I’m a Shopify developer, and I often get emails from store owners asking where to find a good (and honest) developer. I can’t take on every job myself, so this is what I tell them.
Quick answer: if it’s your first time hiring, don’t start on Upwork or Fiverr. Use a company that tests its developers before letting them take on clients, and specializes in Shopify.
- ShopExperts (previously HeyCarson) is like Upwork for Shopify. Compare vetted experts, with reviews and starting prices, before you choose.
- Storetasker for fixed-price projects where you work with one freelancer.
Where to hire a Shopify developer
| Best for | Pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| ShopExperts (previously HeyCarson) | Comparing vetted freelancers and agencies before you commit | Free to use. Experts set their own prices, shown on each profile |
| Storetasker | Projects that take a few days or more, with one vetted freelancer | Fixed quotes. Theme edits start at $475 |
| Specialist agencies (SpeedBoostr, CRO.media) | One specific job, like speed or conversion rate | Fixed packages. Speed work from $450, a CRO audit for $2,899 |
| Upwork | People who have hired developers before and can screen applicants | Median $20/hour. Experienced developers charge $95 and up |
| Fiverr | Very small, clearly defined tasks | Fixed-price gigs, plus a 5.5% service fee |
| Shopify Partner Directory | Full store builds, agencies, Shopify Plus | Set by each partner |
Prices checked in October 2026. Some links on this page are affiliate links, so I get a small commission if you sign up. It doesn’t cost you anything extra.
Why quotes for the same job are so different
I’ve been hearing complaints from store owners about how difficult it is to find a good developer, with some feeling they are getting ripped off with bloated time estimates.
One example was a job where one developer quoted 2 hours, and another quoted 18 hours for the same work.
Sure, different developers have different skill levels and work at a different pace. I’d even understand if one quoted 3 hours and the other 6 hours. But 2 hours and 18 hours is too much of a gap.
This is also why the hourly rate on its own doesn’t tell you much. 18 hours at $30 an hour is $540. 2 hours at $110 an hour is $220. The developer with the higher rate was the cheaper one.
Where you hire also changes the price. Most platforms take a cut from the freelancer. ShopExperts lists a 15 to 20% commission on its pricing page for experts, and Fiverr keeps 20% of every order. Freelancers have to cover that, so it ends up in the rate you pay.
When you haven’t hired a developer before, you have no way of knowing which estimate is the fair one. That’s the main reason I don’t recommend freelance marketplaces for a first hire.
Vetted platforms: ShopExperts and Storetasker
I don’t mean Shopify agencies here. Agencies usually deal with bigger projects.
I mean companies that test freelancers’ skills and give you a platform to find and hire them. It’s a hybrid between an agency and a freelance marketplace like Upwork.
You still pay less than you would at an agency, but the platform gives you more security. You also get some experience hiring people, and a feel for how much things should cost.
The two work differently:
- ShopExperts is a marketplace. You compare experts and hire one yourself.
- Storetasker is a freelancer platform. They match you with one freelancer, and you get a fixed quote.
They also share some history. ShopExperts used to be called HeyCarson, and Storetasker was started by the same founder, who later sold it.
ShopExperts (previously HeyCarson)
If you’ve seen me recommend HeyCarson in older posts and videos, this is the same company. HeyCarson worked like a mini-agency: their own team of developers did the work, billed by the hour. It has since become ShopExperts, a marketplace where you choose from independent freelancers and agencies. The old heycarson.com address now redirects there.
Until this year I sent most people to Storetasker. Then ShopExperts launched a public directory, and I think it’s a better place to start. You can browse freelancers and agencies yourself and see who you’d be hiring before you talk to anyone.
- Every profile shows reviews, a score and a starting project price. The ones I looked at started between $65 and $500.
- If you don’t want to browse, answer a short quiz and they match you with up to 3 experts.
- Free for store owners. ShopExperts doesn’t add a fee or a markup on your side.
- The experts pay instead. A Pro listing costs them $799 a year, and there is a 15 to 20% commission on work that comes from ShopExperts leads.
- A “PRO” badge means the expert pays for the listing. It’s not a ranking, so go by the reviews.
