Plugins built for exactly what you need.
Custom WordPress plugins, REST API endpoints and admin tools, built when off-the-shelf options fall short. Coded to standards, tested, and built to survive a WordPress update.
The problem
When the plugin directory runs out of road.
The WordPress plugin directory has an answer for almost everything, until your workflow is specific enough that no answer quite fits. You end up running three plugins stitched together with a fourth one to make them talk to each other, each with its own settings screen, its own update schedule and its own chance of breaking something else on your site.
Or you’re stuck with one commercial plugin doing 80 percent of what you need, and the missing 20 percent happens to be the part that actually matters to your business, the part your team works around with a spreadsheet or a manual step every single day.
That’s where a purpose-built plugin earns its cost. One piece of code that does exactly what your process needs, with none of the settings, upsells or unused features you’re paying for in a general-purpose plugin built for ten thousand different businesses at once.
It’s also where a lot of custom plugin projects go wrong. Built quickly, without much thought for what happens when WordPress updates, they turn into the very fragility they were meant to fix. The difference is in how the plugin is built, not just what it does.
What you get
What’s included in a plugin build.
Custom post types and fields
Content built around what your business runs day to day. Properties, bookings, case studies, or a product list with fields no off-the-shelf plugin covers.
REST API endpoints
Custom endpoints that connect WordPress to an app, a partner system or your own tools, with proper checks on who can call them and what they send.
Admin tooling
Purpose-built screens in the WordPress admin, so your team manages the data that matters to them, not a generic screen built for someone else’s business.
Integrations
Links to CRMs, payment providers, booking systems and ERPs, using each system’s own API rather than fragile workarounds that break on the next update.
Coding standards and tests
Code written to WordPress coding standards, with tests for the logic that matters, so a future update doesn’t quietly break something nobody noticed.
Documentation
A short, plain write-up of what the plugin does and how it’s put together, so any developer, including one we’ve never met, can pick it up fast.
Process
How a plugin build runs.
Scope the workflow
We map what the plugin needs to do, what data it touches, and which systems it talks to. That becomes a written spec before any code gets written.
Build against the spec
The plugin gets built to that agreed scope, and a developer checks every part against it before anything ships.
Test
We test the plugin’s logic, then how it behaves inside a real WordPress site, next to the other plugins and theme your site already runs.
Launch and handover
The plugin goes live with a short write-up, so your team or any future developer knows what it does and how it’s built.
Why Maku
Build versus buy, decided honestly.
We’d rather tell you a $50 plugin solves your problem than sell you a custom build you don’t need. When a custom plugin genuinely is the right call, here’s what you get from us specifically.
- Code written to WordPress coding standards, not a quick script that happens to work today.
- Boilerplate and first-pass tests are AI-drafted, so the billable hours go into the logic that is specific to your business.
- Plugins built to extend systems you already rely on, like WooCommerce or your CRM, rather than replace them unnecessarily.
- If the project is more about the design and theme than custom logic, see our theme development page, or our custom development page for a full build.
Existing plugins
Inherited a plugin you don’t trust?
A lot of plugin work isn’t a build from scratch, it’s a rescue. Code written by a freelancer who’s since moved on, a developer who left no documentation, or a plugin nobody’s dared touch since it started throwing errors on every update. We’ll review it honestly: what’s solid and worth keeping, what’s held together with workarounds, and what should be rebuilt properly rather than patched again. Sometimes that review alone is enough to plan a sensible fix instead of a full rebuild.
Should we build a custom plugin or buy one off the shelf?
If a well-reviewed plugin already does the job, buy it. A custom build makes sense once your workflow is too specific for an off-the-shelf plugin, or once you’re running three plugins just to do the job of one.
Will a custom plugin break when WordPress updates?
Not if it’s built the right way. We code against WordPress’s public hooks and functions, not hidden internals, and we test against the core and PHP versions you actually run. That’s most of what keeps a plugin working after an update.
Do you maintain the plugin after you build it?
We can. Ongoing plugin support usually sits inside a maintenance plan. Updates, update checks and small changes are covered, rather than billed one-off every time something needs a fix.
Can you fix or take over a plugin someone else built?
Yes. We often take over plugins built by a past developer or a freelancer who’s moved on. We’ll review the code honestly, tell you what’s worth keeping, and fix or rebuild the rest.
Can you extend a commercial plugin instead of replacing it?
Often, yes. Plugins like WooCommerce, Gravity Forms and ACF are built to be extended through hooks and their own tools. We’d rather add to a solid plugin you already use than rip it out and start again.
What kind of integrations do you build?
CRMs, payment gateways, booking and scheduling tools, ERPs, custom REST endpoints, and anything else your business runs that needs to talk to WordPress. If it has an API, we can usually connect to it.