People don't order websites from whoever draws the prettiest or whoever replied with the lowest bid. A mistake at the contractor-selection stage costs more than any “saving”: rework, missed deadlines, a website nobody can maintain. We work on the contractor side, but we've seen so many half-redone projects by others that we put together an honest checklist: what to look at before signing a contract.
First decide who you need
- A freelancer — cheap and fast for small tasks. The risk: one person means a single point of failure — they get sick, disappear, or switch to another project
- A web studio — a team and a process cost more, but the project doesn't stop because one person is on vacation. The sweet spot for corporate websites, stores and services
- A large agency — strategy, branding, big budgets. Overkill for a landing page
- A website builder — a DIY option for simple showcases, but where the template ends, the pain begins
From here on, the same rules apply to everyone: how to vet a specific contractor.
The contractor vetting checklist
- A portfolio with live links. Not pictures in a slide deck but working websites. Ask directly: “what exactly did you do on this project?” — “our project” often means “our client, once”
- Case studies with details. A good case study answers the questions: what was the task, what was done, what was the result. “We developed a website” without details means nothing
- Process. Ask how the work goes: brief → specification → design → development → acceptance? What happens between stages? When do you see intermediate results? A good contractor explains this without notes; a bad one mumbles “we'll build it and show you”
- Contract. It must include: scope of work (spec attached), stages and deadlines, payment schedule, ownership of the results (design and code transfer to you), and a warranty period for bug fixes
- Access and domain — yours. The domain is registered to your company or to you personally; hosting and admin panels are your accounts. The contractor works under your access, not the other way around. This is question number one to ask before the project starts
- Technical fundamentals “from day one”. Responsiveness, loading speed, basic SEO setup, analytics, spam protection for forms — these belong in the standard scope, not “we can do it for extra”
- Post-launch support. What the warranty covers, the hourly rate for changes, response time. A website is a living system — a “until launch” contractor does only half the job
- Communication. One point of contact, agreements fixed in writing, reasonable response times. If they already take three days to reply during the sales stage — what happens after the prepayment?
Red flags
- 100% prepayment, or “50% now, the rest on delivery — but we won't show you the stages”
- “No spec needed, we get it” — meaning scope and price will be “clarified along the way”, always upward
- An exact price without a single question about your business
- “We'll do it in 3 days” for a project other studios quoted 3 weeks for
- A portfolio without live links, or “NDA prevents us from showing anything” across the board
- Reluctance to say in whose name the domain and access will be registered
Questions for the first call
- What exactly did you do in the portfolio projects — and can we see them?
- What does your process look like from brief to launch? What do I get at each stage?
- How are scope and price fixed? What counts as extra work?
- In whose name are the domain, hosting and licenses registered? Who owns the code and design?
- What does the post-launch warranty cover? What is the support hourly rate?
- Who will work on the project — and who is my contact for all questions?
Six questions a good contractor answers specifically and a problematic one answers with excuses.
Cheaper doesn't mean more profitable
A quote “40% below market” almost always means: a junior will do the work, part of the scope will surface as “change requests”, or you'll pay double in support. Count not the price of the website but the cost of ownership: development plus a year of support. Sometimes a slightly more expensive contractor with a sane process and live support turns out to be the cheapest option.
In short
Choose a contractor by process, not by price: live case studies, a written specification, stages with acceptance, a contract that transfers ownership, your access to the domain and hosting, and a clear support arrangement. Red flags: 100% prepayment, refusal to write a specification, and an “exact price” without questions about your business. And count the yearly cost of ownership, not the contract price — the difference between “cheap” and “profitable” is usually exactly there.