Founding Full-Stack Engineer (Technical Co-Founder, Equity-Only)

HostingVerified is redefining web hosting reviews with a focus on trust, honesty and transparency. Most “independent” hosting review sites are built to please affiliate cheques, not users. Fake reviews, pay-to-rank tables and hidden deals have made it hard to know what’s real and what’s just sales copy.

We’re building the alternative: verified customer reviews, open discussion threads and clear disclosure around money and sponsorships. No host can pay to jump the queue, bury bad feedback or rewrite their history. Developers, agencies and site owners finally get a place to make hosting decisions based on real experience instead of marketing spin.

If you care about how the internet is built – and you’re tired of fake hosting reviews – this is a chance to help shape something better from the ground up.

Role Description

This is a remote, part-time role for a Founding Full-Stack Engineer / Technical Co-Founder (Equity Only).

You’ll work directly with the founder to design, build and own the first version of HostingVerified. That means taking responsibility for both front end and back end, making sensible technical decisions, and helping define the product as we go – not just implementing tickets from a backlog.

Our initial stack will look like:

• React/Next.js on the front end
• WordPress/PHP as the content and data layer
• A modern forum solution wired in via SSO
• Lightweight, privacy-respecting analytics (e.g. Matomo or Plausible)

Your day-to-day will include:

• Designing and implementing core features for host profiles, reviews, reputation and discussion.
• Integrating WordPress, forum and SSO in a way that feels seamless to the user.
• Making architecture decisions around performance, data model, testing and deployment.
• Working with the founder to translate user feedback into concrete product changes.
• Helping shape basic engineering practices from day one (version control, code review, CI, monitoring).

This is not a salaried job to slot into a big team. It’s an equity-only founding role, roughly 10–20 focused hours a week alongside your current commitments, with the aim of moving to salary once there is revenue or funding.

Qualifications

Must-have

• Strong experience in full-stack web development, including both front-end and back-end work.
• Solid experience with React/Next.js (or similar) and at least one PHP/WordPress-based project in production.
• Comfortable working with relational databases and designing basic schemas.
• Ability to work independently, prioritise sensibly and make informed technical trade-offs.
• Good communication skills and a willingness to collaborate asynchronously.

Nice to have

• Experience integrating authentication/SSO across multiple apps.
• Familiarity with forums, community platforms or review systems.
• Interest or background in web hosting, infrastructure or developer tools.
• Experience with lightweight analytics (Matomo, Plausible, etc.) and basic DevOps.

If you’ve shipped real products, care about how hosting is represented online and want meaningful ownership in something that puts trust ahead of short-term revenue, we’d like to hear from you.