21 Questions That Expose a Bad Development Agency Before You Sign

Portfolios are a poor predictor of project outcome. Every agency shows you its three best results, and none of them tell you what happens when your requirements change in week six. These twenty-one questions do, grouped by what they reveal, with the answer you want and the evasion to watch for.

Ask them of us too. We publish fixed prices and delivery windows specifically so these conversations can be short, and any of them we cannot answer straight is a fair reason to hire someone else.

Questions 1–4

Ownership and exit

1. Who owns the code, and from when?
Good answer: "You do, from the first commit. The repository is created in your organisation's account and we are given access to it." Evasion: "Ownership transfers on final payment" is acceptable but weaker; "we host it for you" means you are renting.

2. In whose name are the domain, hosting, and analytics accounts registered?
Good answer: Yours, with the agency added as a user. Evasion: Any arrangement where leaving requires the agency's cooperation to keep operating.

3. If we part ways after launch, what does another developer receive?
Good answer: A documented repository, environment setup instructions, a data model, and a deployment runbook. Evasion: "It is all standard", ask to see the README of an existing project.

4. What third-party services will this depend on, and what do they cost?
Good answer: A written list with monthly costs. Evasion: Vagueness here becomes your surprise recurring bill.

Questions 5–9

Scope and change

5. What is explicitly excluded from this quote? The most valuable question in the list. A vendor who has thought seriously about your project can name six exclusions immediately.

6. What happens when we ask for something not in the scope? You want a defined process: a written estimate before work starts, and your approval required. Not "we will absorb small things". That goodwill evaporates precisely when the schedule tightens.

7. How many hours will you need from our team, and from whom? A good vendor answers with numbers and roles. This cost lands on your side of the ledger and belongs in your comparison.

8. What is the single largest risk in this project? Any vendor who says "none" has not read your requirements. The best answers name a specific integration, data quality problem, or decision dependency.

9. If our budget were 30% smaller, what would you cut? This reveals whether they understand what is load-bearing. A vendor who cannot prioritise your requirements cannot protect your launch date either.

Questions 10–13

Team and availability

10. Who specifically will do the work? Names and roles. Sales-team-then-handover is the most common bait-and-switch in the industry.

11. What are your working hours relative to ours? Overlap determines decision velocity more than any other factor. Four hours is the practical minimum.

12. What else is this team committed to during our build? Honest capacity answers are rare and extremely informative.

13. Who do we contact when something is wrong, and how fast do they respond? A named person and a stated response time, in the contract.

Questions 14–17

Quality and testing

14. What testing is included, and what does it cover? You want cross-device testing, a security review, and a structured user acceptance cycle with your staff. If testing is not a line item, it is not happening.

15. How do you validate what a user submits? The correct answer includes the phrase "on the server". Any price, quantity, or permission a browser can send must be re-verified server-side. Client-only validation is how people buy $1,000 packages for $1, and we have found it in inherited codebases more than once.

16. How will we see progress? A deployed staging environment, updated weekly, that you can click through. Status reports are not evidence.

17. What is your definition of "done"? It should be a written acceptance list agreed before build begins, not a judgement made under deadline pressure.

Questions 18–21

After launch

18. What does year-one support cost? A build quote without a support quote is half a price.

19. What is the warranty period for defects, and what counts as a defect? Thirty to ninety days is typical. The definition matters more than the duration.

20. Who applies security updates, and how often? Someone must own this. If the answer is "you can", make sure your team knows they now have that job.

21. Can we speak to a client whose project went badly? The most revealing question you can ask. Every agency has one. A vendor who provides the introduction is showing you exactly how they will behave when your project hits difficulty.

Warnings

Seven immediate red flags

Diligence

How to check references properly

Reference calls are usually wasted because the questions are too easy. Skip "were you happy?" and ask these four instead:

1. What changed between the original plan and what you got? Every project changes; you are testing whether the change was managed or absorbed by the client.
2. How did they handle it commercially? The answer tells you what your own change requests will feel like.
3. Could your team operate the system after handover, without them? This tests documentation and training honestly.
4. What do you wish you had asked before signing? The single most useful question in reference checking, and the one that most often produces something you had not considered.

$100 for a one-hour session, billed at $25 per 15 minutes with a one-hour minimum. You choose your time on Calendly immediately after checkout. Pay by card or M-Pesa.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What questions should I ask a web development agency before hiring?

The decisive ones are about ownership, process, and failure: who owns the code on day one, what happens when scope changes, what testing is included, what your own team must contribute in hours, what year-one support costs, and how they handled a project that went badly. Portfolios and technology preferences are far less predictive of outcome.

What are the biggest red flags when hiring a development agency?

A quote produced without questions, refusal to assign intellectual property, hosting your code in the agency's own account, no line item for testing, no named individuals on the team, unwillingness to provide a reference for a difficult project, and a price far below every other bid with no explanation of what was excluded.

Should I hire a freelancer or an agency?

A freelancer suits well-bounded work with a clear specification and an accepting risk profile. They are cheaper and often better, until they are unavailable. An agency suits projects where continuity matters, multiple disciplines are needed, or the system will outlive any one person's involvement. For a five-figure business-critical build, continuity is usually worth the premium.

How do I check an agency's references properly?

Ask for a client whose project encountered serious difficulty, and speak to them. Ask that client three questions: what changed from the original plan, how the agency handled it commercially, and whether they could operate the system after handover. How a vendor responds to that request tells you more than any portfolio.