WordPress web design: Companies, tutorials & tools I love

In my experience, WordPress makes it easy for pretty much anyone to make a website … but not everyone will be able to build a website that looks good while also helping them achieve their business goals.

Grow Your Business With HubSpot's Tools for WordPress Websites

While there‘s nothing wrong with building your own WordPress website (it’s what I've done for my own websites), sometimes you want a little help. Hiring an expert WordPress web design company can not just save you time, but also give you a better end product.

To help you decide which route to take, I’ve compiled a list of the best WordPress web design companies along with estimates of how much they cost. I’ve also included tutorials and WordPress web design tools so that you can learn more about WordPress web design for yourself.

Table of Contents

• Best WordPress Web Design Companies
• WordPress Web Design Pricing
• Learning WordPress Web Design
• WordPress Web Design Software

Best WordPress Web Design Companies

To give you some ideas of what quality WordPress web design companies look like, I curated a list of eight great options based on my own experience and customer reviews from the HubSpot Directory, G2, Reddit, and more.

These are not the only quality companies for WordPress web design, but they are some great options to get you started and give you an idea of what services and pricing you should expect if you choose to hire a company.

1. Torro Media

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I’m drawn to Torro Media, and not just because the agency has a clever catchphrase (the “matadors of marketing!”). Its WordPress web design work is top-notch.

Torro offers custom WordPress website development, but it doesn’t just stop there: It’s also a HubSpot Certified Partner, so the agency is adept at building business websites on the leading customer platform, HubSpot.

Torro also offers web hosting for all the WordPress sites it builds. So if you want your website design, development, and hosting all in one place, Torro is a great option.

My Favorite Website Built by Torro

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Kasada is a cybersecurity company that helps other companies protect their websites and apps from malicious bots.

I love how it has such a clean and minimal hero section, while also building in some really engaging colorful sections as I scroll down the page.

Beyond the design, the website also has tons of sub-pages for features, industries, use cases, and more. This shows that Torro can also handle setting up an optimized information architecture in addition to delivering on the design.

Finally, I love how Torro has managed to integrate two powerful tools — WordPress and HubSpot. The website itself is powered by WordPress, but Torro has also integrated HubSpot into Kasada's website (including the form above), so that Kasada can benefit from the HubSpot CRM and many associated tools.

Pro tip: If you build your website with WordPress, you can still tightly integrate HubSpot into your site by installing the free HubSpot WordPress plugin.

Pricing

If you want exact pricing information for your project, you'll need to reach out to Torro to request a quote.

However, on Torro's FAQ page, I found that most of the sites range from $25,000 on the low end to $100,000+ on the high end. The exact cost will depend on “requirements, functionality, number of pages/sitemap, multilingual capabilities, accessibility, and overall performance needs.”

If you do hire Torro to design and build your website, the agency requires a 50% deposit, 25% at the midway point when it starts development, and 25% when your website launches.

Specialties/Services

• WordPress and HubSpot web design and development
• WordPress hosting and maintenance
• Marketing automation
• SEO
• Custom UX prototypes
• Google Ads
• Social media marketing

2. Codeable

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Codeable is not a WordPress web design agency per se, but in my experience, it is one of the best spots to find expert help for your WordPress project.

It's a vetted marketplace of expert WordPress freelancers. Think of it kind of like Upwork or Freelancer.com, but only for WordPress and where all of the freelancers have been thoroughly vetted by Codeable.

In my own time working with WordPress, I‘ve always recommended Codeable to people who are willing to pay for high-quality work. If you want the cheapest place for WordPress web design, that’s not Codeable. But if you‘re willing to pay competitive rates for quality work, I think it’s a great option.

My Favorite Website Built By a Codeable Freelancer

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This WordPress website, built by Codeable freelancer Nikola Stulic of Liondev, really wowed me. It's for a unique glass lodge hotel located in Iceland, called Panorama Glass Lodge.

At first glance, the design itself is what drew my attention, as it evokes the feeling of being under the northern lights (which is where the lodge is).

