Jordan Reyes
June 18, 2026 · 9 min read
Start with the outcome, not the hours
The most expensive Shopify hire is the cheap one who needs three tries to get it right. Before you look at rates, write down the outcome you're buying: a migration that holds rankings, a checkout that converts, a theme your marketers can run without a developer.
A clear outcome turns an open-ended hourly gamble into a scoped project you can price and hold someone accountable to.
Vet for Shopify depth, not generic React
Shopify is its own world: Liquid, Functions, Metaobjects, Checkout Extensibility, and the Plus stack. A strong generalist engineer is not the same as someone who lives in that ecosystem daily.
Ask candidates to walk you through a real checkout-extensibility migration or a Functions implementation. Specifics separate specialists from people reading the docs for the first time on your dime.
Red flags to walk away from
Guaranteed rankings, fixed PageSpeed scores sight-unseen, and 'we'll figure out scope as we go' are all signals of risk. So is a portfolio with no measurable outcomes.
The best developers talk in tradeoffs and numbers, not superlatives. If everything is 'seamless' and 'world-class,' keep looking.
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