How to Choose a Web Development Company (Tips and Best Practices for 2025)

Choosing the right web development company in 2025 is essential. For most businesses, a website is the cornerstone of their entire sales model, and the right build needs to meet strategy, performance, integration, and scalability goals.

So you need to know how to choose a web development company that can deliver reliably, to quality measures, and within budget.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about choosing a web development company that meets your business needs, including hints, tips, and best practices for achieving the best possible outcomes.

As always, when outsourcing custom web development, a successful partnership relies on both parties to unlock success. So we’ll also cover what you need to nail client-side to set your agency partner up to deliver.

Understand Your Own Project Requirements First

This first step is the crux of the entire outsourcing project. Know exactly what you’re trying to build and define the details.

Top Tip: This stage can involve consulting internal stakeholders and/or external partners. Get this fact-gathering and needs assessment done and signed off internally before you begin to outsource, and you’ll save time, money, and stress later down the line!

Define Your Website’s Purpose and Goals

Does your business want an e-commerce store? Are you looking to create a branded microsite for a marketing campaign? Are you seeking guidance and web dev support to create a lead-generation hub?

The key question is intention. Is the goal of your site to sell products, build authority, gather leads, or support user activity? Is it a web development vs software development build?

By pinning down this foundation question, you can begin to picture your ideal web dev partner and start to shape your internal documentation.

Identify Required Features and Functionalities

Clarify necessary features so you and your chosen agency can start on the right foot. These could include:

• Search features
• Gated content
• Dashboards
• CRM integrations
• Custom checkout flows
• API connections and/or
• Multilingual support

Determine Budget and Timeline Expectations

Budget’s the biggie! Get this pinned down before you start approaching suppliers. If there’s a budget flex or you're still in the process of getting sign-off, keep a ballpark or budget range in mind for discussion, along with your target launch date.

This is helpful because small web dev agencies tend to be cheaper and faster. Bigger agencies are slower, but can offer access to specialist skills, more complex work, and scalability.

Decide on the Right CMS or Tech Stack (WordPress, Shopify, Magento, Custom, etc.)

One of the biggest factors in how to choose a web development company is the CMS platform you want to use. A lot of clients want familiar CMS systems like Shopify or Word press.

For an enterprise web development platform, you’ll need platforms like HubSpot, Magento, or a completely custom build. Other options include Python, Laravel, and React, depending on the project and its scope.

Many agencies have a preferred specialty, and others offer “agnostic web development” with skills across the board.

Types of Web Development Companies

From freelancers to large firms, there are outsourced web development solutions to suit all situations. Here are the main types of web dev companies, and their pros and cons.

Freelancers vs. Small Agencies vs. Large Firms

Freelancers are ideal for start-ups, existing site tweaks and upgrades, smaller projects with a tight budget, and everyday web development tasks. Businesses can work with trusted freelancers flexibly to augment their teams when work requires additional skilled hands.

Small agencies are the next grade up, offering a larger pool of cross-functional web dev skills, more structure, formal project management, and affordable costing.

Large Firms are popular for large multi-disciplinary web developments, especially for big clients who want formalized project management from a web development consultant, operational resilience, scale, and service.

A large agency is usually a prerequisite if you need to build a website with any degree of compliance (such as financial services or regulatory compliance). However, these bigger firms tend to work with slower turnarounds and charge more.

Niche-Specific vs. Generalist Development Agencies

A niche-specific agency can be ideal if you’re working in an industry like ecommerce, healthcare, or fintech, as they understand the operating landscape, regulatory factors, and other vital know-how.

Generalist agencies typically offer cross-sector experience, spanning everything from logistics and SaaS to real estate and retail.

Offshore vs. Local Development Companies

Offshore companies usually offer cost savings, but in many cases, this is the only primary benefit. These can be good for routine work that simply needs churning out, or for quick and easy jobs that you can outsource without too much active oversight.

However, local website development companies offer a commonality of language, culture, and business/customer operating environment. They work in your time zone and build on familiar platforms for customers in your geography.

Communication alone is a reason to prioritize a local build; it’s much easier to thrash out issues or problem-solve together when you speak the same language and work in the same time zone.

There’s also a potential added benefit of being able to physically sit together when required. Even in today’s digital world, nothing beats the occasional face-to-face meeting, especially for deep, strategic work.

White Label or Outsourced Development Teams

Businesses outsource web development to agencies to build or improve websites behind the scenes. White label teams are available, too. These work in the background to add to your brand, like hiring a ready-made team of discreet freelancers.

Often, white-label web development agencies partner with other agencies to provide additional support when required without ever indicating that the white-label or “hidden” supporting service is in place.

