How to hire a Custom Development expert for your website

A custom website is a new trend already making waves in the online sphere as many more entrepreneurs and business owners have come to terms with the value of using a website that is specially designed for them instead of going for generic sites that may not have the features that they or their customers and users require.

Customized online platforms have proven to be a big deal because they are easier to use, cater to the needs of a specific audience and have much better features.

Hiring a Custom Development Expert

If you have decided to go for a customized website for the benefit that it provides, you will need to hire the services of a custom development expert. But how do you do that successfully?  With so many unqualified entities posing as professional developers, the risk of hiring the wrong person for the job is high. Hiring the wrong person will not only lead to a waste of your resources, but it may also damage your reputation and cost you to lose your clients.

To help you out, we have put together a guide to help you make the right choice. Please find the steps to take below.

Define your Project

The very first thing you need to do during the hiring process is to first decide what you want to achieve. You need to know what your website will contain and how it will look like before you even begin the search for a professional developer. Here are some of the things you should consider.

Design features: What will the website look like? Will it have a logo and a header or one of both on the Homepage? What other extra features will be required?

Codes: Is the website going to be a platform where purchases can be made and paid for? Do you want a shopping cart and an analytics panel to help you track orders and visitors to the platform?

Mobile version: Do you want a mobile version for the website? In today’s day and age, you should since most people access the internet using their mobile phones.

There are so many things to consider before you hire a custom developer or even search for one. Writing down your requirements will help you

• Avoid unsuitable candidates
• Save your time
• Avoid wasteful expenditure

The type of developer you need

Once you are sure of the features you want, this is the stage where you now commence your search for a professional to handle the design and development of the site. Please do note that the same process applies if you already have a website but you wish to upgrade it to a customized version.

At this point, you have to decide the following-

Skill-set

There are different types of professionals as they work on websites so the type of website you want will depend on who you hire. Normally, the professional you may need is either a designer or a developer.

Designer:  A Designer is a professional who creates a website by adding visual elements like images, icons, and a structural representation of what the site will look like. For sites that will not contain complex features, a designer can complete the job and get the site up and running once again. However, if some of the functions require codes, a developer will have to come in.

Developer:  A developer is an expert who handles coding tasks. He edits and modifies certain aspects of the website based on your requirement. Developers use specialist tools like editors and they also utilize markup languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript among others.

Developers are also divided into two broad groups and the professional you hire will depend on the task at hand. The two groups are-

Front-end Developers

A Front-end Developer specializes in the features that your users will see when they log onto your platform. They are responsible for the site’s interface, and what we call the client-side features of the website.

Back-End Developers

Back-end developers are specialists in site functionality. They focus on site performance and aspects that only you and your administrators can see and control. Popular language ls that Back-End developers work with include PHP, Java, Ruby, Rails, Python, and many other languages.

Let’s not forget to mention Full-stack developers who handle both Back-End and Front-End tasks. Full-Stack developers are more expensive since they handle all aspects of website development from start to finish.

Note: The key takeaway here is that you may have to hire more than one professional for your custom website, depending on what you are looking to achieve with your platform. However, if you hire a Full-Stack expert with web designing skills, you can save costs.

Work Schedule

Another thing you will have to decide when looking for who to hire is whether you want a freelancer for the job or a full-time developer. Both have their merits and demerits though. A freelancer will cost you less but freelancers are only ideal for one-time projects. However, if you require regular maintenance, a full-time developer is what your site will need and full-time developers cost a lot more.

Note: Before you make a decision on who to hire, consider your budget and your long-term requirement.

Skill Analysis

Now comes the most important aspect of the hiring process; vetting the skills of the developers you come across to evaluate their level of competence. The good news is that you don’t have to be a developer yourself to make the right choice. Here are some helpful tips to help you lane the right choice.

Review their technical skills

Depending on what your site will need, ensure that you take your time to review the technical skills of all the developers bidding for the job. Developers that are vast in 2 or more languages may be able to offer you more value.

Timeframe

Enquire from the developers how long it will take them to complete the job for the site to become fully operational. If you must, let them know your accepted time frame and let it be up to them to decide whether they can meet up your deadline or not.

Communicate Skills

While evaluating their technical skills, you also need to evaluate their communication skills as well. Do they understand your needs? Are they able to communicate in a clear and concise manner? Do they have a positive attitude? These are some of the things you want to be clear about as the last thing you want is to commit to a bad developer you will be stuck with for the foreseeable future.

Portfolio

Another thing to check for is their work portfolio. Have they handled a similar task like yours in the past? If they have, how many? Demanding a portfolio is an important aspect of the skill review process to help you gauge their level of expertise. If they have handled a take like yours in the past and you are pleased with the quality you see, there is a likelihood that they will come through for you as well.

Experience

Experience level is another way to evaluate a custom developer’s skill set. Experienced Developers like the experts at MQ Solutions rarely make mistakes and if they do, they are few and minuscule that can be corrected before the final site launch. Also, an experienced developer knows what will work best for your website and will be in the best position to provide you with recommendations that will make your website much better than you imagined.

The tips highlighted above are some of the ways to hire a custom development expert for your website. However, if you want to cut through the chase and hire an experienced developer that will help you design fantastic custom web features for your platform that will set your brand apart from competitors and increase your profit potential, click this link to find the best team of custom developers for your website design or upgrade.