Hello,

I paid an agency over $40k to have a Ruby on Rails site developed. Now it's done and is working fine.

The issue now is that I'm not a developer, and I can't afford to hire one. For every single change to the site (e.g. change the header, add some analytics code, add a Twitter button) I'm getting charged a minimum of 1 hour's work at their hourly rate which is pretty high.

I don't mind paying the agency for new development work, but by getting billed for these tiny things I'm feeling like my hands are really tied and I can't tweak anything.

I'm thinking of hiring a Rails developer with a good rating from say Odesk.com for $25/hr, to use on an ad-hoc basis, say 1-2 hours per week for small changes here and there for a much lower cost.

- Do you think this is a practical idea?

- Would it take the developer too long to familiarize himself with the code? Or does he not need to know the full inner workings to do simple changes?

- Is there a big risk of the developer screwing up the site, or stealing the code?

Thanks a lot for any advice and input, would really appreciate it!
Adam

Rails applications are very easy for configuration and changes.
Every Rails developer can make small changes without problem.
And there is no need to spend hours to understand the code.

I don't think you have to worry about stealing your code because its easier to build own system instead of fixing bugs after some one else

But if you still worry about it, then you can give him only the part you want to change.

All cosmetic changes could be done with helpers and views. So he doesn't need to see the controllers and models. Ask him to write helper and attach it to the view. Give him only files that should be modified.

Its better to have own developer for big projects but if you cant afford one now you can go to freelance community.

As i've said Rails is pretty nice for coding.

Thanks a lot for your advice Veter. That makes me feel a bit better about getting a good freelancer to make small changes

Thanks,
Adam