15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Shopify Developer or Agency

Hiring a Shopify developer sounds straightforward on paper. You share what you need, get a proposal, and the work begins. Simple enough.

But talk to any store owner who has been burned before, and the story sounds different. Six weeks in, the developer they trusted had quietly never handled a migration. The flat quote started growing with extras that somehow were not covered. The store went live with a checkout that broke on mobile, and nobody caught it because nobody tested it. None of this is rare. These are the patterns that repeat constantly, and they almost always start in the same place: the wrong questions being asked, or no questions being asked at all.

This guide walks you through 15 questions worth asking before you sign anything. They are grouped by what they actually uncover, and each one comes with what a strong answer looks like and what should make you hesitate.

Key Highlights

• Experience questions tell you whether someone genuinely knows Shopify or has just built a surface-level portfolio around it
• Technical questions in 2026 need to cover the current platform. Checkout Extensibility, Shopify Functions, and GraphQL are now standard. Older tools are gone
• Process questions protect your timeline before the project starts, not after it has already slipped two weeks
• Pricing questions stop scope creep before it doubles your budget
• Post-launch questions decide whether you are buying a finished product or an ongoing partnership

Before You Start: Know What Kind of Project You Have

Different Shopify projects need genuinely different skill sets. A developer who is great at theme work may have no experience handling a platform migration. Someone who has built dozens of clean storefronts may have never touched a custom Shopify app or connected an external ERP system. Before you speak to anyone, get specific about what you actually need.

Most Shopify projects fall into one of these categories:

• New store build from scratch
• Theme customization or redesign on an existing store
• Platform migration from WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Magento
• Custom app build or third-party integration
• Shopify POS setup that connects your online and retail operations
• Ongoing development work on a monthly retainer

The questions below apply across all of them. What you listen for in the answers will shift depending on which category fits your project.

Section 1: Experience Questions

Question 1. How much of your recent work is specifically on Shopify?

It sounds like an obvious thing to ask, but most store owners skip it. Shopify runs on Liquid, its own templating language. It has its own API logic, its own app ecosystem, and specific rules around how modern themes are structured. A general web developer can produce something that resembles a Shopify store. A developer who lives inside the platform builds one that actually holds up when traffic spikes, integrations break, or Shopify rolls out changes. Ask for a percentage. If Shopify accounts for less than 70% of what they have worked on recently, that is worth a follow-up conversation before you go any further.

Question 2. Can you walk me through a project that went wrong?

This is one of the most revealing questions on this list, and it rarely gets asked. Developers who only talk about wins tend to fall apart when something breaks on your project. The ones worth working with can tell you exactly what went sideways on a past job, what they did about it, and what they would handle differently now. That kind of honesty also tells you what working with them will feel like when things get difficult. Will they come to you with problems early, or will you find out at the worst possible moment?

Question 3. Which parts of your portfolio did you personally build?

This matters more than people realize. Agencies and experienced freelancers frequently show portfolio work from teams, not from their own hands. Showing a polished project is not dishonest, but you need to know whether the person you are actually hiring wrote the code or just happened to work at the company that did. Ask them to walk you through two or three projects they owned from start to finish. If they keep redirecting to team efforts without naming their specific role, pay attention to that.

Question 4. Have you built stores at my level of complexity before?

A store with 20 products and a clean catalog is a completely different build from a B2B wholesale operation running 5,000 SKUs with tiered pricing, custom checkout logic, and ERP connectivity. You do not need someone who has built your exact store before. But you do need someone who has handled something structurally similar. Ask them to describe the most complex Shopify project they have completed and then honestly compare it to what you are trying to build.

Section 2: Technical Depth Questions

Shopify's platform went through significant changes in 2025 and 2026. Shopify Scripts stopped executing on June 30, 2026. checkout.liquid is no longer the accepted method for customizing the checkout experience. Developers still working from the old playbook are not just outdated, they are a liability. The questions in this section help you figure out quickly which side of that line someone is on.

Question 5. Are you working with Liquid, Shopify 2.0 architecture, and the GraphQL Admin API?

These three are the core of modern Shopify development. Liquid is the templating language that powers every theme. Shopify 2.0 section and block architecture is now the standard way themes are built, allowing store owners to manage content and layouts without needing a developer for every minor change. GraphQL has taken over from the legacy REST API for the vast majority of new builds. A developer who is vague on any of these is telling you something. It usually means they are working within pre-built templates rather than building to your actual specification.

