A WordPress consultant does more than fix broken plugins. But if you've searched for WordPress help, you've probably noticed everyone—developers, freelancers, agencies—promises to solve your problems. So what does a WordPress consultant actually do that's different from hiring a developer or signing up for a support plan?
The distinction matters more than most people realize. And understanding it could save you from the frustrating cycle of paying for fixes that don't address the real problem.
The Difference Between Closing Tickets and Solving Problems
Most WordPress help operates on a simple model: you submit a request, someone fixes it, and the ticket is closed. Need a plugin updated? Done. Broken contact form? Fixed. White screen of death? Resolved.
This works fine for isolated technical issues. But it falls apart when your problems are connected to bigger questions about how your site serves your organization.
A WordPress consultant approaches things differently. Instead of asking "what's broken?" they ask "what are you trying to accomplish?" That shift in framing changes everything about how problems get solved.
Consider a common scenario: your site is slow. A developer might install a caching plugin and call it done. A WordPress consultant asks why it's slow in the first place—and whether the answer reveals something about how your site was built, what plugins you're running, whether your hosting is appropriate for your traffic, or if your entire approach to content needs rethinking.
The ticket gets closed either way. But only one approach prevents the same problem from surfacing again in a different form.
What WordPress Consulting Services Actually Include
WordPress consulting services span a wide range of activities, but they share a common thread: strategic thinking applied to technical decisions.
Assessment and auditing. Before recommending solutions, a consultant evaluates what you have. This means reviewing your theme and plugin choices, examining your hosting environment, understanding your traffic patterns, and identifying where your current setup helps or hinders your goals.
Technology recommendations. WordPress offers thousands of themes, tens of thousands of plugins, and countless ways to configure them. A consultant helps you navigate these choices based on your specific situation—not based on what's popular or what they happen to know best.
Problem diagnosis. When something goes wrong, a consultant looks beyond the immediate symptom. Site hacked? The fix isn't just cleaning the malware—it's understanding how the breach happened and what systemic changes prevent it from happening again.
Growth planning. Your website isn't static, and neither is your organization. A consultant helps you anticipate how your site needs to evolve as you add features, expand your audience, or shift your strategy.
Vendor coordination. WordPress sites involve multiple moving parts: hosting providers, plugin developers, theme authors, email services, CRMs, and payment processors. When something breaks at the intersection of these systems, a consultant can coordinate across vendors to find solutions—rather than each vendor pointing fingers at the others.
When You Need a WordPress Consultant vs. a Developer
Developers write code. They build features, customize themes, create plugins, and implement technical solutions. If you know exactly what you need built, a developer is the right choice.
Consultants help you figure out what you need in the first place. They translate business problems into technical requirements and technical constraints into business decisions.
The clearest sign you need consulting rather than development: you're not sure what to ask for. You know something isn't working—your site feels slow, your conversions are low, your team struggles with content updates, your costs keep creeping up—but you don't know what the solution looks like.
Another sign: you've tried fixing things, and they keep breaking. If you've cycled through multiple developers or agencies and problems persist, the issue likely isn't execution—it's strategy. You're solving the wrong problems, or solving the right problems in ways that create new ones.
A third sign: you're facing a major decision. Migrating hosts, redesigning your site, adding e-commerce, integrating a new CRM—these aren't just technical projects. They're business decisions with technical dimensions, and getting them wrong is expensive.
The Problem With Most WordPress Help
The WordPress ecosystem has a structural issue: most help is reactive. Something breaks, you find someone to fix it, they fix it, you pay them, everyone moves on until the next thing breaks.
This model works for the people providing help—there's always another ticket, always another emergency. But it doesn't work particularly well for site owners, who end up in a perpetual cycle of problems and patches that never address the underlying issues.
Part of this is economic. Hourly billing incentivizes fixing things over preventing them. Ticket-based support incentivizes closing requests over understanding root causes. And the constant churn of clients means most providers never develop deep knowledge of any particular site.
The alternative is a consulting relationship in which your provider understands your organization well enough to offer strategic guidance—not just technical execution — and is invested in your long-term success rather than your next invoice.
Why Consulting Backgrounds Matter in WordPress
Here's something that might seem counterintuitive: the best WordPress consultants often aren't the ones who started as developers.
Developers who learn business tend to think in terms of technical solutions. They see problems as code to write, plugins to configure, and servers to optimize. These skills matter. But they can also create blind spots.
