Andriy Haydash is a founder at PROGMATIQ, a certified Codeable expert, and a professional freelance WordPress developer. He specializes in building high-end WordPress membership website and learning management systems. He also teaches people on Facebook and YouTube, so users can launch their websites successfully.
Let’s know more about him in this interview!
Farhan: Hi Andriy, thank you for joining us today. It would be great if you introduce yourself to our readers?
Andriy: Hi and thanks for having me. I’m a freelance WordPress developer & consultant and I primarily focus on helping my clients build and launch successful membership & eLearning sites.
Farhan: When and how did you start your career with WordPress? What were the challenges you have faced initially and how did you tackle them?
Andriy: I started my journey with WordPress in mid-2017 after having worked as a full-stack web developer building custom apps. I don’t think that I had many challenges with WordPress, however, there were some things that I had to adjust to and understand better.
Actions, filters, custom post types, and other concepts were somewhat foreign to me so I had to learn them and adjust. It took me some time to learn them and I’m still learning since technology changes all the time.
Farhan: You currently work at Codeable as a freelance WordPress developer. What’s a typical project look like? Could you share any interesting stories?
Andriy: There are many different types of projects. The majority of them are small tasks like WordPress theme or plugin adjustments and bug fixes. Bigger projects such as full website builds are rarer. I personally try to focus on projects like that, especially membership and online course/eLearning sites. This is where my specialty lies and I feel I can serve these types of clients better because of my experience.
As far as interesting stories go, I don’t have any funny or interesting stories to share. However, I can tell that Codeable has a great internal atmosphere. Everyone is very helpful and people uplift each other. This is really great and something that is not common among many other freelance platforms.
Farhan: Why do you specifically choose WordPress for developing your projects? And is it still a valid choice in the age of headless and API?
Andriy: Good question. The main reason why I choose WordPress is that I think it’s a great solution that is flexible yet has pre-built plugins that allow me to quickly scaffold a project. This mixture helps save costs and Speed up the development time.
I think that WordPress is still a valid solution even in this age. However, I don’t think that WordPress is ideal for 100 percent of the projects. I probably wouldn’t use WordPress for big custom apps assuming that I had time and budget to build a custom app like that from scratch.
The way I look at WordPress is as a tool. If it makes sense to use it for a given project I will use it. If not, then I’ll use something else.
Farhan: Would you like to share some tips and tricks for those who are just starting their career in WordPress?
Andriy: Sure. I’d like to share 2 tips. Number 1 is to learn how to code. WordPress sometimes makes it look very easy with all the page builders and plugins. However, you need to be able to understand how WordPress works internally and be able to write custom plugins in certain instances.
The second piece of advice that I have is to focus on a narrow niche and start developing expertise in that niche. It’s going to help you a lot in the future as you will be able to serve your clients better, do the job faster and it will be easier for you to win projects.
Farhan: You have very good overall ratings on Codeable. What’s your secret? What tools and dev flows do you use for your WordPress projects?
Andriy: Thanks. I guess the most important part of the job is being done before the hire itself. You have to make sure that you understand the project, that you can actually help the client, and that the client is the right person for you to work with.
Unfortunately, sometimes a project might look great but a client may not be a good fit for you for various reasons. It can be difficult for you to communicate with them, or there might be a big difference in the time zone that may cause problems, etc.
In these cases, it’s better to pass on a project as the risks are relatively high for you that it may not end up well and the client won’t be satisfied either. So it’s a bad situation for both sides.
Fortunately, though, most clients that I had a chance to work with are great people and easy to work with. That’s why I’ve been able to generate so many great reviews.
As far as tools go, I don’t rely on them as much. My flow is pretty standard. I develop websites on my local computer and then upload my work to staging for the client to test before it can be sent to a live server.
For my dev workflow, I use tools like VSCode with various extensions and GitLab as a Git repository to commit my projects.
Farhan: You have some expertise in building WordPress LMS sites. What is your favorite WordPress LMS plugin and why?
Andriy: I don’t have one favorite one, but there are 3 that I prefer: LearnDash, LifterLMS & TutorLMS. They’re all great to use, are robust, and developer-friendly.
Obviously, every one of them has advantages and disadvantages. So when I recommend a client an LMS plugin, I try to find the one that will allow us to get the most done with its standard features.
Farhan: LMS and Membership sites require high computing servers and a fast WordPress hosting platform. In your opinion, which type of hosting you would prefer for LMS (learning management system hosting) and Membership projects?
Andriy: In my opinion, a good hosting account has to be fast, robust, and have a good panel/dashboard for a developer to be able to do the things that they need on a regular basis. Things like allowing for FTP & SSH access, backing up a website, access to the database via PHPMyAdmin or a similar tool are a must.
Another important thing is to have good support that is available to help you whenever you need it.
With that in mind, I feel like some of the best hosting providers for membership sites are Cloudways, Siteground, and WPEngine. These are the ones that I personally feel confident about. See siteground alternative.
Farhan: Being a WordPress developer, you must be well aware of themes and plugins. Would you like to share your favorite themes and plugins? What makes them stand out from the rest?
Andriy: Yes, there are definitely some plugins and themes that I use almost in every project.
Let me start with themes. My go-to themes are Astra and Kadence as they are flexible and tested by time.
My most used plugins are Elementor, LearnDash, LifterLMS, MemberPress, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Subscriptions, and All-in-One WP Migration.
I use most of them in almost every project that I build for clients and I feel like they are some of the best on the market at the moment.
Farhan: It would be great if you can share an image of your workstation for our readers. Thank you!
Andriy: Sure
Owais Khan
Owais works as a Marketing Manager at Cloudways (managed hosting platform) where he focuses on growth, demand generation, and strategic partnerships. With more than a decade of experience in digital marketing and B2B, Owais prefers to build systems that help teams achieve their full potential.
