15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Ecommerce Developer

The questions that matter most before hiring an ecommerce developer are about ownership, speed, search traffic and money: who will own the store account and the code, how the site will meet Google's speed targets, how old URLs will be redirected, and what happens after launch. Price is easier to compare than any of those. Upwork's Shopify developer hiring page says hiring a Shopify developer there "generally costs $15-$29 per hour," with theme customization at $500 to $2,000 per project and a fully custom theme at $3,000 to $10,000. A cheap quote that leaves the store in the developer's account, or drops your Google rankings during a move, costs far more than the difference in rates.

The 15 questions below are grouped by topic. Each one says what a good answer sounds like, so you can compare candidates on the same terms.

Key facts

• Upwork lists typical Shopify developer rates of $15 to $29 per hour, store migrations at $2,000 to $7,000 and Shopify Plus setup at $5,000 to $15,000+ per project (Upwork, captured August 2026).
• Shopify says a store owner can't transfer store ownership to a collaborator, and collaborator access expires after 90 days without a login (Shopify Help Center).
• Google's targets for a good experience: Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and layout shift of 0.1 (web.dev).
• Google recommends keeping redirects after a site move for at least 1 year (Google Search Central).
• In Baymard Institute's survey, 17% of US shoppers who abandoned a checkout said the website had errors or crashed (Baymard Institute).

What should you ask about platform and experience?

1. Which platform do you recommend for this store, and why? A good developer asks about your catalog size, sales channels, budget and team before naming a platform. Be wary of anyone who recommends the only platform they know without explaining the trade-offs for your case.

2. Can you show live stores you built, and what exactly did you do on each? Ask for links to working stores, not screenshots, and ask which parts were their work: theme, custom features, integrations or only setup. On Shopify, the Partner Directory help page explains that each listed Partner's profile shows data such as their estimated team size, how long they have been a Partner, and the top services they provided to merchants in the last 4 years. That gives you a check that does not rely only on the developer's own claims.

3. Have you built a store like mine before? Experience with subscriptions, B2B pricing, large catalogs or multiple currencies matters more than general skill. Shopify groups Partners into four tiers and says Select Partners are "typically preferred by small and medium businesses," while Plus, Premier and Platinum Partners usually work with larger companies.

Who will own the store, the code and the accounts?

4. Whose account will the store be created in? On Shopify, there are two clean options. If you already own the store, the developer requests access as a collaborator. If the developer builds a new store for you, they create a client transfer store and transfer ownership to you when it is ready to go live; after the transfer, Shopify says "the merchant owns the store and it leaves your organization." Get the transfer date in the contract.

5. Will I own the code and design you write? This is a contract question, not a technical one. The US Copyright Office's Circular 30 explains that "Ordinarily, the author is the person or persons who actually created the work," and that commissioned work only counts as work made for hire when it fits listed categories and the parties sign a written agreement saying so. In practice, ask for a clause that assigns copyright in the custom code and design to you on payment, and ask a lawyer to review it if the project is large.

6. Which accounts will be in my name? Domain registrar, store platform, email marketing, analytics, payment provider, and every paid app should be registered to your business email, with the developer added as a user. Shopify's collaborator system is built for this: you control which permissions a collaborator gets, collaborators must use two-step authentication, and you can remove access at any time.

How will you make the store fast and reliable?

7. What speed targets will you hit, and how will you measure them? A specific answer names Google's Core Web Vitals. According to web.dev, Largest Contentful Paint should occur within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint should be 200 milliseconds or less, and a page passes when it meets the targets at the 75th percentile of page loads. Speed has a measurable payoff: in a Vodafone A/B test published on web.dev, a 31% improvement in LCP led to 8% more sales.

8. How will you test checkout and key pages before launch? Ask for a written test plan covering mobile and desktop, test orders, discount codes, taxes and shipping rates. Errors cost sales directly: in Baymard Institute's checkout survey, 17% of US shoppers who abandoned an order cited website errors or crashes, and another 17% a checkout that was too long or complicated.

How will you protect search traffic in a migration?

9. How will you map and redirect old URLs? Google's site move guidance recommends server side permanent redirects such as 301 or 308, says "301 and other permanent redirects don't cause a loss in PageRank," and warns against redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant page such as the home page. A good developer gives you a spreadsheet mapping every old product, collection and blog URL to its new address.

