WPRiders

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Daniel, and I manage one SaaS in Digital Marketing niche. Outreach. Buzz‘s purpose is to help people connect with influencers and bloggers to publish and promote their content, increase their traffic, and reach the highest ranks in search engines.

For what projects/services did your company hire WPRiders?

Our previous developers team left us at the end of 2019 with an almost dried up budget and a buggy app part done in Laravel part in WordPress. The user and billing was done in Wordpress while the list management and outreach system was done in Laravel. We hired WPRiders to check the code already done, and find a cost effective solution to have a functional app in Wordpress by porting the functionality done in Laravel.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was checking Clutch for reliable and cost-effective development teams with special attention to developers that can get very technical. Checking the case studies of WPRiders I was impressed with the custom solutions they've created. I decided they can help me find a cost-effective solution to my problem.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project. I contacted the WPRiders team through their project details form explaining to them what I need to be done. The next day I was contacted by Mr. Marius Vetrici which is by my understanding, the company owner and the tech lead and we established a quick call. During the call, I've explained once again my problem with more details pointing out exactly my goals.

Mr. Vetrici said they have an IT consulting service that is designated exactly for people like me that are looking for the best and cost-effective setup with WordPress. I've ordered the service and after filling the project details brief they started working. Next week they came back with the results. WPRiders outlined exactly what the issues are with the current Laravel App. They also confirmed that the best way to continue the project is to port it on WordPress.

Also, they explained to me what plugins they recommend and what custom work needs to be done. I was thrilled to see they found cost-effective solutions. Besides that, they showed me how they used the plugins on past implementations and what the results look like.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Their CEO, Mr. Marius Vetrici was our main point of contact.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

On the project completion, I was able to have a complete picture of how the project looks like, what are the best resources to use, the time frame for completion, and the budget required. Using the report they provided I've acquired the recommended plugins and with my internal team, I was able to complete the project at a fraction of the cost asked by WordPress development teams.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everything was completed on time. The calls and meetings were always taken on time, too.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I appreciated their expertise and experience in developing platforms and marketplaces on WordPress.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing I can think of at the moment.

Please describe your company and your position there.

At any given moment, there is $70M of excess raw material ingredients in the approximately 300 cosmetic and personal care contract manufacturers in the US. This is caused by high minimum order quantities, changes in demand or uncontrollable macro-economic factors.

These chemicals eventually are thrown out harming not only a manufacturers profits, but also the environment. I am the CEO and co-founder of BuyByeSupply. We provide an online b2b marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of these raw material remnants.

For what projects/services did your company hire WPRiders?

Currently, there are only a couple avenues to offload remnants before destroying them. They include convincing the OEM to take a return of the unused remnants, convincing the distributor to take them back or cold calling other manufacturers to see if they had a need for the product.

These solutions are time consuming and seldom delivered any results. As a startup with no web development expertise among our founders, we needed a partner to create a marketplace website with some specific differences from the average c2c or b2c marketplaces.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a minimally viable product (MVP) that could prove out our idea with real customers for as little money as possible. The solution had to be a frictionless conduit between companies who are, in many cases, competitors. It needed to be simple, anonymous and easy to use. We anticipate large transaction so there also had to be an escrow component that protected all parties against fraud.

The biggest hurdle was to create something that users, who are not accustomed to using the internet to buy and sell products for work, could feel comfortable using and one that did not take much time away from their everyday tasks.

How did you select this vendor?

WPRiders were selected after an extensive search that was narrowed down to 3 firms. We needed an agency who communicated well, had a track record of delivering results, understood business needs as well as web development, appeared eager for our business and was able to deliver everything on budget.

Clear and honest communication during the development process was also a very important factor in our decision. I enjoyed speaking to Marius and could sense that he understood our needs.

His agency also had received excellent reviews from past projects and we felt that, while his wasn't the lowest bid, we would get more for our money.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

WPRiders worked with me to establish a scope of work including a process flow that we all agreed on before development began. This gave a framework for the work to be done and also set expectations for what I would receive and when. Once we agreed, the development and testing teams took over and began work.

I was updated via email throughout the process and had a standing meeting via video call every Wednesday. On this call, I was given a progress report on what had been accomplished and we walked through any questions they had. It was during this time that I had an opportunity to provide feedback on what had been done and what was about to be done.

