What to Ask Before You Hire a Web or App Developer
Ask these of anyone, including Be Apped. Every one of them comes from a complaint that shows up again and again in reviews of web and app shops: the project that was never finished, the domain the business could not get back, the fee that grew after the deposit.
The questions, in the order they matter
Will the domain, hosting and code be in my name?
The one that hurts most when the answer is no. You should be the account holder for the domain registrar and the hosting, and the contract should say the finished work is yours. "We handle all that for you" is not an answer. The ownership checklist.
What happens if you disappear?
Nobody plans to be ghosted, and it is the most common story in the reviews. The protection is structural: code in a repository you can open, built in a common technology so another developer can pick it up, and payments split so you are never out more than the work delivered.
Can I see the scope before I see the price?
A price attached to a written list of pages or screens, must-haves, can-waits and integrations is a commitment. A price without one is a guess, and guesses grow. What a written scope contains.
What happens when I ask for something outside the scope?
You will. The question is whether the answer is a written change with a price before the work happens, or a surprise on the invoice.
Who actually does the work?
The person you are talking to, or someone you will never meet? Neither is wrong, but you should know, and you should know who answers when something breaks.
What does the monthly fee cover, exactly?
Ask what is included and what triggers an extra charge. A retainer that covers "maintenance" without listing it usually covers less than you think. For a static site, ask why there is a fee at all. Be Apped offers both: long-term maintenance, or a hand-off to you. What to look for.
Can I see something you built, live?
Not a screenshot: the address, so you can open it on your phone, see how fast it loads, and check that it still works. A portfolio of mockups is a portfolio of intentions.
How will we communicate, and how often?
Weekly email, a shared document, a call every fortnight. The method matters less than that there is one, agreed up front, so silence is noticed early.
Is search part of the writing, or an add-on later?
The pages that earn search traffic are the service pages and the honest pages, written for the questions people actually ask. If search is a separate monthly line item that starts after launch, ask what the site was written for.
Signs to walk away
- A price before any questions about what the thing has to do.
- The domain "included", registered in their account.
- A contract that does not say who owns the work.
- Full payment up front.
- A maintenance or SEO fee nobody can itemise.
- Nothing live you can open on your phone.
Why this page is on a developer's website
Because a client who knows what to ask is easier to work with, and because the complaints these questions catch are the reason this industry has the reputation it has. If a question here makes a developer uncomfortable, that is information. It should be as easy to ask Be Apped as anyone else, and the answers should hold up.
Questions people ask
My old developer won't hand over the site. What can I do?
Start with what you can prove you own. If the domain is in your name, you can point it at a new site regardless of who holds the old files. If the domain is in theirs, a written request citing your payment is the first step, and the registrar's dispute process is the second. Meanwhile, a rebuild on accounts you control is often faster than the fight. Send what you have and you will get a straight answer about which it is.
Should I pay a deposit?
A deposit is normal; full payment up front is not. Milestones tied to things you can see, such as scope agreed, design approved, site live, keep both sides honest and mean you are never paying for work that has not happened.
Is a freelancer or an agency safer?
Neither by label. What makes either safe is the same list: your name on the accounts, a written scope, code you can open, and a named person who answers. A one-person shop that does all of that is safer than an agency that does none.
Tell us what the business needs it to do
A short message is enough to start: what the company does, what the website or app has to do for it, and when you need it. You will get a reply from a person.