In short
- Register the domain yourself, before anyone starts work
- Ask to see sites they built three years ago, not three months ago
- Make them demo the editing screen you will actually use
- Agree who writes the content — it is the commonest cause of delay
Hiring a website development company in Mumbai is unusual among agency decisions because the thing you are buying will still be running, and costing you money, long after everyone involved has moved on. Most selection advice concentrates on the build. The questions that matter concentrate on what happens afterwards.
Here is what I would check, in roughly the order it saves you money.
1. Register the domain in your own name, today
Before you brief anybody. Open a registrar account under your own email, buy the domain, and keep the login. It costs very little and it is the single most common way small businesses lose control of their web presence — not through malice, but because it was faster for the agency to register it on their own account and nobody ever moved it.
The same applies to hosting and later to Google Analytics and Search Console. The agency should be added as a user on accounts you own, never the reverse.
2. Ask to see old work, not recent work
Any agency can show you something launched last month. Ask for three sites they built two or three years ago and still maintain. Then open them. Are they fast? Still current? Has the client clearly been able to add things without help?
A portfolio of recent launches tells you they can start. A portfolio of healthy three-year-old sites tells you they can finish, and that clients stay.
3. Make them show you the editing screen
Not a description of the CMS. The actual screen, on a real site, where you would change a price or add a page. Ask them to do it while you watch.
This one question separates a site you own from a site you rent. If editing a paragraph requires a developer, you will stop updating the site within six months, and an out-of-date site is worse than a plain one.
4. Ask how many page designs are original
Page count is a poor measure of work. Twenty pages built from four designs is a far smaller job than eight pages each designed from scratch, and the quote should reflect that.
There is nothing wrong with a well-adapted theme — for many businesses it is the right purchase. What is wrong is paying custom-design prices for one. The bands in website design and development cost in India set out what each budget realistically buys, and WordPress or a custom build covers the platform question.
5. Settle who writes the content
This is the single commonest cause of a delayed website, and almost every project begins with the client cheerfully agreeing to supply copy and then not supplying it.
Decide honestly. If you will write it, agree deadlines per page and accept that the launch date moves when you miss them. If the agency will write it, check they have writers rather than a template filled with your service list, and get the number of rounds in writing.
6. Ask about speed and mobile, with evidence
Everyone says responsive. Ask them to open a site they built on their own phone, on mobile data rather than office wifi, and watch how long it takes to become useful. Then ask what their Core Web Vitals look like — how fast the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to a tap, and whether the layout jumps while loading.
An agency that cannot discuss those three measures has not been paying attention for several years.
7. Agree the handover before you agree the price
What you should receive at the end
- Admin access to the site, held in your own account
- Domain and hosting logins, in your name
- The design files, in an editable format
- A short document on how to do the five things you will do most
- Confirmation that you own the code and the content outright
- Who to contact, and what it costs, when something breaks
8. Ask what year two costs
Hosting, the domain renewal, plugin or licence fees, security updates and somebody's time. Get a figure in writing before you commit to year one. An agency that has not thought about year two has not maintained many websites.
Phrases worth a follow-up question
| What they say | What it means |
|---|---|
| “We'll handle the domain for you” | It will be registered on their account, and moving it later is painful |
| A price before any questions | They are quoting a template, whatever you describe |
| “SEO included free” | A checkbox in a page builder, not a service |
| No named designer or developer | The work is being passed to whoever is free |
| Unlimited revisions | Either untrue, or priced in already |
| “You won't need to touch it” | You will, constantly, and that is the point |
Agency, freelancer or builder?
A website builder is the right answer more often than agencies admit: if the site is a brochure and you will maintain it yourself, Wix or Squarespace will serve you well for a monthly fee. A good freelancer beats a mediocre agency on cost and usually on care, but goes on holiday and may not write.
An agency earns its premium when the site has to do something — integrations, a content operation, multiple approvers — or when you need the writing and the build to come from the same place. If none of that applies, do not buy it.
One question to finish on
Ask what they would do if you had half the budget. The answer reveals how they think: a good agency will tell you which half of the plan to drop and why, and the honest ones occasionally say you do not need them yet.
Our own approach is on the website design and development page, and what drives a quote is in how much a website costs in Mumbai.