In this guide (8)
A serious web agency can be recognized by four things: the type of provider it really is, what it states about domain ownership, content and platform, realistic delivery times, and what happens after launch. The price written at the bottom of the quote, on its own, isn't enough to tell a good choice apart from a problem postponed by a year. Here are the concrete criteria for evaluating an offer before signing.
A serious web agency can be recognized by four things: the type of provider it really is, what it states about domain ownership, content and platform, realistic delivery times, and what happens after launch. The price written at the bottom of the quote, on its own, isn't enough to tell a good choice apart from a problem postponed by a year.
What type of provider you really need
Before looking at quotes, it's worth understanding what type of provider you're dealing with, because "web agency" in everyday language covers very different models.
A freelancer costs less and works directly with you, but the project depends on a single person: if they get sick, change jobs or have too many clients at once, timelines slip and there's not much you can do about it. A structured agency spreads the work across a team with different roles (design, development, possibly SEO), costs more and holds up better over time, but your point of contact may change during the project. A proprietary subscription-based CMS platform includes hosting, updates and support in the same recurring price: less room for extreme customization, but fewer things for you to deal with after launch. Custom development from scratch gives you the greatest technical freedom, at the highest cost and with longer timelines, and is justified only when you have needs that no existing solution covers.
| Type of provider | Initial cost | Critical dependency | Suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | Low | A single person | Limited budget, simple site |
| Structured agency | Medium-high | The team, if the contact person changes | Complex, tailor-made projects |
| Proprietary subscription CMS | Low-medium | The platform provider | SMEs that want to operate, not maintain |
| Custom development | High | Whoever wrote the code | Very specific needs, significant budget |
The portfolio says more than the quote
A portfolio with logos of big-name clients doesn't say much unless you check it. The useful check takes five minutes: take 2-3 projects shown in the portfolio, search for them on Google and see whether the site is still online, whether it looks recently updated, and whether, searching the company name together with its industry, it shows up in the results.
A site abandoned a year after delivery, with a copyright notice stuck two years in the past or broken internal links, tells you what happens after the final payment far more than any promise made on a call. Also check whether the portfolio projects belong to industries close to yours: someone who has only worked on fashion e-commerce is unlikely to know the specific problems of a professional practice or a B2B company.
Who ends up owning the site
This is the question almost nobody asks, and it's the one that matters most over time. There's no single right answer, but it needs to be asked explicitly on three separate levels: domain, content/data, and platform/code.
Some providers deliver the pure source code: in that case the site is "yours" in the literal sense, but maintenance, security updates and hosting also remain your responsibility, or need to be handed over to someone else separately. Others, like proprietary subscription-based CMS platforms, manage the platform on their own servers and in exchange guarantee that domain, content and data always remain exportable: you don't receive the source code, but you also don't depend on maintaining it. With KeideaCMS, for example, that's how it works: the platform code stays managed on Keidea servers, while domain, content and data are always yours and exportable at any time.
Neither model is wrong: it depends on how much you want to handle yourself. The real warning sign is a contract that doesn't specify this point at all. If you're considering the "code delivered, you manage it" model, before deciding also read whether you really need a developer to manage it.
The questions to ask before signing
Once you have a concrete quote in hand, there are at least five specific questions about subscription fees, any sales percentages, what's included and maintenance that are worth asking before you sign. We've laid them out, one by one, along with the answer you should expect, in the guide the 5 questions to ask before signing a quote. If you sell online, the version designed for an e-commerce project is in the guide on how to choose a web agency for e-commerce.
How much time it really takes
The delivery times stated during the sales phase are often optimistic. The real ones depend as much on who builds the site as on how quickly you provide text, images and feedback.
| Phase | Approximate time |
|---|---|
| Gathering materials and brief | 1-2 weeks (depends on you) |
| Structure and design | 1-3 weeks |
| Development and content entry | 2-6 weeks |
| Testing and revisions | 1-2 weeks |
| Publication (go live) | 1 day |
These are approximate ranges, not a promise: they vary depending on the complexity of the site and the type of provider chosen. The details of what actually happens in each phase are in the guide on the 7 real phases of building a company website.
What happens after launch
The moment when you really see what type of provider you've chosen is after delivery, not before. It's worth asking, with the same precision with which you ask about the price: who applies security updates, who you talk to if the site breaks down and how quickly they respond, whether support is included in the fee or billed separately for each intervention.
A direct point of contact who responds within the day is worth more than an anonymous ticketing system with undisclosed response times. At KeideaCMS, for example, support is included in the fixed fee and is a direct conversation with the team, not a case number in a queue: it's an example of how the "support included" criterion translates into practice, not the only correct way to do it.
Signs that agency isn't right for you
A quote with a single total figure, without separate line items for design, development, content, hosting and maintenance.
A portfolio with links that don't work or showcased sites that turn out to be offline or abandoned.
No mention of what happens after launch: updates, security, support aren't even mentioned.
Pressure to sign immediately, with discounts tied to an artificial deadline within the same meeting.
Vague answer about ownership when you explicitly ask who owns the domain, content and platform.
Unverifiable references: no real company names, just generic claims like "we work with major brands".
The 7-point checklist before signing
Have you understood what type of provider this is: freelancer, agency, subscription platform or custom development?
Have you checked at least two portfolio projects directly on Google?
Do you know who owns the domain, content/data and platform/code, in writing?
Have you asked the specific questions about fees, percentages and maintenance from the dedicated guide?
Do you have realistic delivery times, not just an optimistic date mentioned verbally?
Do you know who you'll talk to after launch and how quickly they respond?
Does the quote have separate line items, rather than a single total figure?
If you can answer all seven points before signing, you're choosing with the right criteria, not with the lowest figure written in large print at the bottom of the page. To see how we handle each of these points in practice, from data ownership to delivery times, you'll find the full picture on the page about building a company website.