Beyond the design, though, there‘s also a lot of more advanced functionality going on behind the scenes, which is another thing that stood out to me about this website. The website integrates with the lodge’s hotel booking system so that customers can book their stay directly from the website. It also has other important functionality, such as a booking availability calendar.

Finally, Nikola also integrated multilingual functionality into the website. I looked at the code and found out that he achieved this using the popular WPML plugin.

Pricing

What you pay for Codeable will depend on the specific freelancer that you choose to work with. However, you should expect rates to be in the range of $80-$120 per hour.

Basic, non-urgent websites could go for as little as ~$3,500, but more advanced projects could easily go over $10,000.

You can get a free estimate for your project before you commit to anything. There’s also a handy pricing guide where you can get an estimate based on complexity, urgency, and project scope.

Specialties/Services

• Custom WordPress development
• Design
• Theme development and customization
• Ecommerce development
• Troubleshooting
• Maintenance
• Plugin development
• Security and performance

3. SmartSites

Since its founding in 2011, SmartSites has built over 900 websites across several sectors, including education, automotive, and nonprofit organizations. This is a great WordPress web design company to work with if you value experience across a variety of industries.

When I looked at its portfolio, I was impressed by the breadth of industries that SmartSites has worked with. Basically, regardless of what type of website you want to build, SmartSites can probably help you get the job done.

SmartSites is a HubSpot Certified Partner with a 5-star review in our directory. It’s also a top-ranked web design agency by G2, Upcity, and BestFirms. Its clients have included Harvard University, car brands, doctors, plumbers, lawyers, nonprofits, and small businesses.

My Favorite Website Built By SmartSites

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With over 900+ client sites built, SmartSites has a lot of websites to choose from. After looking through the portfolio, I chose this WordPress website for Hudson Milestones, a New York/New Jersey-based nonprofit that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The site features a very clean design, which I think does a great job of quickly communicating Hudson Milestones's mission and explaining how the organization can help people in the community.

I also love how they've incorporated the New York City skyline into the design, as it really emphasizes the community that Hudson Milestones serves.

Pricing

SmartSites does not list pricing on its website because it prices each project based on the scope. It does offer a free consultation, after which you will receive a proposal with a flat fee. Clients pay 50% upfront and the rest when the website launches.

Specialties

• Home services
• Medical
• B2B
• Small business
• Automotive
• Legal
• Hospitality
• Nonprofit
• Retail
• Education
• Industrial
• Ongoing website support plans
• Beyond WordPress, SmartSites is an expert in HubSpot, Magento, and Shopify
• Web development

4. The Free Website Guys

As the name suggests, The Free Website Guys creates professional WordPress websites for free. Over time, they've created over 30,000 free WordPress websites for businesses in all different types of industries.

Of course, my first reaction when reading the “free” part was, “What’s the catch?”

Well, it turns out they’re able to build websites without charging because of the following:

• According to their website, they require clients to buy web hosting through their Bluehost affiliate link, which provides them with an affiliate commission.
• Each commission is probably $65-$100 based on Bluehost’s affiliate webpage. That is not enough to make The Free Website Guys’ work profitable. But their goal is to build connections with business owners who might hire them for larger projects later on, once they have more budget and resources.

The Free Website Guys specialize in building simple WordPress websites fast (no more than three weeks to completion). You just have to apply, and they say they accept two out of every five applicants.

What I also like about The Free Website guys is that they offer à la carte paid add-ons, including custom development (billed at $50/hour), business email account setup, lead magnet setup, and a monthly maintenance package.

My Favorite Website Built By The Free Website Guys

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Because of the pricing strategy, The Free Website Guys generally use more of a template-based approach to creating client sites. However, the websites that I looked at still look very professional and are more than good enough for most businesses.

While there are a lot of options to choose from, I like this design for Optimate, which helps connect businesses with remote workers.

