Choosing an agency is difficult because the thing you are buying does not exist yet. You cannot inspect it. You are largely assessing whether these people will do what they say, and most of the signals available to you — a polished portfolio, a confident pitch — are the easiest things to produce.
These are the questions that actually separate agencies, along with what the answers tell you.
Ask: what happens before you start designing?
You want to hear about a discovery stage — questions about your organization, your audiences, and your constraints, before anyone opens a design tool.
An agency that can quote precisely from a two-line brief is either doing something templated, or guessing and intending to negotiate later. Neither is what you want.
A fast quote feels efficient. A quote given before anyone understands the work is not efficiency, it is a placeholder you will renegotiate.
Ask: who will I actually be talking to?
Sometimes the people who pitch are not the people who build. That is not automatically wrong — larger agencies work that way — but you should know, because information degrades every time it is relayed.
- Will I speak to the people doing the work, or through an account manager?
- How often will we talk, and who initiates it?
- What happens if I have a question mid-project?
- Who is my contact if that person leaves?
Ask: what exactly do I own at the end?
This is the question most likely to reveal a bad arrangement, and the one clients most often forget to ask.
- Do I own the code outright once I have paid?
- Do I own the design files?
- Is the domain registered in my organization's name?
- Is hosting in my account, or the agency's?
- If we part ways, what do I walk away with?
If any answer is unclear or hedged, press. An agency that keeps your domain or hosting in its own account is not necessarily acting in bad faith, but it does mean leaving is harder than it should be — and that is worth knowing before you commit rather than after.
Ask: what happens after launch?
Launch is a milestone, not the end. Websites need updates, backups, and monitoring, and a site nobody maintains decays quietly.
- Is maintenance included, optional, or not offered?
- What does it cover, specifically?
- What is the response time if something breaks, and is it in writing?
- Who fixes a problem that turns out to be a build fault?
Ask: can my team update this ourselves?
Be specific about what you will realistically need to change. "Yes, it has a CMS" is not an answer — ask them to show you the actual screen where you would add a news post.
If updating a phone number requires a developer, you will be paying for that forever, or the number will simply stay wrong.
Answers that should concern you
- A firm price before anyone has asked what the site needs to do
- Guaranteed search rankings by a specific date — nobody can promise this
- Vagueness about who owns the code or the domain
- Reluctance to name the person who will do the work
- Portfolio pieces that turn out to be concepts presented as delivered client work
- Pressure to sign quickly, or a discount that expires this week
One question that reveals a lot
Ask: "Is there anything in my brief you would push back on?"
An agency that says everything sounds great is either not listening or not willing to disagree with you. Both are expensive later. You want someone who will say a feature is not worth building, or that your budget is better spent elsewhere — because they will still say it when it matters, six weeks into the project.