Before you hire
What to ask before you let someone build your website.
Most people ask about price and how long it will take. Both are worth asking and neither is what causes the trouble two years later. The trouble comes from things nobody thought to raise at the start.
Ask five things: will the domain be in my name, will I get the login, do I get a copy of the files, what happens if I leave, and is any of that written down. Everything else — price, timeline, design — is negotiable later. These five decide whether you are stuck.
Written by Susarathi Bose of Silicon Insights, Kolkata. Last updated .
In detail
The five questions, and why each one matters.
Will the domain be registered in my name, in an account I can log into?
Not "will you look after it". In my name, in my email, with my own login. A domain in somebody else’s account is the single most common way a business ends up unable to move, and it costs nothing to get right on day one.
Will the hosting account be mine too?
Same principle, lower stakes, because pages can be moved and an address cannot. Still worth asking, and the answer tells you a great deal about how the person works.
Do I get a complete copy of the files, and when?
At go-live, and again if you ever part company. Ask while everyone is happy. A calm request during a good relationship is answered the same afternoon; the identical request during a disagreement often is not answered at all.
If I move to somebody else in two years, what exactly do you hand over?
Watch for a vague answer. The good version is specific: the files, the hosting login, the domain already yours, and the Google listing already in your account. The bad version is "we would sort something out".
Is any of this in the agreement, or is it goodwill?
Goodwill is worth a lot right up until the moment somebody is annoyed, which is exactly when you need it. Anyone who intends to work with you properly will put these in writing without being pushed.
None of these five is about design and none of them is rude to ask. Anybody who bristles at them has told you something useful for free.
Questions
Questions people ask
Is it rude to ask about handover before we have even started?
No, and the reaction tells you what you need to know. A person who builds sites properly has answered these questions many times and finds them normal. Someone who treats them as a sign of distrust is telling you that being difficult to leave is part of their business, which is exactly what you were checking for.
What should be in a website agreement?
What is being built, what it costs and when it is paid, who provides the words and photographs and by when, how many rounds of changes are included, what happens when something is late, who owns the finished site, and what you get if either side walks away. Plain English is fine. Length is not the point; the point is that both of you can find the answer without arguing.
How do I check somebody is real before paying anything?
Ask for two or three live sites they built and open them on your phone. Look for a registration number you can verify, a real address or at least a real locality, and a phone number a person answers. Then send a message and see how long the reply takes, because that is your service level for the next three years and you are getting to test it for free.
The other questions