Is WordPress Development a Good Career? Honest Answers for 2025

People are still building websites like crazy in 2025. If you know your way around WordPress, there’s no shortage of folks—including small businesses, bloggers, coaches, and even big companies—looking for someone who can help them out. The cool part? You don’t need to have a fancy computer science degree to get started. In fact, lots of top developers taught themselves with YouTube, free tutorials, and some good old-fashioned trial and error.

WordPress isn’t just about making a blog look nice. A developer creates custom themes and plugins, fixes weird errors, keeps websites safe, and sometimes handles everything from SEO setups to troubleshooting why images suddenly look like potatoes. Even my dog Thor has watched me curse at a broken plugin more than once. It’s a hands-on job with real skills that businesses actually need.

• Demand and Job Market
• Skill Set and Learning Curve
• Freelance Opportunities vs. Agencies
• Income Expectations
• Tips for Getting Started

Demand and Job Market

There’s no sugar-coating it: WordPress career prospects are still booming in 2025. WordPress runs around 43% of all websites—that’s millions of sites needing tweaks, fixes, new features, or someone to stop hackers from poking around. New businesses want a site up fast, bloggers want better SEO, and online stores can’t risk downtime. Someone needs to do this work, and most aren’t going to code a site from scratch.

If you scan job boards like Indeed or LinkedIn, you’ll notice hundreds of openings for roles like “WordPress Developer,” “WordPress Specialist,” or even “Website Maintenance.” Agencies and solo clients are constantly recruiting. Even on freelancing platforms like Upwork or Fiverr, WordPress projects are some of the most popular categories. You can find everything from quick $50 gigs (like fixing a theme bug) to multi-thousand dollar full site builds.

Web development keeps evolving, but WordPress isn’t fading away. New tools and page-builders pop up, but most end-users still want something they can easily manage after the developer leaves. That’s why WordPress stays in demand—it’s user-friendly for clients, customizable for devs, and affordable for businesses.

One tip: larger agencies and established companies do look for developers who know more than just basic WordPress. If you have experience with things like WooCommerce or can handle security and speed optimization, you stand out in the job market. But even for beginners, there’s plenty of work if you’re willing to hustle and keep learning.

Skill Set and Learning Curve

Jumping into a WordPress career doesn’t mean you have to be a code wizard from day one. You can start small and level up as you go. At first, you’ll want to get comfortable with the WordPress dashboard—know how to install themes, use plugins, and publish content. Swap between the visual editor and code view to see what’s really going on behind the scenes.

The basics you absolutely need:

• HTML and CSS: These are building blocks. Even non-coders can pick up enough to fix formatting issues or tweak how a website looks.
• PHP: WordPress runs on PHP, so you’ll eventually need to understand how it all clicks together for themes and plugins.
• JavaScript: More and more themes and plugins rely on JavaScript, especially for fancy effects and interactive stuff.
• Basic SEO: A site is useless if nobody finds it. Know how to set up meta tags, sitemaps, and install SEO plugins.
• Security best practices: Hackers love outdated WordPress sites. Knowing which plugins are risky and keeping everything updated is a must.

Most folks get the hang of WordPress basics within a few weeks. It takes longer to master PHP and make killer custom plugins, though. You’ll find endless resources online, from WordPress’s own official guides to lively forums and free video courses. Actual projects are the best way to learn—the first site will take you hours, but by the time you’re on your tenth, you’ll blaze through the setup.

If you’re really into stats, here’s what a recent Stack Overflow survey (2024) showed about commonly used technologies among web development pros:

Don’t get overwhelmed by that jump. Nobody knows everything starting out. Set up a practice site, break things, and fix them. That’s how you figure it out, step by step.

Freelance Opportunities vs. Agencies

When it comes to a WordPress career, you’ll eventually hit a fork in the road: do you go freelance, or join an agency? Both paths have their own perks and headaches.

Freelancers get a lot of flexibility. You pick your clients, your hours, and even your rates. If you want to work from your couch in pajamas with your cat Luna on your lap, freelancing makes that possible. There’s no boss breathing down your neck, but there’s also no steady paycheck guaranteed. The most successful freelancers I know keep their pipeline full by staying active on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and even LinkedIn. Popular facts show that as of 2025, over 35% of WordPress developers work freelance in some capacity, mixing regular clients with one-off gigs.