This prevented any surprises or unexpected disconnects between us. When the site was completed and tested on the developers end, I was given an opportunity to test the site.

Anything I found that was not what I expected or that didn't work the way I had intended, they quickly fixed. Once complete, the team trained me as if I was a user as well as a detailed training on how to administer the site.

What was the team composition?

My contact throughout the process was Andrei Oprea, the Customer Success Manager for WPRiders. He had a team of developers and testers who turned my vision into a reality.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We're still very early in the process. We have our first training on using the site with our early adopter companies scheduled for next week. They will be taught how to list their remnants and how the entire process works from end-to-end.

Despite our early state, we have very high hopes based on the feedback we've received. Each of our customers are excited to begin using the site and most of them have offered to provide their expertise and even invest in our business pre-revenue.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was a dream. As mentioned, we had a very clear roadmap that clearly defined the scope of work and when each step was to be completed. The communication was consistent and, when there was a hiccup, we were able to tackle them before it delayed our launch.

We communicated via email for most small things but I had access to their calendars and could set up a Google Meet or Skype any time I needed. WPRiders is based in Bucharest, Romania and English is a second language for most or all of the team.

However, there was absolutely never a language barrier or an accent that made our communication difficult in any way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive strengths are organization, communication, business acumen and technical expertise.

I felt they knew exactly what I expected each step of the way, we communicated easily to prevent double work and avoid mistakes, they understood what I needed and, in many cases, made changes knowing that it's what I would want and created a very robust MVP website that has more functionality than I had even hoped.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only problem I had is a geographical one. Because I'm in California and they are in Romania, we had a smaller window with which to communicate. If I sent an email in the afternoon my time, it was the middle of the night there.

Fortunately, I never had a problem that could't wait a few hours for an answer that was always waiting for me on my email when I woke up the next morning.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Revive Social is a website dedicated to help people get the most out of social media, we blog on everything social media as well as having a Product called "Revive Old Posts" which is a social media marketing plugin for WordPress. I do product management and software development for Revive Old Posts

For what projects/services did your company hire WPRiders?

We hired WP Riders to help with Software Development as we didn't have enough hands on deck for the features we were trying to push out in the timeframe we were trying to do so.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a simpler process of connecting social media accounts to Revive Old Posts as well as a custom remote cron system which would ping websites to ensure their scheduled social media posts are going out

How did you select this vendor?

Heard about them from a colleague who knew about the company

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Software development and QA testing, specifically in WordPress/PHP

What was the team composition?

There were 4 team members during our early weekly meetings, consisting of the CEO himself, a project manager who oversaw the meetings, a QA tester and the Developer. At the later stages, when the project was nearly done it became 3 team members: Project manager, QA tester and Developer

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The development help from WP riders has really helped push Revive Old Posts forward. We've seen an increase in positive ratings for the product as one of our goals were making the plugin more user friendly by fixing little bugs that would affect user's experience. They've helped tremendously when it comes to implementing big and small features for the plugin as an extra pair of coding hands!

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

No project management was needed really, we mostly needed the development assistance. We did have a project manager from WP Riders at the weekly meetings but his job was mostly to keep time and issue the invoices to us and ensure everything matches up. We created a Project on Github where we created some boards for tasks such as "scheduled for this week", "working on", "testing", "in review"

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Weekly meetings always happened on the times they needed to as well as how long they needed to. Also, the development help from a knowledgeable, experienced programmer and easy-going developer was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I'd gotten so used to the CEO being at the weekly meetings that when we got closer to the end of the project and he stopped attending(which is understandable) that I thought some better communicating could have been done to inform me of that. But weekly meetings continued as normal and I just got used to the fact that since the project is nearly done theres no reason for him to sit-in anymore

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and creative director of The Bureau of Small Projects.

What challenge were you trying to address with WPRiders?

We worked with WPRiders on a high-end bathroom site for configuring bathroom accessories in London. It’s a chic company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our company focuses on design and branding—this particular project required sophisticated website coding. There was a custom product bathroom builder that we had to build, which involved complex customizations. It was built for WooCommerce, but they had to create the custom plugin and code the entire site.

We started with a discovery call with the client. After that, WPRiders put together user stories and flow charts for everything that needed to be done.

What is the team composition?

From their side, it was about five people. I interfaced originally with Marius (CEO & Founder), and Andrei (Director of Operations) was the project manager. There were a few developers behind them.

