Thirty minutes of checks, and the worst outcome of a bad choice drops from “lost my business name and my money” to “lost a modest advance and three weeks.” Print it, or copy it into a note. Items 1–3 matter most; if you only do three, do those.
This list is written to flag any vendor’s shortcuts, including ours. If we ever fail one of these, hold us to it.
The checklist
Before you contact anyone
☐ 1. Register the domain yourself, in your own account
About ₹700–1,200 a year, ten minutes, at any registrar, using your own email. Turn on auto-renew, check the saved card is current, and put the expiry date in your calendar with a 30-day reminder. Then give the developer DNS access rather than the account — registrars support this.
Why: a vendor who goes quiet holding your domain costs you your business name, your email, and every card and listing pointing at you. One who goes quiet without it costs you an advance.
☐ 2. Write your content first
One page: what you do, services with prices, address and phone, one reason to choose you, how long you’ve operated. Plus fifteen phone photographs of real work.
Why: content arriving late is the largest single cause of delayed projects, and having it ready also makes every quote comparable.
☐ 3. Decide your three numbers
Build, year-two cost, and something for getting found. Roughly two-thirds build, one-third reach.
While comparing vendors
☐ 4. Send all of them the identical written scope
Named page list, who supplies content, and ask for: total with GST, year-two cost, revision rounds as a number, delivery date, and whether the domain goes in your name.
☐ 5. Search each name plus “complaint”
Then filter their Google reviews to 1 and 2 stars and read those. Don’t rely on the average — NCR agency ratings cluster between 4.4 and 4.9 across large review counts, including firms with substantial complaint histories elsewhere, so the score can’t discriminate.
☐ 6. Open three of their live sites and test the contact forms
Real businesses, live addresses, forms that actually submit. Five minutes, and it catches what a portfolio page can’t show.
☐ 7. Ask for one client in a similar business you can phone
Then ask that client: “What happened after you paid in full?” This is the single most informative check available, because it covers the period no review mentions.
☐ 8. Send a message at an odd hour before paying
Reply speed while they’re courting you is your best forecast of reply speed afterwards. Under an hour in business hours is good; only-after-two-follow-ups is a warning.
Before money moves
☐ 9. Get the scope confirmed in writing, and keep the reply
Pages by name — not “up to 5 pages.” Revision rounds as a number. Delivery date, with “live” defined: on my domain, contact form tested, WhatsApp button working with the country code, all three logins handed to me.
A WhatsApp message with a “yes” in reply is a written agreement in substance. Most small projects have nothing, which is why disputes become memory contests.
☐ 10. Cap the advance at 20–30%
Not half. A vendor confident of being paid on delivery doesn’t need half. Split the balance across stages you can open on your phone: design approved → all pages viewable on a staging link → live. Final instalment 10%, so nobody deadlocks at the end.
☐ 11. Get the invoice, and check the account name
A GST invoice from a registered firm, or a written bill on letterhead from an unregistered freelancer. Before confirming payment, check the account holder name your UPI app displays matches the invoiced firm — that name is the detail every later claim turns on. Screenshot the confirmation.
☐ 12. Agree post-launch terms now
“After launch, what’s your response time for a small change, and what does it cost? Is there a monthly plan, and what does it include?” A named time and rate is enforceable; “anytime, just message me” is goodwill, which is what evaporates in month eight.
Score it
| Items passed | What it means |
|---|---|
| 12/12 | Proceed. Your downside is a modest advance and a few weeks |
| 9–11 | Ask for the missing ones. Most vendors will agree in one message |
| Item 1 or 9 failing | Fix before paying anything, regardless of the other scores |
| Item 1 failing after you’ve asked twice | Walk. This is the term that decides whether you can ever leave |
| Under 9 | The price is irrelevant |
The one message that covers items 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12
Before I transfer the advance, please confirm in writing: the domain will be registered in my name and account; these pages [list]; [number] revision rounds; live by [date], where live means on my domain with the contact form tested and all logins handed to me; year-two cost for domain and hosting is ₹[amount]; payment 30% now, then on design approval, on all pages being viewable on a staging link, and 10% on go-live; and your post-launch change rate and response time. Please also send the GST invoice, and one client in a similar business I could speak to.
Any competent vendor accepts this readily — it’s fair, and it defines their obligation as clearly as yours. Resistance tells you which term they need you to give up.
What isn’t on this list, and why
Things buyers over-weight:
- Star rating — everyone sits at 4.4–4.9; it can’t discriminate
- An impressive office — rentable by the month; many capable developers work from home
- Big client logos — cheap to place, almost never checked
- “10+ years experience” — unverifiable without something specific attached
- A guarantee of first-page rankings — nobody can promise positions; treat it as a warning
None of these costs a vendor anything to display, which is why they carry so little information.
What to do this week
- Register your domain in your own account — item 1, today.
- Write your one page of content and take fifteen photographs.
- Send the identical scope to three vendors.
- Search each name plus “complaint” and read the low-star reviews.
- Send the one-message confirmation before transferring anything.
If you want it done the certain way
Run all twelve on us. You’ll get the scope, the year-two cost, revision rounds, a dated delivery with “live” defined, a GST invoice, a 30% advance with stage-linked balance, and a client in your trade you can phone. And we’d tell you to register the domain yourself first — with us or anyone. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- The 5 things that separate a safe deal from a regret
- How to choose a website development company in Delhi NCR
- Hiring a website developer: what to check before you pay advance
- 15 questions to ask before you pay
- Free website development agreement template
FAQ
What should I check before paying a web developer?
Twelve things, but three matter most: register the domain in your own account first, get the scope confirmed in writing with “live” defined, and cap the advance at 20–30% with the balance tied to stages you can open on your phone.
How much advance is safe to pay a web developer?
Twenty to thirty percent, with the balance split across design approval, all pages viewable on a staging link, and go-live — and a final instalment of only 10% so nobody deadlocks at the end.
Can I rely on Google reviews to pick a web developer?
Weakly. NCR agency ratings cluster between 4.4 and 4.9 across large review counts, including firms with complaint histories elsewhere. Read the detailed one- and two-star reviews and search the name plus “complaint” instead.
What’s the single most important check?
Registering the domain in your own account before hiring anyone. It costs about ₹1,000 a year and turns the worst realistic outcome from losing your business name into losing a modest advance.
