ChatBuildQuestions to ask a web designer before you hire one
What to prepare before you commission a website, and the questions to ask every freelancer, agency or website service about your domain, leaving and three-year costs.
Most website regrets don't start with bad design. They start with a question nobody asked before signing: whose name is the domain in, what happens when you leave, and what does the site cost in year three?
This checklist is for any small business, club or organisation about to commission a website, whether from a freelance web designer, an agency or a website service. It has two parts: what to prepare before you talk to anyone, and the questions to ask every supplier you consider. Ask all of them the same questions, in writing, and compare the answers side by side.
Part 1: before you talk to anyone
Know what the site is for
Write one sentence: what should a visitor do after reading your site? Call you, request a quote, ask for an appointment, find your opening hours, donate. If you can't choose, pick the one that brings in the most work or saves you the most time. Every supplier will ask, and the answer shapes most of the quote.
List what you already have
- Your business name, logo and colours, if you have them
- Photos of your work, your premises or yourself
- Texts you already use: a price list, a leaflet, a profile on another site
- An existing website and domain, and who has the login for each
- Reviews or references you are allowed to show
Nothing on this list is required. But knowing what you have tells you whether you need a supplier who also writes your texts, or one who only builds.
Decide the scope
- The pages you need on day one. For many small businesses that is a home page, services, about and contact
- The languages the site needs
- The functions you can't do without: a contact form, an appointment request, a quote form, a map
- Who approves the site on your side, and who will ask for changes later
Set a three-year budget, not a launch budget
A website keeps costing money after launch: hosting, the domain, changes, renewals. Decide what you can spend per year, for three years, before you see the first quote. It stops a low set-up fee from hiding a high running cost.
Part 2: the questions to ask every supplier
Your domain
- Whose name will the domain be registered in? The answer you want is your business's name. For .com and other generic domains, the registered holder is the one who can approve a move to another registrar, under ICANN's transfer policy. Country domains such as .nl, .ie or .eu follow their own registry's rules, so ask how a transfer works for yours.
- Who holds the login at the registrar, and will you have access?
- What does the domain cost to renew each year, not only in the first year?
- If you leave, how do you get the transfer code, how quickly, and is there a fee?
Ownership and leaving
- What exactly do I get when I leave? Ask separately about your texts, your images and videos, the design files and the code.
- In what format, and within how many days?
- Is there a minimum term or a notice period, and does the contract renew automatically?
- What happens to the live site on my last paid day?
- If I move to another supplier, will you help keep my old page addresses working, so links and search results don't break?
Costs over three years
Ask each supplier for one written total for three years, excluding and including VAT, built from these lines. Then compare suppliers on that total, not on the first invoice.
The three-year cost lines
- One-off build or set-up fee
- Monthly or yearly fee, and what it includes
- Hosting and the security certificate (SSL), if not included
- Domain registration and renewals
- Changes after launch: included, capped or charged by the hour
- E-mail mailboxes
- Paid plugins, licences, fonts or stock images
- Moving your current site over, if you have one
- Price increases: how often, and with how much notice
Changes and support
- How do I ask for a change, and how quickly is it done?
- What counts as one change, and how many are included?
- Who answers when something breaks, and on which days and hours?
Your data and your visitors' data
- Where are the site and its form submissions stored?
- If you handle personal data for me, such as form submissions or appointment requests, will you sign a data processing agreement? In the EU, the GDPR (Article 28) requires a contract when a processor handles personal data on your behalf.
- Which trackers, analytics or third-party scripts will run on my site by default?
- Who writes the privacy statement, and who keeps it up to date?
Quality you can check
- Can I see live sites you built and still look after?
- How do you check that the site works well on phones and loads quickly?
- Do you follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and which level?
For clubs, charities and foundations: when the board changes
Volunteer boards change, and the website has to survive the handover.
Before the next board change
- The domain is registered in the organisation's name, never in a board member's personal name
- The logins are kept somewhere the board controls, not in one person's inbox
- It is written down who the supplier is, what the contract says and when it renews
- All of it is handed over at every board change, together with the bank details and the keys
Send the same questions to everyone
Put the questions in one e-mail and send it to every supplier you are considering. Compare the written answers side by side. How clearly a supplier answers the domain and leaving questions tells you a lot about how the rest of the relationship will go.
About this checklist: written by Sjors Hooijen, founder of ChatBuild (chatbuild.com), which builds and maintains websites for businesses for a monthly price. The questions apply to every supplier, including us. Our own answers are on our pricing page.
Sources
- Transfer Policy · ICANN
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) · EUR-Lex
- WCAG 2 Overview · W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
Sjors Hooijen Builds ChatBuild and writes about getting a business online without turning it into a project. Questions about this article? Email hi@chatbuild.com.