A guide to hiring CMS developers
A content management system, or CMS, is the tool a team uses to create and publish pages, posts, images and products without writing code for each change. WordPress is a common example, and others include Drupal, Joomla, Craft CMS, Webflow and headless systems that feed content to a separate front end. A CMS developer sets the system up and keeps it working. This guide explains what they do, how to choose one and how to run the work so your editors benefit.
What CMS developers work on
The work usually starts with a plan for the content: which types exist, such as articles, products, events or team profiles, and which fields each one needs. Next come templates that turn that content into pages, then menus, search, forms and user roles. After launch, the developer applies updates, fixes problems, adds features and helps when the team wants to change the structure. Some projects are a rebuild or a move to a new platform. Others are steady care for a site that already works.
How this role differs from nearby roles
A CMS developer focuses on the content system. If your site runs on WordPress and the job is themes, plugins or WooCommerce, our WordPress developer page is the closer match. Our web developers cover wider web work, including web apps, and a PHP developer suits custom code in the languages many CMS platforms use. A web designer shapes the look of the pages, and a WordPress SEO specialist works on search visibility, which is a different job from development. Use this page when the question is how your content system should work.
What to decide before you hire
- Which CMS you use now, or which ones you are comparing.
- Who edits content, how many people, and who approves it.
- Whether the job is a new build, a migration, a fix or steady upkeep.
- Which tools the site must connect to, such as email, forms or analytics.
- Who owns hosting, the domain and the admin accounts.
Choosing the platform
The right CMS matches your content and your team, not what is fashionable. A site with a few pages and a blog may need nothing more than a well set up WordPress install. A site with many content types, languages or strict editing steps may suit Drupal or Craft CMS. A team that wants one body of content for a website and a mobile app may prefer a headless CMS. Ask a candidate to compare two options for your case and explain the trade-offs in plain words.
Reading a CMS developer’s work
Ask to see live sites they built and, if possible, the admin side. A good build feels easy to edit: fields have clear names, there is help text where needed, and editors cannot easily break the layout. Check how fast the pages load on a phone. Ask what they would remove from a site that has many old plugins or modules, and how they would test an update before it reaches the live site.
Interview questions to try
- How would you model the content for a site with articles, authors and topics?
- An editor keeps breaking the layout of a page. What do you change in the system?
- How do you move a site with thousands of pages to a new CMS without losing links?
- When do you write custom code and when do you use an existing plugin or module?
- How do you update a live site safely?
Good answers come with a story of something that went wrong. Treat a claim of a flawless move with suspicion.
Run a small paid task
Hand each finalist a short job drawn from your own site, such as modelling one content type, building its template or planning the move of one section. Pay for their time. Compare the finished work, how clear their notes are and what they asked about your editors.
Match experience to the work
For a new build you want someone who plans the content first and writes the code second. For a migration you want a person who has done several and keeps a checklist. For upkeep, look for a careful developer who values backups, small changes and clear records. Titles differ between companies, so ask what each person owned and what they would do differently now.
Give them tools and a rhythm
Give your developer the site, a staging copy and the task board, and add more access only when a task needs it. Hosting, domain names and outside accounts should stay in your name. In the first weeks, meet every week and try each change on staging before it goes live. Later, a short weekly written update and a monthly look at open tasks usually do the job.
Working with editors, designers and marketers
The people who use the system every day know where it hurts. Ask editors to try the new templates early and say what feels slow. Designers should agree with the developer on which parts of a page are fixed and which can change. Marketing teams need to know how forms, tracking and landing pages are handled, so those tools are planned from the start.
Mistakes to avoid
- Choosing a platform before listing what editors need.
- Installing many plugins or modules for small jobs, then never updating them.
- Skipping redirects during a move to a new system.
- Giving every user full admin rights.
- Letting a contractor hold the only admin login or the hosting account.
If the work goes beyond the CMS, read how to hire a WordPress developer or a web developer for those roles.