Vetting · Standard
Base44Devs publishes the five gates it vets engineers against. Every engineer on client work has shipped 10+ production base44 apps. This page is for founders and teams who want to check a Base44 developer before they commit. The first step is the $497 production audit as a paid trial task: a written diagnostic delivered one business day after access.
Our standard
Base44Devs vets every engineer against five gates, and an engineer must pass all five: reps, pattern coverage, code review, written communication and bylined accountability. Base44 has no developer certification, so we publish the standard instead of pointing to a badge. The full framework, with twelve screening questions, the paid trial brief, red flags and reference checks, is in our free Base44 developer vetting guide. Use it on anyone you shortlist, including us.
Evidence
A standard is only useful if you can test it before you pay. Each gate below maps to something you can read or ask for today.
| Gate | What we hold engineers to | How you can check it |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Reps | What we hold engineers toEvery engineer on client work has shipped 10+ production base44 apps. | How you can check itAsk about those apps on the free 15-minute call, which is with the engineer who would lead your work. |
| 02 Pattern coverage | What we hold engineers toA documented playbook for each common Base44 failure class: function routing, credit burn, entity access rules, Stripe webhooks, AI-agent regression loops. | How you can check it47 fix playbooks are public in the Base44 fix index. Read the one that matches your symptom before the call. |
| 03 Code review | What we hold engineers toA second senior engineer reviews every fix on auth, payments and data before it ships. | How you can check itAsk on the free call who reviews critical-path changes on your engagement. |
| 04 Written communication | What we hold engineers toEvery engagement closes with a written summary: what changed, why, what to monitor. | How you can check itThe $497 production audit follows a published spec: 12 components, 110 pass/fail checks, severity and reproduction steps per finding. |
| 05 Bylined accountability | What we hold engineers toThe engineer who scopes the work is the engineer who ships it. | How you can check itEngagement letters name the assigned engineer and include their professional profile. Articles on this site are bylined to our lead engineer. |
Trial task
On any Base44 engagement over $2,000, with any vendor, a paid trial task separates pattern-matchers from generalists more reliably than a conversation. The vetting guide carries the full brief and scoring; the short version is below.
Whether the developer names the Base44 behaviour behind a symptom, traces it to a root cause, and writes a remediation plan you could hand to a board member.
Strong engineers refuse unpaid trials. Paying for the trial signals that you are a serious buyer, and it costs a small fraction of the engagement at risk.
If the written diagnosis does not meet your bar, you stop there. The $497 fee is credited in full against any fix, build, migration or written-recommendation engagement booked within 30 days. If you ordered the audit for a specific bug and we cannot reproduce it, we refund the fee; otherwise it is non-refundable.
What you get
TIER
$497
USD · Fixed-price · One engagement
Production audit: 12 components, 110 pass/fail checks, severity and reproduction steps per finding, and a fix, rebuild or migrate verdict.
Scope
TIER · RECOMMENDED
$1,500
USD · Fixed-price · One engagement
One high-impact issue: root cause, fix, regression test plan and written summary. Starts within 48 hours; ships 48–72 hours after kickoff.
Scope
TIER
$4,500
USD · Fixed-price · One engagement
Auth, one core workflow and one Stripe Checkout path, deployed, with code export and a hand-off README. Delivered in 2–4 weeks.
Scope
Larger scopes use the same vetted engineers: a $3,000 multi-bug rescue for 3–8 related defects, standard and premium builds at $9,000 and $15,000, and migrations off Base44 from $6,000.
How it works
Step 01
Free 15-minute call with the engineer who would lead the work. Written fixed-price proposal within one business day.
Step 02
Delivered one business day after access (two for 15+ tables or multiple integrations), with a 30-minute walkthrough. You judge the diagnosis and the writing before you commit to anything larger.
Step 03
Engagement letters name the assigned engineer and include their professional profile. A mutual NDA applies by default, and IP assigns to you on payment of each milestone.
Step 04
A fix sprint starts within 48 hours and ships 48–72 hours after kickoff. Every engagement closes with a written summary: what changed, why, what to monitor.
Guarantees
The $497 fee is credited in full against any fix, build, migration or written-recommendation engagement booked within 30 days. If you ordered the audit for a specific bug and we cannot reproduce it, we refund the fee; otherwise it is non-refundable.
Money-back if the sprint cannot resolve the issue, including a Base44 platform bug with no workaround. If a Base44 update breaks the fix within 90 days, we re-fix it at no charge.
