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WordPress Theme Development From Scratch to Advanced
230 students

WordPress Theme Development From Scratch to Advanced

Build Custom WordPress Themes Using PHP, Template Hierarchy, Modern Tooling, pnpm & Monorepo Workflow
Created byImran Sayed
Last updated 1/2026
English
English [Auto],

What you'll learn

  • Understand how WordPress themes work, including the template hierarchy and core theme files
  • Build a custom WordPress theme from scratch using HTML, CSS, PHP, and WordPress functions
  • Properly enqueue styles and scripts and follow WordPress coding best practices
  • Create custom page templates, single post templates, and reusable theme components
  • Add custom functions to extend theme features using functions.php
  • Use @wordpress/scripts and pnpm to manage assets in modern theme development
  • Structure a theme in a clean, scalable way suitable for real client projects
  • Turn a static design into a fully dynamic WordPress theme

Course content

5 sections • 10 lectures • 1h 59m total length

  • Introduction8:48

    Learn to build a custom WordPress theme from scratch using modern tooling, pnpm, and a monorepo workspace setup with add-wordpress-scripts, enabling shared Gutenberg blocks and modular components.

Requirements

  • Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS
  • Very basic understanding of PHP (variables, functions, includes)
  • A computer with internet connection
  • Code editor like VS Code
  • Local WordPress setup (XAMPP, Local WP, or similar)
  • No prior theme development experience needed

Description

Want to truly understand how WordPress themes work behind the scenes instead of just installing ready-made themes? This course teaches you how to build a fully functional WordPress theme completely from scratch, step by step.

You will start with the fundamentals of WordPress theme structure, learning how core files like index.php, functions.php, and template files work together using the WordPress template hierarchy. From there, you’ll move into building real theme components, creating custom page templates, single post layouts, and reusable structures that mirror real-world development practices.

This course doesn’t just stop at traditional theme development. You’ll also learn modern WordPress theme workflows using tools that professional developers use today. We cover how to manage assets with pnpm, organize code using a monorepo structure, and work with @wordpress/scripts to streamline your development process. This helps you write cleaner code, scale projects more easily, and work in a way that aligns with modern development standards.

You’ll also learn how to properly enqueue styles and scripts, add custom functionality through functions.php, and turn static HTML designs into dynamic WordPress-powered pages.

By the end of this course, you won’t just know how to “use” themes; you’ll know how to build your own professional, scalable WordPress themes ready for client projects or advanced customization.

Who this course is for:

  • Beginners who want to learn WordPress theme development from scratch
  • Front-end developers who want to move into WordPress
  • Students who know basic WordPress but want to understand how themes actually work behind the scenes
  • Freelancers who want to build custom themes for clients instead of using ready-made themes
  • Developers who want to understand the foundation before moving to advanced topics like custom blocks or headless WordPress
  • Learn Building Monorepo with pnpm

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