WordPress development in Christchurch, designed for you and edited by you.
A Merlin Wise WordPress site starts at $2,000 and takes three to eight weeks. We never start from a pre-built theme: every site is designed from a blank page for your business, then built on Elementor so you can change any page yourself after launch. We also fix, rebuild, support and host WordPress sites for businesses across Canterbury and New Zealand.
Sound familiar?
Three patterns we see in nearly every WordPress engagement — and what we actually do about them.
Our site was built on a theme and we can't change anything without breaking it.
What we do. We design your site from scratch and build it on Elementor, so every page, section and block is editable in a visual editor your team can actually use. Training is part of handover.
WordPress is slow and the plugins keep breaking each other.
What we do. We audit what is installed, strip it back to a lean set, and rebuild with image optimisation, caching and hosting that suits WordPress. A 90+ Lighthouse score on WordPress is normal for us.
Our developer disappeared and we're locked out of our own website.
What we do. We take over sites other people built: recover admin access, update everything safely, fix what is broken, and hand you every login. You own the site, the domain and the hosting.
Deliverables, not "scope of work".
Specific outputs you can point at when you ask "is this done?" — not vague verbs that leave both sides guessing.
Design & build
- Bespoke design in Figma — no pre-built theme
- Elementor build with reusable blocks
- Mobile-first · WCAG 2.2 AA
- On-page SEO + schema
Editing & training
- Every page editable in Elementor
- Global styles: colours, fonts, buttons
- Recorded handover session
- Written how-to guide
Care & rescue
- Core, theme + plugin updates
- Daily backups + malware scans
- Fix or rebuild existing sites
- Managed hosting from $39/mo
What we build with.
What you'll never hear from us.
Industry stock phrases we cross out — and what we actually say instead.
- "Premium theme, customised for you" — a theme is someone else's design with your logo on it. We start from a blank canvas.
- "Unlimited pages" — every page needs design intent and content. We scope the pages you actually need.
- "You'll never need a developer again" — you can edit every page yourself; we stay on call for the rest.
- "Free hosting included" — hosting is never free. Ours is $39 a month and a human answers.
What a WordPress project costs.
Published because guessing games waste everyone's time. Every tier transfers completely to you at launch: repo, assets, credentials. All prices NZD excl. GST.
Business
Custom design built in Elementor, up to about ten pages, SEO foundation, global styles and a recorded handover so your team can edit everything.
Flagship
Everything above plus custom features: WooCommerce, bookings, calculators, CRM and payment integrations, content strategy and launch support.
Fix & rebuild
We audit the existing site first, then quote either a fix in place or a rebuild on a clean base with your URLs and rankings kept.
WordPress projects we can show you.
The questions every client asks first.
How much does a WordPress website cost in NZ?
A Merlin Wise WordPress site is $2,000–$4,000 for a business site with custom design and an SEO foundation, and $4,000–$8,000 for a flagship with custom features, bookings or WooCommerce. Fixes and rescues are quoted after a short audit. The NZ market runs from $800 theme installs to $20,000+ agency builds; the difference is mostly how custom the design is, who supplies the content, and what the site has to do.
Do you use a pre-built theme?
No. Every site is designed from scratch for your business, then built in Elementor on a lightweight base. A pre-built theme is another company's design with your logo dropped in, and it usually ships features you will never use and code that slows the site down.
Why Elementor rather than a hand-coded theme?
Because you can edit it. Elementor gives your team a visual editor for every page, section and block we build, so a new service, a price change or a landing page does not need a developer. We set global styles so your edits stay on-brand, and write custom code only where Elementor genuinely cannot do the job.
Can you fix or rebuild our existing WordPress site?
Yes. We take over sites other developers built: recover access, update core, theme and plugins safely, remove what is broken or unused, speed it up, and either fix it in place or rebuild it on a clean base while keeping your URLs and rankings.
Do you offer WordPress support and maintenance?
Yes. Managed hosting from $39 a month includes updates, daily backups, malware scanning, uptime monitoring and a person in NZ hours. Content changes and new pages are quoted per job or covered by a monthly retainer.
Where do you host WordPress sites?
On Cloudways, usually in Sydney for New Zealand audiences: NVMe storage, Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, server-level caching and a staging site. Your first migration is included.
Do you work outside Christchurch?
Yes. We are in Addington, Christchurch, and build for businesses across Canterbury and New Zealand. Our case studies include WordPress sites for Auckland and Wellington clients.
Website design Christchurch
Not sure WordPress is the right platform? Start with the wider website design service.
Managed hosting & maintenance
WordPress hosting on Cloudways from $39 a month, with updates, backups and a human in NZ hours.
How much does a website cost in NZ?
Market ranges for 2026, what moves the price, and exactly what we charge.
Need a WordPress site you can actually run? Send us the brief, or the broken site.
Tell us what you need in three sentences. New build, rebuild or rescue, we'll come back within one working day with a rough cost and timeline.