What to Look for in a Web Development Company

Wondering how to choose a web development that meets your business needs? These are the areas to factor into your decision.

Top tip: develop a scoring card listing the measurement areas below, so you can easily compare and score different agencies to find the best choice.

This is important if you ever need to justify your choice for procurement or regulatory reasons. It provides a paper trail of your decision-making process and shows that due diligence was followed.

Portfolio Quality and Relevance to Your Industry

First question: Do they have a portfolio? Second, is it relevant to your industry and project? Third, when was the work completed? Look for recent case studies to avoid agencies still dining out on legacy work.

UI/UX Design Capabilities

Great design isn’t about making pages look pretty. Choose a web development agency that views design in partnership with UX to capture attention and drive conversions.

Great web designers apply design in the context of psychological prompts and page organization, and test their work with A/B testing to prove concepts. They’ll factor in trends, but only when they’re relevant to your target audience and project.

Technical Expertise and Code Quality Standards

Sure, the front-end might look great, but you need a web dev company that delivers clean, maintainable, modular code using a trusted framework like Next.js or React, or even Laravel. Ask about their approach to coding, quality management, testing, and deployment.

SEO-Optimized Development Practices

Ask your target web development company to talk about their approach to technical SEO. Check that they mention things such as:

• Clean URLs
• Semantic HTML
• Mobile optimization and performance
• Schema markup
• Analytics integration
• CRO strategy.

Top Tip: Some SEO agencies “blind” clients with jargon. Tackle this by doing your own research if you are new to the field. Secondly, check that any potential web development partner can explain technical work to you in a clear, transparent, and evidence-based way.

Good communication lies at the heart of all business relationships, and the time taken to facilitate understanding shows respect.

Mobile Responsiveness and Page Speed Awareness

Talk to potential web dev partners about their responsive design protocols, testing, and page speed optimization work. Do they test cross-browser? What are the loading times and responsiveness measures they work to improve?

All new sites must work flawlessly across devices, especially smartphones. This is even more important if you’re building a digital platform for overseas ecommerce. For example, in China, 96% of customers use their phones to shop.

Experience With Custom Integrations (CRM, ERP, APIs, etc.)

Has the potential web dev partner built custom integrations similar to your business needs? Examples could be gated content, dashboards, or dynamic search filters tailored to your offer.

Security Best Practices and Compliance Standards

Ask about secure coding, SSL, data protection (GDPR or similar), encrypted storage, audits, and updates. Good companies embed security into both code and process.

Red Flags to Keep in Mind

For every great web development agency, there’s one that over-promises and under-delivers. So when you’re weighing up how to choose a web development agency, be on the lookout for red flags such as these.

Overpromising Without Asking About Your Needs

Met a vendor that immediately offers a solution without diving into the details of what you want, who your audience is, or what your tech infrastructure looks like?

No, they don’t “get you” because they’re brilliant. This is a massive red flag. A good, experienced agency account manager will really interrogate the finer points of what you need and give detailed, considered responses. A “can-do” attitude is one thing, but check that it’s backed up with detailed, transparent answers and deep questions to devise possible solutions.

Outdated Portfolio or Template-Heavy Work

If no dates are provided with a portfolio, dig down. Outdated work begs the question of where the current stuff is hiding! Template-heavy work suggests a skills limitation. With today’s raft of AI-driven web dev tools, even providers with average skillsets can make basic sites look good.

Again, this depends on what you’re looking for. You might be fine if you just need an affordable freelancer to do some basic site updates to a template-driven CMS system. But for bigger projects, you want to see a relevant, current, and exciting portfolio that evidences technical skill, design, and UX capabilities, as well as results.

No Transparent Pricing or Timeline

Again, a massive red flag. Of course, a potential partner can’t come up with a price or timeline immediately off the bat, but they should be 100% able to return after consideration with a price and turnaround time for your work.

Top Tip: On pricing, get into the details. Is the partner proposing hourly rates or a fixed cost? If the cost is fixed, what does this include? Check the small print for hourly rates on “mop-up” work, testing, and any scope tweaks.

These are almost inevitable for big projects, and web dev partners need to charge for their time, but ensure you have clarity and certainty around the cost structure.

Lack of Clear Communication Channels

Nothing scuppers a big website build quicker than poor communication. Begin with identified points of contact. Provide your own client-side, and ask for a named account manager for all queries.

Assess their proposals and approaches for communication. Do they use tools like Slack? Do they do morning Scrum huddles? Will you be required to engage with your account manager only, or with tech staff within the agency? (Coders aren’t always primed for client-side communications!)