Agencies, on the other hand, swap some of that freedom for stability. Full-time WordPress development jobs at agencies usually mean consistent income, benefits, and a team to bounce ideas with (or vent when a plugin update ruins everything). Agencies often handle bigger, longer-term projects that can help grow your portfolio fast.

Here’s a quick rundown of the biggest differences:

• Freelance: Freedom; choose clients and hours; income can be wild, especially when starting out; you handle your own taxes and benefits.
• Agency: Steady salary; benefits like health insurance and vacation; less control over projects; usually work regular hours in a team.

Many developers hop between the two. It’s not unusual to start in an agency, stack some experience, then go solo—or the other way around. Either way, WordPress opens doors in both worlds, and you can switch paths as your life changes. It’s all about figuring out what works best for you right now.

Income Expectations

If you’re eyeing a career as a WordPress developer, let’s talk real numbers. The average base salary for a full-time WordPress developer in the U.S. in early 2025 ranges from $60,000 to $95,000 per year. Junior developers, or those just getting started, typically see offers between $45,000 and $65,000. More experienced folks, especially those who can handle both backend and frontend work, can easily break six figures.

Freelancers or those in the gig economy dance to a different tune. Instead of a steady paycheck, you’re looking at hourly rates or project fees. Most WordPress freelancers charge between $30 and $100 per hour, depending on skill, experience, and the project’s complexity. Building a simple website for a local café? That might run $800 to $1,500. A full-featured ecommerce shop or custom theme? It’s not unusual to invoice $5,000 or even $10,000 for a large job.

Your actual take-home depends on location, how specialized your skills are (custom plugins are gold), and whether you’re working solo or with an agency. Developers in U.S. tech hubs or remote gigs for international clients tend to earn more. If you learn extra skills like performance optimization or SEO, you can ask for higher rates.

Of course, being your own boss comes with extra stuff: finding clients, handling taxes, and juggling multiple gigs. But you control your schedule and income ceiling. The more you build your portfolio and good client reviews, the more you can charge. It’s not just about coding skills, but also about delivering a great experience for your clients. That’s where a lot of repeat business and referrals come from.

Tips for Getting Started

If you want to jump into a WordPress career, you don’t need to wait for permission or a fancy diploma. There’s a clear path people follow, and most of it is straightforward. Here’s how to set yourself up the right way:

• Learn the basics first. Free tutorials on YouTube and WordPress.org will get you up to speed on installing WordPress, picking themes, and managing plugins. Try to build your first site for fun—even if it’s for your cat or dog. My first demo site was a blog for Luna, my cat, and it taught me a ton.
• Get comfortable with HTML, CSS, and some PHP. You don’t need to be a coding wizard, but the more you know, the better. Most trouble spots in WordPress are code-related, so even basic skills pay off. WordPress runs on PHP, and sites like W3Schools and Codecademy have bite-sized lessons for free.
• Start building a small portfolio. Make demo sites or offer to build a website for a friend or a local business at a discount. Take screenshots and write up what you did. Clients want proof you can deliver, not just promises.
• Join the WordPress community. Seriously, this is a shortcut to learning fast. Forums like WordPress.org, Facebook groups, and even subreddits like r/WordPress are full of people sharing tips, answering questions, and posting job openings. You can find real answers, not just theory.
• Practice real-world problem-solving. Don’t be afraid to break things—it’s how you really learn. Try adding plugins, changing settings, or fixing intentional errors. That’s how you’ll get good at troubleshooting, which is a huge part of the job.

Want to know what skills employers look for in WordPress jobs? Here’s what usually pops up in job listings:

If you can check off even a couple of those, you’re further along than you think. Also, take a look at popular freelancing sites like Upwork and Fiverr—lots of people hire beginners for basic tasks like updating plugins or fixing broken layouts.

And one last thing: always mess around with a backup site, not a live one. The last thing you want is to wreck your only client’s homepage—trust me, that’s a lesson I learned early on.