How to hire a full stack developer: skills, vetting and cost

A good full stack developer can take a feature from the database to the screen without hand-offs. That makes them the most valuable first hire for many products, and the hardest to evaluate. Here is how we think about hiring full stack (or fullstack) developers, after years of doing it for clients.

When a full stack developer is the right hire

Hire full stack when you have one product, a small team and a need for speed: an MVP, an internal tool, or a codebase that needs one owner to stabilise it. Split into frontend and backend specialists when the UI or the backend becomes complex enough to keep one person busy full-time.

The skills that matter

Full stack is not a list of frameworks. Look for depth in one back-end stack and one front-end stack, plus the glue between them.

• Back end: ASP.NET Core with C#, or Node.js with TypeScript, including API design, authentication and background jobs.
• Front end: React or Angular with TypeScript, state management and accessible, responsive UI.
• Data: relational modelling in SQL Server or PostgreSQL, migrations and query performance.
• Delivery: Git, automated tests, Docker and a CI/CD pipeline to Azure or AWS.

How to test a candidate in one afternoon

CV keywords tell you little. A short, realistic task tells you a lot.

1. Ask for a small feature: an API endpoint with validation, a screen that uses it, and two tests.
2. Include an unclear requirement and see whether they ask about it.
3. Review the code together and ask about the trade-offs they made.
4. Ask how they would deploy it and what they would monitor.

We use a version of this for every engineer before a client ever meets them. The details are on our hire full stack developers page.

Red flags

• Only happy-path code: no error handling, loading states or validation.
• No tests, and no opinion on what should be tested.
• Every answer is a new library instead of a simple solution.
• Cannot explain how their code reaches production.

What it costs

Cost follows seniority more than stack. A mid-level full stack developer can deliver well-defined features; a senior one can own the product end to end. Hiring from India through an agency usually costs far less than a local in-house hire, and the agency handles equipment, replacement and management. Our current rates are on the pricing page.

In-house, freelancer or agency?

In-house hiring gives you full control but takes months. Freelancers are fast to start but can disappear mid-project. An agency gives you vetted developers who start quickly, with replacement and continuity built in. Many teams use an agency developer for the first year, then hire in-house once the product has found its shape.

If you would rather hand over a whole project than manage a developer, see our custom software development services.