How to hire web developers and designers in Colombia: vetting, contracts and payments for US companies

The short answer

To hire web developers or designers in Colombia, first decide who will direct the daily work, because that decides the hiring model. Then verify three things on paper: that the business exists, that the contract transfers the rights under both US and Colombian law, and that the money goes to the entity you contracted. Bogotá shares most of the US working day, so the time zone is rarely the hard part. The paperwork, and knowing who will actually do the work, usually is.

If you need a custom website designed and built, hire a studio or a freelancer for defined deliverables. If you need developers working your backlog under your managers for months, use a staffing firm or an employer of record. We're a studio in Bogotá ourselves, so read this with that in mind: every check below applies to us too. None of it is legal or tax advice; have counsel and your accountant confirm what applies to you.

Choose the hiring model before the provider

The model matters more in Colombia than most US buyers expect, because Colombian labor law looks at how the work is done, not at what the contract is called. The Colombian Labor Code applies throughout the country to everyone who lives there, whatever their nationality (article 2), and presumes that any personal work relationship is governed by an employment contract (article 24). Under article 23, personal work, continued subordination (the power to give orders at any time on how, when and how much to work) and a salary make an employment contract, whatever name the parties give it.

So a "contractor" who works full-time on your backlog, joins your stand-ups and takes daily orders from your managers is the arrangement most exposed to that presumption. That's not a reason to avoid individuals. It's a reason to pick the model that matches how you'll actually work.

Agencies have a fifth option, white-label development, where a Colombian team builds under your brand and never speaks to your client. For the general trade-offs between one person and a team, read web design freelancer vs agency.

Check that the business is real

A Colombian company proves that it exists, and who can sign for it, with a certificate from the chamber of commerce where it's registered. Under article 117 of the Commercial Code, that certificate records the company's incorporation, names its legal representatives and states that it hasn't been dissolved. Ask for a recent one before signing, and check that whoever signs your contract appears in it as a legal representative or holds a power of attorney.

You can also look the company up in RUES, the registry where Colombia's chambers of commerce consolidate their records. According to DANE, Colombia's statistics agency, registrations must be renewed every year within the first three months, so a lapsed renewal is worth a question. A freelancer usually won't have a company certificate; ask for their tax registration instead, and expect their tax ID, the NIT, on every invoice.

Make the IP clause hold under both countries' laws

The contract should transfer the copyright in the design files, code and documentation to your company. Because the work is created in Colombia by Colombian authors, the clause needs to hold up under Colombian law as well as US law.

On the US side, the Copyright Office's Circular 30 explains that a commissioned work is a work made for hire only if it falls into one of nine listed categories and both parties sign a written agreement saying so; miss any requirement and it isn't one. A website rarely fits those categories cleanly, so contracts add an assignment, which section 204 of the Copyright Act says must be in a writing signed by the owner of the rights. An author who assigns copyright can also end the assignment during a five-year window that opens 35 years after signing (section 203), while a work made for hire has no such right. That rarely matters for a website, but it's why lawyers often write both.

The Colombian side has rules a US template can miss:

• The default transfer is narrow. Under article 20 of Ley 23 de 1982, whoever creates a work under a services or employment contract is its original owner. The economic rights are presumed transferred to the client only as far as the client's usual activities at the time require, and only if the contract is in writing.
• Unstated terms shrink the transfer. Article 183 limits a transfer to the uses, term and territory the contract states. With no term, it lasts five years; with no territory, it covers only the country where it was agreed. Write "worldwide" and "for the full term of protection".
• "Any media now known or later developed" doesn't work. The same article makes ineffective any clause covering forms of use that don't exist or are unknown when the contract is signed. Name the uses you need instead: to reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, distribute and sublicense the code and designs.
• Moral rights stay with the author. Article 30 makes the right to be named as author, and to object to changes that harm the author's honor or reputation, perpetual and unwaivable. A moral-rights waiver copied from a US template won't do what it says, so agree in writing how credit and portfolio use will work.
• The provider needs the rights before it can pass them on. Ask for a clause confirming that everyone who works on your project, subcontractors included, has signed a written assignment to the provider.

Article 183 also requires transfers to be recorded in Colombia's national copyright registry to be enforceable against third parties. Ask counsel whether that's worth doing for your project, and have someone who knows both systems review the clause.

