21 Questions to ask your web design agency before you hire them

What are the important questions to ask your web design agency before you hire them?

November 11, 2025

Your website is your organization’s primary face in the digital world and your most important digital asset.

Selecting the right web design agency or freelancer for your website must meet an assurance of experience, competence, trust and security.

A beautiful and functional website that’s designed with UI/UX in alignment with the company’s brand identity inspires confidence in viewers’ minds.

Clients usually have just a few questions to ask their web design agency, revolving mostly around cost and timelines. However, it’s important to dig deeper for a more thorough vetting.

We’ve broken down the list of questions based on important parameters like Experience & Expertise, Approach & Timelines, Technical & Functional, Support & Maintenance, Pricing and Payment, Scope-creep and Additional Work, and Deliverables and Ownership.

Here are 21 questions to ask your web design agency based on...

Experience and Expertise

What experience does your agency have with designing websites?
Often the first and most important question to ask any agency. You’d want to trust your website project with an agency that has several years of experience. Nothing beats real world work experience, no matter how attractive their own website might look.
Have you designed and developed websites for similar clients?
Industry-specific experience beats generic experience. An experienced web design agency that has worked for similar businesses will have already covered a lot of ground in terms of knowledge of what works, what doesn’t and other vital insights specific to your industry.
May I see your past work ?
A no-brainer for anyone vetting an agency. Often, they will respond by sending a list of recent (hopefully industry-relevant) urls of websites they’ve done, or at least a pdf of collated website screenshots and case studies. This is because not every business they worked with will still be around online, as is often the case.
Can you show me some client testimonials?
A logical follow-up to the above question. An experienced agency will have genuine client testimonials to show. It’s important to go through them to gauge client feedback in terms of professionalism, expertise and reliability. It will also help checking out their reviews online on Google, Yelp, Clutch and other platforms.

Approach and Timelines

What is your approach to designing our website?
While every agency works differently, the one having a streamlined, time-tested and structured approach to a website project is more likely to guarantee a desired outcome. A website design project can involve a number of steps from discovery to execution.
Do you have a questionnaire or scope-of-work / discovery process?
Every web design project starts with discovery. A detailed project questionnaire ensures all client details, preferences, technical and functional specifications, expected outcomes and contact information are laid out in one place for reference at any stage of the project.
How much client involvement will you need?
Setting expectations on client involvement, feedback loops and communication is always advisable for everyone to be on the same page. This ensures smooth project execution.
Do you use a project management system?
A PMS or project management system is useful when the scope of the project is large. A PMS ensures streamlined milestones, monitoring and tracking of key deliverables.
How long will it take to design and develop our website?
Every website design project needs to be completed within a reasonable timeline. It’s best to ask the agency to clearly mention realistic timelines, usually based on milestones.

Technical and Functional

Will our website have a content management system or CMS?
A CMS helps to maintain and update a website with ease. Popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Shopify , Wix, Squarespace and others offer tons of functionality for almost every kind of website. Your web design agency should have proficiency in some of them, if not all.
Will our website be optimized for mobile phones and tablets?
A competent web design agency will have fluency in creating websites that are fully responsive across a number of devices from laptops to mobiles to tablets. We live in a mobile-first environment. Responsive websites also tend to rank better on search platforms.
Will our website be optimized for SEO to rank on search engines?
While SEO is a separate and stand-alone discipline, agencies are expected to design websites from the ground-up using SEO best-practices. This includes incorporating sound page-speed optimization strategies, adding relevant keywords, page titles and accurate meta data. It will also help to inquire about their on-going SEO services post going live. SEO helps improve search rankings which in turn increases visibility and leads.
Will you host our website?
Many clients purchase their domain names and hosting themselves. However, some who are not so savvy do need assistance. Ask your web design agency for their recommendation based on security, up-time reliability and support based on their experience.
Can you custom-code certain features?
Your website may need certain features that are not standard. Ask your agency if they have developers and the proficiency to custom-code if required.
Can you integrate third-party APIs and tools?
Some clients may need third-party code and tools such as payment gateways, Analytics or other APIs integrated onto their website.
How secure will my website be?
Security is a very important aspect of any website. Ask your agency for their best-practices to keep your website and data secure. Inquire about SSL certificates.

Pricing and Payment

How much will my website cost?
Every website project is different. Costs vary based on size and functionality needed. You should typically receive a quote with timelines upon discussing project specs. Avoid working with agencies who are wishy-washy about sending a quotation.
Do you do payments in milestones?
Setting up a project with milestone payments keeps it streamlined and trackable for everyone. Smaller website projects usually have 3-4 milestones from start to completion: from discovery to design to coding to going live. Ask for a proper invoice for the project.

Support & Maintenance

Will you provide on-going support and maintenance?
While some clients prefer to maintain websites themselves, it’s best to negotiate an on-going support and maintenance plan to ensure all aspects of the website are working as desired. Most agencies offer nominal website maintenance at hourly or fixed rates based on the size of the website and frequency of updates. Ask for training or guidelines if you are unfamiliar with updating websites.

Scope-creep and Additional Work

How do you address scope-creep or additional work?
Sometimes, clients may have requests that are not part of the original brief, or may need additional functionality that they did not address before hand. Agencies may bill such contingencies as additional work (either hourly or fixed).
Usually, smaller tasks are handled without any extra costs as agencies factor in a certain degree of unknown into every project, unless the extra work involves a larger number of developer hours. Not a deal-breaker but better to clarify.

Deliverables and Ownership

Will I have complete ownership over my website and all deliverables?
As the client, you should have ownership over the entire website. Ask the agency for full access, including CMS logins. If stock images have been used, ask for proof of purchase or licenses, or links to sources where they have been obtained royalty-free.

Additionally, also ask if they provide brand identity design, if your company needs a logo and visual identity. A creative digital agency will start with your brand identity and design the website and other assets in alignment with it.

In Summary

An experienced and competent web design agency will ensure a smooth working experience from start to completion, addressing all of the above questions as part of the process.

Your website is your brand’s most recognizable face and often the primary digital interface with your customers. Asking these 21 questions helps you make an informed choice for the best website design agency for your company.