Hi, I’m Ashley. I’m a developer, creator, and systems administrator.

I’m based in Staffordshire, England, where I live with my wife Emily, daughter Harriet, and our dog, Teddy.

For the last 10 years, I’ve spent much of my time building software for the WordPress ecosystem. I’ve contributed to WordPress core, helped build some of the most loved WordPress plugins, such as WP Offload Media, and led the development of SpinupWP – a modern server control panel.

I have a strong background in systems administration, having served in the Royal Air Force, where I was responsible for implementing and maintaining computer systems classified above secret.

After leaving the Royal Air Force, my focus has been on empowering businesses to host WordPress on their own servers. Having worked on all levels of the software stack, from a network level down to the codebase, I know what’s required to serve WordPress lightning-fast and securely.

I have a wealth of experience in WordPress performance, security, debugging complex server issues, and scaling WordPress. If you need help with a WordPress problem, I can help.

Projects

Jan 2023 - Present
DeploymentHawk

The all-in-one site deployment monitoring tool. Built using Laravel, Inertia.js and Vue.js.
Jun 2019 - Apr 2022
ReplyBox

A privacy-focused comment system built using Laravel and Vue.js. Acquired 2022.
Oct 2017 - Apr 2018
WP Queue

A WordPress library for queueing jobs that are processed in the background.
Jan 2016 - Feb 2018
WP Background Processing

A WordPress library for handling non-blocking async requests and background processing.

Writing

I’m the original author of How to Install WordPress on Ubuntu 22.04 and Speed Up Your Sites – the most comprehensive guide to hosting WordPress yourself. I’m super proud of this series, which ultimately led to the development of SpinupWP.

Over the years, I’ve also written a bunch of articles on development, performance, and caching: