How to Hire a Web Developer: A Practical Checklist for Business Owners

Most people hiring a web developer for the first time do it wrong. They look at a portfolio, like the design, and sign. Then six months later the site is slow, nobody can log in, and the developer has stopped replying. The checklist below is the one I’d hand a friend who runs a business and needs a site built or rescued.

I’ve been building and fixing websites for small businesses for years, and the failure patterns are boringly consistent. Here’s how to avoid them.

Start with the job, not the developer

Before you talk to anyone, write down what the site actually needs to do. “Look nice” is not a requirement. “Take bookings, sync to my calendar, and let me edit prices without calling someone” is a requirement. The clearer your list, the faster you can tell whether a developer is listening or just nodding.

Group your needs into three buckets:

• Must have. The site is useless without these. Ecommerce checkout, a contact form that actually sends, mobile layout that doesn’t break.
• Nice to have. Blog, testimonials, a newsletter signup.
• Future. Things you’ll want in a year. Note them, but don’t pay for them now.

This list becomes your filter. A developer who ignores it and pitches you a template package isn’t a fit, no matter how good their portfolio looks.

Portfolio: look past the screenshots

Anyone can show you a pretty homepage. Ask for the actual URL of a live site they built and go look at it. Then do this:

• Open it on your phone. Load it on a bad connection if you can.
• Run it through PageSpeed Insights. If their own client sites score in the 30s, that’s a preview of your site.
• Click through three or four pages. Broken links and missing images are a tell.
• Check who actually built it. Some “portfolios” are themes they customized for an hour.

You’re not looking for perfection. You’re looking for evidence they ship real, working sites.

Ask how they build, and listen for specifics

Vague answers here are a red flag. You don’t need to be technical to spot them. If you ask “how will you build this?” and get “we use the latest technology,” that’s a non-answer.

Good developers talk about tradeoffs. A custom site gives you control and speed but costs more upfront. A WordPress or Shopify build gets you launched faster and cheaper but locks you into a platform. Neither is wrong. What matters is that they explain why they’d pick one for your situation.

If you’re weighing a fully custom build against an off-the-shelf platform, this writeup on custom web development walks through what you actually get for the money and when it’s overkill.

The code quality question (yes, you can check)

You don’t have to read code to sanity-check it. Ask for read-only access to a repo, or ask them to screen-share and walk you through part of the build. Then look for a few things.

Version control. If they’re not using Git, that’s a problem. You want a history of changes, not a folder on someone’s desktop called site-final-v3-REAL.

Modern, maintained dependencies. If it’s a JavaScript project, the package.json shouldn’t be full of packages last updated in 2019. Old dependencies are security holes waiting to happen. A quick look tells you a lot:

# In the project folder, check for outdated packages
npm outdated

# See what's actually installed and how stale it is
npm ls --depth=0

# Check for known vulnerabilities
npm audit

If npm audit spits out a wall of critical issues, ask why. Sometimes it’s a real problem, sometimes it’s noise from a dev-only dependency. Their answer tells you whether they understand their own stack.

For a WordPress site, the equivalent checks are simpler. Is the core version current? Are plugins updated? Is there a real child theme, or did someone hack the parent theme and lose all their edits at the next update?

Ask about hosting and who owns what

This is where people get burned. Get clear answers in writing to these:

• Who owns the domain? (It should be you, registered in your name.)
• Who owns the code and the content?
• Where is the site hosted, and what does it cost per month?
• If we part ways, how do I get everything and move it?

If any of those answers make you uncomfortable, that’s your answer. A developer who won’t hand over your own domain and code is holding you hostage.

Contracts, pricing, and red flags

Get a written scope. It should list what’s included, what’s not, the timeline, and the payment schedule. A deposit up front is normal. Paying 100% before work starts is not.

Watch for these:

• No written scope. “We’ll figure it out as we go” means you’ll pay for scope creep.
• Monthly fees with no explanation. Hosting and maintenance have real costs. Ask what the fee covers.
• Owning your domain “for convenience.” Hard no.
• No maintenance plan. A site that isn’t updated will get hacked eventually. Budget for it.

Pricing varies wildly and that’s fine. What matters is that you understand what you’re paying for and what happens when something breaks at 9pm on a Friday.

Questions to ask before you sign

Print this list and bring it to the call:

• Can I see a live site you built, and what would you do differently on it now?
• What’s your process if I need a change after launch?
• Who do I contact if the site goes down?
• Do I own the code, domain, and content?
• What’s your typical response time for support?
• Can you hand this off to another developer cleanly if needed?

The last one matters more than people think. A good developer builds so that someone else can pick it up. That’s a sign of professionalism, not a threat to their business.

FAQ

How much should I expect to pay for a small business website?

It ranges from a few hundred dollars for a simple template site to five figures for custom work with integrations. The number depends on features, not size. Get a written scope and compare quotes on the same list of requirements.

Do I really need to own my domain and code?

Yes. If you don’t control the domain, you don’t control your business’s online presence. Register the domain in your own name and make sure the code and content are yours in the contract.

What if I already have a site and just need it fixed?

That’s common and usually easier to scope. Get an audit first so you know whether a fix is cheaper than a rebuild. Sometimes it is, sometimes the old site is a lost cause and rebuilding is the honest answer.