How to find a web developer or app developer

• • Where do I find a web developer or app developer?

  • How do I know if the developer I found is any good?

• • Is it worth it working with overseas developers to save money?

  • What is a fair price to pay for the website or the app?

  • What are some problems I might face, or things to watch out for?

  • Can I trust the developer I found to do things correctly?

  • What should I do if I run into problems with the developer?

Where do I find a web or app developer?

Do a search for web developers or app developers on Upwork.com and/or Fiverr.com. There are tons of developers available there. Fiverr tends to be a little cheaper than Upwork. But you kind of get what you pay for typically.

Developers on both sites are often in other countries outside the US. It’s often easier to work with a developer from the US because English is often their native language and their time zone won’t be off from yours by more than a few hours.

Working with developers in other countries often means the time zone is 10-12 hrs different from yours and English is often their second language, which can sometimes create a bit of a communication barrier. 

Here’s the step-by-step process to finding a good developer:

1. Search Upwork or Fiverr for developers who have portfolio work that is similar to what you’re looking for. The idea here is to find a person who has experience with projects similar to yours. Some types of apps and websites are harder than others, so you want a developer who already knows most of what they need to complete your job. Optimally they are in your same country and speak your language natively.
2. Compile a list of the best developers you’ve seen that meet your criteria.
3. Get help from a designer friend. If you have a friend who knows good app or web design, someone with a solid design background, show them your list of top developers to get feedback.
4. Contact your top 5 developers, and send them a design document and ask for a price quote (also called a “spec” or “design specification”) that describes exactly what you need done. Screen shots, diagrams, images, and details are all helpful.The idea is that the developer really wants to understand everything they can about your project, BEFORE they talk to you. This helps them to know what the time and costs might be.
5. Create a web design specification for the designer. Here’s a helpful page that give examples and details of a website design spec >>
6. See who responds, how well they communicate and how long it takes them to reply. Ask whatever questions you have or answer whatever questions they have. Make a note of who are the best communicators and who are timely and responded quickly. This helps you understand what their future communication will be like.
7. Final steps to narrow your choice. If you like one more than the others, let them know all the details of what you need and let them know that timely and good communication will be absolutely critical to you, and would they be agreeable to establish this type of good communication during the project. Note – some developers will be afraid of this and might ghost you at that point. But the ones who understand and assure you that they’ll be good communicators are worth strong consideration.
8. If you can reach an agreement and seem to have built a good rapport with one of them, you could hire them. Good luck!

How do I know if the developer I found is any good?

Upwork and Fiverr both use ratings/star systems to help users know which developers the community likes. On top of that, you should find a designer friend to help you sift through the many choices.

Only work with developers who have a deep portfolio and who have done work that is similar to what you need. This ensures that they already have tackled projects like yours and won’t be doing too much learning or making many mistakes along the way.

Ensure that their communication is good… definitely write to them to discuss your project and get a  price quote. Hopefully they have solid language skills, easy to understand, they respond to your questions thoroughly and quickly.

Is it worth it working with overseas developers to save money?
That will be a personal decision depending on your own needs. Overseas developers are normally a lot cheaper than US developers (roughly half the cost or less), but they can be notoriously tricky to work with, due to time zone issues, language barrier issues and the fact that they can sometimes just sort of disappear on you.

This is not to say it’s a bad idea. I’ve known numerous people who have found amazing developers, who’ve been very happy. I know a larger number of people who have run into trouble. Not normally because the developer is shady or dishonest, but because your project is just not as critical to them as it is to you, combined with language, time zone and cultural issues.

What is a fair price to pay for the website or the app?

This is a tough question because there are a lot of factors. U.S. developers will cost more than overseas developers. The level of service they provide will affect price. Their level of experience has a lot to do with price.

How much hand-holding do you need? Are you a newbie and will they need to do a lot of work with you to learn exactly, specifically what you need? Or are you a pro who has done this before and knows exactly what you need done and is good at communicating this information?