Question 6. How familiar are you with Checkout Extensibility and Shopify Functions?

This is where you find out whether someone is current or not. Custom checkout logic, discount rules, and shipping customizations now run through Shopify Functions, which is compiled code that executes in milliseconds. It replaced the Script-based approach that stopped working in mid-2026. For Shopify Plus stores especially, this is not optional knowledge. If a developer still talks about checkout.liquid as the right way to customize checkout, they are describing a method that no longer works. That is a meaningful gap, not a minor technicality.

Question 7. How do you handle page speed and Core Web Vitals?

Slow stores lose customers before a single product is viewed. Page speed has a direct effect on both conversion rates and where your store ranks in search results. Ask them to describe their actual approach: how they handle image optimization, how they reduce JavaScript load, how they decide when an app is worth the performance cost and when a lightweight custom solution makes more sense. Then ask to see a real mobile PageSpeed score from a store they have built. A score of 75 or above on mobile is a reasonable benchmark, since more than 70% of Shopify traffic arrives from mobile devices.

Question 8. When do you build something custom versus recommending an app?

Developers who default to apps for everything can leave a store running 15 or 20 third-party scripts on every page load. That creates two problems at once: performance takes a hit, and your monthly costs compound with every new subscription. A developer thinking long-term knows when a small amount of clean code does the job better than a recurring app fee. Ask if they have ever removed an app and replaced it with a custom solution. How they answer tells you a lot about how they actually think.

Question 9. How have you handled Shopify store migrations before?

If you are planning to move from WooCommerce, Magento, or another platform, this question is not optional. Shopify store migrations are complex operations that touch product data, customer records, SEO redirects, payment gateways, and existing app configurations all at once. An experienced migration developer will describe their process without being prompted: how they map data from the old platform, how they set up 301 redirects to protect your search rankings, and how they verify nothing was lost before the old site comes down. If they do not have a documented process, you are taking on more risk than you probably realize.

Section 3: Process and Communication Questions

Question 10. What does your workflow look like from kickoff to launch?

You are not asking for a project management textbook. You just need to know that a structure exists. Do they work from a staging environment before anything goes live on your actual store? Are there review points built into the project where you can see work in progress before it is finished? Do updates come to you proactively, or do you have to chase them down? A developer without a defined workflow usually means a project without predictability. For a quick single-task job, that might be fine. For a multi-week build, it will eventually cost you.

Question 11. How do you handle scope changes mid-project?

Every project shifts at some point. You will remember a feature you forgot to mention, or someone on your team will ask for something that was not in the original brief. What matters is whether there is a fair process for handling that. Good developers are upfront about it from day one: changes go through a documented request, they are scoped properly, and any impact on timeline or budget is discussed before the work starts. If the answer is that things will be worked out as they go, that usually means surprises on your invoice later.

Question 12. Who will actually be doing the work on my project?

This one catches people off guard, but it is worth asking directly, especially with agencies. It is not unusual for the senior team to handle the pitch and then hand the actual build to junior developers or offshore contractors. Neither of those things is automatically a problem, but you deserve to know. Ask who specifically will be writing your code. Ask about their Shopify experience. Ask whether you can meet them before the contract is signed. A team confident in their people will not hesitate to answer.

Section 4: Pricing and Contract Questions

Question 13. What is included in this quote, and what is explicitly excluded?

Get a line-by-line breakdown before you agree to anything. Post-launch tweaks, mobile QA, app setup, and cross-browser testing are the kinds of things clients assume are included and developers assume are extra. Those assumptions are where most disputes start. A developer who cannot break down their quote into specifics is not really quoting you. They are estimating, and estimates in software projects have a habit of expanding once the work is underway.

Question 14. What counts as a revision versus a bug fix in your process?

These two things need to be defined before the project starts, not during a disagreement after launch. A revision is something you changed your mind about after it was built correctly. A bug fix is something that was not built correctly in the first place. Most reputable developers cover bug fixes within a set window after launch at no extra charge and price revisions separately. If those categories are treated as the same thing, you will eventually be billed for fixing mistakes that were not yours.

Section 5: Post-Launch Support

Question 15. What does your support look like after the store goes live?

This is the question people forget to ask, and it tends to be the one they regret skipping most. A store that just launched is not finished. Shopify itself updates constantly, and those updates affect themes, APIs, checkout logic, and app compatibility in ways that are not always predictable. Your first campaign will likely reveal performance issues that were not visible before real traffic arrived. An integration will break at some point. Things change.

