £60 an hour; WordPress builds from £2,500 |
| 4 | Opace | Pay-monthly sites and full-service ecommerce SEO | A WordPress site on a monthly fee, with SEO from the same team | Pay monthly websites from £50 per month |
| 5 | Solve | Web and SEO with published prices | Web and SEO bought together, with published SEO prices | From £599 + VAT per month (SEO care package) |
| 6 | Framework Design | Brand-led website builds for sport, gaming and media clients | Brand-led builds with an Awwwards-recognised visual finish | Not published |
| 7 | Studio 24 | Public sector and charity bodies needing accessible sites or web apps, buyable through frameworks | Accessible WordPress sites for public bodies buying through frameworks | Not published |
Prices checked October 2026. Estimates say so in the price itself. How we choose agencies: our method.
How we picked these
We started with UK agencies that build, redesign or maintain WordPress websites as a core service, show named client work and have a company we could check. Plain WordPress, WooCommerce and custom WordPress development all counted. Every agency here lists WordPress among its platforms on its own site.
The order follows fit first: how central WordPress is to what the agency sells, and whether its clients look like a typical WordPress buyer. After that we looked at what each agency can show, meaning case studies with measured results, published prices, a named team and stated support terms. This is desk research from public sources only, and we have not watched any of these agencies run a project. More on how we choose agencies.
1. Illustrate Digital
Illustrate Digital is a Cardiff WordPress and UX agency of about 17 people, with Bristol and London offices. It works mainly for banks, insurers, law firms and Welsh public bodies.
What they do best
- Regulated-sector work you can check. Its 25 case studies include Admiral, GoCompare, Burges Salmon and Welsh Government services.
- Results with a baseline. Foot Anstey rose 146 places to first in the Legal Digital 200 site-speed ranking after its rebuild, and Pepper Money cut deployment time by 83%.
- A stated way of working. It publishes a six-step project method and a named team, and delivers under ISO 27001 certification.
Where they fall short
- A high entry price. It sets a £40,000 minimum for a full design and build, the highest published floor on this page.
- Small projects are out of scope. UX-only work starts at £5,000 and retainers at £3,000 a month, so a small business brochure site is not what it sells.
2. Atomic Smash
Atomic Smash is a Bristol WordPress, WooCommerce and Shopify agency of about 11 people, a Certified B Corp since 2023. It takes over existing sites and improves them on monthly packages.
What they do best
- Published monthly packages. Support starts at £950 per month + VAT, and the Always Evolving plan at £3,800 + VAT lists exactly what the days buy.
- Measured gains on rebuilt sites. ForrestBrown’s average performance score rose 61% after launch with bounce rate down 58%, and Elizabeth Shaw reports average order value up 20%.
- Clear account cover. Each client gets a pod led by a Client Partner, with weekly or fortnightly status calls and a one-hour support response in office hours.
Where they fall short
- No new builds. Its WordPress page states that it does not build new websites, so a from-scratch site means hiring someone else first.
- Unconfirmed awards. Its site mentions award wins that we could not find on an organiser’s list.
3. Toast Design
Toast Design is a Banbury design agency of about 15 people, in business since 1997. It builds WordPress sites and produces branding, packaging and report design for small and mid-sized organisations, many in food and drink and the charity sector.
What they do best
- A full price list. WordPress design and build starts at £2,500, custom WordPress development at £3,500 and WooCommerce at £4,000, with a £60 an hour base rate.
- Fixed-scope quotes. Projects are quoted at a fixed cost against a fixed scope, and hosting and support plans start at £35 a month.
- Direct contact with the makers. Clients work with designers and developers, with no account managers, and 95% of support tickets are answered within two business hours.
Where they fall short
- No measured results. Its 133 portfolio pages describe the work but give no outcomes, so you cannot judge impact from the site alone.
- No published process. There is no step-by-step account of how a project runs.
4. Opace
Opace is a Birmingham digital agency of about seven named people, trading since 2008. It builds on WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Drupal, Umbraco and Laravel, and adds SEO, PPC and AI search work.
What they do best
- A low monthly entry point. Pay-monthly websites start at £50 per month.
- Ecommerce with SEO in-house. The Shedstore case study reports 500 page-one rankings and 45% organic visibility growth.
- One accountable contact. The about page names seven team members with roles and promises a single point of accountability.
Where they fall short
- Results without context. Case study figures carry no baseline or time window.
- Thin published terms. No design or SEO price list was visible on the rendered pages, and no meeting cadence or support terms are stated.
5. Solve
Solve is a Newquay agency run since 1998 and certified as a B Corp. It covers web design, ecommerce, branding, SEO, AI search and paid media, with WordPress as its listed platform.
