How to hire a web designer is not really a question about design. Almost nobody who is unhappy with their website is unhappy about the colours. They are unhappy because it took four months, because they cannot change a price without asking, because it brings no enquiries, or because the person who built it has stopped answering.
Every one of those is decided before any work starts, in what was agreed and what was left vague. So how to hire a web designer is mostly a question about the agreement. So this is a guide to the agreement rather than to the aesthetics: eight mistakes that cost the most, the six questions worth asking, and the one about ownership that decides everything afterwards.
On this page
The eight mistakes
In rough order of how expensive they turn out to be.
1. Choosing on the portfolio alone
A portfolio shows what somebody can make look good. It does not show whether they delivered on time, answered their phone in month three, or built something the client could maintain.
Ask for two clients you can contact, and contact them. The question worth asking is not “was it nice” but “what happened when you needed a change six months later”.
2. Not writing down what “finished” means
The most common cause of a project that drags. Without an agreed list of pages and features, every conversation can add one more thing, and neither side is being unreasonable.
Agree a page list and a feature list before any money changes hands. Anything added afterwards is a change, and a change has a price and a date. Written down, this protects both of you.
3. Paying too much up front
A reasonable structure is a deposit to start, a payment at an agreed midpoint, and the balance on completion. Paying everything in advance removes the only incentive that keeps a project moving.
Paying nothing up front is also a bad sign, because it usually means the supplier expects to be dropped and has priced accordingly.
4. Leaving out who supplies the words and pictures
The single most common reason a website is late is that the text was never written. Designers assume the client will supply it, clients assume it comes with the site, and the project stops for six weeks with nobody at fault.
Decide explicitly: who writes the pages, who takes the photographs, and when those are due. If you want copywriting included, say so and expect it to be priced.
5. Not asking who owns the domain and hosting
The one that turns a bad month into a bad year. Covered on its own below, because it deserves it.
6. Not agreeing what happens after launch
A website is not a thing you buy once. Something will need updating in the first month, and something will break in the first year.
Ask what is included after launch and for how long, and what ongoing support costs. A supplier who has no answer has not thought past the invoice, and you will be finding somebody new in March.
7. Choosing on price alone
The cheapest quote is usually cheapest because it excludes something: the words, the images, the setup that makes the site findable, or any support. Quotes that look wildly different usually describe different jobs.
Compare what is included rather than the number at the bottom. If one quote is half the others, the useful question is what the others are doing that this one is not.
8. Not asking whether you can edit it yourself
Ask to be shown, on a real site, how you would change a price or add a page. Not described. Shown.
If the answer is that you email them, that is a legitimate arrangement, but it is a monthly cost and a wait every time, and you should know that before you agree rather than the first time you need a price changed on a Friday.
Who actually owns the finished site
This is the part that ruins otherwise fine relationships, and it is entirely avoidable by asking three questions before anybody starts.
Whose name is on the domain? It should be your business, registered to your email address. It is completely normal for a designer to buy it for you, and completely wrong for it to stay in their name. A domain in somebody else’s account is a business that can be switched off by somebody who is not you.
The registrant, which is the name recorded against the domain, is the party with the rights to it, and ICANN sets out what those rights are. Being the person who paid the invoice is not the same as being the registrant, and the difference only becomes visible on the day you need to move.
Whose account is the hosting in? Ideally yours, paid by you, with the designer given access. If it is in theirs, you are renting your own website, and moving away later means rebuilding rather than transferring.
What do you get if you stop working together? The answer should be: the domain, the hosting, the files, and the logins. Ask for it in the proposal, in one sentence. Anybody reasonable will agree without blinking, and the reaction to being asked is itself informative.
None of this is about expecting to fall out. It is that people move country, change career, get ill, and stop replying, and none of those are anybody’s fault. The question is whether that becomes your emergency.
Six questions to ask before agreeing anything
This is the practical core of how to hire a web designer. Send all six in one message. The speed and directness of the answers tells you more than the answers themselves do.
What exactly is included, as a list of pages? You are looking for a list, not a paragraph.
Who writes the words? The most common cause of delay, settled in one line.
Will the domain and hosting be in my name? Covered above. There is only one right answer.
How do I change a price or add a page myself? Ask to be shown on a real site.
What happens in the first three months after launch, and what does it cost after that? You are asking whether support exists.
How will anyone find the site? A website nobody visits is a brochure in a drawer. You are not asking for guarantees, you are checking they have thought about it at all: that the site can be found on a search, that it works properly on a phone, and that it says what you charge and when you are open.
How to hire a web designer when you have never done it before
If this is your first website, the hardest part is not choosing between suppliers. It is not knowing what you are allowed to ask for, and therefore accepting whatever shape the first proposal arrives in.
