When is a generalist WordPress provider enough?

For brochure sites or simple landing pages with few integrations, low traffic, minimal performance targets, and a tight, well-defined scope.

When do we need a full-stack WordPress team?

When you need custom content models or workflows, critical integrations (CRM, payments, marketing automation), high-traffic performance goals (Core Web Vitals), accessibility/compliance requirements, or complex setups like headless, multilingual, multisite, or e-commerce.

What distinguishes a full-stack team from “we do WordPress”?

Engineering depth across architecture, custom blocks/plugins, security baselines, performance budgets, accessibility (WCAG 2.2), DevOps/CI/CD, observability, and governance—versus theme tweaks and plugin assembly.

How should we evaluate a WordPress vendor?

Ask about content modeling, performance budget, accessibility enforcement, custom vs third-party plugin choices, environments and deployments, secrets/backups/rollback, automated checks, logging/monitoring, change control, and collaboration with your project manager.

WordPress Full-Stack Developers vs “We Do WordPress”

Lots of providers say they “do WordPress.” Sometimes that means theme setup and a few plugins. Other times, you need a team that treats WordPress like a modern application platform—with engineering discipline across front-end, back-end, performance, security, and operations.
This guide explains the difference so you can match the vendor to the job.

The quick summary

Generalist (“we do WordPress”): Good for simple marketing sites, light customization, smaller budgets/timelines.
Full-stack WordPress team: Necessary when you have custom workflows, integrations, high traffic, compliance needs, or strict performance goals.

Side-by-side comparison

Capability	“We do WordPress”	Full-Stack WordPress Team
Discovery & Architecture	Pages/features by request	Business goals → content model (CPT/taxonomies) → block inventory → integration map → acceptance criteria
Front-End	Theme tweaks, page builder	Block Editor (Gutenberg) & custom blocks, semantic HTML, WCAG 2.2, component CSS, design tokens
Back-End	Off-the-shelf plugins	PHP 8+, custom plugins/mu-plugins, REST API/GraphQL, CPT/taxonomies, multisite when needed
Data & Integrations	Basic form email	CRM/MA integrations, webhooks, server-side validation, spam/gibberish filtering, queueing & retries, audit logging
Performance	Caching plugin	Performance budget, Core Web Vitals (LCP/CLS/INP), CDN & cache layering, image pipeline (WebP/AVIF/srcset), TTFB/queries optimized
Security	Basic hardening	Least-privilege, secret management, WAF/rate-limits, update cadence, backup/restore drills, plugin hygiene, file perms
Accessibility	“Looks fine” review	Landmarks/headings, contrast/focus, keyboard paths, form errors, skip links, alt text policy, periodic audits
Observability	Ad-hoc fixes	Structured logs, error tracking, uptime, analytics tied to outcomes, form/event monitoring
Governance	Tasks by ticket	Clear SOW, Definition of Done, change control, risk register, collaboration with your PM

When a generalist is enough

Brochure site or simple landing pages
Few integrations; forms can be emailed safely
Low traffic, minimal SEO/performance requirements
Tight budget and timeline; clear scope

When you need a full-stack WordPress team

Custom content model, workflows, or editorial roles
CRM/marketing automation, payments, or other critical integrations
High traffic or Core Web Vitals targets tied to SEO/ads
Regulatory or accessibility requirements (ADA/WCAG 2.2)
Headless/Decoupled, multilingual, multisite, or e-commerce

Buyer questions that reveal the difference

How will you model content (CPT, taxonomies, custom blocks) and why?
What does your performance budget look like for this build?
How do you enforce accessibility during development and QA?
Which parts will be custom plugins vs. third-party—and why?
Describe your environments (local/staging/prod) and deployment process.
How do you handle secrets, backups, and rollback?
What automated checks run on each commit (PHPCS, tests, linting)?
How will you log errors and monitor forms, APIs, and uptime?
What is the change-control process when scope shifts?
How will you collaborate with our project manager?

Deliverables you should expect from a full-stack team

Architecture brief & content model
Block/library inventory and design tokens
Performance budget & Core Web Vitals target plan
Accessibility checklist & test report
Security baseline & hardening notes
Environments, CI/CD, and rollback plan
Support/runbook with monitoring and on-call paths

How AZTANDC fits

AZTANDC is an engineering partner: custom WordPress, integrations, performance, and quality practices. We work alongside your
project manager to ship calmly and predictably. If you’re unsure which level you need, we can assess your current site and recommend the right path.