About me
I’m Mark Jansen, an independent developer based in Borne. Since 2011 I have built and maintained custom work in WordPress and Laravel, for clients including the University of Twente, Giro555 and iCulture.
No agency and no project manager in between. The person you talk to is the person who builds it. Most sites then stay with me for maintenance for years, and keep growing.
What I stand for
Mission
Websites and applications that are accessible and usable, and that last for years. WordPress is the core of it. Laravel comes in once a site has really become an application.
I have known WordPress from version 3 through to the block editor, including the pitfalls that aren’t documented anywhere. I don’t do design. That comes from regular partners. Work that suits someone else better, I refer on.
Working alone is a choice. I enjoy building more than managing.
Vision
I keep up at WordCamps and meetups, as an attendee and as a speaker. New techniques only go into production once it’s clear how they will behave a few years from now.
AI is part of that now. It writes a large share of the code, and I review every line before it goes live. Sensitive client data never goes into an AI. Albert is my own WordPress plugin that connects a site to an AI assistant, free to download from WordPress.org.
Outside work I’m the drummer and bandleader of Headline, a nine-piece cover band from Twente. In summer I ride my road bike, in winter my mountain bike.
How I work
What you can count on.
- One point of contact
The person you talk to is the person who develops it. If something breaks, you have me on the line directly. - Custom code
A custom theme and custom code, with only the plugins that add something. That keeps your site fast, and stable through updates. - Honest advice
I tell you what I would do and why, even when it means less work for me. - Maintenance and ongoing development
Updates carry on after launch, and your site grows with your organisation.
What I know
The technology I work with every day.
Back-end
PHP 8, Laravel, WordPress and WooCommerce, MySQL. Custom plugins, REST and GraphQL integrations, and connections to systems whose documentation is wrong.
Front-end
HTML, modern CSS and JavaScript, without a framework where possible. The block editor and theme.json. Accessibility, with WCAG 2.2 as the guideline.
And beyond that
Functional and technical design, project management, second opinions on a quote or an architecture, code review, and acting as a sounding board for development teams.
Clients
Organisations where the site or the application is part of the work. Most of them I have worked with for years.
Looking for a developer you can rely on for years? I’m Mark.
I develop websites, webshops and applications in WordPress and Laravel, and have since 2011, for clients including the University of Twente, Giro555 and iCulture. Most clients have worked with me for years.
Tell me what you want to achieve, and you’ll hear from me personally what I would do. Even if you don’t know yet exactly what you need.