To check a web developer portfolio, open at least three live sites on your phone, test their speed and forms, confirm the developer's credit or ask the client, and look at when each site was built. Red flags include screenshots instead of live links, sites that no longer work, identical templates and no client willing to speak.
Key Takeaways
- Live links beat screenshots; anyone can screenshot a site they did not build.
- Test portfolio sites on your phone, because that is how your customers will see yours.
- Ask what the developer did on each site; "we worked on it" can mean a single fix.
- Free tools can show a site's speed, its platform and how it looked in the past.
- One reference call with a past client is worth more than ten portfolio images.
Why You Need to Check a Web Developer Portfolio
A portfolio is the main evidence you have before hiring. It can also be misleading: some portfolios include sites the developer only fixed, templates bought from marketplaces, or work done by a previous employer. Checking takes about 15 minutes per developer and can save you from the most expensive mistake in a website project: hiring the wrong team.
Eight Portfolio Red Flags
| Red flag | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Only screenshots or mock-ups, no live links | Cannot be verified, and may not be their work |
| Live links that are broken or expired | Sites may have been abandoned, or clients moved away |
| Every site looks the same | One template reused, limited design skill |
| Sites are very slow or broken on a phone | Your site will likely have the same problems |
| No recent work from the last two years | Skills and tools may be outdated |
| Famous brands with no detail | Often a small task presented as the whole site |
| No client willing to speak to you | Past clients may not be satisfied |
| Contact forms that do not work | Testing is not part of their process |
The 15-Minute Portfolio Check
- Pick three live sites closest to your project type.
- Open each on your phone using mobile data, not Wi-Fi. Does it load quickly? Can you read it without zooming?
- Run Google PageSpeed Insights on each homepage and note the mobile results.
- Test a contact form or WhatsApp button on at least one site.
- Look at the footer for a developer credit, and check whether the business still uses the site.
- Check the Wayback Machine to see when the current design first appeared and whether it matches the developer's timeline.
Questions That Expose Borrowed Work
- What exactly did you do on this site: design, development, content or only fixes?
- Who on your current team worked on it?
- What was the hardest part of this project, and how did you solve it?
- Can I speak to this client for five minutes?
- What results did the site produce for the client?
Developers who built a site can answer these in detail without hesitation. Vague answers deserve a follow-up question.
Free Tools for Checking Past Work
| Tool | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Google PageSpeed Insights | Speed and user-experience scores on mobile and desktop |
| Wayback Machine | How a site looked on earlier dates |
| ICANN Lookup | When a domain was registered, for generic domains |
| Lighthouse in Chrome | Performance, accessibility and SEO basics |
What If the Developer Is New?
New developers and young agencies may have only a few projects. That is not a red flag on its own. Ask for their best two pieces of work, a short paid test task, or a smaller first milestone so you can judge quality before committing the full budget. Combine this with our 20 questions and the advice in freelancer vs agency vs software house.
Checking Our Work
We share live sites we have built, explain what we did on each, and can put you in touch with past clients on request. You are welcome to run every check on this page against our work before paying anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
How We Researched This Guide
The red flags come from portfolios clients have shown us after problem projects with other developers. The 15-minute check uses free, public tools from Google, Chrome, the Internet Archive and ICANN, each linked in the sources. We have not named any company, because a portfolio problem can have innocent explanations.
Sources
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Chrome for Developers — Lighthouse overview
- Internet Archive — Wayback Machine
- ICANN Lookup
- Nielsen Norman Group — Usability 101
Disclosure: Kamboh Associates sells the web development services discussed here. Other providers' prices are quoted from their own public pages on the dates shown and may have changed. We correct errors as soon as they are reported. First published ; last reviewed .
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