How to hire a Shopify developer or agency
Portfolios show finished work under good conditions. What you need to know is how someone behaves when a requirement does not fit the platform, because that is the moment that decides your project.
These are the questions we would ask, and the answers that should worry you.
Questions worth asking#
| Question | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Tell me about a requirement you refused | A specific case, and the alternative they proposed |
| How do you handle theme updates? | Additive changes, Git, diffing releases |
| When would you tell a client not to use Shopify? | Concrete limits, not "it can do anything" |
| How do you decide between an app and a custom build? | A cost and maintenance argument, not a preference |
| What happens after launch? | A named maintenance arrangement, with a price |
Answers that should worry you#
- "Shopify can do anything" — it cannot, and the person saying so will discover the limits on your budget.
- No opinion about apps versus custom builds.
- Portfolio work you cannot verify is live.
- No version control, changes made directly in the admin editor.
- No interest in your product data before quoting.
Freelancer, agency or in-house#
A freelancer suits a defined build with a clear owner on your side. An agency suits work needing several skills at once — design, development, migration, integration — or when continuity matters more than price. In-house is justified when the store changes weekly and the changes are strategic.
Whoever you hire, insist on the store being in a Git repository you own. It is the difference between changing supplier and starting again.
A small paid trial beats a long interview#
Commission one well-defined piece of work — a section, a small integration — and see how it arrives: is it documented, additive, tested against a real catalogue? An afternoon of real work tells you more than three calls.
Frequently asked questions
Freelancer or agency?
Freelancer for a defined build with a clear owner internally; agency when you need several skills or continuity.
How do I check someone is any good?
Ask what they refused to build and why, then commission a small paid piece of real work.
What should the contract include?
Ownership of the code and the repository, a maintenance arrangement, and what happens at handover.
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