The design is based on The Gem theme and is heavily based on The Gem‘s Start-Up Business importable demo site, but I still think the end product looks great. In my opinion, your website is a tool to help you achieve business success, so I don’t think there's anything wrong with building from a template as long as it works for your business.

Pricing

If you apply and get accepted, The Free Website Guys do not charge you to build a website based on one of its WordPress themes. They do have optional add-ons that come at a price, including custom development.

Specialties

• Solopreneurs
• Service providers
• Lead magnet setup
• App development
• Custom website
• Custom development work
• Monthly maintenance packages

5. htmlBurger

Founded in 2007, htmlBurger is a highly experienced professional in custom WordPress and HubSpot development.

Over time, htmlBurger has completed 6,000+ different WordPress projects, and they have a team of 60+ in-house WordPress experts ready to help you create your own WordPress website.

What’s unique about htmlBurger is that it offers a risk-free pilot run, where the agency will do hours of coding and let you test it out before deciding to commit to the full project scope. If you’re unhappy with the pilot, you get a full refund.

In addition to helping you build WordPress websites, htmlBurger can also help you build websites powered by HubSpot's website builder, or just generally integrate HubSpot into your WordPress website.

My Favorite Website Designed By htmlBurger

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I love this website example from Manuka Health because it shows off a unique WordPress implementation — headless WordPress.

Essentially, this means that you use the WordPress dashboard to manage your site on the backend. However, instead of using a WordPress theme to control the frontend, htmlBurger built its own custom frontend display and queries data from WordPress using the REST API.

While I know that might sound complex, the upshot is that you have a lot of flexibility for controlling the frontend design of your site and building in unique features, while still being able to manage all your content and data from the user-friendly WordPress dashboard.

Beyond the headless approach, I also just generally think that the design looks great and you can clearly tell that a lot of work went into the project.

If you want to see what htmlBurger can do with the HubSpot CMS, you can also check out the website for Lookback, which htmlBurger built on top of HubSpot.

Pricing

htmlBurger also offers an interactive, detailed pricing table. Adjust the parameters based on your unique needs, and you'll get an estimate. Then, you can contact htmlBurger for an exact quote.

Based on this pricing table, a WordPress website with low complexity, low urgency, and basic project scope starts at about $1,940, while a WordPress website with high complexity, high urgency, and advanced project scope will start at $12,240.

Specialties/Services

• WordPress and HubSpot web design and development
• Website maintenance
• Web app development
• Ecommerce websites
• Website redesigns
• Email template designs

6. Wholegrain Digital

Wholegrain Digital is a London-based WordPress agency with a unique emphasis on digital sustainability, which I think is an interesting selling point.

Essentially, this means that Wholegrain Digital doesn't just build you a WordPress website, but they can also find ways to make your website more efficient and environmentally sustainable.

They‘ve worked with a number of well-known clients, including UNICEF, Oxfam, and more. While you don’t need to be an environmental organization to work with them, I think this focus on sustainability is part of what makes Wholegrain Digital unique.

My Favorite Website Built By Wholegrain Digital

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Wholegrain Digital has built a lot of amazing websites, but one of my personal favorites is the one they did for Mixergy. Mixergy is a smart solution for storing and managing hot water for residential or commercial projects, which fits well with Wholegrain Digital's focus on sustainability.

I love the relaxing blue color scheme that they chose, along with the smooth shape dividers. The pages for individual solutions carry through this color scheme and do a great job of highlighting Mixery's offerings.

While the website is based on WordPress, I appreciated that Wholegrain Digital also put in special effort to integrate HubSpot into the site. Part of this HubSpot integration includes the HubSpot-powered contact form in the screenshot below.

Pricing

Wholegrain Digital does not publicly post its prices, so you'll need to reach out to them to get an estimate for your project.

However, I do know they're tilted more toward the enterprise side of things, so they might not be the best option for smaller projects.

Clutch.co says that Wholegrain Digital‘s most common project size is $10,000-$49,999, which matches what I’ve heard.

