Choosing the wrong software agency costs time, money, and momentum. This guide gives you 10 specific questions to ask, red flags to watch for, and criteria to evaluate proposals against.
In this guide
Many agencies sell with senior engineers but build with junior offshore contractors. Ask directly: will the people in this call be writing my code? What is the team composition? Request to speak with the lead engineer on your project before signing. If an agency is evasive about this, treat it as a red flag. You are buying engineering time — know whose time you are buying.
Hourly billing creates a misaligned incentive — the agency profits from inefficiency. A good agency should be willing to quote a fixed price for a defined scope. If they insist on hourly, ask why. Legitimate reasons include research-heavy unknowns or exploratory work — in those cases, ask for a fixed-price discovery phase that produces a scope and estimate before any build work starts.
Case studies are marketing. Code reviews are reality. Ask if they can share anonymized code samples or a GitHub profile. Look for: consistent code style, meaningful comments, proper error handling, security practices (no credentials in code, parameterized queries), and test coverage. If they have no code to show, ask what happened to it — good agencies retain portfolio samples.
Get the answer in writing before you sign. A serious agency has a clear policy: missed milestones are discounted or free, or the timeline extends at no cost to you. An agency that deflects this question or says "we never miss deadlines" (unprovable and suspicious) may not have strong project management. The answer to this question reveals how much accountability they are willing to accept.
Full IP transfer should be standard. Any agency that retains rights to code built on your budget is a problem — it creates dependency and may prevent you from switching vendors. Verify the contract includes: full source code handover, no retained licenses, and no ongoing fees required to continue using what was built. This should be non-negotiable.
Walk away if: they cannot explain their tech stack choices, they refuse a fixed-price quote for a well-defined scope, they pressure you to sign quickly, they have no verifiable case studies, they use vague timelines ("a few weeks"), the lead engineer changes between the sales call and kickoff, or they want 50%+ upfront before any work is reviewed. A trustworthy agency earns payment against deliverables.
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