What Should You Ask Before Hiring a Web Development Company?

The gap between a good development partner and a bad one is not talent — it is what they put in the contract, how they communicate, and who ends up owning what. Most of the rescue projects we inherit were preventable with an hour of better questions before signing.

This is the checklist we would use in your chair. Ask all of it, take notes, and compare answers between vendors.

Technology questions

• What stack will you use, and why is it right for our project rather than your habits?
• Are you proposing an existing CMS or custom code — and what are the trade-offs in cost and flexibility?
• Where will the site be hosted, what does that cost, and who owns that account?
• How will the build handle traffic growth, image-heavy pages and future features?
• What happens if our main contact at your company leaves tomorrow?

Portfolio and proof questions

• Show us three live projects similar in size and budget to ours — not just your prettiest work.
• Can we speak with one past client, ideally one whose project had problems?
• Who exactly will build this — the people in this meeting, or someone we have not met?
• What did you ship that went wrong, and what did you change afterward? Good vendors answer this easily.

Ownership questions — protect yourself here

• Does the contract state that we own all custom code, designs and content on final payment?
• Is the domain registered in our name, from day one, with our organisation as the registrant?
• Is the hosting account ours, or are we renting from you — and what happens to the site if we leave?
• Will we get access to the code repository and all credentials at handover, not on request?
• What documentation and training are included, so another team could take over if needed?

Maintenance, support and security questions

• What exactly does post-launch support include, for how long, and at what cost?
• What are your response times when the site is down versus a routine change request?
• How are CMS, plugins and dependencies updated — on a schedule, or when something breaks?
• What is the backup policy, how often, where are backups stored, and has a restore ever been tested?
• How do you handle security: SSL, updates, password policies, server configuration?
• Meanwhile, run your own hygiene check: test staff passwords with the password strength checker and review your current site’s headers with the HTTP header analyzer.

Pricing and communication questions

• Is the quote fixed-price for a defined scope, or time-and-materials — and what triggers extra charges?
• What is the payment schedule? A deposit to start, milestones, balance at launch is normal; one hundred percent upfront is not.
• How are change requests priced and approved mid-project?
• Who is our day-to-day contact, and how often will we get a status update?
• What is explicitly out of scope that we might assume is included — content, photography, copywriting, data entry?

Compare vendors on the same scope, the same questions, and the same definition of done — quotes that look forty percent apart are usually quoting different projects. If the answers hold up, start the conversation with a scope you can hold them to.