Specialties/Services

• WordPress development
• UI/UX design
• Web performance
• Digital sustainability and low-carbon website
• Digital marketing strategies
• WordPress maintenance
• HubSpot integration

7. PHRUTOS

PHRUTOS offers web design services for multiple platforms, including WordPress and HubSpot. This boutique agency specializes in creating websites for startups and other growing companies.

In addition to handling the actual WordPress development process, PHRUTOS can also help you with marketing automation and strategic branding, which I think are great services to integrate into the web development process.

If you build your website with branding and marketing automation in mind from day one, that's an excellent way to ensure that it helps you achieve your business goals.

My Favorite Website Built By PHRUTOS

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B2B SaaS company Koncert hired PHRUTOS to rebrand its UI for better user retention.

While this project isn‘t built with WordPress (it’s a React app), I do think it does a great job of showing how well PHRUTOS can handle all the little details of a web design project. The interface re-design not only looks great, but it also increased user retention by 5X.

Pricing

According to the HubSpot Solutions Directory, PHRUTOS works with budgets from $5,000 and up. However, it doesn‘t list exact pricing on its website, so you’ll need to book a free call to get a quote.

Specialties/Services

• B2B SaaS
• Custom web design for WordPress and HubSpot
• Web design
• Marketing workflows
• Integrated marketing campaigns
• Strategic branding

8. JSL Marketing & Web Design

JSL Marketing & Website Design aims to be a one-stop shop for a business's complete marketing and design needs. It offers a wide variety of services, including website design, SEO strategy and management, content marketing, and email marketing.

This Dallas-based agency specializes in creating responsive WordPress websites for small to mid-market businesses.

My Favorite Website Built By JSL Marketing & Web Design

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Marvis H Neptune is a young adult book series authored by Ron Boatwright. The series has a very whimsical, adventure-like feel, and I think that JSL has done a great job of capturing that feeling in the design of this WordPress website.

JSL knew its audience well and made the site dreamy, creative, and playful. A seagull takes flight across the screen, while a boat bobs in the waves. The agency took pre-existing artist illustrations and integrated them into the site, retaining the feel of paper in a digital format.

I enjoyed the interactivity of the website, including this ship where you can hover over each part to learn the terminology.

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What really impresses me is that all of this interactivity is still powered by WordPress. It really goes to show just how flexible WordPress can be when in the hands of an agency that knows what it's doing.

Pricing

Pricing depends on your website’s size and complexity, but JSL gives a ballpark estimate of $3,000-$30,000 on its website. For a custom quote, contact JSL Marketing & Web Design directly.

In terms of timeline, I found that JSL estimates around 3-6 weeks for a basic website, though that timeline could be longer for more complex projects.

Specialties/Services

• Custom web development
• Dedicated hosting
• Maintenance packages, including phone and email support
• Digital marketing
• SEO strategy
• Content marketing
• Branding
• Copywriting and photography
• Paid ads (PPC)
• Email marketing

WordPress Web Design Pricing

In my 10+ years of experience with WordPress, I‘ve noticed that there’s an absolutely massive range in WordPress web design pricing.

I think a big part of this is how popular and global WordPress is, which causes there to be a large number of clients and service providers in all global regions and at all price points.

I‘ll try to give you some hard numbers below, but I think it’s essential to note that there are a ton of variables that affect what a WordPress website costs, including the following:

• The type of service provider that you're working with (e.g., a freelancer versus an agency).
• The location of the service provider (a provider working out of Vietnam might offer lower prices than one working out of the USA).
• Whether the service provider is an “implementer” (building your site using pre-made themes and plugins) or creating a completely custom solution (coding a theme from scratch and maybe even building custom plugins).
• The type of site (small business, ecommerce, etc.).
• The number of pages on your site.
• Additional services, like SEO planning and content writing.
• The urgency of your project.

So — how much does a WordPress website design cost?

I want to break this into two different categories: lower-end, entry-level pricing, and more high-end custom development pricing.

Low-End WordPress Web Design/Implementation Pricing

As you saw when I shared The Free Website Guys above, very basic WordPress website designs could start for as little as zero or a few hundred dollars. At this low price point, you're not going to get a unique, from-the-ground-up design.

