Plugin Development & Audit
Custom WordPress plugins built to coding standards, plus plugin estate audits and rescues.
· Reviewed by senior engineers
01 What it is
What this service is
Plugin development is the discipline of writing bespoke WordPress plugins that extend the platform while staying on the right side of the coding standards, security model, and update lifecycle. A plugin audit is the inverse — reviewing the installed plugin estate to find performance bottlenecks, security risks, and unmaintained code.
At devinsta we write plugins in modern PHP (8.2+) following WP Coding Standards, with PHPUnit tests, integration tests against a real WP runtime, and a documented release process. We also rescue plugin tangles — the typical 60-plugin WordPress install that everyone is afraid to touch.
02 What it's for
What it's for
You need plugin engineering when you've outgrown commercial plugins and need behaviour that no off-the-shelf option supports. You need an audit when the site is slow, unstable, or under security review and nobody on the team can confidently say what each plugin is doing.
Typical buyers: enterprise WordPress teams, agencies maintaining client sites, and product companies that ship commercial WordPress plugins.
03 How to use it
How to engage devinsta
For new plugins we run a 1–2 week discovery covering the user story, the data model, and the integration surface, then build over 3–8 weeks with weekly demos. For audits we deliver a written report ranked by impact and risk, with prioritised remediation steps and effort estimates.
04 How to deploy
How we deploy it
Plugins ship via Composer or as zip uploads, version-controlled in GitHub, with CI running PHPCS, PHPStan, PHPUnit, and a WordPress integration test suite. We tag semver releases and maintain a changelog.
For commercial plugins distributed via WordPress.org or CodeCanyon we handle the submission process, the i18n setup, and the licensing layer.
05 What we provide
What you get from us
- Custom WordPress plugin development
- Plugin estate audit with prioritised remediation
- Security review and OWASP top-10 mitigations
- Performance tuning (slow WP_Query, db schema, object cache)
- WP Coding Standards compliance and refactor
- PHPUnit and integration test suites
- WordPress.org / CodeCanyon distribution setup
FAQ
Common questions
Can you fix a slow WordPress site?
Yes — usually. The biggest wins come from a slow plugin or two doing too much on every page load. We profile with Query Monitor and New Relic, identify the offenders, and fix or replace them. Typical engagement: 1–3 weeks, with measurable improvement reported.
Do you maintain plugins long-term?
Yes — we offer ongoing maintenance retainers for plugins we built or own. Includes WP version compatibility, security patches, and feature work.
Can you build a plugin for sale on WordPress.org?
Yes. We handle the engineering, the i18n, the submission, the licensing layer, and the support documentation. We've shipped commercial plugins with thousands of installs.