How to hire a web designer

Hiring a web designer is mostly a test of the questions you ask before you pay. The design is hard to judge from outside. The arrangement around it is not. Here are the questions to take into the call, the bad answers to listen for, and the warning signs.

How to hire a web designer: what should I ask first?

Seven of them: who owns everything at the end, what is included after launch, what the launch date is, how revisions are counted, whether you can take a copy and leave, who does the work, and what they need from you. Get the answers in writing.

The seven questions, and what a bad answer sounds like

1. When the site is live, who owns the domain, the hosting account, the code and the content? If the domain is in their name, you rent your own business name, and getting it back is slow: under ICANN's Transfer Policy (updated February 2024), a registrar may lock a domain against transfer for 60 days after the registrant changes (icann.org). Bad answer: "We handle all that, it sits on our account."

2. What is included after launch, and what costs extra? The build takes weeks; the site lives for years. Get a price for a text change, a new page and a photo swap, and ask if hosting and backups are in the fee. Bad answer: "We'll sort that out when it comes up."

3. What is the launch date, and what happens if it slips? A date with no consequence attached is a guess. Bad answer: "Six to eight weeks, depending how fast you send us content." That is the delay being pre-blamed on you.

4. How many rounds of revisions, and what counts as one? A round is one list of changes, sent once. Ask what turns a change into new work. Bad answer: "Unlimited revisions." That and a fixed launch date cannot both be true.

5. If I leave, can I have a working copy of my site, in how many days, at what cost? You want two numbers in writing: days and dollars. Ask whether your page addresses come too: Google recommends a permanent server-side redirect whenever an address changes (Google Search Central). Bad answer: "It runs on our own proprietary platform."

6. Who will do the work, and who answers my email in month seven? You want a human name. Pitches get run by the senior person and built by whoever is free. Bad answer: "Our team will look after you."

7. What do you need from me, and by when? Late websites are late because of the customer, and content is the reason. A good answer is a dated list, or that they will lift your services, hours, photos and copy off your current site. Bad answer: "Send your content whenever you're ready."

Is there an email I can just send them?

Copy this and send it to your shortlist.

Hi [name],

Could you answer these in writing before we go ahead?

1. Who owns the domain, hosting account, code and content once it is live?
2. What is included after launch, and what does a text change cost?
3. What is the launch date, and what if it slips?
4. How many revision rounds, and what counts as one?
5. If I leave, how fast do I get a copy and my domain, and at what cost?
6. Who does the work, and who do I email in six months?
7. What do you need from me, and by when?

Thanks,
[your name]

Freelancer, agency or monthly subscription: which should I pick?

A freelancer is cheapest and fastest, and the risk is that they are one person. An agency costs the most and the risk is being its smallest account. A subscription spreads the cost and the risk is renting. The price gaps are smaller than the continuity gaps.

A sanity check on any hourly number you are quoted. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for web developers and digital designers at $99,520 a year, $47.85 an hour, in May 2025, and projects employment to "grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations" (bls.gov). That is an employed rate, before a freelancer's unpaid hours and tax. If someone offers to build you a whole site at a fraction of it, ask what is being left out.

One distinction worth drawing, since we are on the other side of it. Building a site from nothing and changing a page on a site somebody already built and hosts are not the same job at the same rate. Our own $20 an hour is the second one — edits to a site we built and run, in blocks of 15 minutes, quoted before the work starts. It is not a build rate, and anyone quoting a whole build at that number is quoting a different thing.

What matters more, the price or what happens in month seven?

Month seven. You pay for the build once and live with the arrangement for years. Test it before you sign: email a small, boring request and time the reply. That is the speed you get while you are still a prospect. Then ask what a change costs and how fast you can leave. Our monthly website plan page covers what an ongoing fee should include.

What are the red flags when hiring a web designer?

Six, and none are about design taste.

• No price anywhere on their site. It gets set after they see your premises and your van.
• The domain registered in their name. The most common way a business loses a website. Check yours on a public WHOIS lookup.
• A contract longer than a month with no exit. A $99 fee locked for 36 months is $3,564. Ask for the total.
• No named person. If nobody will say who does the work, nobody is accountable.
• Payment in full upfront. A deposit is normal; the whole fee up front removes their reason to finish.
• Refusing to say in writing what happens if you leave. A verbal "of course you can have it" is worth nothing in month eleven.

One more: a guaranteed number one ranking. "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google," says Google's own guidance (Google Search Central).

What should a good designer be asking me?

A designer who only asks about colours, page count and a logo file is quoting for a template. A good one interrogates the business first, because the words are what make the phone ring. Expect these.

• Where do customers come from now, and which source is best?
• Which job do you want more of, and which do you want to stop?
• What do people ask on the phone before booking?
• Who are your three closest competitors, and why do people pick you?
• What must a visitor find in five seconds?
• Do you have a Google Business Profile, and who has the login?

If nobody asks what you sell and who buys it, you are buying a template with your logo on it. See what a small business site needs.

When is hiring a web designer the wrong move?

When you have the time to do it yourself, or when the website is not the problem. Google says it plainly about search work: "If you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself" (Google Search Central). The same goes for a five-page site on a builder. If your site only looks dated, rewriting the words beats rebuilding it. If it is broken, start with fix my website. And if you need an online store, a booking system, a custom web app, a membership area or many franchise locations, a cheap brochure-site shop is the wrong shop.

For the record, we are one of the subscription options above. Fablence charges $299 to build, billed only when you approve the design, then $69 a month for the site, hosting, maintenance and 30 minutes of edits (prices as of September 2026). Month to month, 30 days' notice, you keep the domain and the leads, and a working copy of your site is yours the same day you ask, free. Our process and prices are published, which is where this page told you to start.