Instead, whoever is building your website will likely rely on some type of importable starter site. For example, themes like the popular Astra theme include hundreds of importable demo sites for various niches. Your website builder will then customize the design to match your business, though it will still be heavily based on the starting template.

Custom WordPress Web Design Pricing

If you want someone to actually design and build a unique website for your business, you're probably looking at around $2,000 minimum for a “standard” website from most reputable agencies.

Don't get me wrong — you can 100% find someone to build you a website for a cheaper price than that, and they might even do a good job. However, most established web design agencies that have been around for a long time are not going to work for less than that.

For more complex websites, such as a custom e-commerce implementation, projects could easily run $10,000+, or a lot more. I've seen some WooCommerce stores go over the $30,000 and $50,000 mark, though those were complex stores with unique functionality.

The best way to get a feeling for what your specific project might cost is to reach out to some agencies. They should be happy to give you a general quote before you make any commitment.

That way, you have a clearer understanding of how much you’ll actually be spending and can use pricing to narrow down agencies you’re deciding between.

During this evaluation phase, you can also ask agencies to submit a web design proposal. These proposals will clearly lay out the objective of your website design or redesign, costs, timeline, and any terms and conditions.

Here’s an example of the introduction to a WordPress website design proposal. You can also see the other sections included in the table of contents in the left sidebar.

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Learning WordPress Web Design

If you don’t have the budget or time to work with a WordPress web design company, I think that WordPress is easy enough to use that you can also consider designing your own WordPress website.

You can use pre-made themes and templates to start from a professional design foundation, but then you can customize everything to make it your own.

While you can get started immediately by browsing themes and plugins, I think that it's useful to have at least some WordPress web design knowledge before you get too far into building your site.

To make that happen, I'm going to share some excellent WordPress web design tutorials and resources for both beginners and developers alike.

WordPress Web Design Tutorials

While there are tons of great WordPress web design tutorials out there, here are some of my favorites to get you started:

1. How to Make a WordPress Site Look Professional, HubSpot

When opting to create a WordPress site yourself instead of hiring a professional, you might be concerned that it won’t look professional. I like this guide because it will teach you how to polish your web design to create a professional experience that puts your business's best foot forward.

It covers everything that you need to know, from choosing a theme to customizing your website footer and lots more.

2. The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Themes, HubSpot

If you‘re not a designer, I don’t recommend trying to build your own completely custom design from scratch. There's just too much that goes into quality web design to do everything yourself, unless you have a lot of experience.

The fix? Use a high-quality WordPress theme and then tweak its designs to make everything unique to your business. I like this guide because it doesn't just list quality themes, but it also shares tips for how to choose and use a theme.

3. WordPress Complete Website MasterClass, Udemy

When creating a WordPress website, there’s a lot to do: purchasing a domain, installing plugins, optimizing your content for SEO, setting up forms, and so much more.

This 6.5-hour class covers it all. You can go through the course from the beginning, or skip around to the parts you’re most interested in, like homepage design or establishing an ecommerce store.

Over 46,530 students have taken the course, and it has maintained excellent reviews.

4. Winning the Battle of Design & Function by Focusing on User Experience, WordPress.tv

If you‘re just getting started with WordPress web design, I think it’s easy to overly focus on “design” instead of usability and optimizing the user experience. Creating a “beautiful” design is important, but it should never take priority over optimizing the actual user experience of your site.

This WordCamp San Antonio talk from Chris Milton will teach you how to strike the right balance.

5. The Complete Guide to Full Site Editing, HubSpot

WordPress has undergone a lot of changes since the introduction of the Gutenberg editor, with one of the biggest recent changes being the launch of the new Site Editor experience. If you choose a WordPress theme that supports the Site Editor, you can design all of your theme templates using blocks, rather than needing custom code.

I think this can be really powerful when it comes to making WordPress web design accessible to non-developers. This guide will teach you everything that you need to know about using the Site Editor to design your theme templates.