How did you come to work with WPRiders?

We’re involved with Codeable.io. It’s a platform for the best WordPress developers. We worked with them through there.

How much have you invested with them?

In the end, we spent $85,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2019–February 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

WPRiders grasped the project in the beginning and executed it almost flawlessly. The quality of the code was spectacular. It was very clean. We audit all of the code that comes through our company. This was as good as anything we’ve seen.

The end product went very smoothly, and it corresponded very closely with the flow charts that were created in discovery. There were not a lot of adjustments that needed to be made.

The client is going to be doing marketing services with us. The best metric we have with any client is them ordering repeat work with us.

How did WPRiders perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the best things about WPRiders is that they take everything off our plate. Their project manager takes care of all the details and takes all of the meetings.

We have a great communication flow. They meet deadlines. When something goes wrong, they work around the clock to make sure it goes smoothly. I don’t have anything bad to say about them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The one thing that distinguishes them is the ability to understand the project’s scope. The discovery phase of the project was great. They also know how to make complex projects simple, which is hard to find with developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I couldn’t say anything. They’re pretty flawless.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring them in early on in the project. Their expertise is great in understanding the full scope of a complex project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the publisher of an online media platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with WPRiders?

We had previously spent a lot of money on web development for this platform with another company. We had an audit done in the summer and were told there were some major flaws and problems with our site. The company that did all of the work didn’t seem to understand how to be strategic when thinking about the big picture of a website as complex as ours. We hired WPRiders to retool, improve, and fix the problems we had.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re currently working on the web development process and have completed 2–3 tasks so far. I didn’t give them wireframes but I gave them a lot of documentation. They’re working through a WordPress site. So far, they’ve gone through the plug-ins and recommended that we delete some of them. At some point, they’ll be recoding some of them into simpler, more efficient plug-ins.

What is the team composition?

Marius (CEO, WPRiders) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with WPRiders?

Several people recommended them to us and they were also highly rated on Codeable, which is a WordPress vetting site.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $5,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019 and the work is currently ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We ran our site through several metrics before and after their work so far and there’s already a considerable amount of improvement. 

How did WPRiders perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re the best agency developer I’ve ever worked with in that sense. Everything is organized and on target. They have great communication skills.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very smart and have the ability to offer strategic thinking, insight, and are able to see how the whole project fits together. Especially a site like ours being built by someone else, a lot of good developers didn’t even want to take it on because of that, but Marius just jumped right in and he’s doing a great job. He’s not just doing web development; he’s trying to see how the development of this website will contribute to my business objectives and how we can make it sustainable and functional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a managing partner for an HR startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with WPRiders?

We hired WPRiders to help define a couple of aspects on our website before we made our first presentation in front of some investors. We needed someone with WordPress expertise to make these changes to the features.

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, we briefly discussed our functional needs but didn’t go into much technical detail. Our platform allows companies to create profiles to meet with potential clients and essentially serves as a marketplace for recruitment services. WPRiders worked to implement the features we needed to improve the site according to our requirements. 

What is the team composition?

We first interacted with Marius (General Manager & Founder, WPRiders). When the development started, we worked with a technical teammate from WPRiders.

How did you come to work with WPRiders?

We looked in our own network and used Upwork, but we didn’t have any results. We got in contact with a few developers and, through some of my partner’s connections, he found WPRiders. He contacted them and briefly informed them about our project. We then started to discuss the requirements with Marius.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $1,800 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August–September 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

WPRiders implemented all the features we wanted and we were thrilled with the results.

How did WPRiders perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team stayed within the framework we agreed upon. We mostly communicated via email and Skype calls. There were additional small adjustments we asked for and they completed it without any additional cost, which was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

WPRiders was very helpful in understanding our feedback and implementing all the changes we needed. Their willingness to do it after the initial development phase was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since they’re based in the same city as us, it would have been nice to have a face-to-face meeting.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of a company that manages and promotes various online websites. Lately, we've been busy testing a couple of ideas in the HR industry.

For what projects/services did your company hire WPRiders?

We hired WPRiders to develop the MVP for our new HR marketplace solution. We wanted to validate the hypothesis for our startup by launching a WordPress MVP.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of the project was to validate the demand for the services we wanted to offer within our marketplace, as well as to learn as many things from our first customers as possible.

