How to Choose a Web Design Company: 10 Questions to Ask

The short answer: choose a web design company by how they answer questions, not by how good their portfolio looks. Ask who will own the domain, hosting and site; what platform they'll build on and why; how they handle content, SEO, speed and accessibility; what happens after launch; and what's included in the price in writing. A good company gives specific, unhurried answers and puts them in the proposal. Vague answers about ownership or maintenance are the clearest warning sign there is.

I'm Rustam, and I run Frame the Pixel, a web design and WordPress maintenance studio in Kuala Lumpur. I'm obviously one of the options you might be weighing up, so take this with that in mind. I've written it from the other side of the table, though: a lot of my work is taking over sites from studios that disappeared or never handed over the keys, and the problems almost always trace back to questions nobody asked at the start.

Before you contact anyone: know what you need

You'll get far better answers if you can say three things in a sentence each:

1. What the site is for. Enquiries, bookings, online sales, credibility for a sales team, recruitment.
2. Who has to use it. Your customers, but also who on your team will update it and how often.
3. Your budget range and deadline. Even a rough range saves everyone time. If you have no idea, my guide to how much a website costs in Malaysia gives estimate ranges.

Also decide whether you need a company at all. A small brochure site might be fine on a builder you run yourself. I wrote about that honestly in should I use AI to build my website.

The 10 questions to ask

Ask these in a call, then check the answers appear in the written proposal. Anything said but not written down tends to get forgotten later.

1. Can you show me live sites you built, and can I contact those clients?

Screenshots and mock ups prove someone can design. Live sites prove they can build, launch and keep running. Open three or four on your phone, check they load quickly and still work, and ask if you can speak to one client. A company with happy clients rarely minds.

Red flag: only image galleries, or every example is a concept.

2. Who will actually do the work?

Find out who designs, who builds, who writes the content and who you'll talk to week to week. Some studios are one person, some subcontract the build, and either can work well. You just need to know, so there are no surprises when your contact leaves or a subcontractor is unavailable.

3. What platform will you build on, and why that one?

WordPress, a hosted builder, a custom framework or something else. The right answer depends on your needs, and a good company will explain the trade off in plain words: who can edit it, what it costs to run, how easy it is to move to someone else later.

Red flag: a custom or proprietary system that only they can work on, with no clear reason.

4. Who will own the website, domain and hosting?

This is the question I'd put first if I could only ask one. You should own:

• The domain, registered in your company's name with your email as the owner contact.
• The hosting account, or at least have full admin access to it.
• The site itself, including design files, code, content, images and plugin or theme licences where possible.

I've seen too many businesses lose their domain because a designer registered it under their own name and then vanished. If that has already happened to you, read my web developer disappeared: how to get your website back.

5. What exactly is included in the price?

Ask for an itemised scope: number of page templates, number of pages built, content writing or not, stock photography or not, forms, integrations, languages, rounds of revisions, training. Then ask what costs extra and how extra work is priced.

The cheapest quote often excludes things another quote includes. Compare scopes, not totals.

6. Who writes the content, and who handles SEO?

Content is the usual reason projects run late. Ask who writes page copy, who sources images, and what basic SEO is part of the build: page titles, meta descriptions, headings, image alt text, redirects from your old URLs, a sitemap and Search Console setup.

Google's own SEO starter guide is a good baseline for what "basic SEO" should cover. If you also want your business to show up in AI answers, ask about that specifically. I explain what's involved in how to get your business cited by ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.

Red flag: promises of guaranteed first page rankings. Nobody controls Google.

7. How will you make the site fast, mobile friendly and accessible?

Ask how they test speed (Google's Core Web Vitals are the usual measure), how they check the site on real phones, and whether they design to the WCAG accessibility guidelines. You don't need to understand every technical detail. You want to hear that they test, and how.

8. How do you handle privacy, security and forms?

Your contact forms collect personal data. In Malaysia that brings in the Personal Data Protection Act (see the Personal Data Protection Department), and for UK customers the ICO's guidance applies. Ask about SSL, spam protection, where form submissions are stored, cookie consent if you use tracking, and who gets security alerts.

9. What happens after launch?

A website is not finished at launch. WordPress core, themes and plugins update constantly, and some updates break things. Ask:

• Is there a maintenance plan, and what does it include?
• How are updates tested before they go live?
• How often are backups taken, and where are they stored?
• If something breaks at 9pm on a Friday, who do I contact?
• If I want to move to someone else later, will you hand over everything?

To see what good maintenance looks like, my post on WordPress care plan features lists what to expect, and WordPress maintenance options compared helps you decide whether to keep it with the builder, do it yourself or use a separate plan.

10. What does your process and timeline look like, and what do you need from me?

A clear process usually looks like discovery, sitemap and content plan, design, build, testing, launch, then handover. Ask how long each stage takes, how payments are staged against it, and what they need from you and by when. Most delays I see come from client content and feedback, so knowing your part helps you plan.

Red flags I'd walk away from

• They won't say who registers the domain.
• The quote is a single number with no scope.
• They guarantee rankings or traffic.
• They push a long contract for hosting you can't leave.
• They can't name a single live site you can visit.
• Every answer is "don't worry, we'll handle it" with no detail.
• They ask for full payment upfront for a large project.

Green flags worth paying a bit more for

• A written proposal that repeats what you discussed.
• Staged payments tied to milestones.
• A staging site you can review before launch.
• Training so your team can edit pages without breaking the layout.
• A handover document listing every login, licence and service.
• Honest advice, including telling you when you don't need something.

How to compare two or three proposals

Put them side by side and go through them as lists:

1. Mark everything each one includes, using the same headings: design, build, content, SEO, speed, accessibility, privacy, training, maintenance.
2. Note anything missing and ask that company to price it.
3. Check who owns what in each.
4. Then compare the totals.

Once you've done that, the cheapest quote is often no longer the cheapest.

If you're replacing an old site

If you already have a site, tell each company about it and ask how they'll protect what's working: rankings, URLs, form integrations, email. A redesign that changes every URL without redirects can wipe out years of search traffic. If you're not sure whether you need a redesign or just better upkeep, my site takeover checklist shows what I review before recommending either.

Talk to me about your project

If you'd like me on your shortlist, my website design and development service covers WordPress sites for businesses in Malaysia, the UK, Europe and further afield, with ownership in your name from day one and ongoing maintenance if you want it. I'm happy to answer all ten questions above in writing. Get in touch here or email contact@framethepixel.com. I work 9am to 5pm Malaysia time (GMT+8).

FAQ

What is the most important question to ask a web design company?

Who will own the domain, hosting and website. If the answer isn't "you, in your company's name", be very careful.

Should I choose a local web design company?

Local helps if you want face to face meetings or local market knowledge. Plenty of good work is done remotely though. Clear communication, overlapping working hours and a written scope matter more than distance.

How many quotes should I get?

Two or three is usually enough. More than that and comparing scopes becomes a project in itself.

Is the cheapest web design quote a bad idea?

Not always, but check what's excluded. Content, SEO setup, revisions and maintenance are the usual gaps that make a low quote cost more later.

What should a web design contract include?

Scope, timeline, payment stages, who owns the domain, hosting, code and content, what happens after launch, how extra work is charged and how either side can end the arrangement.