Send them as one message. A company that answers all fifteen plainly is worth more than one that’s ₹5,000 cheaper — and the three deflections listed at the end matter more than any answer.
Copy this into WhatsApp
Hi — before we proceed, could you answer these? Happy to decide quickly once I have them. 1. Will the domain be registered in my name, in an account I control, with my email? 2. What’s the total payable including GST? 3. What’s the year-two cost for domain, hosting and maintenance? 4. Which pages exactly — can you list them by name? 5. Do I supply the text and photographs, or is content writing included? 6. How many revision rounds are included, and what do extra rounds cost? 7. What’s the cost per extra page if I need one? 8. What’s the delivery date, and what does “live” mean to you? 9. Will I get a staging link I can open while it’s being built? 10. Will I receive the hosting and site admin logins in my own name? 11. Will analytics and Search Console be set up under my own Google account? 12. After launch, what does a small change cost and how fast do you respond? 13. Can you invoice with GST from your registered firm? 14. Does this package include anything that brings visitors, or only building the site? 15. Could you share one client in a similar business I could speak to?
What a good answer sounds like
| # | Good answer | Warning answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Yes — we’ll set it up in your name with your email, or you can register it yourself and give us DNS access” | “We manage it for all our clients” · “It’s technical” · “It’s in your name, in our account” |
| 2 | A number, with GST stated | A number that grows at invoicing |
| 3 | Specific figures for domain, hosting, AMC | “We’ll tell you later” · silence |
| 4 | Named pages | “Up to 5 pages” |
| 5 | A clear yes or no, with a price if included | Vagueness — this is the biggest cause of stalled projects |
| 6 | A number, plus a rate for extras | “Unlimited revisions” |
| 7 | A per-page rate | “We’ll see” |
| 8 | A date, plus a definition of live | “Two to three weeks” · “bas ho jayega” |
| 9 | “Yes, from the first build day” | “We’ll show you screenshots” |
| 10 | “Yes, in your name” | “We’ll handle it for you” |
| 11 | “Under your Google account” | Under theirs |
| 12 | A rate and a response time | “Anytime, just message me” |
| 13 | Yes, with a GSTIN you can verify — or an honest “we’re below the threshold, here’s a written bill” | Evasion, or cash-only |
| 14 | “Only building it — here’s what reach would cost separately” | “Traffic will come automatically” |
| 15 | A name and a number | “Clients don’t like being disturbed” |
The three deflections that should end it
On question 1. Anything other than an unqualified yes. This is the term that decides whether you can ever leave, and “it’s in your name, in our account” is the most misleading version — the registrant record and the account are different things, and the account is what controls renewals and transfers.
On question 14, if the answer is “traffic will come automatically.” A live website converts people who are sent to it; it doesn’t create them. A vendor who says otherwise is either mistaken or selling, and both matter.
Any guarantee of first-page rankings. Nobody can guarantee search positions. This isn’t a strong claim — it’s a warning about how they sell.
The one question worth more than the other fourteen
Question 15 exists to enable this. Once you have a client’s number, ask them one thing:
What happened after you paid in full?
That’s where almost every failure in this market occurs, and it’s the period no review, portfolio or quote covers. Three minutes on the phone outperforms every other check on this page.
Three follow-ups if the conversation allows: how long did it take against what was promised, is their domain in their own name, and would they use them again — hesitation before “yes” is itself the answer.
What to do with the replies
Answered all fifteen plainly → strong candidate. Now compare price.
Blanks on 3, 6 or 12 → ask once more. Most vendors supply them, and the ones who won’t have told you something.
Deflection on 1 → eliminate, whatever the price.
Sent a glossy package brochure instead of answers → they’ll manage the project the same way.
Asked you a good question back — “what do you actually want the site to do?” — that’s the strongest positive signal available at this stage. Weight it.
Two things to notice beyond the answers
Time to first reply. Under an hour in business hours is good. Only-after-you-follow-up-twice is your future, at its best.
Whether they answered your questions or their standard pitch. A vendor who works through your fifteen in order is showing you how they’ll handle a numbered revision list later.
Before you send it: do these two things
- Register the domain yourself, in your own account — about ₹1,000 a year, ten minutes. Then question 1 becomes a formality rather than a risk.
- Write your one page of content — what you do, services with prices, address, one reason to choose you. It makes every quote comparable and removes the largest cause of delay.
What to do this week
- Register your domain in your own account.
- Send all fifteen questions, unchanged, to three companies.
- Note each company’s time to first reply.
- Eliminate anyone who deflects on question 1.
- Phone the client from question 15 and ask what happened after they paid in full.
If you want it done the certain way
Send us the fifteen. You’ll get fifteen plain answers in one reply — including the year-two figure, a straight yes on the domain, and a client in your trade you can phone. If a question makes us look bad, we’d rather answer it than dodge it. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- The 12-point safety checklist before you pay
- How to choose a website development company in Delhi NCR
- The 5 things that separate a safe deal from a regret
- Compare website quotes fairly: free worksheet
- What should “all-inclusive” actually include?
FAQ
What questions should I ask a web developer before hiring?
Fifteen, sent as one message: domain ownership, total with GST, year-two cost, named pages, who writes content, revision rounds, per-page rate, delivery date and definition of “live”, staging link, logins, analytics ownership, post-launch rate, GST invoicing, whether traffic is included, and a client you can phone.
Which question matters most?
Whether the domain will be registered in your name, in an account you control. Deflection there outweighs any price difference, because it decides whether you can ever move.
What’s the best question to ask a past client?
“What happened after you paid in full?” That covers the period no review, portfolio or quote mentions, and it’s where most failures in this market happen.
Is it unreasonable to send a web company fifteen questions?
No. Answering them takes a competent vendor a few minutes and it’s how they’d want to be judged. A company that finds the list unreasonable is telling you how the next four weeks will go.
