How to Hire a Web Developer

Each day sees the birth of a vast number of websites. Further, with over a billion sites presently on the web, having a decent site that helps boost your brand’s online presence & customer reach is among the difficulties numerous companies encounter. 

As you may know, owning a user-friendly & intuitive website that allows for a satisfactory user experience makes a difference for firms to enhance brand awareness. For example, statistically, users take only 0.05 seconds to make up their minds about your site. That is why a company must optimize web development and hire web developers.

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Employing a Web Developer: Pros and Cons 

Before delving into the main section, how about we check out the upsides and downsides of recruiting one?

1. Pros

Responsibilities for web development require a significant amount of time spent and high skills to accomplish, so there needs someone dedicated to doing so. However, that is not all; having a web designer for hire will be helpful in the areas below. 

You can pay more attention to other significant tasks besides web development services thanks to in-house web developers. Moreover, those persons in charge are essential for your everyday business operations. They will have a deeper understanding of your business’s needs and proceed with the most suitable solutions to your web development.

On top of that, it allows you, as the business owner, to set your yearly corporate financial plan and oversee the organizational work process viably. As a result, you will have more extensive control of your enterprise. Plus, the web development team may help you with the decision-making process, generating more feasible corporate ideas & concepts and ensuring your project accomplishment. 

2. Cons

It is safe to say that web developers are one of the assets that your firm can hold for a long time. And keeping up a long-term relationship with them is of great importance. Hence, if you fail to make the best and most informed choice of hiring this post, you may realize you had an incompetent employee when it is past the point of no return, and you have utilized a great deal of cash on them. 

How to Hire a Web Developer 

Step 1: Map out Your Scope of the Work

To hire a dedicated PHP developer, etc., you should first clarify what you are attempting to achieve. But if you do not realize that yet, you will have little to no chance of succeeding in figuring out who to hire and what to tell them.

To be more specific, doing so will be helpful in:

• Attaining clarity for yourself: It is a decent exercise for yourself when you write things out. It assists you with reflecting and realizing what you are attempting to achieve and decreases your ideas’ vagueness.
• Removing the unsuitable candidate: If the set of working responsibilities is clear, you can eliminate unqualified individuals. Meanwhile, in the case of a dubious & broad job description, far more people will apply to the position as gone against if you give details. 
• Coders can be more efficient directly at the start: Your website coders for hire will invest less time in the discovery process, considering your clear expectations. Instead, they can get right to how to carry out the undertaking assigned.
• Getting better estimates: As candidates know the work extent, they are more likely to estimate the costs & time beforehand. It will likewise reduce the probability of costly changes being made.

Step 2: Decide the Type of Web Developer You Need

When it comes to tweaking your website, more often than not, the assignments come from the following areas: 

• Functionality/ coding: It can be adjusting the site’s management panel or adding a shopping cart. 
• Design: This involves redesigning the header image, logo, the full page format, adding design effects, etc.

Contingent upon which area is centered in your project, it is necessary to employ various individuals. Else, do you intend to make a whole website? Then, people for both may be who you need. 

Below is a more specific break-down of the term ‘web developer’ coverage:

Front-End vs. Back-End Developers

One thing to remember when you hire a web developer: Out of developers’ subgroups, back-end and front-end development is the most important. 

Regarding the front-end, it is certain things in your website that the visitors see in their web browser. Meanwhile, anything behind that is the back-end. Both of them are where you administer your site. They also allow the site to interact with your database and all that.

When it comes to front-end developers, they are responsible for using languages and managing your site’s look.

In comparison, positions such as freelance backend developers pay attention to how your website functions. Aside from working on the functionality, their jobs involve handling technical concerns like site speed. These employees’ expertise includes PHP (mainly if you use a WordPress theme for your site), Python, and Java, among other programming languages.

Full-Stack Developer

As you know, back-end & front-end developers are trained professionals. They tend to be pretty decent in managing their domain yet not knowledgeable in the other individual’s one. 

So, based on your demand, you may be better off employing a few people (front-end developer, graphic designer, back-end developer) to execute your site or the necessary adjustments. But it brings about more working hours & higher expenses. 

Else, you may want to hire a web developer working as a generalist with the ability to do everything, a purported full-stack developer. These all-rounders can create complete sites from the beginning – design, execution, & coding. On the one hand, their insight is not generally somewhere down in each field compared to the specialists. But, on the other hand, they are ready to deliver the results you need. 

Note that employers like this can be more costly but ask for less coordination. Thus, it can accelerate the process, ultimately setting aside your cash. 

