12 Red Flags When Hiring a Freelance Developer

Hiring a freelance developer as a non-technical founder? Here are 12 warning signs that predict disaster, and how to protect yourself before it's too late.

Before hiring: Watch for vague answers, no relevant portfolio, resistance to milestones, and zero questions about your business.

During the project: Red flags include radio silence, constant scope creep, refusal to show working software, and blame-shifting when problems arise.

The core problem: If they can't explain their work simply or push back on your ideas, something is wrong.

You're about to make one of the most important decisions of your startup.

Not a feature. Not a marketing campaign.

Hiring a developer.

Get it right, and you'll have a partner who brings your vision to life.

Get it wrong, and you'll burn $10,000, six months, and your sanity with nothing to show for it.

As a non-technical founder, you're vulnerable. You can't read their code. You can't verify their claims. You're trusting them completely.

This is the developer translation gap: the space between what your developer says they're doing and what you can actually understand. You can't read code, so you rely on their words. And their words can lie.

Some freelancers know exactly how to exploit that gap.

Here's what I've learned from watching dozens of founder-developer relationships crash and burn. These are the warning signs that matter, before and after you sign the contract.

Before You Hire

1. They Can't Explain Things Simply

Ask them to explain their approach. Not how. Why.

A good developer can translate complexity into plain English.

"I'll build the login system using tokens instead of sessions because it scales better for mobile."

Clear. Direct. You don't need to understand the tech to understand the logic.

A bad developer hides behind jargon.

"I'll implement JWT authentication with Redis session caching and middleware layer abstraction."

They're not explaining. They're intimidating.

Here's the rule: if you feel dumber after every conversation, they're the problem, not you.

This is the developer translation gap in action. If they can't close it now before they've written a single line of code, they won't close it during the project either.

Communication matters because projects are 50% building and 50% communicating what was built. If they can't do the second part now, they never will.

2. Their Portfolio Doesn't Match Your Needs

A brilliant mobile game developer might be terrible at building your SaaS dashboard.

Specialization matters.

When you ask "have you built something similar before," watch for:

• Generic portfolios with no relevant examples

• "I can do anything" energy without specific proof

• Inability to provide references from similar projects

The best developers admit what they don't know. The worst ones pretend to know everything.

You're not paying for them to learn on your dime.

3. They Promise Everything Too Fast

You describe your idea. Within 60 seconds, they're quoting $3,000 and two weeks.

Stop.

A good developer asks ten questions before giving a number. They want to understand the problem.

A bad developer says yes to everything immediately. Here's why:

• They underquote to win the contract

• They cut corners during delivery

• They ask for more money when things "get complicated"

If their quote is half of everyone else's, it's not because they're more efficient. It's because they're not being honest.

Or they're not good enough to know what they're promising.

4. They Resist Milestones or Phased Payments

Professional freelancers understand that structured payments protect both parties.

Red flags:

• Demanding 100% upfront

• Refusing to break work into chunks

• Being vague about what "done" means

Here's what I tell every founder: never pay more than 25% upfront for a new developer relationship.

Structure payments around milestones. First milestone: simple login page works. Second milestone: user can create account. And so on.

If they resist this, they're either inexperienced or planning to take your money and disappear.

Both are bad.

5. They Ask Zero Questions About Your Business

Here's a subtle one that most founders miss.

Good developers are curious. They want to understand the why behind your features.

"Who's your target user?" "What problem does this solve?" "How does this fit with your business model?"

They ask because they want to build the right thing, not just the thing you described.

Bad developers skip straight to "how much" and "when do you need it."

They don't care about your business. They care about invoicing hours.

That lack of curiosity will hurt you later. They'll build exactly what you asked for instead of what you actually needed.

During the Project

6. Radio Silence Between Updates

The project has started. They seemed great in the interview.

Then... silence.

Three days. No message. You send a check-in. Two days later, a vague reply.

Sound familiar?

Consistent communication is non-negotiable. Especially for remote work.

A good developer gives unprompted updates. "Finished the user profile page today. Starting on payments tomorrow."

A bad developer makes you chase them. When you do, the answers are vague or defensive.

Here's what silence usually means: they're either stuck, juggling too many clients, or hiding something.

None of those are acceptable.

7. Constant Scope Changes and "Discoveries"

Week one: "This is going great!"

Week two: "We discovered some unexpected complexity..."

Week three: "The original estimate needs to be adjusted..."

Some surprises are legitimate. Codebases are messy. Third-party APIs have bugs.

But constant surprises? That's either incompetence or manipulation.

Watch for patterns. If every conversation includes a new reason the budget should go up, something is wrong.

A good developer identifies complexity upfront. They under-promise and over-deliver.

A bad developer under-quotes to get the job, then nickels and dimes you to death.

8. They Won't Show You Working Software

Here's a question every founder should ask weekly:

"Can you show me what you built?"

Not a screenshot. Not a description. Working software.

Open it in a browser. Click around. Try to break things.

Good developers love this. They're proud of their work. They want you to see it.

Bad developers make excuses.

"It's not quite ready." "There's nothing visual yet." "Let me clean it up first."

If two weeks pass and you haven't seen anything running, that's a crisis.

Modern development delivers working software early and often. Not at the very end. If they can't show you progress, there might not be any progress to show.

9. Blame-Shifting When Things Go Wrong

Every project has problems. What matters is how they handle them.