How did you select this vendor?

WPRiders was the top recommendation from our long-term hosting provider. Their past recommendations served us well, and WPRiders former clients said they were pleased with the results they saw. Moreover, their blog featured articles about validating startup hypotheses via a WordPress MPV, which is exactly what we needed to do.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We wanted a two-sided marketplace (based on WordPress and WooCommerce), with local payment services integrated, so we could check if the clients would pay for the services listed on our website. We provided detailed requirements document defining all the functionality we desired, as well as some guides for the design side.

What was the team composition?

We first discussed the business details (requirements, offer, deadlines, other terms and conditions) with Andrei (Business Consultant, WPRiders). Then, we communicated with Carmen (Digital Project Manager, WPRiders) about all the technical aspects of the releases.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We received the MVP we needed and have run different tests, producing valuable insights about our main hypothesis. We've also gotten orders through the site, giving us happy customers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team complied with the deadlines established in the contract. Communication was mostly by email, and the project was first delivered on a dev-site, where we could check all the features and functionality before publishing. After our green light, they moved the code to the live environment. Months later, the website is still running smoothly, despite us including new services and WordPress releasing new plugins and updates.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

One time, we needed a feature implemented with very high priority, and they did indeed prioritize it. The overall impression they gave was one of a high-quality, dedicated, customer-oriented team that’s capable of great results. Also, we found that their blog and case studies to be a useful resource for online entrepreneurs.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There’s always room for improvement, but we can’t think of something specific right now.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of See How Support, a web development and web design firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with WPRiders?

I was hired to convert an older system that had several Wordpress plugins, and we were experiencing a variety of integration issues. The system itself was very inefficient, and as I was attempting to consolidate different segments, I realized that some of the work was beyond my skill set.

I hired WPRiders to take on the phases of the project that were beyond my capabilities. For example, I needed them to connect a Formidable Forms implementation to WooCommerce, so that actions conducted in Formidable Forms could generate content in WooCommerce.

What was the scope of their involvement?

WPRiders has implemented a variety of integrations for a course registration platform. They’ve focused primarily on e-commerce tools that let users purchase premium courses. The team has connected multiple third-party systems to the platform, occasionally using APIs to facilitate implementation.

Though they’ve dealt with a variety of tools and plugins, much of their work has been with WooCommerce integrations. We’re currently moving into a new phase where they’ll be setting up communication between WooCommerce and a popular accounting tool. We plan to connect the system to Salesforce eventually.

What is the team composition?

We have a business consultant, a project manager, and a developer assigned to our project. The business consultant has more of a macro view of the project, whereas our project manager serves as our direct point of contact.

How did you come to work with WPRiders?

I searched on a freelancer site for people that were skilled in Wordpress and Formidable Forms. WPRiders showed up as an organization that had relevant experience, and they responded to me when I reached out.

I knew this particular freelancer site was reliable, and I contacted some people from the site to ask about WPRiders. I’d never heard of WPRiders, but everyone I spoke to said that they came highly recommended. I had a few discussions with their team about how they would approach the project, and we began working together soon after our initial meetings.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started development with them in September 2018, and our work together is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Their team is completing work that is outside of my abilities, and I wouldn’t have been able to do this project without them. WPRiders is an integral part of the success of this product.

How did WPRiders perform from a project management standpoint?

The freelancer site that I found WPRiders on offers a chat-based forum, and we use that occasionally. We track most project tasks through Google Docs, and my company provides a proprietary project management tool that we use as well. In terms of communication, we have frequent video calls through UberConference and the video tool that they prefer.

For the most part, WPRiders is quick to complete tasks and is on time with every deliverable. The time difference can occasionally be a bit of a problem. There’ve been times when they’ve needed an answer from my client, and they’ve had to wait until the next day because my client is asleep when they’re working. These waiting periods tend to slow down the progress of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate the way that they’ve handled personnel changes. Continuity gaps in coding projects happen often, and they’ve done a terrific job of handing off work to different developers.

