How to Choose a Web Design Agency: 10 Criteria, Questions to Ask and Red Flags

To choose a web design agency, looking at the portfolio and the price isn’t enough. The sites in a portfolio may look great but have been built for completely different tasks, and the lowest price often means a different product rather than a better deal. It’s more reliable to judge an agency by how it works: where it starts, what it puts in the contract, what happens after launch and who will own the result.

Below: where to start your search, 10 criteria for choosing, how to compare proposals, which questions to ask at the first meeting, red flags, and what must be in the contract.

Before you search: define the task

Agencies answer the question you ask. If your request is “how much does a website cost”, you’ll get five numbers that can’t be compared. Before searching, pin down three things:

1. Why you need the site and how you’ll know it works. Enquiries, sales, partner trust, hiring.
2. Roughly what it should include. A list of sections, features, languages, integrations with a CRM or inventory system.
3. Budget and timeline. Even a range is honest and saves both sides time.

You don’t need a full specification; one page is enough. If you want to prepare more thoroughly, use our specification guide and template.

Freelancer, web studio or agency

The lines are blurry: there are strong freelancers and weak studios. The criteria below work for everyone.

10 criteria for choosing a web design agency

1. Live work similar to your task

Look at live websites, not screenshots and mock-ups. Open them on your phone and go all the way to the enquiry form. Look for projects similar to yours in purpose: a manufacturer’s corporate site and a course landing page require different skills. If you doubt the work is really theirs, ask for the client’s contact or check whether the footer links to the agency.

2. Reviews where they can’t be edited

Reviews on the agency’s own site are written by the agency. Look for independent ones: Google Business Profile, Clutch, industry directories. Pay attention not only to the rating but to what exactly people praise: “beautiful” is about design, “delivered on time and still support us” is about reliability.

3. A process where structure comes before design

A good agency doesn’t start with colours but with questions about your business, customers and page structure. Ask them to describe the stages: what you’ll get at each one, when you approve it, how many rounds of revisions are included.

4. An estimate that shows what you’re paying for

A single number with no breakdown is a reason to ask questions. It should be clear whether the design is custom or a ready-made theme, how many page templates there are, and what about responsiveness, the admin panel, copy, SEO and integrations. Why prices on the market differ by a factor of ten or more is explained in our article on how much a website costs.

5. Mobile version and speed with specific criteria

“Of course it’ll be responsive” isn’t an answer. Ask whether there will be mobile mock-ups and which speed metrics the agency considers acceptable. A good answer comes in numbers, such as the Core Web Vitals thresholds in PageSpeed Insights.

6. SEO built in before launch, not “later”

The basics are done during development: separate page titles and descriptions, clear page addresses, a sitemap, speed. If you already have a site that ranks in Google, ask how the agency will keep those rankings through the move, and whether there will be a redirect table from the old addresses. Why that’s critical is explained in our article on website redesign.

7. Technology that doesn’t tie you to the agency

Ask what the site will be built on and whether another team could maintain it. A widespread CMS such as WordPress means developers are easy to find. The agency’s own closed system or a site builder can lock you in for a long time. More in our article on what a CMS is and how to choose one.

8. One person responsible for your project

Find out who will be your contact, how quickly they reply and on which channel. The speed and quality of replies before the contract is signed are usually the best you’ll see during the whole project; if you already have to wait days for answers, it won’t get better.

9. Warranty and support after launch

What the warranty covers and how long it lasts. Who will update the site and make backups, and how much changes cost after the warranty ends. A site without support becomes vulnerable within a year; more in our article on website security.

10. Rights and access belong to you

The domain and hosting are registered to your company, access to the admin panel, hosting and registrar is handed over after launch, and the rights to the design and code pass to you once paid for. Ask about this before signing, not when a conflict arises.

How to compare proposals

Put the proposals into one table with the same rows, and the differences become obvious straight away:

• design from scratch or a ready-made theme; how many unique page templates;
• mobile mock-ups, yes or no;
• what’s included: copy, photos, SEO setup, analytics, integrations;
• how many rounds of design revisions;
• timeline and payment stages;
• warranty and the cost of support after it;
• who owns the domain, hosting and code.

If one proposal is half the price of the others, find what’s missing from it in the table. It’s almost always something from the list above.

Questions for the first meeting

1. Which of your projects are closest to our task? Can we talk to that client?
2. Who exactly will work on the project, and who will be our contact?
3. What are the stages, and what do we approve at each one?
4. Is the design made from scratch or based on a ready-made theme?
5. Will there be mobile mock-ups?
6. What isn’t included in the price, and what might cost extra?
7. How many rounds of revisions are included, and what happens if we need more?
8. How do you test the site before launch?
9. How will you keep our current site’s Google rankings?
10. Will we be able to change copy, prices and case studies ourselves? Will there be a guide?
11. What does the warranty cover, and how much does support cost after it?
12. When and how will we receive all the access details?

Red flags

• They quote a price before understanding the task. Or it’s suspiciously round and the same for everyone.
• They promise guaranteed Google rankings or a specific number of enquiries. Nobody can guarantee that.
• The portfolio is only screenshots, and there are no live sites, or they don’t open.
• There’s no contract, or they suggest working “on trust” without fixing the scope.
• Full payment up front with no stages or interim results.
• They register the domain in their own name “for convenience”.
• They don’t ask questions about your business and customers, only about colours and “sites you like”.
• They avoid saying what the site will be built on and whether anyone else could maintain it.

What must be in the contract

• The scope, with a reference to the specification or a detailed description of the work.
• Stages, deadlines and payment by stage. What happens if a deadline is missed through either side’s fault.
• The number of revision rounds and the price of additional ones.
• The acceptance procedure: how the result is checked, how many days you have for comments, signing off.
• Warranty: the period and what it covers.
• Rights to the result. The rights to the design and code pass to you once paid for. In many jurisdictions copyright stays with the author unless it’s transferred in writing, so spell out the transfer explicitly.
• Handover of access to the admin panel, hosting, domain and analytics.

How we answer these questions

We’re webCode.solutions, a web studio working since 2020. In that time we’ve completed more than 200 projects for over 120 clients, and more than 80% of new clients come to us through referrals. You can read reviews about us on Clutch and IT-Rating.

• We build websites on WordPress, but without ready-made themes: the design and theme are written for each project, so any team that knows WordPress can maintain the site.
• We start with analysis and a prototype, and only then move to design and code.
• We record a video guide to the admin panel so you can update the site yourself.
• We give a one-year warranty on our work.

The live sites we’ve built are in our case studies. But even if you don’t choose us, go through the questions above with any agency: it will save you money and nerves. And a list of the most expensive mistakes to avoid is in our article on website development mistakes.