Verdict: Compare any two quotes on five terms — published price, deadline in writing, domain in your name, payment tied to visible stages, and a stated post-sale response — not on the sticker price. Two quotes ₹10,000 apart where one has all five and one has none are not two prices for the same thing.
Every failure pattern in this market maps to one of the five being absent. Score your quotes and the decision usually makes itself.
The scorecard
Print this, or copy it into a note. Score each quote out of five.
| # | Term | Safe deal | Regret in the making |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Price | Published or itemised, with year-two cost stated | A single number, no split, no renewal figure |
| 2 | Deadline | A date per phase, plus a written definition of “live” | “Two to three weeks”, or “bas ho jayega” |
| 3 | Domain | Registered in your name, in your account | “We manage it for all our clients” |
| 4 | Payment | 20–30% advance, balance on stages you can open | Half or more upfront, or 100% at the end |
| 5 | Post-sale | A stated change rate and response time | “Lifetime support”, undefined |
5/5 — proceed. 3–4 — ask for the missing ones before paying; most vendors will agree. 0–2 — the price is irrelevant.
Term 1: Price, itemised, with year two
What to ask: “Could you send this itemised — build, domain, hosting, SSL, maintenance — with the provider named for each? And what’s the total payable in year two?”
Why it matters: the missing year-two figure is the single most reliable predictor of feeling misled later. One buyer reported a renewal rising from ₹2,000 to ₹3,560 — small money, and the surprise is the problem. Genuine costs get named with a provider you can verify in two minutes; invented line items tend not to survive the request.
Term 2: A deadline with teeth
What to ask for in writing:
- A date per phase — design, build, revisions, go-live
- A definition of “live”: on my domain, contact form tested and reaching my inbox, WhatsApp button working with the country code, all three logins handed to me
- Acknowledgement that late content from your side extends the timeline (fair, and it removes their best excuse when your content was on time)
- A staging link from the first build day
Why it matters: without a definition of “live”, a project can sit at 90% indefinitely. There’s a whole category of paid-for websites that never launched. What a real deadline looks like.
Term 3: The domain in your name — the one that matters most
What to ask: “Will the domain be registered in my name, in an account I control, with my email address?”
Better still: register it yourself before hiring anyone. About ₹700–1,200 a year, ten minutes, and then give the developer DNS access rather than the account — registrars support that directly.
Three deflections to recognise:
- “We manage it for all our clients” → their account
- “It’s technical, don’t worry” → their account
- “It’s in your name, in our account” → the most misleading. The registrant record and the account are different things, and the account decides what happens
Why it matters: a vendor who goes quiet holding your domain costs you your business name, your email, and every card, listing and link pointing at you. One who goes quiet without it costs you an advance. Whose name is it in?
Term 4: Payments tied to stages you can open
The structure: 30% on confirmation → 30% on design approval → 30% when every page is viewable on a staging link → 10% on go-live after you’ve tested the forms and received the logins.
Why it matters: your exposure at any moment is one stage rather than the whole project, and the small final instalment means nobody deadlocks at the end. Note that both extremes fail — 100% upfront transfers everything before anything exists; 100% at the end repels the vendors you actually want and creates the standoff.
Term 5: A stated post-sale response
What to ask: “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?”
Why it matters: post-payment silence is the most common complaint in this market, and it’s economic rather than personal — at low price points there’s no margin for a year of small changes. A vendor who names a time and a rate has given you something enforceable. One who says “anytime, just message me” has given you goodwill, which is exactly what evaporates in month eight.
Choose the quote that scores 5/5 if…
Always — even if it’s the more expensive one. All five terms are free for a vendor to grant, so a full score costs them nothing but willingness. That willingness is the product you’re actually buying.
Choose a 3–4 quote if…
- The missing terms are ones you can get by asking. Most vendors will add a written date or a per-change rate on request
- Term 3 is present. A quote missing the domain term is not a 4/5 — it’s disqualified regardless of the other four
Choose a 0–2 quote if…
Only where the amount is small enough to lose without consequence, and only after you’ve registered the domain in your own account yourself. At that point a floor-tier purchase becomes a bounded risk rather than a hostage situation.
What to compare on instead of the sticker price
| Weight it | Discount it |
|---|---|
| The five terms above, answered in writing | The star rating — NCR firms all sit 4.4–4.9, so it can’t discriminate |
| A client in your trade you can phone | An impressive office — rentable by the month |
| Three live sites whose contact forms you tested | Big client logos — cheap to place, rarely checked |
| A complaint search on their exact name | “10+ years experience” with nothing verifiable |
| A good question asked back to you | Guaranteed first-page rankings — nobody can promise this |
The single most informative check available: ask a past client “what happened after you paid in full?” That covers the period no review ever mentions.
The one message that scores all five
Before we go further, could you confirm in writing: the itemised price with provider names and the year-two total; a date per phase and what “live” means; that the domain will be registered in my name and account; a 30% advance with the balance on stages I can open on my phone; and your post-launch change rate and response time. Could you also share one client in a similar business I could phone?
A vendor who answers all of that plainly has scored 5/5 before you’ve paid anything. One who deflects on term 3 has answered the only question that mattered.
What to do this week
- Register your domain in your own account — term 3, done, before you hire anyone.
- Send the scoring message to three vendors.
- Score each reply out of five and write the numbers down.
- Search each name plus “complaint” and read their low-star reviews.
- Phone one past client and ask what happened after they paid in full.
If you want it done the certain way
We answer all five in writing before you pay: itemised price with the year-two total, a date per phase with “live” defined, domain in your name, 30% advance with stage-linked balance, and a stated change rate and response time. Ask us for a client in your trade you can phone. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- The complete guide to your first business website in Delhi NCR
- How to choose a website development company in Delhi NCR
- How to spot a developer who might disappear
- Whose name is your domain registered in?
- Are web design Google reviews fake?
FAQ
How do I choose a safe website company?
Score every quote on five terms: itemised price with the year-two cost, a date per phase with “live” defined, the domain registered in your name and account, a 20–30% advance with stage-linked balance, and a stated post-sale change rate and response time.
What should I demand from a web developer before paying?
Those five in writing, plus a GST invoice and one client in a similar business you can phone. Ask that client what happened after they paid in full — it covers the period reviews never do.
Should I choose the cheapest website quote?
Only after the five terms match. Two quotes ₹10,000 apart where one has all five and the other has none aren’t two prices for the same product.
Why can’t I rely on Google reviews to pick a web company?
NCR agency ratings cluster between 4.4 and 4.9 across large review counts, including firms with complaint histories elsewhere, so the average can’t discriminate. Read the detailed low-star reviews and search the name plus “complaint” instead.