10. What platform limits affect redirects? On Shopify, the URL redirect help page says you can create up to 100,000 redirects (20,000,000 on Plus), that redirects only work from broken URLs, and that market subfolders need their own redirects. Ask the developer how they will handle these, and plan to keep redirects for at least 1 year, as Google advises. Google also says a small to medium site "can take a few weeks for most pages to move," so ask how they will monitor rankings in that period.

Should the work use apps or custom code?

11. Which features will use apps, and which need custom code? The Shopify App Store lists "over 16,000 apps," and Shopify says each goes through a 100-checkpoint review before it is listed. Apps are usually faster and cheaper to set up and are maintained by the app maker; custom code fits needs no app covers but becomes your responsibility to maintain. Ask for the list in writing, with each app's monthly fee.

12. What happens to the code if an app or feature is removed later? Ask the developer to document every theme change and every app that injects code, so a future developer can remove or replace them cleanly. A short handover document is cheap at launch and expensive to recreate later.

What will support and pricing look like?

13. Is the price fixed, hourly or a retainer, and what is included? Compare quotes against published ranges. The table below shows the project ranges Upwork publishes for common Shopify work.

Project type	Typical Upwork range	Experience level listed
Theme customization	$500 to $2,000 per project	Entry to intermediate
App integration and development	$1,500 to $8,000 per project	Intermediate to expert
Store migration	$2,000 to $7,000 per project	Intermediate to expert
Custom theme development	$3,000 to $10,000 per project	Intermediate to expert
Shopify Plus setup and optimization	$5,000 to $15,000+ per project	Expert

Source: Upwork, Hire Shopify Developers, captured August 31, 2026. Upwork notes that rates vary with experience, location and project scope. Agency rates are often higher, and Shopify's Partner Directory does not publish standard prices; Shopify says Partners bill you directly and those charges do not appear on your Shopify bill.

14. What support do I get after launch, and at what cost? Ask how many weeks of bug fixes are included, the response time for urgent problems such as a broken checkout, and the hourly rate for new work after that.

15. How do we end the work cleanly? Ask for a handover that includes code, documentation, a list of accounts and apps, and removal of the developer's access. On Shopify, you can remove a collaborator when the work is finished; access also expires on its own after 90 days without a login.

Checklist before you sign

• The store, domain and every paid app are in your business's name.
• The contract assigns copyright in custom code and design to you on final payment.
• On Shopify, the developer works through a collaborator account with only the permissions they need, or transfers a client transfer store to you by a fixed date.
• Written speed targets based on Core Web Vitals, with a test on mobile before launch.
• A redirect map for every old URL, kept live for at least a year after a migration.
• A written list of apps, with monthly fees, and of all custom code.
• A clear pricing model, a payment schedule tied to milestones, and a stated support period.
• A handover document and access removal at the end of the project.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an ecommerce developer cost?

On Upwork, hiring a Shopify developer generally costs $15 to $29 per hour, according to the platform's Shopify hiring page. The same page lists theme customization at $500 to $2,000 per project and custom theme development at $3,000 to $10,000. Agencies and specialists in complex builds usually charge more.

Should a developer have my Shopify password?

No. Shopify's collaborator accounts let a Partner work in your store with only the permissions you assign, require two-step authentication, and can be removed at any time. Sharing the owner login removes that control.

Can a developer keep ownership of my store?

They can if the store is created in their account and never transferred. Shopify's client transfer stores are built under the Partner's organization and then handed to the merchant, so put the transfer in the contract. Shopify also notes that a client transfer store cannot be transferred while Shopify Payments or other Shopify financial products are active on it.

Will moving to a new platform hurt my Google rankings?

Some movement is normal. Google says to expect temporary fluctuation in rankings during a move and that a small to medium site can take a few weeks for most pages to move. Correct 301 redirects for every old URL, kept for at least a year, limit the loss.

Is it better to use apps or custom code?

For most small stores, apps cover common needs faster and with less upkeep; the Shopify App Store lists over 16,000 of them. Custom code makes sense when no app fits or when app fees add up over time, but someone has to maintain it.