Freelance vs. Full-time

Last but not least, when you hire a web developer, you might wonder whether to find a freelance web developer or someone full-time. Of course, that relies upon your project’s specifics. 

Do you want somebody to deal with one-off work? If so, having a freelancer handle it is your safest bet. After concurring on the timeline, delivery, & price, you will count on them to build your site and take over from that point. Also, you can employ them again in case you need any adjustments. 

Still, if you are looking for somebody to deal with your website constantly, people such as an offshore PHP developer are not the best option. Instead, employ a permanent web developer. This bodes well, for instance, in case you are creating an intricate news site that requires a great deal of work, regular adjustment, and plenty of different content. A full-time can help with a limited amount of time assigned to tasks or project-based learning sites.

Step 3: Plan Your Budget

Apart from thinking about the position types you need, it will help if you are reasonably sure about your budget when deciding to hire a web developer.

Hourly Pay vs. Fixed Rate

First, will you pay them at a fixed price or by the hour? There are pros and cons to both. The final choice relies upon who you recruit and your project. We suggest a practical way how to choose: 

• Fixed fee for the small project + web developer with little experience
• Fixed fee for the large project (a couple of weeks or months) 
• Hour pay for the small project (as long as seven days) + veteran developer 

The reason is that:

If you hire a PHP programmer with knowledge and skills gained over a while, you can expect them to be faster and not make mistakes easily. Thus, experienced people will not need to double-check and rectify mistakes repeatedly, which is time-saving. After all, time-based pay usually is less expensive. 

Meanwhile, inexperienced hires may require more revisions and putting things right. In other words, they need more working hours; hence, we suggest agreeing on a fixed price. 

Large projects have many more possible errors, design modifications, flawed estimations, and corrections. As a result, paying the workers by the hour can result in a great deal of cost once you wrap up the project. That is why you advisably get a developer account for the overall effort (counting likely fixes) and concur on a fixed fee. 

Common Pricing: Rate Per Hour for Each Platform and Type of Developer

Next up, what amount would it be a good idea for you to expect? It indeed has to do with many elements, for example, the location of the individual you will work with. Make sure you give some thoughts about it when you hire a web developer. 

To help you with that, we give reference points for hourly and expected project rates. One thing to note, they apply no matter whether you hire a freelance web developer or a full-time one.

• Full-stack developer: from $75 to $150 or more per hour
• Back-end developer: from $35 to $150 or more per hour
• Front-end developer: from $15 to $150 or more per hour 
• The whole website

• E-commerce site: from $3,000 to $20,000 or more
• Site builder: from $600 to $2,500
• Joomla: from $1,500 to $7,000
• WordPress: from $3,000 to $15,000

• Custom plugins & features: from $100 to $1,000
• Fixing code or plugin problems: from $40 to $600

Step 4: Checklist for Hiring a Developer 

Before you post the job opening to hire a web developer online and expect to see the applications, consider handling this concern beforehand: how would you conclude who to employ? The following are a couple of guidelines to increase your likelihood of selecting a suitable up-and-comer.

Technical Competencies

The skills required for the various sorts of developers vary. So the principal thing you should do is to ensure your applicants check those requirements.

Past Work 

By looking at your developers’ previous projects, you will know more about their experience, qualities, and shortcomings. That can likewise be on their own site as code snippets or screenshots.

Experience

Again, compared to inexperienced ones, veteran website developers do not make that many mistakes and boast shorter turnaround times. On the other hand, they cost more (obviously!). While novices cost less, it may take longer for them to accomplish your project – let alone, they probably create more issues. It depends on you to choose what comes out best for you and is generally subject to your project timeframe.

Communication Competencies

What is more? Include their overall communication skills in the checklist when hiring a web developer. Do they give a clear enough answer to your interview questions? Do they sound like the people you might want to work with? 

Response Time 

It is significant to be able to reach your freelance web developer. For example, if some adjustments are related to the project, you would prefer not to wait a few days for them to get back to you. 

Client Feedback

It is worth mentioning that a lot of job portals provide customer feedback. Instead of looking at the general rating, we recommend checking out past clients’ remarks before recruiting a developer. It is a decent way of becoming familiar with an individual’s qualities, such as a hard-working attitude and turnaround time.

Paid Tests

Since you have shortlisted only a few candidates for the position of freelance website developer, asking them to finish a paid test is advisable. Let them do a small undertaking to see their actual performance. Focus on their work and communication alike all through. 

Step 5: Decide Where to Hire a Web Developer 

Today’s technology makes it simpler to discover and recruit a developer. You have sites brimming with professionals worldwide that can meet your requirements. 

