- 01
Custom themes, not customized templates
There's a difference between a WordPress developer who configures existing themes and one who writes a theme from scratch. We write themes from scratch. Every template, every content module, every admin interface is built specifically for your site and your content team's needs. No page builder bloat, no plugin dependency chains, no code you can't maintain. This is what custom WordPress development actually means, and it's all we do.
- 02
🎷 Jazz Band: a proprietary plugin suite that ships with every build
Every Simpatico WordPress site ships with 🎷 Jazz Band, a suite of custom-built plugins we've developed over years of building for complex organizations. AJAX-powered interactions. One-click content duplication. AI-assisted alt text generation. Custom table builders. Admin menu customization. ACF extensions. Clean, performant scroll animations and parallax effects that don't break accessibility. Easy 301 redirect management so your team can handle migrations from the dashboard. And more. It's our technical edge, a toolkit no other small WordPress studio offers, and it comes standard.
- 03
Built for your content team, not ours
The real test of a WordPress build isn't how it looks. It's how it feels to update on a Tuesday afternoon when your content manager needs to publish a new page. We build flexible page builders using Advanced Custom Fields that let your team create layouts, publish content, and manage the site without touching code or calling a developer. Intuitive admin, clear labels, visual previews. 🎷 Jazz Band's content tools make routine tasks (duplicating pages, generating alt text, building tables) things your team handles in minutes, not tickets.
- 04
Clean code as a standard, not a selling point
Accessible. Performant. Semantic HTML. Proper heading hierarchy. Mobile-first responsive. Fast page loads without twelve caching plugins. This should be the baseline for any WordPress developer, but it's not, and we see the aftermath when we take over sites built by other agencies. Our code is built to last, built to hand off, and built to pass an accessibility audit. The 🎷Jazz Band animation library delivers scroll effects and parallax without the performance penalty of heavy JavaScript frameworks.
- 05
A team that knows your entire codebase
You won't explain your project to a rotating cast of developers. Our team builds every theme and wrote 🎷 Jazz Band. When something needs to change six months later, the people who wrote the code are the people making the update. That continuity means faster fixes, smarter decisions, and a codebase that stays coherent over time.
- 06
WordPress development for organizations with complex content
We specialize in WordPress sites for organizations with a lot to say: nonprofits with decades of program content, healthcare organizations with dense clinical information, law firms with extensive practice area libraries, media companies with editorial workflows. If your content is complex, your WordPress build needs to account for that complexity from day one: the theme architecture, the admin experience, and the tooling your team uses to manage it all. That's what we build.
if you like this stuff… view more of our work
more work this way- a redesign of AmpleHarvest.org, the free nationwide registry that enables gardeners to donate surplus to food pantries
- Slickdeals Money, an editorial hub from the deals gurus at Slickdeals covering all things credit cards and financial products
- a modular, custom WordPress theme for M.M. LaFleur's beloved editorial brand, The M Dash
- a flexible, atomic WordPress theme for Haven Life's content marketing hub
tamara's perspective on...Custom WordPress Theme vs. Off-the-Shelf: How to Decide
When we’re asked to build a website, we need to decide whether to build a custom WordPress theme or use an existing theme. But – what’s the difference?
read postfrequently asked questions
Studio Simpatico writes custom WordPress themes from scratch and ships every site with 🎷 Jazz Band, our proprietary suite of custom-built WordPress plugins. 🎷 Jazz Band includes tools for AJAX interactions, content duplication, AI-assisted alt text generation, scroll animations, 301 redirect management, and more. No other small studio offers this kind of built-in toolkit. We’re a boutique NYC studio, so the team that builds your theme is the same team you communicate with throughout the project.
Yes. Studio Simpatico regularly takes over WordPress sites built by other agencies or freelancers. We start with a technical audit to understand the codebase, identify issues (plugin bloat, security vulnerabilities, performance problems, accessibility gaps), and determine whether to refactor the existing theme or build new. We’re transparent about what we find.
Studio Simpatico recommends managed WordPress hosting, specifically WP Engine, Pantheon, or Kinsta. All three are purpose-built for WordPress performance, security, and reliability. WP Engine is our default recommendation for most New York City and national clients and offers HIPAA-capable tiers for healthcare organizations. We’re a WP Engine Advanced Partner.
Studio Simpatico can build WooCommerce integrations, but ecommerce-first sites aren’t our specialty. Our strength is content-heavy organizations (nonprofits, healthcare, law firms, media) where the challenge is structuring and presenting complex information, not optimizing a product catalog.
Studio Simpatico builds and maintains 🎷 Jazz Band, a proprietary suite of WordPress plugins that ships with every site we build. 🎷 Jazz Band includes tools for AJAX-powered interactions, one-click content duplication, AI-assisted alt text generation, custom tables, admin menu customization, ACF extensions, performant scroll animations and parallax effects, 301 redirect management, and more. We also build custom functionality for specific client needs: API integrations, content workflows, and specialized admin interfaces. We build what your site needs rather than relying on third-party plugin chains.
Studio Simpatico is a boutique design and development studio in New York City, not a freelancer and not a large agency. You get the responsiveness and direct access of working with a freelance WordPress developer, with the strategic depth and design capability of a full-service studio. Tamara Olson (founder, strategy and UX), Bruce Viemeister (Head of Design), and Corey (technical architect) are the team on every project.