Home › How to choose a web designer
Choosing a web designer
The same website can cost a few hundred pounds or several thousand, and the price often has little to do with the quality. Here is how to tell what you are actually buying.
Questions worth asking
- Who owns the site and the domain? Both should be yours. Some providers register the domain to themselves, which makes leaving painful.
- What happens if I want to leave? Ask directly. If you cannot take your site and your domain elsewhere, you are renting, not buying — and that may be fine, but you should know it.
- Is it a template or a custom design? Neither is wrong. Being told a template is custom is.
- Who writes the content? The most common cause of a stalled project. Establish this before starting.
- What is included after launch? Hosting, updates, backups, changes — and what a "change" means.
- How do I get hold of you? A phone number and a name, or a ticket queue?
- Can I see sites you built that are still live? Then check they still load quickly and have not been abandoned.
- How long is the contract? Minimum terms are normal, especially with a low upfront cost. Hidden ones are not.
What a proper quote includes
- The number of pages and what is on them
- Who supplies text and images
- How many rounds of revisions
- A rough timescale
- What happens after launch, and what it costs monthly
- Ownership of the domain, the site and the content
Service scope, any setup charges, discounts and renewal prices are confirmed in your accepted order. Check the current plans and pricing for available offers.
Why prices vary so much. A cheap quote might be a theme with your logo added, no content work, no SEO and no support. An expensive one might include research, copywriting, custom development and ongoing optimisation. Both can be honest. The problem is when the cheap one is described as the expensive one.
Warning signs
- Guaranteed first place on Google — nobody can promise that
- Cold contact about your existing site's "critical errors"
- No portfolio, or a portfolio of sites that no longer exist
- Pressure to sign today for a discount that expires
- Vagueness about who owns what
- No written specification of any kind
- Refusal to give a phone number
Cheap is not automatically bad
Low prices can be legitimate: low overheads, a repeatable process, or a deliberate model where a small upfront fee is balanced by a monthly one over a minimum term. What matters is that the model is explained rather than hidden. Ask how they make money on the deal — a straight answer is a good sign.
Local or not?
Most of this work happens over calls and email regardless, so location matters less than it used to. It can still help for photography, for understanding your area, and simply for being able to meet the person you are trusting with your business.
Related pages
Comparing quotes?
Ring us and we will tell you plainly what we would and would not do for your budget.
Request a callback