Good developers take ownership.

"The feature took longer than expected. I underestimated the complexity. Here's what happened and what I'll do differently next time."

Bad developers blame everything else.

"Your requirements weren't clear." "The API changed." "It's a bug in the framework." "You should have told me about that feature."

Once or twice is understandable. Every single week? You have a professional victim, not a partner.

Accountability is everything. Blame-shifters never improve because they never take responsibility.

10. Your Code Lives on Their Machine

This might be the most dangerous red flag.

Ask: "Where is the code stored?"

The answer should be: "In a GitHub repository that you have access to."

Red flags:

• "I'll send it when I'm done."

• "It's on my local machine."

• "Don't worry about that part."

Here's the nightmare scenario: they get hit by a bus. Or they ghost you. Or you need to fire them.

If the code only lives on their laptop, you've lost everything.

You should have repository access from day one. You own that code. It should live in your house, not theirs.

Gut-Check Red Flags

11. Something Feels Off

I know this sounds vague. But intuition matters.

Your brain picks up on patterns before your conscious mind can articulate them.

If every conversation feels slightly evasive... if their story has small inconsistencies... if they resist video calls for weird reasons...

Pay attention.

Ask clarifying questions. See how they respond under gentle pressure.

Legitimate professionals have nothing to hide. They welcome transparency.

12. They Have Zero Online Presence

Real developers leave digital footprints.

GitHub profiles with actual code. LinkedIn with work history. Maybe a personal site or Stack Overflow contributions.

When you google them and find... nothing?

That's suspicious.

Not every great developer is famous online. But a complete absence of presence raises questions.

Are they new to this? Are they using a fake name? Did they just learn to code six months ago?

Professionals build reputations over time. Those reputations are visible if you look.

How to Protect Yourself

Spotting red flags is half the battle. Here's how to build structural protection:

Use milestone-based contracts. Never pay everything upfront. Structure payments around deliverables: "Payment 2 released when user authentication is working."

Require repository access from day one. You should be added to the GitHub repo immediately. Watch for commit activity.

Schedule weekly demos. Friday afternoons, every week. "Show me what's new." Non-negotiable.

Check commit patterns. You don't need to read code. Just look for activity. Frequent small commits = good habits. One giant commit every two weeks = red flag.

Ask for references. Talk to past clients. Ask specifically: "Did they communicate well? Did they meet deadlines? Would you hire them again?"

Get visibility into their work. This is where most founders struggle. You can't read code. You don't understand GitHub. The updates they send are full of jargon. The developer translation gap keeps you blind.

Tools like Shipanel solve this by translating GitHub commits into plain English automatically. Instead of seeing "refactored auth middleware," you see "Your developer added a password reset feature that emails users a secure link."

Visibility changes everything. When you can see what's actually being built in words you understand, you can manage the relationship intelligently.

One Founder's Story

Let me tell you about Rachel.

She hired a freelance developer from a popular platform. Great reviews. Seemed professional. She paid $8,000 upfront for an MVP.

Week one: enthusiastic Slack messages. "Making great progress!"

Week two: shorter replies. "Almost there."

Week three: silence.

She asked for a demo. "Just cleaning things up, should be ready Friday."

Friday: nothing. Monday: he apologized, promised Wednesday.

Wednesday: he disappeared.

She never heard from him again. No code. No refund. Just an $8,000 lesson and three weeks of lost time.

The developer translation gap killed her. She couldn't verify his claims. She couldn't see what he was actually building. She trusted words instead of working software.

Rachel came to us months later. She'd hired a new developer, this time more carefully. She used Shipanel to watch his commits in real time, translated into plain English.

"I finally feel like I know what's happening," she told us. "I'm not anxious anymore. I can see what he shipped yesterday. I can ask intelligent questions. I'm not in the dark."

She shipped her MVP two months later.

Key Takeaways

What is the developer translation gap?

The space between what your developer says they're doing and what you can actually verify. You can't read code, so you rely on their words and their words can lie.

Red flags before hiring:

• Can't explain things simply, hides behind jargon

• Portfolio doesn't match your project

• Promises everything too quickly, quotes too low

• Resists milestone-based payments

• Asks zero questions about your business

Red flags during the project:

• Radio silence between updates

• Constant scope creep and "discoveries"

• Won't show working software

• Blames everyone else when things go wrong

• Code only lives on their local machine

Gut-check warnings:

• Something feels off, trust your instincts

• Zero online presence or verifiable history

How to protect yourself:

• Milestone-based payments

• Repository access from day one

• Weekly demos, non-negotiable

• Check GitHub commit frequency

• Close the developer translation gap with tools like Shipanel

Stop Hoping. Start Knowing.

Hiring a freelance developer is a leap of faith.

But it doesn't have to be blind faith.

The red flags are there if you know what to look for. And with basic structural protections - milestones, demos, repository access - you dramatically reduce your risk.

Still, the hardest part isn't spotting bad developers.

It's understanding the good ones.

Even a great developer writes confusing commits. Even a reliable partner sends updates you don't quite understand. The developer translation gap exists even in healthy relationships.

That's where Shipanel helps. We translate GitHub commits into simple English automatically. No extra work for your developer. No learning to code. Just clarity, every time they push.

$29/month, free trial. No credit card required. Setup takes 90 seconds.

Try Shipanel free →

Your startup is too important to leave in the dark.