Pay the right entity, with the right form

Paying a Colombian studio or freelancer is an ordinary foreign vendor payment, usually in US dollars. Your accounts team will need one form and a few checks:

• Collect a Form W-8. A foreign company provides Form W-8BEN-E; a foreign individual provides Form W-8BEN. The IRS instructions for requesters say to keep these forms in your records rather than send them to the IRS, that a W-8 you can reliably associate with the payment exempts it from Form 1099 reporting and backup withholding, and that a form is generally valid until the last day of the third calendar year after it was signed. One signed in October 2026 generally stays valid through 31 December 2029.
• Know where the work happens. The IRS sources personal service income by where the services are performed, regardless of where the contract was made or paid. Design and code produced in Bogotá is foreign-source; a week of workshops at your US office is US-source for those days, so tell your accountant before you fly the team in.
• Match the names. The contract, the invoice, the tax ID on the invoice, the W-8 and the bank account should all carry the same legal name. A mismatch can be innocent; ask before paying.
• Confirm new bank details by voice. Treat any change to payment instructions that arrives by email as suspect until you've confirmed it on a call, at a number you already had.
• Put currency, fees and stages in writing. State the invoice currency, the payment method, who pays transfer fees and what triggers each payment. A deposit followed by milestone payments keeps the risk shared; all of it upfront, or all of it at the end, puts it on one side.

Test the people who will do the work

The people on the sales call and the people on your project should be the same, and the proposal should name them. Then test them on what a remote project runs on: spoken English, written English and judgment.

National data is a weak guide here. In the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, Colombia scores 480, ranked 76th and slightly below the global average of 488, but Bogotá scores 513 and test takers working in IT 512. The skills differ too: nationally, reading scores 509 and listening 457. Neither figure describes the four people on your project, so test them directly:

1. Hold a working session, not an interview. Ask the lead to review your current site or a competitor's with you, live, in English. You'll learn how they think and how they explain trade-offs.
2. Ask for a written recap the next day. Decisions, open questions, next steps. Most of a remote project happens in writing.
3. Open their live client sites. Check that they still work and that each case study says what the team did; our guide to comparing design studios lists what to test.
4. Talk to a past client whose project looks like yours, ideally a US one.
5. Pay for a short pilot on larger projects. One page template, or the homepage's design direction, with acceptance criteria written in advance. It tests the workflow before you commit the full budget.

Use the overlap, and plan for two calendars

Bogotá keeps UTC−5 all year, according to Colombia's national metrology institute, while the US changes its clocks. When the US returns to standard time on 1 November 2026 (NIST), Bogotá shares New York's clock and sits an hour ahead of Chicago until the second Sunday of March 2027. Our nearshore page has the full table by US time zone.

Holidays catch more teams than time zones do. Colombia has 18 public holidays, and Ley 51 de 1983 moves ten of them to the following Monday. For the rest of 2026 they fall on Monday 2 November, Monday 16 November, Tuesday 8 December and Friday 25 December, and your side has Thanksgiving on 26 November. Put both calendars in the schedule from day one.

A rhythm that suits most website projects:

• One named lead on each side, and one channel where decisions are recorded
• A weekly call at a fixed time in your time zone
• Short written updates twice a week: done, next, blocked
• Reviews on a staging link with comments, so feedback doesn't wait for a meeting
• Agreed response times, such as the same working day for questions and two days for reviews

Red flags

• The proposal says "our team" but names nobody, or the senior people from the sales call disappear after signing
• No live client sites, or case studies that don't say what the provider actually did
• The contract signer, invoice and bank account show different names, or payment details change by email
• A license offered instead of an assignment, or no mention of ownership at all
• The provider wants your domain, hosting or repository in its own account
• All payment upfront, or pressure to pay before there's a written scope
• A "contractor" arrangement in which you'd direct an individual's hours like an employee's
• A promised percentage saving or guaranteed rankings before anyone has seen your content

Where Dardo fits

We're one option among many: a founder-led studio of three in Bogotá, founded in 2026, that takes on scoped projects rather than placing people in your team. US companies hire us for custom web design and for web development from approved designs, and agencies hire us for white-label builds. If you need several developers embedded in your sprints, a staffing firm or an employer of record will serve you better.

Judge us by our published work and by the checks above. Our terms for US teams, from IP to accounts, are on the nearshore page, and our published starting prices and budget ranges are on the pricing page. For price context from other Bogotá providers, see what a website costs in Colombia. When you're ready, send us a brief and we'll tell you plainly whether we fit.