Storetasker
Storetasker connects you with developers, designers and marketers, and you work with them one-on-one. It was my usual recommendation for years, and it’s still a good choice when you want one fixed price.
- Fixed-price quotes instead of hourly billing, so you know the cost before work starts.
- Storetasker says it has reviewed over 15,000 applicants and accepted the top 3%.
- Current starting prices on their site: theme edits from $475, landing page design from $500, speed optimization from $2,000.
- Monthly retainers are available. A 30-hour retainer starts at $3,000.
- Because it’s a company and not an individual, they’re accountable. If one person can’t help, someone else can.
With a starting price of $475 it’s not the place for a 30-minute fix. It suits jobs that take a day or more.
Which one should you pick?
If you’d like to compare a few people first and pick the one you get along with, use ShopExperts. For a project with a clear scope, like a new landing page or a custom section, get a fixed quote from Storetasker.
For a small theme change, look on ShopExperts as well. Some experts there list a starting price under $100, while Storetasker’s theme edits start at $475.
Upwork and Fiverr
Hiring on Upwork or Fiverr is hit and miss. You might find someone good. You might also find someone who misunderstands the project, makes a mess of your code, or overcharges you.
The rates are low. Upwork’s own figures put the median Shopify developer at $20/hour, with most between $15 and $29. Developers at the expert level charge around $95/hour, which is no longer cheap. Upwork adds a client fee on top (about 5% on the standard plan) and Fiverr adds a 5.5% service fee.
So the saving is only real at the cheap end, and that’s where the risk is. At those rates you usually have to spell out every step. I’d only use them for small tasks where you can describe exactly what you want and check the result yourself.
If you do hire on a marketplace:
- Look for job history that is specifically Shopify theme work. General web development experience doesn’t count for much here.
- Start with one small paid task before you hand over anything bigger.
- Ask them to work on a duplicate of your theme, not the live one.
- Don’t share your own login. Shopify lets developers request collaborator access to your store, and you can remove it when the job is finished.
The Shopify Partner Directory
The Shopify Partner Directory is Shopify’s own list of agencies and freelancers. You can filter by service (store build, theme customization, migration, marketing and so on) and by location. Profiles show reviews and past work, and you contact the partner yourself.
Partners are ranked in tiers: Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum. The higher tiers are mostly agencies working with large stores.
I’d use the directory when you want a full store build, a migration from another platform, or anything on Shopify Plus. It’s less useful for a one-hour theme edit.
In my experience, small businesses don’t use the directory much, and Shopify doesn’t seem to give it much attention either.
Specialist agencies
Some agencies only do one type of work. If you already know what the problem is, they can be a better choice than a general developer. They do the same job every week and sell it as a fixed package, so you know the price before you start.
Speed: SpeedBoostr
SpeedBoostr only does performance work on Shopify stores, and they say they have optimized over 1,500 of them.
- Packages start at $450 for the essentials: lazy loading, minifying CSS and JS, image optimization and an app check.
- The full package is $650. The top one is $1,650 and adds a conversion analysis, a UX audit and basic SEO.
- They have a free analyzer tool, so you can check your store before paying for anything.
Conversion rate: CRO.media
CRO.media is a Shopify agency that focuses on conversion rate, which means getting more of your existing visitors to buy.
- A CRO audit costs $2,899. It tells you what is hurting sales and what to fix first.
- They also sell an SEO audit for $699 and a one-hour consultation for $199.
- Ongoing work is a retainer at $4,200 per store per month.
CRO work only pays off when the store already gets traffic. For a new store, I’d spend that money on the store itself first.
Other places to look
Your theme’s developer. Some theme companies offer small customization services for their own themes. Check their website. For example, the developers of Palo Alto theme do this. They know the theme’s code better than anyone.
My own services. I take on theme customization, theme updates and SEO work when I have availability.
How much does a Shopify developer cost?
Here are the current rates from the places above:
| Where | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Upwork, median | $20/hour |
| Upwork, expert level | $95/hour and up |
| ShopExperts | A starting project price on each profile, from about $65 |
| Storetasker | Fixed quotes, from $475 for theme edits |
| SpeedBoostr (speed) | Packages from $450 to $1,650 |
| CRO.media (conversion rate) | $2,899 for an audit |
| Agencies | Usually a project minimum, often $10,000 or more |
For a small theme edit that takes 1 to 3 hours, expect to pay roughly $100 to $300 with an experienced developer.
