Compare: WordPress and freelancers
A WordPress freelancer, or a care specialist?
A premium WordPress theme and a capable freelancer is how a great many small businesses get a good website, and plenty of care providers too.
It can be excellent value. It can also leave you with a site nobody updates and one person who holds every login. Here is a fair look at both, and at when a freelancer is the better choice.
Scorecard
A care specialist vs WordPress
A dash means it depends on the freelancer you choose. Some are excellent.
Side by side
A tick means it is a strength of that option, a dash means it depends on who does the work, a cross means it is usually missing.
| Care specialist | WordPress theme or freelancer | |
|---|---|---|
Lowest upfront cost A premium theme and a freelancer’s time is often the cheapest route to a custom looking site. | ||
Flexibility and choice of add ons WordPress has a plugin for almost everything. Every plugin is also something to keep updated. | ||
Care knowledge from day one A few freelancers know care well. Most are generalists, so ask what care sites they have built. | ||
CQC rating and registered details shown properly Easy to add on WordPress. It gets missed when nobody on the project knows Regulation 20A. | ||
Easy to read for older visitors Themes vary widely. Some page builders add heavy code, small text and low contrast. | ||
Ranks for "care homes in [town]" WordPress is good for search. The local pages and ongoing work are what rank, and they are rarely in a build quote. | ||
Someone accountable for updates and security With a freelancer it depends on a maintenance agreement. Ask anyone, including us, what theirs covers. | ||
Cover when one person is away A small team is still a small team. Ask who picks up the phone during holidays and illness. |
What WordPress and a good freelancer do well
WordPress is open source and runs a large share of the web. You are not tied to one company: the site can be moved to another host or another developer, and there is a huge pool of people who know how to work on it. That independence is a real strength.
A good freelancer is often quicker to reach and cheaper per hour than an agency, and you speak to the person doing the work. If they have built care sites before, they may know the sector very well. Premium themes give a polished starting point at a small cost.
Where it tends to go wrong for care providers
The problems we see on inherited WordPress care sites are rarely about WordPress itself. They are about what happens after launch, and about the care details nobody put in the brief.
Nobody owns the upkeep
WordPress, the theme and every plugin need regular updates. When the build is paid for and the maintenance is not, updates stop, and an outdated care site that collects family enquiries is a data protection worry as well as a technical one.
One person holds the keys
If the freelancer registered the domain, set up the hosting and holds the admin login, you depend on them staying in business and in touch. Make sure every account is in your organisation’s name. Read more in who owns your care home website.
The care details are missing
The CQC widget, registered manager and provider details, fees information families can find, a funding explainer, a clear route for professionals making a referral. None of it is hard on WordPress. It is just easy to leave out if you have never worked in care. Our CQC rating display checker is a quick first test.
Heavy page builders
Some themes rely on page builders that add a lot of code. Pages load slowly on a phone signal, text ends up small, and older visitors give up. Speed and readability are worth checking before you choose a theme.
Structured data for care
Search engines understand a site better with markup that describes the service, location and common questions. It is rarely included by default. Our free care schema generator shows what good markup looks like.
Comparing the cost fairly
A freelancer’s build quote is often lower than an agency’s. To compare like with like, add hosting, a maintenance agreement, the cost of new pages as you add services, and any search work you will need to rank in your town. Then compare what each option is likely to bring in enquiries over a few years.
Sometimes the freelancer still wins, and that is fine. The mistake is comparing a build quote with an ongoing service as if they were the same thing.
When a WordPress freelancer is the right choice
If you already know a freelancer who has built care websites, who answers the phone, and who offers a proper maintenance agreement, that can be an excellent arrangement. Keep it.
If you have someone in house who is comfortable with WordPress and wants to run the site, a good theme and a freelancer for the tricky bits is a sensible, low cost set up.
If your main need is a site that looks right and holds the basics, and you will handle search yourself, a freelancer may give you exactly that for less.
Questions to ask any freelancer
- Which care websites have you built, and can we speak to them?
- Will the domain, hosting and admin logins be in our name?
- Who updates WordPress, the theme and plugins, and how often?
- Who covers if you are ill or on holiday?
- How will the CQC rating widget be added and kept current?
- What will new pages cost after launch?
Ask us the same questions. How we work is on our commitment page.
Common questions
Is WordPress a good platform for a care website?
What happens if our freelancer disappears?
Can a care specialist take over our existing WordPress site?
Do premium WordPress themes work for older visitors?
Free buyer's guide
Still weighing it up?
Take the questions with you: a printable checklist for choosing any website agency, with a scorecard to compare them side by side.
Find out if your site is worth keeping
A free audit looks at speed, readability, CQC display and search, so you know whether to improve what you have or start again.