Top tip: As part of this investigation, reflect on the company’s communication skills during this initial research process. Do you feel reassured, updated, and in the hands of experts? Or are the responses vague, delayed, and half-hearted?

The Vetting Process: How to Shortlist Candidates

So you’ve got your list of potential partners. The next step in how to choose a web development company is to vet and shortlist the contenders! Here’s how to do it.

How to Research Companies (Website, Reviews, Case Studies)

Do your desk research! Check any potential partner’s website, look for social proof, and read their blogs. Speak to your network. Does anyone have first-hand experience with the agency?

What to Ask in the First Discovery Call

Have a scoring sheet ready to tick off your answers and make it easy to compare afterward. Again, use common sense. Some of this is overkill for a small, quick project, but you need as much information as possible for large, complex builds.

How to Compare Proposals Side by Side

Depending on the project build, use the template above and adjust it to meet your needs. Keep paperwork for this stage in case you ever need to evidence how you made your decision, and follow your company's procurement processes carefully.

This can be important in bigger businesses, especially in companies that have any element of regulation or external control, such as financial services, utility, or public sector businesses.

Requesting a Technical Audit or Prototype First

Ask your preferred provider for a clickable prototype or technical audit for a large project. There will usually be a fee for this, but it will reveal the company’s understanding of the project requirements, ability to deliver, and strategy alignment.

Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Contract

The prospect of a new website build can be exciting and nerve-wracking on both sides. And there’s very often a desire for speed and progress! But don’t let these factors become the enemy of due diligence.

There’s nothing worse than getting midway into a web development build and starting to suspect you chose the wrong partner, or realizing you left something key out of the contract.

Tip: Take your time and be thorough. Where necessary, get help from your in-house (or outsourced) legal support, especially where contracts are non-standard.

What Is the Development Process From Start to Launch?

Time to get into the nitty-gritty. Don’t shy away from this process, and make sure your target agency can explain technical work to you clearly, without blinding you with jargon. If they can, it’s a real green flag.

Who Will Handle Post-Launch Support and Maintenance?

Pin down whether this is included in the service package or will be charged as an extra. How will the partner support bug fixes, performance optimizations, or security patches? Is there an ongoing retainer expectation?

Tip: Usually, a partner will offer a period of time after go-launch for bug fixes, but post-sign-off tweaks and upgrades will be chargeable.

Do You Provide Ongoing SEO or CRO Assistance?

SEO and conversion optimization are great services, but be aware that they will be an added charge beyond any costed-in post-support tuning.

Tip: Often, larger web development agencies also offer SEO and CRO (even if it’s through a white-label model), which can be handy if you want to buy the extra service, as they will already be invested in the build they delivered.

How Will Ownership of Code, Content, and Assets Be Handled?

This one is vital and an area that inexperienced clients can overlook. You must ensure the contract defines how ownership of your site’s codebase, design files, URL, and content will be transitioned to you.

The endpoint must be that you own it completely upon payment. If you have access to a legal resource, now is a great time to get their help to read the contractual wording carefully, especially for a large strategic project.

What Happens If We Need Urgent Changes or Fixes?

Realistically, all projects experience urgent support needs, and most will have unscheduled change requests mid-flow. Rather than stressing out and attempting to create a 100% fixed brief that will not deviate post sign off, agree on a clear process for change requests that covers a) how they’ll be managed and to what SLAs, and b) how they will be billed.

Pricing Models

Web development companies work with different pricing models, and it’s usually possible to negotiate to find an approach that suits your business needs. The guiding principle needs to be fairness and pragmatism.

If a web development agency asks you to pay 100% of the project cost upfront, this is neither fair nor realistic. As is, expecting an agency to work on a long project without receiving any payment until completion. Typical approaches include deposits and staged payments.

Hourly vs. Fixed vs. Value-Based Pricing

The main decision here is what pricing model you will agree on for the project. Here are three common approaches:

Hidden Costs to Clarify Upfront

“Hidden costs” can cause issues with client vs agency relationships. Usually, the issue is that these costs were not discussed initially or written into the contract. Work the web development pricing detail beforehand and cover areas such as:

• Licensing costs for things like plugins or fonts
• Third-party services
• Revisions beyond agreed rounds
• Content creation services
• SEO
• Testing and QA
• Migrations.

Top tip: Don’t let speed force you to overlook detailed negotiations before work is commissioned. Often in businesses, there is a powerful desire to “just get work done”, especially if a new website is needed quickly.

The onus is then on the commissioning lead to show rapid progress. However, the devil really is in the details, so the more time you can spend working through these types of questions, the more smoothly the project can run.

Maintenance and Update Costs Post-Launch

The post-launch costs to check are:

• Security backup work
• Site updates
• Performance monitoring
• New feature developments.