A full store setup on an existing theme is a bigger job. I count about 30 to 40 hours for an average store, including project management and communication. At $80 to $110 an hour, that’s roughly $2,400 to $4,400.
Agencies charge much more. A boutique agency usually has a minimum of around $10,000, and a Shopify Plus build costs many times that.
There are also two costs you can’t avoid, whoever builds the store:
- Shopify itself. The Basic plan is $29 USD per month if you pay yearly, or $39 month to month. You probably don’t need the more expensive plans to start.
- A theme. The free themes are good enough for a lot of stores. I wrote about which free theme to choose. A paid theme is a one-time purchase, mostly between $150 and $400.
Freelancer or agency?
A freelancer is the right choice for most small stores. One person can handle theme edits, a new section, a store built on an existing theme, or ongoing maintenance, and you talk directly to the person doing the work.
An agency makes sense when the project needs several skills at the same time: a custom design, a developer to build it, someone to migrate thousands of products and redirects from another platform, and a project manager to keep it moving. That’s a team of people, and the price reflects it.
The weak point of a single freelancer is availability. If they’re sick, on holiday or busy with another client, your job waits. A platform like Storetasker sits in the middle here. You pay freelancer prices, but there is a company behind the work if your developer isn’t available.
There is also a third option: a specialist agency that does one job, like speed or conversion rate, for a fixed price. I listed two of them above.
Do you need to hire a developer at all?
Not always. I’m a developer, so I’m biased, but plenty of people build their own Shopify store without any professional help.
I wrote a separate post about that decision: Building your Shopify store. Should you hire a developer or DIY? It covers the skills you need and how long a store takes to build. The prices in it are from 2020, so use the ones on this page.
Split the work
You don’t have to choose one or the other. A common setup is to do the general work yourself (products, collections, pages, theme settings) and hire a developer only for the parts that need code. For example, a product with customization options, or a section your theme doesn’t have.
A lot of small changes are just copy and paste. Here is an example of what you can do with a Custom Liquid block.
If what you need is a unique landing page, a page builder app is another option. I compared Pagefly, Shogun and GemPages in a separate post.
When should you hire a designer?
A developer and a designer are different jobs. The designer decides how the store should look. The developer builds it. Some freelancers do both, but most are stronger at one.
Shopify themes are already designed. If you pick a theme, use good product photos and stay close to the theme’s demo, you can get a good looking store without a designer. Simple themes like Dawn guide you towards a good design because there’s less you can mess up.
I’d hire a designer when:
- You don’t have a brand yet. Logo, colors and fonts come before the store.
- You want a look that no theme gives you.
- You need custom landing pages for ads or a product launch.
For pricing, Storetasker lists landing page design from $500 and a full branding project from $6,000.
If you want a custom looking store, a designer who knows Shopify can often build it without a developer. I wrote about that in hire a Shopify designer, not a developer.
How to find a developer you keep for years
The platforms above are a safe way to start. You won’t get badly ripped off, and you’ll learn what things cost.
In the long term it’s better to find a developer that sticks with you over several years. Much like finding a mechanic or barber that you trust. They get to know your store, and your communication and workflow get better over time.
A few things that help:
- Start with a small job and see how it goes before agreeing to anything ongoing.
- Ask for a list of every file they changed. Code changes to theme files are lost when you update your theme, so you’ll need that list later. I explained why in how Shopify theme updates work.
- Keep a backup. Duplicate your theme before any work starts.
Once you’ve found a good developer, make sure you pay them well, otherwise they will be forced to find better work. I don’t think you should negotiate or haggle rates with developers. You don’t do it with your dentist, do you? Make sure they are happy and do a good job.
If you’re a freelancer reading this
A word of advice if you’re a beginner freelancer. Overcharging and bloating your time estimates will not work out in the long term. It’s much easier to work with happy clients than to feel like every quote is a battle.
Eventually, a retainer agreement is probably the best way to work for both parties. But you need to prove yourself and build a high level of trust first.