How to Hire Remote Developers Without the Usual Risks
Last updated . Rules and DeskTeam360's details were checked September 25, 2026, and time zones on October 1, 2026.
The risks of hiring remote developers come from distance: you can't watch the work, you may share only a few hours of the day, and the paperwork changes with the hiring model. To hire safely, test skills with a small paid task, agree on overlap hours and one point of contact, and settle ownership and logins before the first task. Then pick the model, contractor, employee, or outside team, that matches the paperwork you're ready to handle.
This page is a plain reading of the rules. It isn't legal or tax advice.
How do you hire remote developers?
Hire remote developers in six steps, with the remote-specific checks built in.
- Write down the work, small jobs included, and the hours you need someone available.
- Pick the model: a remote contractor, a remote employee, or an outside team. The paperwork table below shows how each one works.
- Find candidates in the places listed in the next section.
- Check skills at a distance with past work and a short paid test (see below).
- Agree on overlap hours and one point of contact, so questions don't wait a day.
- Settle ownership and access. Put who owns the work in writing before it starts. The step-by-step guide's section on who owns the work explains the rule. Give each developer a separate login that you can shut off once the job is over.
For what remote help costs by the hour, see web developer hourly rates.
Where can you find remote developers for hire?
Common places to look are freelance marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr, hiring sites like OnlineJobs.ph, and agency directories. The author of this guide hired help on all of them before starting DeskTeam360. Another option is an outside team that assigns developers to your work, so you hire one company instead of each person.
Each source gets you a different kind of hire. A marketplace usually gets you one contractor. A directory gets you an agency, often paid per project or by the hour. An outside team on a flat monthly rate gets you a group of people. DeskTeam360's team, for example, is 2 designers, 2 developers, 2 technical VAs, and 1 team leader in one physical office in Indonesia. For one developer who works only for you, see hire a dedicated developer. For a whole team overseas, see offshore development team.
How do you check a remote developer's skills?
Check remote skills the way you'd check any developer's, with more weight on work you can see and test.
- Review past work. Ask for live sites they built, and what part they built.
- Ask them to explain a past fix. How they found the problem, and how they solved it.
- Give a short paid test with a clear finish line, like a landing page section or a bug fix.
- Watch how they ask questions during the test. Remote work depends on clear written questions.
- Check their written updates. You'll read more than you'll talk.
To talk through which model fits your agency's web work, you can book a call with DeskTeam360.
The button opens DeskTeam360's Book a Call page.
How do time zones affect remote developers?
Time zones decide how many working hours you share, and how long a question waits for an answer. The gap can be large. Indonesia, for example, uses three time zones, UTC+7, UTC+8, and UTC+9, with no daylight saving time. US Eastern time is UTC-5, or UTC-4 during daylight time. So Indonesia is 11 to 14 hours ahead of US Eastern time, depending on the zone and the time of year. At 9 a.m. in New York in winter, it's 9 p.m. in Jakarta.
Ways to work across a gap:
- Agree on a few overlap hours for live questions.
- Write tasks so they can be done without a live answer.
- Send work at the end of your day, and review it at the start of the next.
- Use one point of contact who is awake during your hours. DeskTeam360's team works under a North American account manager.
How do you manage remote developers?
Manage remote developers with clear written tasks, one point of contact, and a check of every result before your client sees it.
- One task, one written brief. Say what done looks like, attach the files, and set a due date.
- Record a short video when a task is hard to explain in writing.
- One point of contact. Questions and changes go to one person, not a group chat.
- Check the work before your client sees it. Never forward a result you haven't opened.
- Keep the same people. A developer who knows your clients' sites needs less explaining each time.
With an outside team, the provider does much of this. At DeskTeam360, a North American account manager hands out each task, runs it, and reviews it before it reaches you, and clients work with the same people every month. For a first local hire instead, see hire a web developer.
What paperwork comes with a remote contractor?
The paperwork depends on the model. For a contractor, there's a federal form, plus a state report if your business is in Florida. Keep the two rules apart: they have different dollar lines.
| Remote contractor | Remote employee | Outside team (a company) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal paperwork | Form 1099-NEC for a non-employee paid $2,000 or more in 2026 payments. Before 2026 the line was $600 | Employer Social Security (6.2% of wages up to $184,500 in 2026), Medicare (1.45%), and federal unemployment tax | Payments to a corporation generally don't need a 1099-NEC (federal rule), though the IRS lists exceptions |
| Florida paperwork (if your business is in Florida) | Report any person paid $600 or more for work in a calendar year who isn't an employee, within 20 days of the first payment or the contract date, whichever is earlier | Report a new employee within 20 days of the hire date | Not covered on this page |
| Who manages the work | You | You | The provider. At DeskTeam360, a North American account manager |
Classification matters most. The IRS weighs how much control you have and how independent the worker is, sorted into behavioral, financial, and relationship facts. Florida uses a list of 10 common-law factors, with control over the way the work gets done at the top. Knowingly treating an employee as a contractor is a felony in Florida. Check that the person counts as a contractor, and when in doubt, ask your accountant or lawyer.
The full cost of one web hire shows what the employee route costs, with every tax line.
Ryan Burch runs The Tobie Group, an ad agency that had tried many ways to get development work done before DeskTeam360:
"As a small ad agency, we aren't strangers to outsourcing some of our development work. We've used everything from freelancers to full agencies. Deskteam's process is absolutely excellent."
Ryan Burch, The Tobie Group (Trustpilot review)
More on hiring developers
If you'd rather skip the hiring and the paperwork, a call shows how a flat monthly team would take on your agency's web work.
The button opens DeskTeam360's Book a Call page.
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, Asia and North America (version 2026e)
- IRS, "Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee?"
- IRS, Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC
- IRS Topic 751, Social Security and Medicare and IRS Topic 759, federal unemployment tax
- Florida Statutes 2026, section 409.2576
- Florida Department of Revenue, employee or independent contractor
- Codeable, "Outsource web development" and Devox Software, "Outsource web development"
- DeskTeam360, home page (deskteam360.com) and About (deskteam360.com/about)
- Trustpilot, DeskTeam360 reviews
All checked September 25 or October 1, 2026. This site isn't connected to the State of Florida or any other government agency.
What changed
- October 1, 2026: First version of this page.
- October 1, 2026: Added how to check skills at a distance and how time zones affect the work. Federal and Florida paperwork now sit in separate rows.