WPRiders is also very good at finding the most efficient way to finish project tasks. They’re mindful of our budget, and their team balances efficiency and comprehensiveness with our financial constraints. They’ve been very responsive to our concerns and are willing to make adjustments when necessary.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At times, WPRiders has struggled to understand the needs of our client, especially during the early stages of the project. There were times when I would give them a requirement, and they would return a deliverable that was coded correctly but didn’t make sense from a user perspective. I run into this problem with almost every programmer that I work with, and they’ve been better than some others. Thankfully, we’ve been able to lessen the frequency of miscommunications through screen sharing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As I said before, the time difference is a bit of a factor, so be aware of that when you start a project with them. I try to work with their schedule and am usually available when they’re working. I’ve become more aware of the problem as our partnership has progressed, and I’ve tried my best to compensate for it.

Visualization is very important. Showing concepts with diagrams, videos, and other visual aids will speed up the entire process. Looking back, I wish that we would've prepared for the project with more than just verbal descriptions.

Using video conferences can also be extremely beneficial. Sometimes, explaining your ideas with just a phone call or email can lead to a lot of back and forth.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the business development manager at Fred Beans Parts, an automotive parts center.  

What challenge were you trying to address with WPRiders?

We had created a first-of-its-kind digital returns program that our customers were hesitant about using. The program was using several services, like Zapier and WebMerge, and a few WordPress plugins. We needed to streamline these into one service to improve performance and cut costs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

My team presented WPRiders with a working example of what we wanted. They updated the format and content of our automatically generated PDF. They also batched our PDF emails. The team added a dashboard to our WordPress page and worked on data formatting.

What is the team composition?

Our project team leader was Alex (Full Stack Developer, WPRiders).

How did you come to work with WPRiders?

Our company put out an RFP on Codeable and received about ten proposals. We ultimately chose WPRiders because of their availability, experience, and cost.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from September 2018–March 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Customers are no longer reticent about the returns program and have expressed satisfaction with the update.

How did WPRiders perform from a project management standpoint?

Despite the time difference, WPRiders communicated seamlessly and met all of our timeline goals. They were very accommodating of the many modifications my team made to the project as it progressed.

Their team used PHP and JSON. We communicated via Codeable.

What did you find most impressive about them?

WPRiders was extremely responsive. If they could not resolve a problem immediately, they provided a timeframe and adhered to it. Although we are no longer engaged in a partnership with them, they have quickly troubleshot and rectified any issues that have come up since launch.

Their WordPress capabilities were very strong.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there were no blatant things that could be fixed or improved.

Any advice for potential customers?

Go into the project well-prepared and with clear set objectives. This applies to any technical project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re building an online platform that connects teachers to students. It’s an educational website with several services, including homework help and online video classes in different disciplines, including English. I’m the founder.

What challenge were you trying to address with WPRiders?

I’d been trying to build the platform since 2016. I had worked with some local companies in Chicago until 2018, but they didn’t work out, so I needed a new partner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a system for students to book teachers, which we’ve been working on for three months. Teachers have full control of their schedules; while students can check those schedules and book the teachers accordingly.

There is a form containing things like class types, levels, and the number of textbook pages the student wants help with. Students can also attach files and after submitting a form, it is sent directly to all teachers with relevant specializations.

They built the system on WordPress, though I took care of the design. I may give them more work in the future because their technical development section is good.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with Marius (General Manager, WPRiders) a project manager, and a full-stack developer.

How did you come to work with WPRiders?

I found them on Codeable, after posting a query. We started working together and I haven’t had any challenges with them; they understood mine immediately. It was as though they read my mind.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2018. A new milestone was delivered in November—we’ve had 6–7 thus far.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’re confident about their work, which they do really well. When I ask them for something, they do it one hundred percent. That’s what I was missing with other development companies.

The website is online, but it’s not fully functional yet as I’m still working on its content. There’s been nothing wrong with it so far. I’ve been the one to make mistakes after playing with the deliverables before they were transferred to the live website, but I talked to them and they fixed what I did without saying anything. I liked that, especially because I hadn’t seen it with the other companies I worked with, which left me alone to deal with the problem.

How did WPRiders perform from a project management standpoint?

I like that Marius keeps in constant touch about changes and milestones. Marius insists I don’t pay until I’m one-hundred-percent satisfied, which is good. We use Codeable's messaging system for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their speed and quality. When I ask them for something, they read my mind and even complete my sentences sometimes. I haven’t had any difficulties explaining things to them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing against them. Their pricing is also surprisingly good.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have your ideas ready before placing an order, rather than just throwing things around. It’s helpful to use paper and pen to explain the requirements because even though their English is good, visuals are helpful to explain how certain things should look.