Why hire a Hubspot developer? HubSpot is a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform and has become widely used for sales, marketing, and customer service. It provides several key features that make it enticing to businesses and provides great value to customers.
But what happens when the default features of HubSpot aren’t enough? That’s where HubSpot developers come in. They are responsible for creating or adapting custom solutions to make the platform work smoothly, even with other systems already used by a company.
In this article, we’ll go over the main considerations you should have if you want to hire a HubSpot developer.
What Does a HubSpot Developer Do?
If you want to hire the right Hubspot developer, you need to know what the role is about. HubSpot’s developers are responsible for creating and expanding the functionality of its back-end. In other words, they create tools that improve both staff and customers’ experience on the platform.
HubSpot developers come in two main categories:
App Developers
These developers create new functionalities inside HubSpot’s ecosystem or even integrations with other services. App developers can create public apps (for any business in the general public) or custom private integrations (for a single business).
Their main responsibilities are:
- App creation: This is of utmost importance to app developers. Familiarity with the app ecosystem and the marketplace are essential to delivering robust and useful applications.
- Development of custom solutions: Creating generic market solutions isn´t always enough, and sometimes developers need to create custom solutions to cater to specific markets or clients.
Developing apps mainly requires 2 skills:
- Proficiency in standard web development technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are key technologies needed to develop for HubSpot since it is mainly a web-based service.
- Knowledge of HubL: HubSpot’s custom language is used throughout the platform, so your developers need to know how to program in it. HubL is an extension of JinJava, a template engine based on Java with Django’s syntax. While knowledge of these two languages can be beneficial, a developer still needs to learn and adapt to HubL’s specificities.
HubSpot Developer Accounts are free to use, so any of your developers can get one and start working on apps for the platform straight away.
Website Developers
These developers work together with marketing teams to build a website using HubSpot’s Content Management System (CMS). They are responsible for developing, among other things, Themes, Templates, and Modules.
App developers have three main responsibilities:
- Designing and coding a website: The most important job of the website developer is in the name. Their main function is to code and design all pages that go on a website. Depending on the type of website, different design sensibilities are needed.
- Development of website content tools: Coding a website is only part of the job. Having a functioning website with content that users can interact with is just as important. To this end, web developers need tools that allow other users (such as marketing departments, etc.) to fill it with content, be it store entries, blog posts, and anything in between.
Developing a HubSpot website requires 2 main skills:
- Proficiency in standard web development technologies: Even more so than app developers, website developers need to know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These technologies are the bread and butter of a HubSpot website’s themes, templates, and modules.
- Familiarity with CMS: Hubspot uses its own CMS, so it’s important to know it operates to develop a feature-rich website successfully.
How To Find and Hire a HubSpot Developer in 2022?
Finding HubSpot developers isn’t an easy task, since they require very specific skills. To find expert developers tailored to HubSpot’s needs, there are three main ways to go about it:
1. Start with Job Boards
The most flexible solution is to hire a HubSpot freelancer. However, this does not come without drawbacks.
They are easier to find and can be experienced from the projects they have done for other clients, but they are usually busy. They can be hard to get for long projects since they value shorter turnarounds to increase their availability to their many customers.
Also, if the project demands strict confidentiality, HubSpot contractors can become a liability, or you can lose them due to the bureaucracy needed to get the project’s development going.
One good place to find freelancers is in the developer’s forum for HubSpot. Besides comprehensive resources, they also feature job boards where you can place your project up for grabs by any willing expert registered on the platform.
2. Staffing Agencies
HubSpot has a marketplace featuring 6500+ agencies with expert developers for their platform. You’re sure to find a suitable team for your project, given the many parameters available for filtering.
Depending on the team you settle with, you’ll get different budgets and expertise. It’s up to you to choose a suitable compromise of the available resources and see which one best fulfills your needs.
With DistantJob, however, you won’t need to compromise. We can get you, expert developers, at very competitive prices. So, if you’re thinking of going with an agency, talk to us first!
3. In-house Developer
An in-house team of developers is the best solution if you want to manage a HubSpot project in the long term or multiple projects simultaneously. Forming this team is a costlier option and requires more management. Still, it is a far more reliable alternative to freelancers and agencies, guaranteeing you full access to your developers at any time without reservation.
However, finding experienced HubSpot full-time developers is not easy. You’ll get anything from expert HubSpot developers to beginner developers (who aren’t suitable for large-scale professional projects) to web developers with no HubSpot experience (which takes a long time to train since HubSpot uses HubL as its native language). It’s important to test your candidates correctly to find the best developers that also match the needs of your business and projects.
HubSpot Software Engineer Interview Process
If you’re going with the option of hiring an in-house specialist to find a developer for HubSpot, the interview process is of utmost importance. You’ll want to find a developer that knows the platform and how to avoid common pitfalls so they can start developing straight away.
To test these abilities, your HubSpot interview questions should focus on skills pertaining to the platform, namely:
Familiarity with HubSpot’s ecosystem
Like most CRMs, HubSpot has its way of doing things, so it’s important for a developer to know how the platform works if they’re going to develop for it. Test and ask about specific functionality that you know the project will need. The more detailed the responses from your candidates, the better.
Understanding of software development, general coding skills, and the HubL language
This is imperative, as most projects within HubSpot’s platform will no doubt need a lot of ground work to get on their feet, if not made from scratch altogether. Using existing plugins, templates, and themes can get you going up until a certain point, but you’ll inevitably need custom solutions. If your candidate is not comfortable with developing these on their own, then they will face a wall when trying to come up with ways to solve the project’s problems.
Knowledge of HubSpot’s API
HubSpot’s API has several endpoints, each governing a specific sphere of functionality of the platform. As such, it’s important that a developer knows how to use the API to solve a given problem. Mind you, asking that they know it inside out is probably a little too much, but they should at least be aware of which endpoint or function to use when dealing with different issues.
Ability to integrate with external services
If your projects demand integration with external services or databases, you should test the candidate’s ability to delve into those subjects. This may not be a deal breaker, depending on the requirements of the project, but the more knowledgeable about this, the less upfront training you’ll need them to go through once they’re in.
A HubSpot coding assessment, also known as a HubSpot coding challenge, is also a good way to evaluate your candidate’s aptitude with the platform. However, this will require some preparation. And another expert on your team to conduct the interview and evaluate the results of the challenge itself.
Find Your HubSpot Expert With DistantJob
Now you know how to go about finding a HubSpot developer to integrate your team. These coders are perhaps harder to find than other, less niche developers. But their expertise on the platform can save you a lot of headaches, time, and money.
If you’re still looking for an expert developer to integrate your HubSpot project, have you checked in with DistantJob? We have an extensive catalog of Java developers, and web developers that can complement your existing development team. We are sure to have the right developer that fits both your needs and your company’s culture. Contact Distantjob today!
