How to Choose a Web Design Company: 15 Questions to Ask First

Most guides to choosing a web design company give you twenty questions and no order. Ask them all and you will spend an hour on each agency and still not know which one to pick.

These fifteen are grouped and ordered by how quickly the answer disqualifies someone. The first group — ownership — knocks out more agencies than the other four combined, and it takes one email to ask.

First: the four questions that rule out most of the field

1. Who owns the website at launch — code, domain, hosting, content? The only acceptable answer is "you do, all four, in writing, on final payment." Under US copyright law the designer owns what they build unless they assign it to you in a contract, and a surprising number of agencies rely on that. Here is what ownership actually means and the clause to look for.
2. Is the price fixed, or hourly? Fixed price against a written scope is what protects you. Hourly with no cap is how a $4,000 site becomes a $9,000 one. The hourly-versus-fixed comparison shows why fixed usually costs less even when the hourly rate looks cheap.
3. What will I see before I pay anything? "A proposal" is not an answer. A homepage concept, a wireframe, a design direction — something you can react to. If the first thing you see costs money, you are paying to find out whether you like them.
4. Who actually does the work after I sign? The person on the sales call is often not the person building the site. Ask for the name and role of the designer and the developer, and whether they are staff or contractors.

Pricing: three questions to check the quote

1. How many unique page templates does this quote cover? Not pages — templates. A forty-page site with six layouts costs less than a twelve-page site where every page is bespoke. An agency that has scoped the work answers in one sentence.
2. Who writes the copy, and is it in the price? If you supply final copy, you save real money. If they write it, expect $150–$400 a page. If nobody writes it and you launch with old words on a new design, you have paid for half a site.
3. What does year two cost if I never call you again? A specific number is the right answer. A vague one means the quote depends on you coming back. Typical running costs are $200–$2,400 a year; the full cost breakdown has the line items.

Process: three questions about how it will actually go

1. What is the timeline, and what happens if you miss it? Two to eight weeks is normal for a small-business site. The second half is the useful part: an agency confident in its process puts a consequence in writing.
2. How many rounds of revisions, and what counts as a round? Two on design and two on build is common. "Unlimited" usually means "until we lose patience," which is worse than a number.
3. How will we communicate, and how often? One shared link updated live beats an email chain. Ask how you will see progress without asking for it.

Proof: three questions that separate a portfolio from a record

1. Can I speak to two recent clients? Not read testimonials — speak to. An agency with happy clients has two who will take a call.
2. Which portfolio sites are live, and what happened after launch? A screenshot is not a result. Ask what a site was built to do and whether it did it.
3. What would you tell me not to build? A good agency talks people out of things. If every answer is "yes, we can do that," nobody is thinking about whether you should.

After launch: two questions most people forget

1. Can I edit it myself, and will you show me how? Every site should ship on a CMS you can use, with a walkthrough recorded on your site — not a generic tutorial.
2. If I leave you in a year, what do I take with me? The answer should be "everything, and it keeps working." If leaving means rebuilding, you are being rented a website, not sold one.

Red flags, in the order you will meet them

• A discovery call whose main purpose is to find out your budget before naming a price.
• A portfolio with no live links.
• "We own the code until final payment" with no assignment clause after it.
• Hourly billing with no cap and no scope document.
• A contract with no ownership language at all — silence defaults to the designer under US copyright law.
• An agency that cannot name who will build your site.

The platform question, answered briefly

You will be asked whether you want WordPress, a builder, or a custom build, and each agency recommends whatever it sells. The honest answer depends on how long the site will live, whether one customer is worth more than the build, and how many things need to connect to it. The Wix versus custom and WordPress versus custom comparisons run the numbers; neither is universally right.

Our answers to the fifteen, for the record

You own everything at launch — code, domain, hosting, content — transferred in writing. Pricing is fixed and published: $349 to $1,299 for packages, $1,500 to $6,000 for most custom builds; there is no hourly rate to run over. You see a complete homepage concept before you pay a dollar, in 72 hours, with no call required. The people who design and build the site are the two who write this blog. Fourteen days to launch, in writing, or the build is free. And if the honest answer to your brief is "keep your current site and fix three things," we say so.