Guru 

Here, millions of freelancers are holding on to work with you. For your information, Guru has many notable features, such as safe payment gateways.

Codeable 

This outsourcing service is explicitly for WordPress. With it, you can give a quick rundown of what you need as well as match with the appropriate developers rapidly. 

Upwork 

As one of the best freelance websites for web developers, Upwork is simple to use and brings many tools to the table – for example, time monitoring and auto payments for accomplished milestones.

Freelancer.com 

Like Upwork, Freelancer.com boasts many accessible remort workers so that you can easily hire web developers. In addition, you may like the milestone payment system, real-time chat, and others. 

Outsourcely 

Here, you will recruit and pay remote employees straightforwardly. Long-term job-wise, the site is one of the best bets for those looking for a permanent developer. 

Toptal 

Toptal is a super high standard website to hire a web developer. It just accepts a small percentage of applicants, enabling you to employ top talent (as its name suggests). Unfortunately, there are no open data on rates except for presumably pricier than other options. 

Step 6: Do the Job Posting

So, you have it – the proper place to find a web developer! Now, let’s make the actual job posting. As addressed, you should be completely clear about your wants. That way will allow you to communicate it successfully to other people.

What you should include in the job posting:

Background Information 

Firstly, introduce your firm, brand, & yourself. Express your business objectives and the target market you aim at. That should provide developers with a general idea of the project’s area.

Project Summary 

Secondly, summarize the project. Do you hire a web developer to accomplish website design, make some changes? Please be accurate about its information. 

Deliverables 

What would you like in the end? A complete site? A WordPress theme? Inform job seekers about what they should manage to deliver. 

The Ideal Candidate  

Also, be clear about the expertise level you are searching for, aside from other significant qualities.

Existing Resources

Let applicants know about anything to be offered from your side. For example, they are wireframes, color schemes, logos, etc. 

Timeframe 

When is it necessary for your project to become ready? Please keep that in mind when you post the job to hire a web developer. More often than not, delays will happen. That is why we suggest posting a tighter deadline, which should support you if something turns out badly. 

Step 7: Set up a Meeting With Your Potential Candidates

What to ask and say during the interview? It will be best if you include the following questions:

• Kindly describe three website development projects you have been involved in. What were the most fascinating and complicated parts? 

You can decide a candidate’s way of thinking and feel about joining web development projects simply by asking so. 

• What new technologies or programming languages have you picked up? 

Moreover, the ability to adjust to changes and innovation advancements is among a decent developer’s vital qualities. 

• What website platforms are you experienced with? Which is/ are you most interested in, and why? 

Asking that question when you hire a web developer should assist you with deciding the extent of your applicant’s knowledge and skills. Further, it will help you know more or less about how much the candidate knows the benefits and weaknesses of utilizing those platforms. 

• How about your production timeline?

The question will be useful for deciding how quickly an applicant carries out everyday undertakings without sacrificing the quality. 

• Before you begin creating a website, what sort of research do you do?

It will assist you with deciding the up-and-comer’s professionalism level. 

• Is writing HTML altogether by hand comfortable for you? (Ask the candidate to carry out an exercise later on)

Equally importantly, you must ensure you offer top-notch pay to a developer who does not require external resources to write an essential HTML document. Concerning the exercise, give a website sample and ask the interviewee to write its HTML

• What are a couple of your #1 developer tools, and why? 

It will help you check the applicant’s competence level. You need to ensure that they are equipped to work with the developer tools your enterprise uses.

• As for W3C, what is it? 

Since you hire a web developer, looking for candidates who can fulfill web standards is significant. Ask so to determine whether they know about the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). 

• Please share a super-duper difficult task that you have experienced previously and show how you tackled it. 

In fact, it will allow you to evaluate and find out about a candidate’s abilities to deal with problems.

Step 8: Final Review

This step should involve:

• Review milestones agreed on. Accept paying if you are happy with what you see.
• Consider candidates’ technical and behavioral competencies as well as overall interview performance.
• Give justification for your choice to hire a web developer candidate or not.
• Settle on well-rounded recruiting decisions.
• Store data that could be valuable later on (for example, when offering feedback to disqualified candidates or while considering previous candidates for another position)

Conclusion

In short, we hope the above guide helps you rock the hiring process in a single step. On the one hand, it may be nerve-racking the first time you implement it. But, on the other hand, it will become simpler once you have more experience. 

Do you enjoy reading this guide on how to hire a web developer? Then, do not hesitate to look at other informative and helpful posts on our site. 

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