How to check a developer's past builds actually shipped and work

You're three weeks into conversations with a developer who claims they've shipped fifteen applications in the past two years. Their portfolio looks polished. Their pitch is sharp. But have those apps actually launched? Are they still running? Do the people who hired them say so?

This is where most hiring decisions fall short. A developer's track record lives in two places: their word, and the evidence others can verify. The second matters far more.

Check registration and professional standing

Start with public registers. Ask the developer for their CIPC registration number if they trade as a close corporation or company — you can then verify the entity exists, is in good standing, and matches the business name they've given you. A freelancer trading under their own name won't have a CIPC entry, but a registered entity is a baseline signal of legitimate operation.

Ask whether they hold any relevant professional credentials or memberships. While there's no single mandatory licensing body for custom software developers in South Africa (unlike, say, engineers or accountants), some developers join bodies like the South African Institute of Information Technology Professionals or maintain certifications from platforms like AWS or Google Cloud. These aren't requirements — many excellent developers won't have them — but they're easy to verify and they do suggest the person takes their standing seriously.

If data protection matters to your build, ask whether they can evidence compliance experience. Check whether they're registered as a responsible party under POPIA. None of this means they've never failed a client, but it's a layer of legitimacy you can check against public records.

Request and phone shipped products

Ask the developer to name three to five applications they've completed in the last eighteen months and give you permission to contact the people who hired them. Don't ask for "references" in the abstract; ask for the name of each product, the year it shipped, and a real person's contact details.

Then contact those people directly. Don't email — call or WhatsApp them. Ask specific questions: Is the app still live? Does it work as intended? Did the developer deliver on time and within the quoted scope? When did they last help with a bug or update? Would they hire this developer again?

Pay attention to hesitation. A client who says "yes, it works" without enthusiasm is different from one who says "I rely on it every day and would hire them again tomorrow." Listen for whether the product is actually in use or just technically finished. A shipped app that nobody uses tells you something different than an app generating value.

If a developer refuses to give you client contact details, or only offers a testimonial video they've prepared, that's a red flag. Real clients will speak candidly because they're not invested in the developer's pipeline.

Search for evidence in the wild

Ask whether any of those shipped products are public-facing web or mobile apps. If they are, use them yourself. Sign up, test features, try to break something. Does it feel stable? Are there obvious bugs? Is it maintained, or does it look abandoned? A production app that crashes regularly or hasn't been updated in two years tells you something about the developer's standards.

For web apps, use basic browser tools: inspect the code quality, check the page load speed, see whether it works on mobile. You don't need to read the source code to sense whether it was built carefully.

If the developer has shipped multiple products, ask whether any are open-source or have case studies published online. These are rare but powerful signals — they show a developer confident enough to let their work be examined in public.

What to compare across candidates

When you're comparing developers, don't just look at portfolio count. Look at the gap between when they say they shipped something and when the client says it was actually delivered. Look at whether clients would hire them again. Look at whether the products still exist and are still used.

When you're ready to move forward, a developer with three real, verifiable, well-maintained shipped products is more trustworthy than one with ten claims you can't fully check. Strove lets you see ratings and reviews from past clients, and you can always ask verified providers for deeper references that confirm their work is genuinely live and working.