Consultants who learn development tend to think in terms of business outcomes. They see problems as organizational challenges that might—or might not—have technical solutions. Sometimes the answer is building something. Sometimes it's removing something. Sometimes it's changing how you work rather than changing your website.
This is why FatLab approaches WordPress with a consulting-first methodology. Our founder, Shane Larrabee, started his career at Ogilvy Public Relations and spent years leading interactive departments at PR and marketing firms before founding FatLab in 2010. That background shapes everything about how we work.
We don't just close support tickets—we ask whether the ticket represents a one-time fix or a symptom of something bigger. We don't just build what clients request—we help them figure out what they actually need. We don't just maintain sites—we serve as strategic partners who understand our clients' missions, audiences, and goals.
This consulting-first approach matters especially for the organizations we serve: nonprofits, professional associations, advocacy groups, and agencies that need their websites to advance their missions. These organizations can't afford to waste resources on technical dead ends or solutions that don't scale with their needs.
Finding the Right WordPress Website Consultant
If you're looking for WordPress consulting services, here's what to evaluate:
Do they ask questions before proposing solutions? A consultant who jumps straight to recommendations without understanding your situation is just selling, not consulting.
Do they explain trade-offs? Every technical decision involves trade-offs. Good consultants help you understand what you're gaining and giving up with each option—not just which option they prefer.
Do they have relevant experience? Not just WordPress experience, but experience with organizations like yours. A consultant who primarily works with e-commerce sites may not understand the needs of a nonprofit membership organization, and vice versa.
Do they think long-term? Ask how they'd approach a problem that might recur. If the answer is purely reactive—"we'll fix it when it happens"—they're providing support, not consulting.
Can you talk to them? Consulting requires communication. If you can't get a real person on the phone or video call, you're not getting consulting—you're getting ticket support dressed up with fancier language.
What This Looks Like in Practice
The difference between consulting and support shows up in everyday interactions.
A support provider responds to "my site is slow" by running a speed test and implementing standard optimizations.
A consultant responds to "my site is slow" by asking, "Slow for whom?" On which pages? Since when? What changed? And then: What's the actual impact? Are you losing visitors? Hurting SEO rankings? Frustrating your team? The technical fix might be identical, but the consulting approach ensures you're solving the right problem and sets you up to prevent similar issues going forward.
This doesn't mean every interaction requires deep strategic analysis. Sometimes a broken plugin just needs to be fixed. But even routine support should happen within a relationship in which your provider understands your organization well enough to recognize when routine issues signal bigger opportunities or risks.
Ready for a Different Approach?
FatLab provides WordPress consulting, development, and support for organizations that need more than ticket-takers. Our clients—nonprofits, associations, advocacy groups, and agencies—rely on us to be smart team members, not just vendors who show up when something breaks.
Explore our WordPress support services to see how we work, or read why organizations choose FatLab for their WordPress needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a WordPress consultant do?
A WordPress consultant provides strategic guidance on WordPress-related decisions, from technology selection and site architecture to problem diagnosis and growth planning. Unlike developers who focus on building and fixing, consultants help you determine what needs to be built or fixed in the first place—and whether technical solutions are even the right approach for your situation.
How much do WordPress consulting services cost?
WordPress consulting rates vary widely based on the consultant's experience and the complexity of your needs. Hourly rates typically range from $100 to $250 for experienced consultants. Some providers, including FatLab, build consulting into their ongoing support relationships rather than billing it as a separate service.
What's the difference between a WordPress consultant and a WordPress developer?
Developers write code and implement technical solutions. Consultants help you determine which solutions you need and whether technical approaches are appropriate. In practice, many professionals do both—but the consulting mindset focuses on strategy and business outcomes, while the developer mindset focuses on execution and technical quality.
When should I hire a WordPress consultant?
Consider consulting when: you're not sure what you need (versus knowing exactly what to build), you've tried fixes that don't stick, you're facing a major decision like migration or redesign, or you want strategic guidance rather than just technical execution. If you know exactly what you need built and just need someone to build it, a developer may be more appropriate.
Can a WordPress consultant help with an existing site?
Yes. Many consulting engagements start with auditing and assessing an existing site to identify issues, opportunities, and strategic priorities. This is often more valuable than consulting on new builds, since existing sites have accumulated technical debt, outdated approaches, and misaligned strategies that only become visible through careful evaluation.