Three things make a first time easier.
Write the brief as sentences, not specifications. You do not need to know what a content management system is. You need to be able to say: I am a plumber, I cover these areas, I want people to find me on a search and call me, and I want to be able to change my prices myself. Any competent supplier can turn that into a specification. A supplier who needs you to arrive with the technical answers is not doing their job.
Ask for the price broken into parts. Design, build, words, images, and the setup that makes the site findable. You are not haggling, you are learning what the job is made of, and you will read the second and third quotes far better for having done it.
Say what your budget is. Withholding it feels like protecting yourself and usually costs you money, because you get proposals aimed at a number nobody knows. Given a real figure, a good supplier tells you what fits inside it and what does not, which is the conversation you actually wanted.
The other thing worth knowing about how to hire a web designer for the first time is that the relationship matters more than the portfolio. You will be sending this person half-finished text at ten at night and asking whether the logo looks right. Somebody who answers plainly, tells you when you are wrong, and does not disappear for a week is worth more than somebody whose previous work is prettier.
And one thing to stop worrying about: you do not have to get it perfect. A website is changeable. What is expensive to undo is the ownership question and the choice of supplier, which is exactly why both of those are settled before any design begins.
Freelancer, agency, or do it yourself
All three are right for somebody, and the honest differences are these.
A freelancer is usually cheaper and you deal with the person doing the work, which makes small changes fast. The risk is capacity: one person gets ill, takes another project, or moves on, and there is no cover. Best when the site is small and you can accept that risk.
An agency costs more and gives you continuity, a contract, and somebody to chase who is not the person who is unwell. The trade is that you are usually not talking directly to whoever is building it, and small changes go through a process. Best when the site matters commercially and you want it to still be supported in two years.
Doing it yourself with a website builder is genuinely viable for a very simple site, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. The cost is your time, and the ceiling is real: builders are fine until you want something specific, at which point you will pay somebody to redo it. Best when the site is a few pages, you enjoy the fiddling, and nothing depends on it.
The thing that decides it is rarely budget. It is who is going to look after this in a year, and whether that person is you.
What it should cost, and how to compare quotes
Prices vary enormously by market, and any article giving you one worldwide figure is inventing it. What travels is how to read a quote.
Ask every supplier to break it out into design, build, content, and setup for being found. Two quotes that differ by half usually turn out to describe different jobs once broken out, and occasionally the expensive one is the better value.
Ask what is not included. More useful than asking what is. The answer reveals the shape of the job.
Ask about the second year. Hosting, the domain, any licences, and support. A cheap build with expensive annual costs is a more expensive website.
For a worked example against a real market, our post on what a website costs sets out the bands and what sits in each, and the care plan question is worth settling at the same time rather than a year later.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I pay a web designer?
It depends entirely on your market and on what is included, which is why comparing the bottom line of two quotes is misleading. Ask each supplier to split the price into design, build, content and setup, then compare like for like. A quote at half the price of the others is usually excluding the words, the images, or any support.
What questions should I ask a web designer before hiring?
Six: what is included as a list of pages, who writes the words, whether the domain and hosting will be in your name, how you change a price yourself, what support exists after launch and what it costs, and how anyone will find the site. Send them in one message and judge the answers on directness.
Should I hire a freelancer or an agency?
A freelancer if the site is small, the budget is tight, and you can accept that one person getting ill stops everything. An agency if the site matters commercially and you want it supported in two years. The deciding question is who looks after it in a year, not what it costs today.
Who should own my website domain?
You. It should be registered to your business and your email address. It is normal for a designer to buy it on your behalf and wrong for it to remain in their name, because a domain in somebody else’s account is a business that somebody else can switch off.
What if I already have a website and I am not happy with it?
Establish what you actually own first: the domain, the hosting account and the files. Then decide whether it needs fixing or replacing. A site that is slow but otherwise sound is a fix, and a site that cannot be edited and is uncomfortable on a phone is a rebuild.
How long should a website take?
For a small business site with the content ready, a few weeks. The variable is almost never the building, it is waiting for text and photographs. Agreeing who supplies those, and when, is the single biggest thing you can do to keep a project on time.
Do I even need a web designer, or can I use a builder?
For a few simple pages a builder is genuinely fine. Hire somebody when the site has to do a specific job, when you want it found in search, or when your time is worth more than the weekends it will take. Be honest about the last one.
Where to start
The short version of how to hire a web designer: before contacting anybody, write two things down: the list of pages you think you need, and what you want the site to actually do. Enquiries, bookings, selling, or simply existing so people can check you are real.
Send that list to two or three suppliers with the six questions above. You will learn more from how they answer than from any portfolio, and you will get quotes that can actually be compared.
If you want to see how we work, what we do for clients sets it out plainly.
