7 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Design Agency (2026 Edition)

Why the questions matter more in 2026

The gap between a cheap website and a good one has widened. Government figures show 78% of UK businesses now have a website, up from 68% two years earlier (DSIT, UK Business Data Survey 2026), so having one no longer sets you apart. What does is whether it loads fast, reads well on a phone, shows up in Google's AI Overviews and turns visitors into enquiries.

At the same time, price has become almost meaningless as a comparison. One UK survey of 600+ agency quotes found business websites priced anywhere from £2,750 to £11,050 (Rockingtech, 2026), and cost guides put a professional small-business site at £1,500–£5,000 (Weboptic, Whito). Agencies are rarely quoting for the same thing. These seven questions are how you find out what you are actually buying.

1. What exactly is included in the price, and what will cost extra?

A low headline price usually means something has been left out. UK cost guides estimate that "extras" such as copywriting, stock imagery, extra pages and revisions can add 30–50% to a base quote (Whito, 2026). Ask for a written scope that lists every page, feature and integration, then check these specifically:

For comparison, our own published prices are: small business websites from around £1,000, medium to large sites £3,000–£6,000, complex or bespoke platforms from £5,000+, hosting from £120 a year with SSL included, and website management from £50 a month paid annually. Every quote is a fixed price in writing that lists what those figures cover, with two rounds of revisions. The full breakdown, including how we compare with the UK market, is on our web design services page. All our prices exclude VAT.

2. Who will own the website, the domain name and the hosting account?

This is the question that saves businesses the most money and it is the one almost nobody asks. Under UK copyright law the person or company that creates design and code owns it by default unless it is assigned in writing (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.11). Some agencies use that default to "licence" you your own website, which means you cannot take it elsewhere without rebuilding.

Ask for three things in the contract:

• The domain name is registered in your name, in a registrar account you control.
• You receive full administrator access to the website, hosting and analytics accounts.
• Design and code are assigned to you on final payment, so if you leave you take the site, content and files with you, with no exit fee.

If an agency hesitates on any of these, ask why. Our answer: you own the code, design, domain and ad accounts, assigned to you on final payment.

3. What will you build it on, and why that platform for my business?

There is no universally right answer, which is why the "why" matters more than the "what". WordPress runs roughly four in ten websites worldwide (W3Techs via Barn2, October 2026) and is a sensible default for brochure and content-heavy sites you want to update yourself. Bespoke code in PHP, Laravel or Next.js earns its cost when you need customer portals, calculators, booking systems or tight integrations, or when you want to avoid depending on plugins.

The plugin point is worth pressing. Patchstack logged 11,334 new vulnerabilities across the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, up 42% on the year before, and 91% of them were in plugins rather than WordPress itself (Patchstack, State of WordPress Security in 2026). An agency that bolts on thirty plugins to avoid writing code is handing you a maintenance bill. Ask how many plugins the site will run and which core features will be coded in-house.

A good sign is an agency that builds both ways and will tell you which fits. We build WordPress websites and bespoke platforms, and we'll tell you which one fits your project, and why.

4. Who writes the words and takes the photos?

Great design with placeholder text is not a website. Most agencies expect you to supply all copy and imagery, and most clients underestimate how long that takes. In our experience it is the single biggest cause of a project overrunning, which is why our website timeline guide starts the clock from "content agreed", not "contract signed".

Ask whether the agency offers, as line items you can see:

• Copywriting for every page, written for how customers actually search
• Product, premises or team photography (we offer this; see photography)
• Logo and brand assets if you have none
• Image licensing that transfers to you

If the answer is "you supply everything", budget your own time for it, or budget to pay someone.

5. How long will it take, and what do you need from me by when?

Typical UK agency timelines are four to eight weeks for a business website and longer for ecommerce (Adtrak and Cloudswitched, 2026 guides). Ours are shorter, one to three weeks for a straightforward site once content is agreed, partly because we can handle copy, photography and the build together, so you are not coordinating three suppliers.

The honest answer to this question always has two parts: the agency's build time, and the list of things they need from you with dates. If an agency promises a date without asking you for anything, the date is not real.

6. What happens after launch, and what will it cost me each year?

Websites need updates, backups, security monitoring and the occasional fix. UK maintenance retainers typically run £75–£150 a month for a brochure site, £129–£250 for a WordPress business site and £250–£500+ for ecommerce, usually ex-VAT (CB Website Design, 2026). Budget hosts also routinely quadruple renewal prices after the first year (365i), so ask for the year-two figure, not the introductory one.

Three questions to settle before you sign:

• Is maintenance optional or bundled into a contract I cannot leave?
• What is the response time for an urgent problem, and who do I call?
• Can I manage the site myself if I choose to, with training provided?

For reference: our hosting is from £120 a year with SSL included and website management from £50 a month paid annually, and both are separate from the build price, so you are never obliged to take them.

7. Can you show me results for a business like mine?

A portfolio of pretty screenshots tells you what an agency's designers like. Results tell you what their websites do. Ask for recent examples in your sector, what each site was built to achieve, and what happened afterwards. Then ask to speak to one of those clients.

Two of ours, chosen because the outcome is in the client's own words:

• Links Motorcycles, Derby: a new site with a working retail area for ever-changing stock. The owner's review: "Amit was very open and honest about what the issues were with our current site... Really pleased with the outcome". See the motorcycle servicing case study.
• Notts County Foundation: a platform built around WCAG 2.2 accessibility requirements, with bespoke donation software, built in PHP with accessibility tools coded in-house rather than a monthly overlay. See the Notts County Foundation case study.

If you already have a website, add a sub-question: "Will I keep my Google rankings after the redesign?" Rankings fall after a rebuild mainly when URLs change without redirects or content is removed. An agency that cannot explain its migration plan has not got one. Ours is described under website migration SEO.

Browse all 48 projects in our case studies.

Answers that should make you walk away

• "We can't give you a written scope; it depends." Everything depends. A written scope is how you find out what it depends on.
• "The website stays on our platform." That is a licence, not a purchase. You cannot leave without rebuilding.
• "We guarantee page one on Google." Google's own guidance says "no one can guarantee a #1 ranking" (Google Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?", updated June 2026).
• "Maintenance is included for the first 12 months, then it's £X." Fine, as long as £X is in writing now and you can decline it.
• "You'll get the login details after the final payment." You should know what accounts exist, and in whose name, before the first payment.

How we answer the seven questions

All of this, with prices against UK market ranges, is on the web design services page.