How to Choose a Shopify Developer: 12 Questions to Ask Before You Hire
Hiring a Shopify developer is hard to judge from a portfolio alone. These twelve questions reveal how they really work, and what to avoid.
- Written by
Fahad, CEO & Head of Development- Published
- Reading time
- 2 minutes
Most Shopify developers can show you a nice homepage. Far fewer can tell you how they protect a live store while they work on it, who owns the code when the project ends, or what happens three months after launch. The questions below separate the developers who ship reliable stores from the ones who ship a screenshot.
Before the call: check the basics
Check that the developer is a Shopify Partner, which at least confirms they work with the platform professionally. Then look at live stores they built, not only mockups. Open them on a phone, time the homepage, and try a checkout. Those three minutes will tell you more than any case study.
The twelve questions
- 01Can I see two or three live stores you built, with their owners' permission to contact them?
- 02How do you work on a live store without breaking it? Look for a copy-first process.
- 03Who will own the theme code and the app accounts when the project ends?
- 04How do you measure speed before and after your changes?
- 05What do you do on mobile first, and how do you test on real devices?
- 06Which apps do you recommend, and what do you avoid, and why?
- 07What is included after launch, and for how long?
- 08How do you handle a change request that is not in the original scope?
- 09What would you not do on my store, even if I asked?
- 010Who will actually work on my project day to day?
- 011How will you tell me progress, and how often?
- 012What would make you say no to a project?
Green flags and red flags
| Green flag | Red flag |
|---|---|
| Works on a copy of the theme and publishes after testing | Edits the live theme directly |
| Shows speed and conversion before and after numbers | Promises results without any measurement |
| Explains which apps they remove and why | Installs more apps to fix every problem |
| Hands over the code and account access at the end | Keeps the store locked to their own accounts |
| Says no to features that will slow the store | Agrees to everything on the first call |
Custom build or premium theme?
Part of the choice is whether you need a custom build at all. Our guide to custom theme vs premium theme explains when each makes sense, and what to ask a developer to recommend. If a developer will not explain the trade-off, that is a red flag in itself.
If you are comparing agencies, we run this same checklist on our own work and are happy to walk through how we answer each question on a call. See the kind of stores we build on our work page.
Want a straight answer on how we would build your store, and what it would cost? Start with a short conversation.
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