How to choose a web developer correctly?

You may have an idea to create your own intenet shop, website, web system or application. That is great! Although the idea is a very important point in the construction of the project, it is only the very beginning, because the project will not be able to rise above the ground without the right people who will be able to plan, build and maintain it properly.

Two-handed fingers will not be enough to list how many projects have failed because of sloppy, incompetent, lazy or simply under-knowledgeable programmers. In this article we will list, in our opinion, the most important points that you will be able to manage to find developers who will be able to successfully realize your idea.

Portfolio.

Judge by deeds, not words. A very simple step that will provide demonstrable proof of how capable the developers are is to look at their portfolio. Take a good look at the project. Its structure, design, functionality, loading speed, etc..c. Please also note that, unfortunately, sometimes it happens that the developers cannot fully express themselves due to the wishes of the customer or the budget limits for the project.

Reviews.

It may happen that the final product, which can be viewed, is created perfectly, but by this it is impossible to judge what difficulties have had to be encountered during development. Have the developers been responsive, easy to reach, understanding? Perhaps in the end, this project has not been worth all the headaches at all. Feedback can help here. According to the feedback, you will be able to judge how people really feel about the whole development process. It is important to know if the reviews are real, checking whether the review writers are real people, for example, on social networks. You can even try to ask. This is your project that you put on the game, and the more information about developers, the better.

Experience.

There are many different specifics in programming, so there is a possibility that the developers will not be able to realize your wishes. Building an informative website is quite another than building, for example, a portal, an online store or a large accounting system. Check that your developers have the experience and knowledge to develop your system. See if you want the developer to show you your projects that you’ve already done. If you can’t find something like your idea in your portfolio, look for any other high-quality and complexity projects. Most likely, people who have built a trading platform will be able to build an online store for you, but a person who has created only informative pages will be a much riskier option.

Communication and planning.

In order to get the best possible result and your wishes are realized, it is very important that you get along with the developer. A professional developer will review/develop a plan with you and explain all the points of the technical side of the project in a language that you understand. If it is difficult for you to communicate with this person, then it is better to seek help somewhere else. Sometimes it is better to wait and look longer than to start everything as soon as possible and to understand in the middle of the project that, indeed, it is impossible to work with these people.

Just remember that the most important thing is for you to think carefully about what you want and how you want it, because after all, the idea is yours and the developer is here to give you technical assistance in implementing the idea.

Transparency of the project.

In order for you to know if everything in the project takes place after deadlines, plan and agreed costs, you need to make sure that the developer provides reports and whether it gives you the opportunity to contact him directly, for example, in a chat group. If a developer uses a work management system, such as Jira, you can request access to your project and follow all processes and progress through this system.

Support.

Be sure to make sure that the web developers you’ve watched provide support even after you transfer the project. No matter how perfect, experienced and professional the developer is, there is always the possibility that something in the system may not work, or optimization, improvement, etc. will be needed. This point may not be so important for a simple information page, but if you have a large system, platform or application in mind, for example, you will need help 100% later, and excellent if it can be provided by the developer himself.

Costs.

Different developers require different prices. They can be both suspiciously low and cosmically high. Taking into account the above points, you can turn to different developers and compare prices. However, note that suspiciously low price, very often, means low quality of work. As well as, cosmically high price does not always mean the appropriate quality of work. It should be mentioned, however, that cheap or expensive is a very relative concept, so we recommend comparing the offers of at least three developers in order to understand what the real market situation is, and if one offers a very low price and the other two offer high, then be sure to think about whether the low-cost offeror will actually be able to bring the project to a conclusion, or whether there are no hidden costs that are directly included in the offered price, compared to others. An experienced developer who does his job honorably will almost always require an appropriate salary. You can ask the developer to explain the cost thoroughly for each point of the project, so that you are not cheated and know what you are paying for to the smallest detail.

Security.

Just in case you do lose contact with the programmer, you must have a backup.

When developing serious web systems, make sure that the development of your web project is documented and that the code is safe. The programmer should be offered the option of installing the so-called GIT so that code changes are recorded, which will be important if you decide to turn to and continue the project with another developer, as well as GIT ensures that the code itself will be safe. A professional programmer must also be able to draw up technical documentation.