Hiring a website developer: eight mistakes to avoid before you sign

The expensive mistake is not always hiring the cheapest developer. It is buying a project that nobody has defined. A good-looking proposal can still leave the copy, hosting, migration and maintenance in the space between “included” and “we assumed you would do that”.

1. Comparing quotes with different scopes

Give each supplier the same brief. List required pages, functions, integrations, content responsibilities and existing-site migration. Ask for exclusions and recurring costs. A setup-only quote is not comparable with a year of hosting and support.

2. Leaving account control until handover

Agree who registers the domain, controls hosting and administers essential services. The business should retain appropriate access and understand how to transfer or recover accounts. Use individual access roles rather than a shared password passed between staff.

3. Approving screenshots instead of customer journeys

A portfolio shows visual ability, not necessarily reliable delivery. Inspect a relevant live example on your phone. For your own project, test finding a service, submitting an enquiry and receiving a response. If you need a booking or payment system, test its failure cases too.

4. Assuming the developer writes the content

Decide who supplies facts, writes copy, checks claims and approves images. “Five pages” says nothing about who creates them. Provide accurate service details early; a designer cannot responsibly invent your credentials, prices or customer results.

5. Forgetting the old website

If the project replaces an existing site, inventory valuable pages and customer routes. Agree what remains, moves or is retired, then test redirects and indexability after launch. Do not approve a migration solely because the home page looks correct.

6. Accepting vague support promises

Ask what support includes, how to report an incident, what is monitored and how restoration works. Clarify response expectations and additional charges. “We are always here” is less useful than a documented process with an accountable contact.

7. Paying against dates without acceptance criteria

Milestones should describe completed work and how it is checked. A design approval, functional demonstration and tested handover are different stages. Discuss payment terms and change control before work starts; seek professional advice where contractual risk warrants it.

8. Buying guarantees the supplier cannot control

A developer can commit to agreed functionality and testing. Customer demand, search rankings and revenue depend on more than the build. Ask what a performance claim actually measures, over what period and under which conditions.

Try this before the next supplier meeting

Write three sentences: “The visitor needs to…”, “Our staff need to…”, and “We will accept the site when…”. For an illustrative service business, those could be finding a suitable service, receiving an assigned enquiry and completing a successful mobile test. The exercise turns a vague project into something both parties can discuss.

Luminum provides web services. Apply these checks to our scope as well as anyone else's; the purpose is a better agreement, not an unsupported provider ranking.

Related reading

• Website developers near you in Pretoria: how to shortlist the right fit
• Website redesign SEO checklist: protect rankings during migration

Substantively updated in October 2026. Examples identified as illustrative are not client results.