6. WordPress: Custom Post Types and Taxonomies, LinkedIn Learning

If you want to get into building more advanced WordPress sites and truly leveraging its power as a full-service content management system, I think that it's essential to learn about custom post types and taxonomies.

WordPress ships with two built-in content types for “Posts” and “Pages,” along with “Category” and “Tag” taxonomies to organize those content types. However, you can also build your own custom content types and taxonomies, which unlocks a lot of flexibility.

For example, if you want to create a job board, you could create a “Job” post type that lets you easily add and organize jobs.

This course from LinkedIn Learning teaches you everything that you need to know about working with WordPress custom post types and taxonomies.

7. A beginner's guide to WordPress custom CSS, Liquid Web

As you get into more advanced WordPress design, learning how to utilize custom CSS can be really handy. While you can make a lot of design tweaks without custom code, sometimes custom CSS is the most straightforward route to get the job done.

I think that this guide from Liquid Web does a really good job of introducing the basics of CSS and explaining how to apply those principles to WordPress.

WordPress Web Design Software

One of the best things about WordPress is the number of plugins and tools available for WordPress web design. Whether you want to design your site from scratch using visual drag-and-drop design or enhance your existing design, you can find some great options.

Here are some of my favorite plugins to enhance your website’s design, whether you‘re building it from scratch or you’re working with an agency.

HubSpot WordPress Plugin

You can easily create forms, popups, and live chat using HubSpot’s WordPress plugin. This plugin also lets you adjust colors, stylings, and more to match your brand and provide a seamless experience for visitors.

If you pair it with one of the other plugins on this list, you can design a custom website and then integrate marketing tools that match that design.

Atarim

Atarim is not something you would use to design your own website, but it is something that can be really helpful when working on design projects with clients or agencies.

It enables easy design collaboration for WordPress projects. You and others can collaborate and leave comments directly on the live design and it also includes tons of other features for internal operations, production funnels, and more.

Elementor

Elementor is a page builder plugin that lets you create unique designs using a visual, drag-and-drop builder. You can use it to design individual pieces of content or, with the Pro version, you can design your WordPress theme templates using the same builder.

It‘s one of the most popular WordPress design plugins, and I think it’s one of the top options for non-technical people who want to add a visual, drag-and-drop design experience to WordPress.

To learn more, check out our beginner's guide to using Elementor.

Bricks

Bricks is a visual site builder for WordPress that offers more of a “Webflow-esque” design experience for WordPress. That is, it sticks more closely to “real” CSS and HTML and can be a good option for users who are already familiar with those languages.

It lets you do everything from a visual, drag-and-drop interface, but you can still dig into the actual code if you want to tweak something.

CSS Hero

If you truly want full control over the design of your website, CSS will let you make literally any change that you could think of. However, if you're not a coder, working directly with custom CSS can be difficult.

The CSS Hero plugin solves that pain point by giving you a visual interface that lets you make your own CSS tweaks. When you're finished, you can leave the plugin active, or you can export your custom CSS code, add it to your site, and then deactivate the CSS Hero plugin.

Oxygen

Like Bricks, Oxygen is another visual WordPress site builder that lets you design your entire theme using drag-and-drop design. It sticks closely to “real” HTML and CSS concepts, which I think can make it a good option if you're a more advanced user who is mainly looking for a visual builder to speed up your workflows.

Ready to design your WordPress website?

In my experience, the WordPress web design process is entirely what you make it.

If you‘re on a tight budget, you can choose a WordPress theme with a large starter site library and just tweak it to your needs. Personally, this is what I’ve done for all of my own WordPress sites, and it's worked out just fine.

On the other hand, if you want to invest in a truly unique WordPress website for your business, there are tons of companies that can help you get the job done, at pretty much all different price points.

Regardless of which approach you choose, I highly recommend learning at least the basics of WordPress web design for yourself. That way, you can take the initiative and make small tweaks without needing to wait for outside help.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.