You bought a theme, it doesn't do what you need, and every quote you've had so far involves someone editing the theme's own files.
I modify themes the way theme authors intend, so yours can still be updated afterwards.
Themes I've written and shipped. I know what a theme's code is supposed to look like from the inside.
Copies sold. Which means years of answering buyers asking for exactly the changes you're about to ask for.
You don't need to be running one of mine. Themes are built on the same hooks whoever wrote them.
The demo was built with content, spacing and images chosen to make the theme look good. You installed it on real content and lost the layout. Usually this is settings, template choice and a handful of CSS decisions — not a rebuild.
An extra field, a different order on the archive, one thing removed from the booking form. The options panel doesn't cover it, so you've been told it's impossible or it needs a custom build. It usually needs neither.
That's the tell. It means whoever worked on your site last wrote their changes into the theme's own files, and the update overwrote them. The changes weren't lost by accident — they were never in a place that survives an update.
This is the single most expensive thing that happens to bought themes, and it's usually done by someone trying to be helpful and fast.
I go through the gap between the demo and your site item by item: layout settings, the right templates, typography and spacing, images sized the way the theme expects them. Then I write the CSS the theme should have shipped with, in a place that survives updates.
An extra field on a listing, a different archive order, a step removed from checkout, a new template for one page type. I add these with hooks and a child theme, so they sit alongside the theme instead of inside it.
I find what was changed and where, move it out of the theme's files, and get you back onto a version you can update. Then the original request still works — just from somewhere safe.
Every job ends the same way: child theme, documented hooks, notes on what changed. You can update the theme afterwards, and if you hire someone else later, they can read what I did.
I know where those hooks are because I've spent years putting them into my own themes for other developers to use. That applies to any well-built theme, not only mine.
Plain words are fine — "the fleet list should show price per week", "the header should look like the demo". I look at your site and your theme, and within 48 hours I tell you whether it can be done cleanly or not, and roughly what it involves.
If it's doable, you get a price and a description of what I'll change, including where it will live. If your site has been edited into the theme already, I'll say what it takes to undo that first.
Work happens on a staging copy, you review it, we ship. You get the child theme, a note on what changed, and a theme you can keep updating.
34 of them, 5,906copies sold, published on ThemeForest under my name. That's where the “I've written themes” claim on this page comes from, and it's public — you can read the item pages, the changelogs and the support threads yourself.
Send the URL and the request. I'll tell you if it's a small job, a real one, or not worth doing.
One contained request: a layout fix, a field added, a template adjusted — done in a child theme and documented. Small changes start at $250.
New features, several changes at once, or untangling a theme someone else edited directly so the site can be updated again. Larger work usually lands between $800 and $2,500.
No. Themes are built on the same WordPress hooks, filters and template hierarchy regardless of who wrote them. Having written 34 of my own mostly means I know where a theme's extension points are, and I can tell within an hour whether the one you bought was built well or not.
Yes — that's the point of working this way. Your changes go into a child theme and attach through the theme's own hooks, so a theme update installs normally and your customisation sits on top of the new version. If you can't currently update because of past work, undoing that is a job I do.
Genuinely small ones — a layout fix, a field, a label — are usually quick. But I'd rather look before promising a day, because "small" often turns out to depend on something the theme does elsewhere. You'll get a real answer within 48 hours of sending the URL, not an estimate over the phone.
Often, yes. The usual case is changes written into the theme's files and then partly wiped by an update. I find what was changed, rebuild it in a child theme, and get you back onto a current theme version. Sometimes the honest answer is that a clean reinstall plus rebuilt customisations is cheaper than untangling it — I'll tell you if that's where we are.
Yes. ThemeForest is where I publish, not a requirement for the client. I work on themes from any marketplace, themes that came bundled with a page builder, and themes someone built for you and then disappeared. The question is whether the theme is well made, not where it was bought.
Then I'll say so in the first reply, and explain why. Sometimes the theme fights the change hard enough that a different theme, or a small custom plugin next to it, is the better answer. I'd rather lose the job than write something into your theme that traps you on an old version.
Three fields. Describe the change in your own words — you don't need to know what it's called or how it's done. Within 48 hours I'll tell you whether it can be done cleanly, and what it involves.
Replies come from me, not an assistant — me@alexgurghis.com if you'd rather just write.