What they do best
- Published SEO prices. An SEO audit starts at £595 + VAT and monthly SEO at £599 + VAT.
- A phased SEO process. The SEO method is set out in stages on its packages page.
- Named client results. Padstow Sealife Safaris reports 292% organic traffic growth in 12 months, alongside clients such as Headland Hotel and Weetwood Ales.
Where they fall short
- No baselines. Results quote percentage gains and time windows but no starting figures, so the size of each gain is unclear.
- No build prices or support terms. Its published prices cover SEO only, and we found no stated meeting cadence.
6. Framework Design
Framework Design is a Nottingham branding and web agency of about 15 people, founded in 2015. It builds WordPress, WooCommerce, Laravel, Statamic and headless Next.js sites for clients such as the FA Women’s Leagues, Netball Super League, Team17 and National Gas.
What they do best
- Recognised visual work. Awwwards lists an Honorable Mention (2023) for its Tokenate site on the organiser’s own profile.
- A deep sport and gaming portfolio. The case-study archive runs to five pages.
- Direct access to the team. The about page names 15 people, says clients deal with them directly, and sets out a six-step process.
Where they fall short
- No prices. Nothing is published, so you cannot size a budget before a call.
- No measured results. Its case studies describe the build and quote client praise, but none gives a figure.
7. Studio 24
Studio 24 is a Cambridge digital agency, in business since 1999, with a London office at King’s Cross. It builds accessible websites and web apps in WordPress, Craft CMS, Laravel and Symfony for public sector, charity and arts clients.
What they do best
- Award-recognised accessibility. The GAAD Foundation lists its W3C website redesign as a 2023 Gaady winner.
- Framework buying. It is listed on G-Cloud 15 and DOS 7, which public bodies can buy through directly.
- Large public clients. Its 17 case studies cover W3C, Crossrail, HS2, UKHSA, RNIB and the Welsh Parliament, and the UKHSA build was delivered in 5 weeks with a 99.99% uptime SLA.
Where they fall short
- No prices. A buyer outside the public frameworks cannot size a budget before contact.
- Few before and after figures. Most case studies describe outcomes without measured results.
Which one fits your project
| If you are | Pick | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A bank, insurer or law firm with a large budget | Illustrate Digital | Regulated-sector portfolio, UX research and a published £40,000 floor |
| A marketing team with a stable site to improve | Atomic Smash | Published monthly packages and a named Client Partner on each account |
| A small organisation wanting a priced WordPress build | Toast Design | Full price list and fixed-scope quoting |
| A small firm wanting a monthly-fee site | Opace | Pay-monthly websites from £50 per month |
| A business buying web and SEO together | Solve | SEO audit and monthly packages with published prices |
| A brand-led organisation in sport or gaming | Framework Design | Awwwards recognition and brand-focused builds |
| A public sector or charity body buying through frameworks | Studio 24 | G-Cloud 15 and DOS 7 listing, plus accessibility awards |
What a WordPress website actually costs
The headline number on an agency site covers the build. Several things sit outside it, and you should ask whether each is included:
- Hosting and security. Toast Design lists hosting and support plans from £35 and £60 a month on top of a build, so the launch price is not the yearly cost.
- Maintenance. Plugin updates, backups and fixes are usually a monthly line. Atomic Smash starts at £950 per month + VAT for this alone.
- Content and copy. Agencies that build from a design usually expect you to supply the words, unless copywriting is quoted separately.
- Integrations. CRM, booking and payment connections are scoped separately from the theme build.
- Accessibility and compliance work. Public sector buyers should confirm testing against WCAG is priced in.
Published floors on this page run from £50 per month to £40,000 for a full build. As a rough guide (our estimate), a brochure site from a small agency costs a few thousand pounds, a custom build from a mid-sized studio runs from about £15,000, and regulated-sector work starts higher. Framework Design and Studio 24 publish no price, so any figure for them is a quote you have to ask for.
FAQ
Published floors on this page range widely. Toast Design lists WordPress builds from £2,500, Opace has pay-monthly websites from £50 per month, and Illustrate Digital sets a £40,000 minimum for a full design and build (all checked October 2026). Framework Design and Studio 24 publish nothing, so budget by asking for a fixed-scope quote.
A freelance WordPress developer usually covers build work alone. An agency adds design, UX, project management and support under one contract. Among the agencies here that state a team size, it runs from about 7 to 17 people, which matters if you need cover for holidays and handover.
Yes. Atomic Smash is built around taking over and improving existing sites on monthly packages. Others, such as Toast Design, offer maintenance and audits. Ask any agency for a site audit before agreeing a retainer.
Check for case studies with a baseline and time window, a named team, a published price or minimum budget, and clear support terms. Most agencies on this page publish some of these.