Any agreed defect we cannot resolve is refunded pro rata. Every fix carries the 90-day fix hold.
Every build and migration carries a 30-day defects warranty. Migrations keep your Base44 app live through cutover and include a 14-day rollback window.
Compare
Every route below can produce a good engineer. The difference is who carries the vetting and what happens when the work fails. Rates are dated snapshots, not quotes.
| Route | What you pay (source, date) | What you get | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base44 Partners directory | What you pay (source, date)Posted hourly median $85/h (n=351 profiles with a posted rate) — snapshot of app.base44.com/partners, 23 Sep 2026 | What you getFree to browse. The Verified Partner badge comes with Specialist (Level 3), a builder level reached through platform milestones, not a review of production work. | RiskHourly billing and varied quality. Base44 “does not charge commissions and does not mediate disputes or payments.” |
| Freelance marketplaces | What you pay (source, date)Upwork's featured Base44 cards: $5–$16/h, 1–4 jobs each (upwork.com/hire/base44-experts, 23 Sep 2026) | What you getBreadth and speed | RiskRework risk; the vetting is on you |
| Offshore dev shops | What you pay (source, date)Advertised from $20–$22/h (Google results, 23 Sep 2026) | What you getHourly capacity | RiskGeneralists; Base44 is one stack of many |
| Generalist agency | What you pay (source, date)$50,000–$500,000+ per project for an agency (Base44 blog, 12 Aug 2026) | What you getA multi-discipline team | RiskPrice and scope drift |
| Base44Devs | What you pay (source, date)$497 audit → $1,500 sprint → $3,000 rescue → $4,500–$15,000 builds → $6,000–$25,000+ migrations | What you getA Base44-only senior team vetted to five published gates, written deliverables, published prices | RiskMoney-back sprint, pro-rata rescue refund, 90-day fix hold, 30-day warranty, 14-day rollback, audit credit |
Sources: Base44 Partner Program docs and Hiring a Base44 partner (read 23 Sep 2026); Base44 blog, How much does it cost to make an app (12 Aug 2026). Directory figures are an aggregate of posted rates; we do not name individual partners.
QUERIES
Against five published gates, and an engineer must pass all five before client work. Reps: Every engineer on client work has shipped 10+ production base44 apps. Pattern coverage: a documented playbook for each common Base44 failure class, with 47 of them public in the Base44 fix index. Code review: a second senior engineer reviews every fix on auth, payments and data before it ships. Written communication: every engagement closes with a written summary. Bylined accountability: the engineer who scopes the work ships it. The full framework is in the Base44 developer vetting guide.
No. Base44's documentation (read 23 Sep 2026) describes no developer certification or skills assessment. The official signal is Base44's Partner Program: builders can join at Maker (Level 2) without approval, and at Specialist (Level 3), reached by completing platform milestones, they get a Verified Partner badge and can appear in the Partner Directory. The docs tie the badge to a builder level, not to a review of production work, so apply a published vetting standard to whoever you shortlist, in the directory, on a marketplace, or here.
Yes. Free 15-minute call with the engineer who would lead the work. Written fixed-price proposal within one business day. Engagement letters name the assigned engineer and include their professional profile. Articles on this site are bylined to our lead engineer.
A short piece of real, paid work that shows how a developer diagnoses a problem and writes it up before you commit to a larger engagement. We recommend one on any Base44 engagement over $2,000, with any vendor. With us, the $497 production audit is the trial: 12 components, 110 pass/fail checks, severity and reproduction steps per finding, and a fix, rebuild or migrate verdict. The $497 fee is credited in full against any fix, build, migration or written-recommendation engagement booked within 30 days. If you ordered the audit for a specific bug and we cannot reproduce it, we refund the fee; otherwise it is non-refundable.
Engagement letters name the assigned engineer and include their professional profile. Articles on this site are bylined to our lead engineer. We are a small specialist team, not an open marketplace or directory.
Ask how they would diagnose three current issues. A backend function that returns 404 in production but works in preview. An entity whose access rules let one signed-in user read another user's records. A Base44 app that does not show in Google, even though Base44 serves search engines and AI crawlers a prerendered version of each page. For that last one, a specialist checks configuration first: the SEO toggle switched off (which disables prerendering), missing per-page meta descriptions, pages behind login or set to noindex, or simply a new domain Google has not crawled yet. A generalist hedges or asks for the docs. All twelve questions, with a scoring rubric, are in the vetting guide.
NEXT STEP
Order the $497 audit as a paid trial, or read the vetting guide and apply it to anyone you shortlist, including us.