How to choose a web design agency: six questions to ask before you sign

Six questions to ask a web design agency

• 1. Who writes the code, and will I talk to them? Some agencies sell the work and send it to someone you never meet. Ask who builds your site and whether you can speak to that person. At NexaWebDev the person writing your code is the person you talk to. There is no account manager in between and your project is not resold.
• 2. Can I see something before I commit? A portfolio shows the past. A preview of your own site shows what you would get. Ask whether you can see a first version before paying for the full build. You can try ours with the free preview, and open a live client site such as maisonbrut.info to judge the finish for yourself.
• 3. What do I own at the end? Ask in writing: the code, the design files, the domain name, the hosting login, third-party licences. Our written scope documents ownership, third-party licences and launch access, and the domain stays in your name. If a studio holds your domain or your logins, leaving it later gets hard.
• 4. What is in the written quote? It should list the pages, the platform, the features, what is excluded, the amount in Canadian dollars before tax, the delivery date and the payment split. If a quote is one number and a sentence, you cannot compare it with anything.
• 5. What happens after launch? Ask how long fixes are covered and whether a monthly plan is required. We fix defects in the delivered work for 30 days, and nothing recurring is mandatory. Maintenance you ask for later is quoted separately.
• 6. Are they a real, reachable business? You can look a Quebec business up. Our registration is NEQ 3382557208 with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec, and anyone can check it. Also look for a street address, a named person and an answer in your language. We work in English and French, and French is written natively, not translated.

Three checks you can run in ten minutes

• Open their live work on your phone Does it load fast, does the menu work, can you read it outdoors? Run any page through Google's free PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile result.
• Look at their own site the same way An agency that sells speed and builds slow sites for itself tells you something.
• Ask for a reference you can contact A client who will take a five-minute call is worth more than any testimonial on a page.

Web agency or freelancer: which one?

Both can build a good site. The difference that matters is not headcount. It is what happens when something goes wrong: who answers, what is written down, and whether the project survives one person getting sick or busy.

• A freelancer often suits A small, well-defined site, a tight budget, and an owner who is comfortable managing the project directly.
• A studio or agency often suits Several pages or features, a fixed date, French and English, and a need for someone to answer when the main person is away.
• Either way, ask for the same things A written scope, a date, the amount, the ownership terms and what happens after launch. The six questions above work for both.

What should make you hesitate

• A price with no scope behind it You cannot tell what it covers, so you cannot tell what is missing.
• A mandatory monthly fee Hosting and maintenance can be real services you choose. A condition of owning your site is a different thing.
• The domain registered in the agency's name It makes leaving harder than it should be.
• "Unlimited" anything Unlimited revisions or pages without a limit written down usually ends in a dispute.
• No date A date written in the contract is a commitment. "A few weeks" is not.
• A rush to sign Pressure before you have seen anything is a reason to slow down.

We are a small studio of two partners, so we take on the number of projects we can deliver, and we tell you if the calendar is full rather than keep you waiting. Whether we are the right fit is for you to decide after you have seen the work. If you want to compare, read how a project runs with our web agency in Montréal, and how to compare website quotes.