Find out exactly what happens after launch day. Do they offer a retainer? A block of support hours? Ad hoc work on request? What is their response time when something urgent comes up? Can you still reach them in six months? The answer to this question tells you whether you are getting a finished product handed over or an ongoing working relationship. For most store owners, the second option is worth paying a bit more to secure.

Red Flags Worth Knowing Before You Start

Even with the right questions, some warning signs are easier to spot when you know what to look for:

• They give you a price before understanding what you need. A number before a real conversation is not a quote. It is a placeholder designed to move you to the next step. Actual pricing requires an actual scope.
• Their portfolio has no live URLs. Ask for real store links, not screenshots. Open them on your phone. Run one through Google PageSpeed Insights. A portfolio that exists only in PDFs is hiding something.
• They describe deprecated tools as current ones. Shopify Scripts stopped running in mid-2026. checkout.liquid is not the right way to customize checkout anymore. A developer who does not know this is behind the platform in a way that will affect your project.
• Technical questions get vague answers. Developers who know their craft can explain how they approach problems. Deflection or buzzword responses on basic questions about Liquid or APIs usually signal limited depth.
• They want admin access before the contract is signed. Always sign first. Then give collaborator access with only the permissions needed for the specific work. This keeps your store data protected and gives you leverage if things go sideways.
• They cannot say what they personally built. Real experience is specific. If someone struggles to describe their own contribution to the projects they are showing you, that is a gap worth taking seriously.

Freelancer or Agency: An Honest Take

The right answer here comes down to what your project actually requires. A skilled Shopify freelancer is a solid choice when the work is well-defined and limited in scope. A theme section, a specific integration, a performance review. You get direct access to the person doing the work, faster turnaround, and typically lower cost since there is no account management overhead.

An agency tends to make more sense when the project involves multiple moving pieces at once, such as design, development, integrations, and post-launch support running in parallel. A good agency brings the right specialist to each part instead of asking one person to cover everything. The risk with a freelancer is continuity. If they take on another project mid-build or go quiet, you are stuck. The risk with an agency is getting a junior team on a senior pitch. Question 12 above is specifically there to catch that before it becomes your problem.

Working With AmWhiz on Your Shopify Project

AmWhiz is a listed Shopify Partner with over eight years of experience building and integrating Shopify stores for growing brands. The team handles everything from custom app development and store migrations to shipping integrations and POS setups. If you want to see what that looks like in practice, you can explore AmWhiz's Shopify services here.

If you have worked through these 15 questions and want to talk through your specific project, get in touch here and the team will take it from there.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the single most important question to ask before hiring a Shopify developer?

Ask them to walk you through a project that did not go to plan. That question tells you more than any other. It shows you how they handle pressure, how honest they are with clients, and whether they have actually learned from hard situations. Anyone can talk through their wins. The developers worth trusting can talk through their failures just as clearly.

How do I know if a Shopify developer is technically strong in 2026?

Ask specifically about Liquid, Shopify 2.0 theme architecture, GraphQL, and Checkout Extensibility. A developer who is current on the platform can speak to all four without hesitation. If they are still describing Shopify Scripts or checkout.liquid as the way things work, they are behind and that will show up in your project.

Should I hire a freelancer or a Shopify agency?

Freelancers are a good fit for focused, well-scoped work that one person can own cleanly. Agencies make more sense when the project spans multiple disciplines or needs ongoing support across a longer period. Whichever direction you go, ask Question 12 first: who specifically will be doing the hands-on work, and can you meet them?

What are the biggest red flags when hiring a Shopify developer or agency?

Pricing given before the scope is discussed, a portfolio with no live store links, an inability to explain their own contributions to past work, vague answers to technical questions, and asking for full admin access before a contract exists.

What technical skills matter most for a Shopify developer in 2026?

Liquid and Shopify 2.0 architecture, the GraphQL Admin API, Shopify CLI, Core Web Vitals awareness, and for any Plus store work, Checkout Extensibility and Shopify Functions are now non-negotiable. Shopify Scripts are gone. A developer still relying on them needs to catch up before touching your store.

Do I really need a written agreement for a smaller Shopify project?

Yes. It does not need to be a long document. A short written scope covering price, deliverables, timeline, code ownership, and what happens after launch protects both sides and takes about ten minutes to put together. A developer who resists this is telling you something important.