Of course, your chosen partner will need to charge for extra work. But agree on where the line falls between the project's scope and out-of-scope work. Agree, too, whether you want a monthly ongoing retainer with a set number of hours for this kind of ongoing, iterative work or a fixed fee for each job as it arises.

Top tip: Agencies often include a small margin of ‘free time’ for retainer work. On the other hand, they charge for retainer administration and management time, which can become a bone of contention for clients!

Collaboration and Communication Expectations

Nothing throws a web development project off course faster than bad communication. So when you’re weighing up how to choose a web development company, focus on communication from the off.

Preferred Project Management Tools (Slack, Asana, Trello, etc.)

Agree on which tools you’ll use for daily messaging, documentation management, task tracking, and work approvals. Common platforms include Slack, Asana, and Trello.

Know who you’ll need to speak to for what query. Will everything go through a nominated account manager? Should you speak to individuals at an agency for certain queries? Are they OK with you just picking up the phone now and again?

Top tip: You’re the client. Yes, absolutely, listen to agency best practices and use the platforms that make good project management a breeze. But if you like to speak on the phone or have video calls, then agree to build these in.

How Often Will You Get Updates or Progress Reports?

Set expectations early so that you aren’t playing guessing games about project progress. Do you prefer weekly sprints? Milestone summary updates? Weekly updates? Again, you’re the client. Build in the communication method, channel, and frequency that works with your business.

Role of a Dedicated Project Manager (If Any)

It’s very helpful to have a single point of contact for a web dev project on both the client and agency sides. Keep it to a single project manager, and you’ll find coordination, communication, management, and overall oversight far easier.

Handling Delays or Scope Changes Professionally

Experienced web dev managers know that projects will always experience delays, scope “creep”, and change requests to the original signed-off brief. So establish your change control processes and associated costs.

Top tip: The cost angle is important in different ways. First, it gives you transparency for change requests. Second, it helps to manage change requests from other stakeholders. Explain that you will recharge the cost to them, and they will very often “revisit” the necessity of the change.

Contracts, Legal Protection, and Intellectual Property

Web builds are very often exciting, invigorating, and fun. Contract processes aren’t. But if you want to be protected and set up for a successful project, don’t skim over this stage.

What Should Be in a Proper Web Development Contract

Most agencies will already have standard contracts in place. Interrogate them carefully with support from your own company's legal representative. The things you are looking at here are:

• The project scope
• Its deliverables
• The timeline
• Payment terms
• Testing and QA processes
• Contract acceptance
• Termination terms.

Clauses on Revisions, Deadlines, and Deliverables

Take the time to carefully define processes and expectations around revisions, adjustments to the timeline and deliverable handoffs. These all need to be added as clauses to the contract to avoid issues later down the project line.

Ownership of Source Code, Content, and Design

We touched on this previously. But make sure the contract reflects that all digital property and IP will transfer to you once you’ve made the final payment.

NDA and Confidentiality Agreements

Include solid NDA agreements if your project will include sensitive information such as data, sales pipeline, or IP. 

Post-Launch Services to Expect

Experienced web development managers know that go-live is NOT the end of the project! (And all good agencies know the same.) So before you get into the creative work, work out exactly what you’ll get included for post-launch services, and which add-on services will count as extra, chargeable time (if you agree to a fixed project cost).

Website Maintenance and Bug Fixes

Agee how long the support period will last and whether it’s factored into the cost or billed separately. A 30-day FOC support period post-launch for glitches and bugs is standard.

CMS Training and Documentation for Your Team

CMS training is usually part of the project scope for new builds. Ask what support your partner will offer for admin training, user guides, and walkthroughs.

Website Hosting and Performance Monitoring Options

Will your partner offer hosting or help you select the right host? What support will you buy from them (if applicable) for uptime monitoring, error logging, and load speed tracking?

Future Scalability and Upgrade Support

Factor in plans for ongoing upgrades, tweaks, and additions to your site, as it will evolve over time. How will your partner support this? These costs will be additional to the original project, and you may want to set up a monthly retainer for rolling work.

Agencies are usually very keen on retainers as they give them income certainty and make it faster and easier to get work done. Equally, there is a value to continuing the relationship for this ongoing work, as they will have built the site in the first place and know it inside out.

Conclusion

When considering how to choose a web development company in 2025, remember that the best results will come from your thorough, systematic approach to partner selection.

Begin by defining what you need and agreeing on the scope before vetting potential partners for their proven expertise in builds, design, performance, integrations, and SEO. Always work towards transparency and clear ownership, recognizing that the more time you put into detailed planning and negotiation before the work begins, the smoother the project will be.