How to Evaluate Code Quality If You're Not Technical
A practical guide for non-technical founders to assess whether their developer is doing good work—without learning to code.
You're a non-technical founder. You've hired a developer, agency, or freelancer to build your product. They tell you everything's going great.
But how do you actually know?
You can't read the code. You don't know what "good" looks like. And you've heard horror stories about founders who trusted their developers, only to discover months later that the codebase was a mess.
Here's how to evaluate code quality without becoming an engineer yourself.
The Problem: Asymmetric Information
Your developer knows things you don't. That's why you hired them. But it creates a power imbalance.
They could be:
- Writing elegant, maintainable code that will serve you for years
- Hacking things together in the fastest (not best) way possible
- Somewhere in between
Most aren't malicious. But incentives matter. A freelancer paid hourly is incentivized to work more hours. An agency is incentivized to finish and move on. Neither is optimized for your long-term code quality.
You need ways to verify without technical expertise.
1. Ask for a Technical Audit
What it is: Pay an independent developer (not your current one) to review the codebase and report back.
What they look for:
- Code organization and structure
- Documentation quality
- Security vulnerabilities
- Performance issues
- Technical debt
- Scalability concerns
Cost: $500-2,000 for a basic audit, depending on codebase size.
When to do it:
- Before you pay the final invoice on a project
- When taking over from a previous developer
- Every 6-12 months as a health check
- Before raising funding (investors sometimes request this)
How to find an auditor: Ask for referrals from other founders, post in indie hacker communities, or use a service like CodeClimate or Codacy for automated analysis.
2. Look at the Proxy Metrics
You can't read code, but you can observe its effects:
Bug frequency: Are new bugs appearing regularly? Does fixing one thing break another? This often indicates poor code quality or missing tests.
Feature velocity: Is it taking longer and longer to add new features? That's often a sign of accumulated technical debt.
Deployment confidence: Does your developer seem nervous about deploying changes? Do they only deploy on Fridays? That might mean the code is fragile.
Onboarding time: If you bring in a new developer, how long does it take them to make their first meaningful contribution? Good code is readable; bad code requires archaeology.
3. Ask These Questions
You don't need to understand the answers fully. You're watching for red flags in how they respond.
"Walk me through how the code is organized."
- Good sign: Clear explanation with logical structure
- Red flag: "It's complicated" or vague hand-waving
"What would break if this file was deleted?"
- Good sign: They can trace the dependencies
- Red flag: "I'm not sure" or "A lot of things, probably"
"Where would I look to understand how user authentication works?"
- Good sign: Points to specific files/folders
- Red flag: "It's scattered around" or long pause
"What's the test coverage like?"
- Good sign: Specific percentage, explanation of what's tested
- Red flag: "We don't really have tests" or defensive reaction
"If you got hit by a bus, how long would it take someone else to take over?"
- Good sign: Confident answer with documentation references
- Red flag: Nervous laugh, "That would be bad"
4. Request Documentation
Good developers document as they build. Ask to see:
README files: Basic instructions for how to run and deploy the project. If these don't exist, that's a red flag.
Architecture decisions: Why was this database chosen? Why this framework? Not everything needs documentation, but major decisions should have reasoning attached.
API documentation: If your product has an API (most SaaS products do), it should be documented. Good developers do this automatically.
Deployment guide: How do you get the code from a developer's computer to production? This should be written down.
No documentation at all? That's a problem. It means knowledge lives only in your developer's head, which is a risk if they leave.
5. Check the Git History
Ask for access to your code repository (GitHub, GitLab, etc.). You don't need to read code to learn from it.
Commit frequency: Are changes happening regularly, or in massive chunks? Steady, small commits are generally healthier than rare, huge commits.
Commit messages: Do they describe what changed? "Fixed bug" is useless. "Fixed payment webhook to handle duplicate events" is useful.
Who's committing: Is it just one person? If you're paying for a team, you should see multiple contributors.
6. Test the Product Yourself
You can evaluate the output without evaluating the code:
Does it work? Use the product like a customer. Click every button. Fill every form. Try to break it.
Is it fast? Pages should load in under 2-3 seconds. If you're waiting, customers are too.
Does it fail gracefully? What happens when you enter bad data? Does it crash, or does it show a helpful error message?
Is it secure? Try obvious things: Can you access other users' data by changing URLs? Can you create an account with a blank password? These are basic checks, not comprehensive security testing, but they catch obvious problems.
7. Trust Your Instincts
You might not understand code, but you understand communication:
Does your developer explain things clearly? Technical skill without communication skill is a liability. They should be able to explain what they're doing in terms you understand.
Do they push back appropriately? A developer who says yes to everything might be cutting corners. Good developers explain tradeoffs.
Do they proactively surface problems? Bad news delivered late is worse than bad news delivered early. You want a developer who tells you about issues before they become crises.
The Ultimate Test: Can They Be Replaced?
Good code has a specific quality: another competent developer could take it over without too much pain.
Ask yourself:
- If my developer quit tomorrow, how screwed would I be?
- Could someone else make sense of this codebase in a reasonable time?
- Is all the knowledge documented, or is it only in one person's head?
If the answers worry you, that's a signal to address now—not when you're in crisis mode.
When to Get Concerned
Some red flags that suggest deeper problems:
- "Only I can work on this codebase" — Either the code is bad or they're creating job security. Neither is good.
- Every change creates new bugs — The code is probably tangled and fragile.
- No tests exist — Tests catch bugs before users do. No tests = bugs in production.
- They resist an independent audit — Good developers welcome outside validation.
- You're afraid to ask questions — The relationship should be collaborative, not adversarial.
Next Steps
- Request access to your code repository (you should have this anyway—it's your code)
- Budget for an independent audit every 6-12 months
- Start asking the questions listed above
- Document your concerns if something feels off
- Get a second opinion from a trusted technical person
You don't need to become technical. You just need enough signal to know when something's wrong.
Worried about your code quality but not sure where to start? I offer code audits and "what's the situation" assessments for bootstrapped founders. Get an honest evaluation →