How to Vet a React or Next.js Developer Before You Hire

React and Next.js are on every job post. So is every developer profile. If you are hiring a frontend or full-stack engineer, you need a vetting process that takes 30–60 minutes and saves you weeks of rework.

Step 1: Live portfolio review (15 min)

Open their live sites. Click every button. Sign up if there is auth. Check mobile. Ask: Did they build this end-to-end or only the frontend? Who deployed it? A strong Next.js developer has multiple live URLs, not just Figma links.

Step 2: Ask these 5 questions on a call

1. App Router or Pages Router — why did you choose it on your last project?
2. How do you handle auth and protected routes?
3. Server Components vs Client Components — when do you use each?
4. How do you deploy — Vercel, Docker, Cloudflare?
5. Describe a bug that took you a full day. How did you debug it?

Step 3: Paid trial task ($100–$300)

Best filter in the industry. Pay for 3–5 hours of work: build a small feature, fix a bug in your repo, or scaffold a page from your design. You see code quality, communication speed, and git habits before committing to a $5k+ project.

Code quality signals

• TypeScript used properly — not everything typed as `any`.
• Clean folder structure (app/, components/, lib/).
• Commits are small and messages make sense.
• README or handoff doc without you asking twice.