Hiring a web designer: how to find, brief and judge one

By the ContractorUK Editorial Team · Fact-checked 7 November 2026

Do you need a designer at all?

Hire one when the site has to do something out of the ordinary: take bookings tied to the diary software you already use, sell products, run a login area for clients, or carry a brand you're investing in properly. Those jobs need judgement, and judgement is what a designer sells.

A straightforward site, with services, an about page, prices and a contact form, often doesn't need a designer. A website builder does the job if you have time to spare; a done-for-you service does it if you don't. What each route costs, VAT included, is covered in our guide to website design in the UK, and we put ourselves against the freelance route in ContractorUK vs hiring a freelancer.

Where good designers are found

Start with sites you already like. Scroll to the footer: a lot of designers sign their work with a "Website by" credit, and the site in front of you is their portfolio, working, on real hosting.

Then ask around. A trade or a contractor you know who has a site that brings in work can tell you who built it, what it cost and, most usefully, whether they'd hire them again. Freelance marketplaces and directories give you range, but judge the live work rather than the star rating on a profile.

Before you go further, look them up. If the designer trades as a limited company, the free Companies House register shows whether the company is active, when it was incorporated and when its accounts are due. A brand-new company or overdue accounts isn't a reason to walk away on its own, but it is a reason to ask. ContractorUK's guide to Companies House explains what the register can tell you.

What to send before the first call

A one-page brief gets you quotes you can compare and fewer surprises later. This one is a made-up example for an IT contractor:

Put a budget in. It can feel like showing your hand, but a designer can only scope to a number they know. Leave it out and you'll get three quotes for three different websites.

How to judge their work

Ask for links to three sites they've built that are live today. Screenshots and mock-ups don't count. Then work through these:

1. Open each one on your phone. Within a few seconds, can you tell what the business does and how to contact it?
2. Put one through PageSpeed Insights, Google's free checker, and look at the mobile score.
3. Scroll to the footer of any company site they built. If the registered name, number and office are missing for their other clients, expect them to be missing for you.
4. Look for signs of upkeep: current prices, a copyright year that isn't long gone, a padlock in the address bar.
5. Ask to speak to two of those clients, and ask them how changes after launch were handled and charged.

Treat reviews you can't trace to a real business with suspicion. Fake reviews have been banned outright in the UK since 6 April 2025, so a designer padding their own site with them is telling you something about how they'd build yours.

Questions for the first conversation

• Which platform will you build on, and could another designer pick it up if we stopped working together?
• Whose name will the domain be registered in, and will I hold the login?
• Will the hosting account be mine or yours?
• Are you doing the work yourself, or subcontracting any of it?
• Who sources the photos, and whose name is on the licence?
• How do I ask for a change once the site is live, and how quickly does it happen?

Who owns the site once it's paid for

Not necessarily you. GOV.UK's guidance on ownership of copyright works says that when you commission someone to create a work, the first legal owner of the copyright is the person who created it, not the one who paid, unless you agree otherwise in writing. Where the contract says nothing, a court might find you have an implied licence to use the site for the purpose it was made for, which is a long way short of owning it.

So write these into the agreement:

• copyright in the design, code and words passes to your business when the final invoice is paid;
• the domain is registered in your business's name, and you hold the account;
• hosting and website admin accounts are in your name from the start, or handed over at launch;
• photos are licensed to your business, or on terms that let you keep using them if you part company.

Red flags

Slow down, or walk away, if a designer:

• guarantees you the top spot on Google (Google's own advice says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking);
• registers your domain in their own name to "keep things simple";
• builds on a system only they can edit, with no way to export it;
• won't put the scope and the price in writing;
• can show mock-ups but no live sites;
• wants a long hosting contract signed before you've seen a design.

Our view

If your site needs custom features or a brand built from scratch, a good designer is money well spent, and the checks above will help you find one. Our page on ContractorUK vs a web design agency is honest about where an agency is worth the extra.

If what you need is a clear site that says who you are and what you do, you can skip the hiring. We build it from a few lines or your CV, usually within ten minutes, and changes are a message to the AI builder in plain English rather than a slot in someone's diary. See it free for 7 days, then £49 a month including VAT. Keep it on the paid plan and the domain we register for you is in your business's name, so the question of who owns the address never comes up.