How to choose a web developer in Canada: what to ask before you hire

Types of web developer

The term "web developer" covers a wide range. Understanding the landscape helps you find the right fit.

A freelancer is an independent contractor who works for multiple clients. Freelancers range from students doing their first paid projects to experienced professionals with 20 years of work. Price varies enormously. The advantage is cost and direct communication with the person doing the work. The risk is availability, reliability, and what happens if they become unavailable mid-project or stop responding after delivery.

A web design studio or small agency typically has two to ten people — a mix of design, development, and project management. More reliable than a solo freelancer, clearer process, usually a defined handoff point. Higher cost than a freelancer, but often worth it for the reduced risk.

A large digital agency is the right fit for complex projects with large budgets — enterprise websites, large e-commerce platforms, campaigns with significant ongoing management. For most small business websites, they are overkill and expensive. Your project may also end up handled by a junior team member while the senior work you reviewed in their pitch goes elsewhere.

A template/website builder service (Wix, Squarespace, or a developer building on these platforms) is lower cost but limits customisation and often locks you into a specific platform. Appropriate for very simple sites with minimal requirements; limiting for anything that needs to grow or integrate with other systems.

Define what you actually need first

Before talking to anyone, write down what you actually need. Not vague aspirations — specific requirements: how many pages, what functionality (contact form, booking system, online store, photo gallery, blog), what your current site's problems are if you have one, what you want to be able to update yourself, and what your budget is. The clearer you are, the more accurately a developer can quote and the less chance of scope creep.

Know whether you need design as well as development. Some developers build only — they need you to provide design direction or work with a designer. Others do both. Some developers work from templates; others build from scratch. These affect quality, price, and what the finished product can do.

Evaluating a portfolio

Always look at finished work, not mockups. A developer who shows you design mockups but has no live URLs to visit is telling you something — either the work was never built, the client did not approve it, or the finished product does not look like the mockup. Visit live sites, look at them on your phone, and load them in your browser to check speed.

Look for work in roughly your sector. A developer who has built five e-commerce sites understands the UX patterns, payment integration requirements, and performance considerations that matter for e-commerce. One who has built five brochure sites may not. This is not disqualifying for simpler projects, but relevant for anything complex.

Check whether portfolio sites are actually good. A portfolio site can look polished in a screenshot and be a mess in practice — slow to load, not working on mobile, with broken links or unoptimised images. These details tell you about the developer's standards and attention to the things that matter for a real working website.

Questions to ask before hiring

Who will actually be doing the work? This is critical when hiring an agency. You want to know whether the person you meet in the pitch is the person building your site, or whether it will be handed to a subcontractor or junior developer after you sign.

What platform will the site be built on? If it is WordPress, what theme or page builder? If it is a custom build, what technology stack? If it is a hosted website builder (Wix, Squarespace), what are the export and migration options if you want to move later?

What is included in the quoted price? Scope creep is one of the most common sources of conflict in web development engagements. A clear scope document before the contract is signed prevents disagreements about whether a fifth page, a photo gallery, or a mobile nav change is inside or outside the quote.

What does the handoff include? Do you get access to all accounts — hosting, domain registrar, Google Analytics, search console? Do you get a training session on how to update the site? Is there documentation? What happens if you need changes three months after launch?

Who handles hosting and maintenance going forward? Some developers include hosting in their fee. Others build the site and leave hosting to you. Some offer ongoing maintenance plans; others are done at launch. Know this before you sign — you do not want to be scrambling for someone to update WordPress plugins six months after your developer has moved on.

Website ownership: the question most people miss

This is the question most small business owners never think to ask, and it can be enormously costly. Who owns the finished website — you, or the developer?

In Canadian copyright law, original creative work belongs to the creator unless there is a written agreement transferring ownership. A developer who builds a custom website owns the copyright in that work by default. You have a licence to use it, but you may not own it outright.

If a developer is hosting your site on their servers and you want to leave, can you take the site with you? Do they provide the source files? Is the design theirs or yours? What happens if they stop operating — is your site available to migrate? These are not hypothetical concerns. Businesses have had their websites held hostage by developers who own the source files and refuse to transfer them when a relationship sours.

Your contract should explicitly state that upon full payment, ownership of the design and code transfers to you, and that you will be provided all source files and access credentials.

Contracts and what they should include

Any professional web engagement should have a written contract. A written quote email is a starting point, not a contract. A proper agreement should include: detailed scope of work, timeline and milestones, payment schedule (typically a deposit, mid-point payment, and final payment on delivery), intellectual property assignment, what happens if the project is cancelled, revision limits, and access and account handoff terms.

Payment schedules matter. Do not pay 100% upfront. A common structure is 30–40% deposit, 30–40% at a mid-point milestone, and the final payment on launch or delivery. This protects you if the developer disappears and protects the developer against non-payment.

Red flags

No written contract or scope document. No clear timeline or milestones. No portfolio of live work. Unwillingness to explain what platform the site is built on. A quote that seems suspiciously low for the scope — either the scope will expand rapidly, the quality will be poor, or corners will be cut. Guaranteed first-page Google rankings (no legitimate developer can promise this). Pressure to decide quickly. Hosting on their servers with no path to migrate.

Poor communication before you hire is an excellent predictor of poor communication during the project. A developer who takes four days to reply to a pre-sales inquiry will not suddenly become responsive once you have paid a deposit.

Evaluating price

Web development pricing varies so widely that price alone tells you almost nothing about what you will get. A $500 website and a $5,000 website are fundamentally different products — different quality, different approach, different longevity. The question is not whether a quote is high or low in absolute terms but whether it is appropriate for what is being delivered.

Get at least three quotes for any meaningful project. Make sure you are comparing the same scope — a quote for a five-page site with custom design is not comparable to a quote for a five-page WordPress template site. The lowest quote is not always the best value; the most detailed and clearly scoped quote from a developer with a strong portfolio often is.

Local vs remote developers

Many excellent web developers work remotely and serve clients they never meet in person. A developer on Vancouver Island can work effectively with a client in Toronto, and vice versa, with good communication tools.

That said, there are genuine advantages to working with a local developer for a local business: they understand the local market, they can meet in person when needed, they are accountable to a local reputation, and they are invested in the local business community. For a small business website built for a local market, a local developer often produces better-tuned results than a remote one who has never been to your area.