What Questions Should I Ask Before Hiring a Website Developer?

Hiring a website developer, whether for a build or for ongoing maintenance, requires asking the right questions upfront. Most problems come from ambiguous expectations, not bad intentions.

Here are the questions that matter most.

What exactly is included? Get a written scope. Build my website covers a huge range of work. You need page count, functionality list, revision rounds, and go-live timeline all documented before any money changes hands.

Who owns the site after it is built? The answer should be you, unambiguously. Your domain, your hosting account, your code. Some developers retain ownership of a site to lock clients into their maintenance services. That is not acceptable.

What platform are you building on and why? Understand the stack. WordPress, Next.js, Webflow, and Squarespace all have different maintenance profiles. The right answer depends on your needs, but you should understand what you are getting.

What happens after launch? Is there a maintenance plan? What is the cost? What does it include? Who do you call when something breaks?

What is your response time for urgent issues? If your site goes down or your contact form breaks, how quickly will they fix it?

Can I see examples of sites you have built and maintained for businesses like mine?

What does handoff look like if I want to leave?

At Freedman Systems, all of these have documented answers before any project starts. The site is yours, hosted on your accounts, and there is a clear $199/month maintenance option with a month-to-month contract.

Start the conversation at freedmansystems.com.