Finding a good WordPress developer is genuinely difficult. The barrier to calling yourself a WordPress developer is low — anyone with a hosting account and an afternoon can set up a site and start offering services. The gap between someone who installs themes and someone who writes clean, maintainable code is enormous, and it’s not always obvious from the outside which one you’re hiring.
Here’s what to actually look for, the questions worth asking, and the red flags that should make you walk away.
Start With Their Work, Not Their Pitch
Ask for examples of live sites they’ve built or maintained. Not screenshots — live URLs you can visit and inspect. Look at how the site performs in Google PageSpeed Insights. Open the browser console and check for errors. Look at the source code and see whether it’s clean or cluttered with plugin bloat.
A developer who’s proud of their work will share it readily. One who deflects with NDAs or explains that their best work is private — possible, but worth noting.
Also ask whether the examples they share are sites they built from scratch or sites they inherited and maintained. Both are valid, but they demonstrate different skills.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Hire
How do you handle plugin updates and site maintenance? A developer who has no system for this — or who expects you to handle it yourself — is not set up to be a long-term partner. Good developers either offer maintenance plans or are honest that maintenance isn’t their service.
What happens if something breaks after you finish the work? Is there a warranty period? Who do you call? What’s the response time? The answer tells you a lot about how seriously they take accountability.
Do you use staging environments? Any developer doing meaningful work on a live site without a staging environment is taking unnecessary risks with your business. Changes should be built and tested in staging first, then pushed to production.
How do you handle backups? If the answer is “that’s the hosting company’s job” and nothing more, that’s a warning sign. A good developer verifies that backups exist, knows how to restore them, and doesn’t assume the hosting company’s backup is sufficient on its own.
What’s your pricing model? Hourly billing isn’t inherently bad, but flat-rate project pricing is better for most clients because you know what you’re paying before work starts. An hourly developer who’s slow or who finds more “issues” to fix than expected is a financial variable you can’t control.
Red Flags That Should Give You Pause
They build everything in Elementor or another page builder by default. Page builders aren’t always wrong — for clients who need to edit their own layouts regularly without developer involvement, a well-configured page builder can be a legitimate recommendation. The concern is a developer who reaches for one on every project regardless of the site’s needs, prioritizing their workflow over your site’s performance. Ask why they’re recommending it for your specific project and what the performance tradeoff looks like.
They ask for your wp-admin login over email or chat. Credentials should be shared through a secure method — a password manager’s sharing feature, a secure note link, or at minimum an encrypted channel. Anyone asking for passwords in plain text email isn’t taking security seriously.
They don’t ask many questions. A developer who takes your brief and runs without asking clarifying questions either has a template they apply to everything or isn’t thinking carefully about your specific situation. Good developers ask about your audience, your goals, your existing tech stack, and your timeline before they quote.
They can’t explain what they did. After a fix or a build, you should receive an explanation of what was done and why — in plain English, not technical jargon designed to make you feel dependent. A developer who can’t explain their work is either in over their head or keeping you in the dark intentionally.
No written agreement before work starts. Any professional engagement should start with something in writing — a proposal, a statement of work, or at minimum an email thread confirming scope, cost, and timeline. Working from a verbal agreement protects neither party.
Freelancer vs Agency
Both have legitimate advantages depending on your situation.
A freelancer offers direct access — you work with one person who knows your site personally. Response times are often faster, communication is more direct, and costs are typically lower. The risk is availability — if your freelancer is sick, on holiday, or overcommitted, you wait.
An agency offers more resources and coverage — someone is always available, and larger projects can be staffed appropriately. The risk is handoffs — your site might be worked on by different people each time, and continuity of knowledge about your specific setup can suffer.
For most small businesses, a trusted freelancer or small studio who knows your site well is the better long-term relationship. What matters most is consistency — someone who is familiar with your site, available when you need them, and accountable when things go wrong.
How We Work
We’re a women-owned boutique studio based in Hollywood, FL serving clients across the US. Every project gets a flat-rate quote before work starts, a plain-English explanation after every fix, and direct access to the developer who actually did the work — not a support ticket queue.
We handle emergency fixes, ongoing maintenance plans, full site builds, and everything in between — across WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, and Next.js. If you’re looking for someone who fits everything described above, get in touch and tell us what you need. We’ll be straight with you about whether we’re the right fit.
