Short answer: Before hiring a remote web developer, make sure you own your code and accounts, have a written scope and contract, agree how and when you will communicate, start with a small paid trial, and pay by milestone rather than all at once. Those few steps prevent most of the problems people blame on "remote" — which are usually problems of unclear expectations, not distance.
Use this checklist whether you are hiring a freelancer, a dedicated developer through an agency, or an offshore team. It works for a one-week fix and for a year-long product build.
Before you hire
1. Write down what you need
A one-page brief: what the website or feature should do, who uses it, the pages or screens involved, integrations, examples you like, and your deadline. You will get better quotes and fewer surprises.
2. Check real, live work
Ask for live examples similar to your project. Open them on your phone, check how fast they load, and click through the important journeys — contact forms, checkout, login.
3. Talk to the person who will do the work
A short video call tells you a lot about communication. Ask them to explain how they would approach your project. Clear, specific answers are a good sign.
4. Agree working hours and overlap
If you are in different time zones, agree a fixed daily overlap — even an hour or two — for calls and quick questions, and how quickly messages will be answered outside it.
Contracts and ownership
5. Put the scope and price in writing
List what is included and what is not. For fixed-price work, agree how changes will be estimated and approved.
6. Make sure you own the code and accounts
Your contract should say that code, designs and content become yours once paid for. Keep hosting, domain names, the Git repository and analytics in your own name, and add the developer as a user.
7. Sign an NDA and, if needed, a DPA
Use an NDA if you are sharing confidential information. If the developer will handle personal data of people in the UK or EU, you will usually need a data processing agreement under GDPR / UK GDPR.
Access and security
8. Give the minimum access needed
Create separate user accounts rather than sharing your passwords. Give access to a staging site first, and to the live site only when necessary. Remove access when the work ends.
9. Use version control and a staging site
All code should live in a Git repository you own. Changes should be tested on a staging copy of the site before going live, so mistakes never reach your customers.
Working together
10. Agree how progress is reported
Daily or weekly written updates, demo links or short screen recordings, and a shared task board. You should never have to ask "what is happening?"
11. Start with a small paid trial
Give one real but small task with a fixed price. It tells you more about quality, speed and communication than any proposal — with very little risk.
12. Pay by milestone or month, never everything up front
Fixed-price projects should be paid in stages linked to approved work. Dedicated developers are usually billed monthly. Keep invoices, time logs and approvals in one place.
Red flags
- Unwilling to work in your repository or give you access to the code.
- Asks for full payment before any work is delivered.
- Cannot show live examples, only screenshots.
- Promises everything, asks no questions about your project.
- Long silences after the deposit is paid.
Summary
Remote hiring works when expectations are written down, you own the code and accounts, and trust is built step by step. Use the twelve points above with any developer — and walk away from anyone who resists them.
If you are looking for a remote developer, you can hire a dedicated WordPress developer or hire a Laravel developer from our team — we work on exactly these terms with clients in the UK, the US and Europe.
