What to ask before you hire a developer.

22 October 2026

The short answer

Ask who will own what is built, what exactly is included, what it costs every month afterwards, and what happens if you part company. A good developer answers all four plainly and puts the answers in writing. If any of them gets a vague answer, keep looking.

About ownership

1. Who owns the domain name? It should be registered in your name or your company's, with your email on the account. A domain held in a developer's name can be hard to get back if things go wrong.

2. Who owns the code and the design when it is finished and paid for? You should, or at least have a written licence to use, change and move it freely. Ask whether any part is built on the developer's own tools that only they can run.

3. Whose accounts will it run on? Hosting, email, analytics and payment accounts are best opened in your name, with the developer given access. If they must hold an account, ask how it would be handed over.

About the work

4. What is included, line by line? Pages, features, the words and pictures, how many rounds of changes, and testing on phones. Anything not on the list is not in the price.

5. Who will actually do the work? Some agencies sell the work and pass it to someone else. That can be fine, but you should know who is building your site and who answers when it breaks.

6. How will I see progress? Look for a working preview you can click through early, not a big reveal at the end. Problems are cheapest to fix in week two.

7. Can I see something similar you have built, and talk to that client? A developer with nothing to show, or no one who will vouch for them, is a risk however good the price.

About afterwards

8. What does it cost every month once it is live? Hosting, licences, plugins and support. Some cheap builds are paid back through running costs you cannot leave.

9. Who keeps it updated and secure? Websites need updates like anything else. Agree whether that is you, them, or nobody, because nobody is the common answer and the expensive one.

10. What happens if we stop working together? The answer you want is that they hand over the code, the logins and the domain, and help you move. Ask for it in the contract.

Warning signs

• A price given before they have asked what your business does.
• No written quote or contract, or one that lists outcomes but not work.
• Pressure to decide quickly, or a large payment up front for a small job.
• A promise to put you top of Google. Nobody can promise that.
• Reluctance to put the domain or the code in your name.

Paying for the work

Splitting payment into stages is normal: a deposit, a payment when you approve the design, and the rest at launch. For bigger work, each stage should end with something you can see and use. Check the developer's business details too: a limited company can be looked up free on Companies House.

A second opinion

If you already have a quote, or a site someone else built, and you want to know whether it is sound, that is what our reviews are for. We look at it, write down what we find in plain order, and you decide what to do with it.

Where this comes from

• Looking up a company: Companies House, find and update company information.