Hiring someone to build your website is strange work. You are buying something you cannot hold, from someone whose job you cannot really evaluate, for a price that seems to be whatever they say it is. Most business owners do it once every five or ten years. Nobody feels like an expert.
The good news is you do not need to understand code to hire well. You just need to ask a few plain questions and pay attention to how comfortable the answers are. Here are the seven I would ask, in the order I would ask them.
1. What is the total price, in writing, before we start?
This is the one. Ask it first, and notice what happens. A builder who knows their work can give you a flat number or an honest range before you commit anything. Someone who cannot, or will not, is either guessing or waiting to find out how much you are willing to spend.
Watch for the pitch that never names a number. I have read agency proposals over twenty pages long, full of charts about missed opportunity, where the price page is simply absent until you are on a call with a salesperson. That is not a limitation of the work. That is a choice about when you find out.
What a good answer sounds like: a specific number or range, what it includes, and what would change it. Mine is posted publicly, which is not bravery, it is just easier for everyone.
2. Who actually builds it, and can I talk to them?
Plenty of shops sell the work and then hand it off, sometimes to a contractor overseas, sometimes to whoever is free that week. That is not automatically bad, but you should know it going in, because it decides who you talk to when something breaks in eight months.
What a good answer sounds like: a name, and a way to reach that person directly. If the only channel is a ticket queue or an account manager, expect that to be the experience forever.
3. If I leave, do I own the site and the domain?
Ask this before you sign anything. Some providers build on a platform you cannot take with you, so the day you stop paying, you do not have a website anymore, you have a bill for starting over. Same story with domains: if they register it under their account, your own address is not really yours.
What a good answer sounds like: the site and the domain are yours, you get a full hand-off, and leaving is a normal thing that happens rather than a hostage negotiation.
The questions that make a salesperson uncomfortable are usually the ones worth asking. An honest builder has plain answers ready, because they have nothing riding on you not asking.
4. What happens after launch?
A website is not a painting you hang and forget. Browsers change, phones change, your hours and prices change, and things quietly rot. The question is not whether you need upkeep, it is who does it and what it costs.
Get specifics: who updates the content, who handles security and backups, what a small change costs, and how fast you get a reply. Vague reassurance here turns into a site that says 2024 in the footer and hours that have been wrong since spring.
What a good answer sounds like: a clear plan with a number attached, month to month, that you can decline. Here is how I handle it if you want a reference point.
5. How fast will it load, and can you show me?
Almost everyone says their sites are fast. Ask them to prove it on a site they already built. Speed is one of the few things in this business that is genuinely measurable, so an adjective is a strange thing to accept.
It matters because people leave. Someone looking you up on their phone outside your shop, on ordinary cell service, will give you a couple of seconds before trying the next result. Slow costs you customers you never hear about, which is exactly why it is the first of the red flags I check.
What a good answer sounds like: a real number from a real site, ideally one you can go load yourself right now.
6. Will it work for everyone?
This means accessibility: does the site work for someone using a screen reader, someone navigating by keyboard, someone who needs larger text or stronger contrast. It is a fair chunk of your potential customers, and most sites quietly fail them.
It is also worth asking because it is a good signal. Accessibility is invisible to a casual look, so a builder who does it when nobody is checking is telling you something about the rest of the work you also cannot see.
What a good answer sounds like: a straight yes, ideally naming the WCAG AA standard, without treating it as an upsell.
7. Can I see something real you built that is live today?
Not a gallery of concepts. A working website, for a real business, that you can open right now and use on your phone. Anyone can show you a pretty picture of a homepage. Fewer can point at something that has been carrying real customers for a year.
If what you are shown are sample designs or demos, that is fine, but they should say so plainly. Being clear about what is a concept and what is a client is itself part of the answer.
What a good answer sounds like: a link you can click. Here are mine, with the measurements to go with them.
The short version
You are not really evaluating code, you are evaluating how someone behaves when asked a direct question. Price, ownership, and who does the work are the three that reveal the most, and none of them require you to know anything technical.
If a builder gets cagey on those, that is your answer, and it does not matter how good the portfolio looks. If they answer plainly and in writing, you are probably in good hands even if their work costs a little more.
If you are weighing this for a business here on the island, here is how I approach Maui web design, prices and all. And if you would rather start by seeing where your current site stands, run it through my free Site Check first.