You can get price quotes for the same app or website that range from $500 to $20,000, depending on who you’re asking. My advice is to choose someone who has a quote in the lower middle range.

If you need a website that’s not terribly complicated, there are one-stop solutions such as UENI or Shopify. There are also excellent built-it-yourself sites like Wix and Squarespace too. They offer attractive template designs and fairly easy to use visual no-code editors.

What are some problems I might face, or things to watch out for?

Sometimes you’ll find that the developer is not doing things as you thought they would. This happens frequently I’m sorry to say.

There are a number of considerations. To keep things safe, here are my top recommendations:

1. Spend as much time evaluating and vetting the developer as you can before hiring them. You will be forced to live with your choice for quite a while so you need to choose wisely.
2. You should choose the hosting company and maintain the hosting account – don’t let the developer host your site – even the temporary non-launched site. You can grant your developer access to the account to build the site. Don’t let the developer act as the website host because then they have the ability to lock you out of the site if somehow you end up in a argument, which happens with frequency unfortunately.
3. Any agreement you have with the developer should give you a way out, in case you decide you’ve hired the wrong developer. Your agreement should state that you reserve the option to cancel the project if needed, if things aren’t going well, deadlines are being missed, quality of work is not acceptable, or any reason really.
4. Your agreement should also state the details of the entire project, timelines, due dates, payment milestones, who owns the work (it should be you, the work the developer does should be work for hire, with all ownership of the work belonging to you)
5. Pay the developer in increments – not all at once up front. Base your payments on successful milestones. 3 or 4 milestones is good. One payment up front to begin, one payment at a mid-point where the developer has shown that they are serious about meeting your needs and completing things on time and a majority of the job is complete, and a final payment after all bugs are fixed and the project is fully launched.
6. Arrange for how to work with the developer AFTER your project has been launched. After the launch, you’ll decide you need to make various changes and updates, and you should know your developer’s hourly rates or whether there are constraints on continuing to work with them.This way, if things fall apart, you won’t have to ask for money back (spoiler: you won’t get it back).

Can I trust the developer I found to do things correctly?

In short, not really. There’s simply no way to know for sure if the developer will do a great and trustworthy job, or not – other than reading all the reviews and doing whatever you can to to vet the developer.

Do your best to be clear about what you want, need and expect and hopefully the developer will stay on track and deliver as promised. If it’s not working out and you can’t resolve your issues, you might consider discontinuing work with that developer and finding another one.

Keep in mind that developers often hate picking up a project done by another developer half-way through. It can be a difficult job to dig into someone else’s work and complete the second half.

You simply need to be your own advocate and communicate often and clearly to set expectations and make agreements in writing, so your developer doesn’t get off track.

What should I do if I run into problems with the developer?

If you can’t resolve your issues with your developer, you’ll have to decide if you can move forward and fix the problems you’re having, or whether you need to let the developer go.

If you decide to break up with your developer, you should stop payments right away.

You should try as hard as you can to remain on good terms with the developer, not antagonizing them or blaming them, but rather explaining that your expectations are not being met and instead of moving ahead with someone who is a wrong fit, you’d like to look for a developer who is a better fit for you.

If you’re using a developer from Upwork or Fiverr, you should report the problems to them to see if they can help you (often they won’t – those sites are sort of “self-serve”… but it’s worth a try).

You’ll need to communicate as clearly as possible with them to try and resolve any problems. Timelines can often be missed. Sometimes work quality is not what you wanted.

Sometimes the person who you talk to during the hiring phase is not the actual developer, but rather a marketing/business development manager who get you signed up, and then passes you over to another person. You should ask if the person you’ll be working with is the same as the person who is helping you discuss your project and quoting you.

If things go terribly wrong you may decide to stop working with the developer. This is really unfortunate because you’ll lose some time and you’ll need to transition to a new developer.

If this happens, you will want to stay on your developers good side during this time so that they don’t mess up your site or hold back work that you’ve already paid for.