You Asked, I Went Digging: 5 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Web Design Company

Every year for the past six years, I’ve done a live website audit where a brave volunteer puts their website up on the big screen and lets me walk through it in front of the whole room. It takes guts, and I appreciate every one of them.

But year after year, the best part is always the questions afterward, and most of them aren’t about the website on the screen. They’re about working with a web agency. What should I ask before I sign? What should it cost? How do I know I’m not getting taken advantage of? I can hear it in the room: some of you have been burned before, or know somebody who has.

So after this year’s session, I went digging. I spent time in Reddit’s small business communities, on review sites, and in complaint research to see what business owners across the country actually run into. Here’s what jumped out: almost none of the complaints are about design or code. Orbit Media, a Chicago agency, keeps a running list of 27 real complaints clients made about web companies.^[1] It’s packed with slow responses, missed deadlines, and developers who vanished. Not one entry says “I didn’t like the colors.” Reddit’s small business threads repeat the same three: slow communication, prices that grew after signing, and companies that disappeared once the final invoice cleared.^[2]

You can protect yourself from almost all of it by asking five questions before you sign anything. Here’s what to ask, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. Who owns my domain, my hosting, and my website?

This is the big one, and most people don’t think to ask until it’s too late. There’s a whole thread of horror stories from business owners who tried to switch web companies and discovered their domain was registered in the developer’s name, their hosting lived under the developer’s account, and they didn’t have a single login. One veteran freelancer says dozens of business owners have contacted him over the years about a website being held hostage.^[3] Some contracts even say the design company owns the code.

What to look for: a company that tells you to buy your own domain, in your own name, in your own account. You should get the logins to everything, and the contract should plainly state that once the site is paid for, it’s yours to move anywhere. Ask how cancellation works before you ever sign: how much notice, do you get a backup of your site, what licenses would you need going forward. A company that’s confident in their work isn’t scared of that question.

2. How is the price set, and what happens if it changes?

Prices that balloon after signing are one of the top three agency complaints across Reddit’s small business threads.^[2] The quote comes in low, then hosting fees appear, then a “required” upgrade, then charges for things you thought were included.

What to look for: a real discovery process before a number ever hits paper. A developer who spends serious time learning your business, your pages, and your content can quote from experience instead of guessing, and a quote built that way holds. If someone hands you a price five minutes into the first phone call, that price is going to grow.

Then get all of it in writing. A real quote itemizes what’s included, what’s optional, and, the part people miss, the ongoing monthly costs right next to the build cost. A legitimate monthly fee buys real things: software updates, regular backups, security certificates.^[4] All of it should be on paper before you sign, not discovered on your first invoice, along with how changes get handled if the project grows. If a company hesitates to put numbers on paper, that tells you everything.

3. What’s the real timeline, and what part depends on me?

“I was told six weeks, it’s been eight months.” We’ve all heard that one. Sometimes it really is the company dropping the ball. But here’s what nobody tells you: the client controls more of the timeline than the developer does. Design feedback, page content, internal sign-offs.^[6] If a draft sits in your inbox for three weeks, the launch moves three weeks.

What to look for: a company that’s honest about this instead of promising a date they can’t control. Ask them exactly what they’ll need from you and when. A good developer will hand you a list. A red flag is a guaranteed launch date from someone who hasn’t asked you for a single thing yet.

4. Who’s providing the words and the photos?

And speaking of what depends on you; this is the one that surprises people the most, and I hear it all the time. Here’s the truth: you are the expert in your business, and you know what your clientele needs to make a decision. We’ve built websites for engineering firms, energy services companies, a national breast pump retailer, and a boudin shop. A web company can research your industry all day long, but we don’t know the story behind your service. We don’t know what makes you different from every competitor in your market. And conveying that uniqueness and expertise is what separates a good website from a pretty template.

The same goes for photos. Real photos of your actual team, your shop, and your work change the entire look and feel of a site. Visitors can spot stock images a mile away.

What to look for: a company that’s upfront about who’s providing what, in writing, before the project starts, not a surprise in month two. If you want it done for you, ask whether they can bring in a professional photographer or a copywriter who interviews you; a writer who’s talked to you will provide completely different copy from one guessing off your old brochure. At most agencies this is an added service, not baked into the base price, and that’s fair: the client who already has great photos shouldn’t pay for a photographer they don’t need. The red flag isn’t a company that asks you for content. It’s a company that never brings it up and lets you find out mid-project.

5. What happens after my website launches?

Post-launch ghosting shows up constantly in Reddit discussions of web agencies.^[2] The company answers every email during the sale, then goes quiet once the site is live. Meanwhile, plenty of owners end up paying $50 to $100 every single time they need one line of text changed, because nobody ever showed them how to update their own site.

What to look for: training and a real support system. Ask whether they’ll teach you to make your own updates to items like your business hours, staff photos, and product prices. Ask how edits are billed. Is there a retainer with a set amount of hours per month? Are you billed hourly? What is the rate? Also ask what happens when something breaks. Is there a ticket system, what’s the typical response time, and does a human answer the phone, do they have a support chat? This matters more than people think. A 2024 HostingAdvice survey found 75% of consumers have skipped a purchase because a business’s website looked outdated or unprofessional.^[5] A site you can’t update is a site that goes stale.

The bottom line

You don’t need to be a tech person to protect yourself. Every one of these questions has a plain answer, and any company worth hiring will give you one, without flinching, in writing. After years of collecting client complaints, Orbit Media’s conclusion was that when a web project goes wrong, it’s almost never a design or programming problem.^[1] It’s a service problem.

Good service also means telling you when not to spend money. In a recent audit, I sat down with a business owner who’d been told their website needed a $12,000 rebuild. I walked through the whole site and told them the truth: your site’s good. As a person who builds websites for a living, I wouldn’t sell you a new one.

In the end, your website should fit around the way you work, not the other way around. It’s supposed to be a tool and an asset, not something you fight against every day. Hire the company that treats it that way.

For the record, here’s how we do it at Comit

Since I work at a web agency, it’s only fair that I answer my own five questions.

1. Ownership: You buy your own domain, and once your site is paid for, it’s yours to take anywhere. We just ask you follow our cancellation process and procedures.
2. Pricing: I do an hour-long discovery before you receive a quote. Everything is itemized in writing including the monthly costs, and the quote sticks. Hosting covers WordPress and plugin updates, nightly backups, security certificates, and licenses.
3. Timeline: After kickoff, our project manager builds out your timeline. Most projects run about two months, but it depends on the scope. Got a specific date in mind? Just let us know and we’ll talk through whether it’s doable.
4. Words & Photos: Need the words or photos done for you? We can bring in a photographer or a copywriter who interviews you, priced as an add-on so you only pay for what you need.
5. After the Launch: We train every client to make their own edits; when you’d rather we do it, we bill in 15-minute increments. Support requests open a ticket immediately, most are resolved within 48 hours, and yes, we answer the phone.

That’s not a sales pitch. It’s the standard I think you should hold anyone to, including us.

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