Are you looking to hire a web developer? If yes, you need to answer a lot of questions first. Do you need a web developer or a dedicated web development team? What is your project size? Do you want to add a contact form to your landing page or develop a sophisticated client-side web service […]
Are you looking to hire a web developer? If yes, you need to answer a lot of questions first. Do you need a web developer or a dedicated web development team? What is your project size? Do you want to add a contact form to your landing page or develop a sophisticated client-side web service with cloud hosting integration? If you don’t have all the answers yet, let us help you out.
We have laid out the steps you need to take to find a web developer who is right for your project.
Let’s start.
Step 1. Determine your business challenges
All web development projects are different. At the very beginning of your search, you need to decide what kind of web development project you need a developer for:
- A simple web project includes building a simple website or integrating additional features to the existing one. These features might be a contact form, a CTA button, a new template design, a subscription button, and so on.
- Medium web projects include various project types, including the development of static or dynamic web apps, online stores, and other services that require integration of third-party services such as CRM, CMS, databases, chatbots, APIs, and others.
- Large-sized web projects refer to projects such as a video sharing social media app or social networks that require, not only a bunch of sophisticated technologies but also integration with cloud hosting servers to store all their user data.
At this stage, you also need to define your unique business challenges, i.e., the reason you need to hire a web developer. Our experience shows that customers are looking for a web developer for one of the following situations:
- You want to build a project from scratch. The primary goal for start-ups is to enter their niche as soon as possible so, they need to hire an outsourcing web development team to save time and money. At the same time, existing businesses that want to automate some processes may choose between an in-house or a dedicated web development team.
- You need to extend your in-house team with an extra specialist to help you with an ongoing project. In this case, you can choose between hiring a freelance web developer, or outsourcing a developer through a web development agency for some particular period.
- You want to use technology that nobody in your in-house dev team has experience with. Unless you want to wait for your developers to learn it, you can hire a web programmer from an outsourcing agency who already knows said technology.
Step 2. Decide on the developer’s skills
There are essentially three categories of web developers: front-end, back-end, and full-stack.
- Front-end developers make changes to the front of your site, i.e., the part of the website visitors interact with. You can hire such developers to change the design and layout of your website slightly. If this is what you need, you may want to interview some web designers who are more visually creative, focusing on user experience. They create the website layout, color scheme, and other visual elements to be used. Web developers turn the website design into fully functional websites using HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Node.JS, ASP.NET, React.JS, Angular 8, Vue, and other technologies.
- Back-end developers are responsible for website structure, hidden behind the front-end, i.e., how your website works. You might need some specialist if you want to improve your website’s speed, integrate third-party services into the site infrastructure, or solve technical issues. In most cases, back-end developers use such technologies as PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, and databases, including MongoDB, SQL – MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and others.
- Full-stack developers are experienced in developing both the front and back-end of websites. Such specialists are becoming popular among start-ups that have limited resources. While full-stack developers have a higher hourly rate, compared to previously described developers, it is cheaper to work with such a specialist than hire front and back-end developers.
Step 3. Check out the web development team’s expertise
How to choose a web developer? Before hiring web developers, you evaluate the experience of the web development team and find out whether they can cope with your requirements for your upcoming project. Thus, before filling in contact forms, it is always a good idea to check the team’s portfolio to find out more about their previous projects.
What to look for when hiring a web developer? Before signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), you also need to check the soft skills of your web developers since they are essential for the project’s success. The set of crucial soft skills includes:
- Proactivity
- Approachability
- Communication
- Teamwork
Step 4. Select a working model
Depending on the complexity and scope of your web development project, you may choose among the following models of cooperation:
- The project-based model is popular among start-ups or well-established businesses that want to accomplish a small web development project. This model includes a predefined scope of work and established timeframes. Also, the web development team is responsible for all project management as well as the choice of technological solutions. In this business model, all responsibilities are on the web development team.
- A Dedicated Team business model works great if you need to implement complex functions to your websites, such as cloud storage integration, or AI Chabot development, but want to save time and costs on hiring in-house specialists. As for controlling the project roadmap, you can do it individually or pass the project’s decisions to your dedicated web development team. As for the responsibilities of the project’s success, they depend on the project management’s process side. If PM is on the side of the customer, they have responsibility for the team.
- Extended team is the best option for developing big projects while staying within the project’s budget. Also, for active cooperation, you’ll need to have an in-house CTO and project manager, since, with an extended team model, you will be responsible for tasks assignments, progress management, and leading web developers from the technical management side. In this business model, all responsibility, validation, and control are the customers.
Step 5. Choose a payment model
If you decide to work with a single web developer or web development team, you will need to pay them a salary every month, like regular workers. The same is necessary for both and extended tea and a dedicated team working models. However, for a project-based working model, you can choose between:
- Fixed price paying model, which is the best option for small web projects with a clear scope of work and time frame.
- Time and Material, known as Pay as You Go, is used for small, medium, or big- sized projects when the scope of work, as well as the time frame, is not so easy to estimate. This paying model includes paying the hourly rate of each developer based on actual time spent on development.
- After this stage, you and your web developers can start the discovery or inception phase of the project and create functional and non-functional requirements for the project MVP.
Final Thoughts
Whether you need to make small changes to your website, build a web app, or complete a social network with cloud storage and many third-party integrations, you can easily find a web developer for hire.
By following our guide on how to find a web developer, you can not only select the perfect candidate for your project but also choose the best working and paying models. Furthermore, don’t underestimate the importance of the web developer’s soft skills, since they impact your project’s success.