Web development8 minApril 8, 2026
How to tell a pro from an impostor
Uzbekistan's digital services market is raw: lots of rookie freelancers, resellers and 'one-person agencies'. A client pays $400 and gets a Tilda template that doesn't sell. You can tell a pro from an impostor before signing a contract — here's how. We break down the red flags, green flags and questions you should ask.
Red flag #1: 'We'll build a site for $50 in 3 days'
A price far below market — it's always a template resale:
• The freelancer buys a template on ThemeForest for $30–50
• Changes the text, logo, a couple of images
• Sells it to you as a 'unique site' for $50–150
The result: the site looks nice for 2 weeks, then plugins aren't updated, load time is 6–8 seconds, there's no SEO, no security. Six months later it gets hacked.
Normal site pricing in Uzbekistan: landing page — from $250, corporate site — from $500. Anything cheaper is either a template, or the freelancer is working at a loss and will quit mid-project.
Red flag #2: no portfolio with live links
A professional shows working sites with URLs that you can open and verify. An impostor shows:
• Only PDF screenshots
• Figma mockups (not real sites)
• 'Done under NDA, can't show you'
• Someone else's projects as their own
How to verify: ask for 3–5 links to real sites. Open each one, check speed with PageSpeed Insights, look at the HTML (F12 → Elements). If you see `Generator: Tilda` or `content="WordPress"` — it's a builder, not custom development.
Call one of the clients from the portfolio — real clients answer gladly.
Red flag #3: doesn't ask about your business
A talk with a pro at the start lasts 30–60 minutes. They ask:
• Who are your clients, age, where they live
• What services and how do you get leads now
• How much do you spend on ads, what's the conversion
• What are your goals for 3–6 months
• What's not working now and why
• Who are your competitors, what's their strength
An impostor names a price immediately and sends a quote in 10 minutes. They don't figure out the task — they sell a service. The result: they'll build what they already have in templates, not what your business needs.
Red flag #4: speaks in jargon, can't explain plainly
A pro can explain without technical terms what they do and why. Bad sign if you hear:
• 'We use modular architecture in React with SSR via Next.js to optimize Core Web Vitals'
• But can't answer: 'What will that give my business?'
A pro will say instead: 'The site will load in 1 second instead of 5. Google will rank it higher. Clients will leave less — conversion will grow by 20–30%.'
Simple test: ask them to explain the technology like to a child. If they can't — they don't understand it themselves, they just googled articles.
Green flag: shows process and numbers
A real pro comes with cases that have numbers:
• 'Site X: traffic grew from 500 to 5,000 visitors per month in 6 months'
• 'Landing Y: conversion 4.2% while market average is 1–2%'
• 'Client Z: antifraud saved 35% of the ad budget'
Plus they lay out work stages with milestones:
1. Brief and prototype (3 days)
2. Design and approval (5 days)
3. Development and integrations (7 days)
4. Testing (2 days)
5. Handover and training (1 day)
And gives you full access to hosting, domain, analytics. Everything registered in your name, not the contractor's.
Green flag: asks uncomfortable questions
A pro isn't afraid to push back on your request if it's suboptimal:
• 'Why do you need an online store if you sell 3 services? For your tasks, a landing page is enough — 3x cheaper'
• 'Don't launch Google Ads while the site loads 7 seconds — money will go nowhere. Optimize first'
• 'A Telegram bot isn't needed here — you have 20 leads per month, Google Forms is enough'
An impostor agrees with everything and sells every whim. You end up paying for things you don't need, while real tasks remain unsolved.
Questions to ask the contractor
Mandatory list for the first meeting:
• Who owns the source code after project delivery? (Answer should be: you.)
• Who registers domain and hosting? (In your name, not theirs.)
• What's included in support for the first 30–90 days and how much after?
• What are the payment stages? (Normal: 30–50% upfront, rest by milestones. Abnormal: 100% upfront.)
• What if the deadline slips? (Write penalties into the contract.)
• What's the work guarantee? (At least 3 months of free bug fixes.)
• Show the contract in advance. (If there isn't one — it's not a pro.)
Spend 1 hour interviewing 3 contractors — it'll save you thousands of dollars and months of time.
Summary
A pro with 5+ years of experience **isn't afraid of questions and asks them too**. They come with numbers, stages, examples. They register everything in your name, not theirs. An impostor rushes to sign the contract and start taking money. There are no shortcuts in digital — if someone promises cheap and fast, chances are you'll pay twice: first to them, then to a proper specialist to fix things.
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