Is it legal to hire a web developer outside the UK or EU?

Yes, with the right paperwork. If the developer will touch personal data — a contact form, an order database, a CRM export — you are making a restricted international transfer, which needs a lawful mechanism: EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

How do I pay a developer in another country?

Bank transfer or a service like Wise, against a numbered invoice, split across milestones. For a first engagement with an unknown supplier, a marketplace with escrow is worth the fee — it buys a dispute process that does not otherwise exist across borders.

What if my web developer disappears?

Recover the domain first, because everything depends on it and a transfer takes days rather than minutes. Then hosting, then take a full backup with whatever access you still have. If the code was never in a repository you control, budget for a rebuild.

Hiring

Is it cheaper to hire an offshore developer?

Usually yes, because the hourly rate reflects a different cost of living. The risk is not quality — it is contracting: who owns the accounts, what makes the personal-data transfer lawful, how payment is staged, and what you are left holding if they stop replying.

Answered by Anas Bin Masud 206 words 3 sections

The four questions that actually protect you

Whose name is on the domain, hosting and payment accounts? They should be yours
What mechanism makes the data transfer lawful — SCCs for EU data, the IDTA for UK data?
How is payment staged, and is each stage tied to visible progress?
Is the code in a repository you own, committed during the build rather than delivered at the end?

What does not predict quality

Location, hourly rate and how professional the profile photograph looks. What does predict it: live sites you can open, a clear explanation of a decision they made and why, and straight answers to the four questions above.

The honest disclosure

This answer is written by an offshore developer, which is not a disinterested position. It is also why the questions are specific — these are the ones I get asked, and the ones that separate a supplier who has thought about the arrangement from one who has not.

The longer version

This answer is deliberately short. If you want the full treatment, Hiring an offshore developer: the questions that protect you covers it in about 4 minutes — free, ungated, written from client work.

Who answered this

Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan — fifteen live client sites, six of them stores taking real payments. These answers come from those projects rather than from a content brief. More about how I work, or ask me something directly.