By Mehdi HassanShould you hire a designer or developer first for your website?
Neither. Start with the copy and messaging, then hire design and development together. The words decide the page structure, the page structure decides the design, and the design decides what gets built. Hiring out of that order means paying people to work on assumptions that will change.
Most founders frame this as a choice between two roles because that's how websites used to be made: a designer hands off files and a developer builds them. That model still works, but it's the slowest and most error-prone way to get a site live. This guide explains why copy comes first, what each role does, and how to staff the project. For the broader choice of who to hire, see our guide to agencies, freelancers, in-house designers and subscriptions.
Why should the copy and messaging come first?
Copy comes first because it's the content the design exists to present. You can't decide how big a headline should be, how many sections a page needs or where the call to action sits until you know what the page says. Designing first means designing for lorem ipsum, then forcing real words into boxes that don't fit.
Starting with the words also forces the decisions that matter most: who the site is for, what problem you solve, what proof you have and what you want visitors to do. Those are business decisions, and a designer or developer can't make them for you. They can only work faster once you have.
Design what you mean to say, not what might fit in the box.
That's why we start every project with the words. It's also why the copy is the hidden variable in website quotes: sources we reviewed note that two quotes for the same landing page can differ tenfold depending on whether strategy and writing are included.
Web designer vs web developer: what does each one do?
A web designer decides how the site looks, reads and flows. A web developer turns that design into a working, fast, editable website. The roles overlap, and some people do both, but the core skills are different.
Area | Web designer | Web developer |
|---|---|---|
Main output | Layouts, visual system, prototypes in Figma | A live site in code or a builder |
Decides | Hierarchy, typography, color, imagery, motion intent | Structure, performance, CMS, integrations |
Needs from you | Final copy, brand direction, goals | Finished designs, content model, hosting access |
Owns quality of | How the message lands | Speed, accessibility, SEO setup, editability |
Common gap | May not consider build cost or CMS needs | May not catch weak copy or design detail |
The best results come from people who understand both sides. A designer who knows how things get built designs pages that ship as intended. A developer with design sense preserves spacing, motion and responsive detail. Our article on hiring a product designer who codes covers what that combined profile looks like.
Do you need both a designer and a developer for a website?
For a custom website, yes, you need both skill sets, though not necessarily two separate hires. A template site on a builder can skip the developer. A custom marketing site with a CMS, animation and good performance needs someone who designs and someone who builds.
You can cover both in three ways:
- Two freelancers. Cheapest per hour, but you manage the handoff and settle disagreements between them.
- A designer who builds in a no-code tool. Works well on Framer or Webflow for simpler sites. Our guide on hiring a landing page designer covers this profile.
- One team that writes, designs and develops. Fewer handoffs, one point of accountability, and the copy is part of the scope.
When should you hire a developer first?
Hire a developer first when the hard part of the website is technical rather than visual. That's rarer for marketing sites than founders think, but it does happen.
- Migrations. Moving from one platform to another with many pages, redirects and SEO to protect.
- Complex integrations. Pricing calculators, product data, logged-in areas or deep CRM connections.
- App-like features. Interactive tools or dashboards that live on the marketing site.
- Performance problems. An existing site that's slow or breaking, where the design is fine.
Even then, the developer works best with a clear content plan. If you're hiring for a Next.js build specifically, our guide to hiring a Next.js developer covers what to check, and our breakdown of Framer to Next.js migration cost shows how a technical move is scoped.
What's the right order to build a website?
The right order is message, structure, design, build, then launch and iterate. Each step depends on the one before it, and design and development should overlap rather than run as two separate phases.
Messaging and copy
Define the audience, the main claim, the proof and the call to action. Write the real words for every page. A web design brief template helps you collect the inputs.
Sitemap and page structure
Decide which pages exist and what each one must do, based on the copy.
Visual direction
Explore a few design directions on the key page, usually the homepage, before designing everything.
Design and build together
Design the remaining pages while development starts on approved ones, so build questions surface early.
CMS, SEO and performance
Set up editable content, metadata, redirects if needed, and check speed and accessibility.
Launch and iterate
Ship, watch how visitors behave, and refine the words and pages that underperform.
Hypothetical example: two ways to staff a six-page site
For example, suppose a startup needs a six-page marketing site.
Split hires. The founder writes rough copy, hires a designer who delivers Figma pages, then hires a developer. The developer raises questions the designer didn't consider, the founder relays answers, and some details are cut to save time.
One team. The team writes the copy with the founder, designs the homepage first, and starts building as soon as it's approved. Questions get answered in the same conversation.
This example is illustrative. Both routes can produce a good site. The second has fewer handoffs and less founder coordination.
If you'd rather compare several studios first, our list of the best web design agencies for startups explains what to look for.
