15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Software Development Company
Here are 15 questions that separate strong partners from risky ones, with what a good answer sounds like.
About their experience
1. Have you built something similar to this?. Good answer: a specific example, what was hard about it and what they learned. They can describe the problem, not just the screenshots. Warning: "We can build anything." Everyone says it, and it means nothing.
2. Can I speak to two or three past clients?. Good answer: "Yes, we'll introduce you." Then ask those clients how problems were handled. Warning: only written testimonials, no calls, or a long delay.
3. What types of projects are you not a good fit for?. Good answer: a clear answer. Honest teams know their limits. Warning: "We're a fit for everything."
About the team
4. Who will actually work on my project?. Good answer: names, roles and seniority. You meet at least the project lead and a developer before signing. Warning: vague talk about "our team," or the people in the sales meeting disappear after signing.
5. What happens if a key person leaves?. Good answer: documentation, shared knowledge and a replacement plan with a handover period. Warning: no plan, or "that never happens."
About process and communication
6. How will I see progress?. Good answer: regular demos every one to two weeks, access to a task board and a named contact for questions. Warning: progress reports only at the end, or "you'll see it when it's ready."
7. How do you estimate, and how accurate are your estimates?. Good answer: they break the work into parts, explain assumptions and give a range with confidence levels. Warning: a single big number after one call.
8. What do you need from me?. Good answer: a clear list: decisions, content, access, feedback times. Good teams know that client delays slow projects. Warning: "Nothing, just leave it with us." Projects that need no client input rarely fit the client's real needs.
About quality
9. How do you test your work?. Good answer: they mention testing at several levels, real devices or browsers, security checks and a bug-fixing period after launch. Warning: "We test it ourselves at the end."
10. How do you handle security and data protection?. Good answer: practical answers: access control, encryption, backups, secure storage of secrets, review of third-party tools and data handling aligned with relevant rules. Warning: a blank look or only general statements.
About money and contracts
11. What is included in the price, and what is not?. Good answer: a written scope with clear exclusions, such as content creation, third-party fees or extra rounds of design. Warning: a number with no list.
12. How do you handle changes to the scope?. Good answer: a simple process. Each change is described, estimated and approved before work starts. Warning: "We'll absorb it" (then the bill comes later), or "any change is a new project."
13. Who owns the code, the designs and the accounts?. Good answer: you do, from the moment you pay, and you get access to all repositories and accounts. Warning: the agency keeps the code until a final payment, or hosts everything under its own account with no handover plan.
About life after launch
14. What support do you offer after launch?. Good answer: a defined bug-fix period, optional maintenance plans with clear response times and a path for new features. Warning: "Once it's live, we're done."
15. What would make this project fail, and how would we reduce that risk?. Good answer: a candid answer about scope creep, slow feedback, unclear goals or technical unknowns, with a plan to deal with each. Warning: "Nothing. We never fail."
How to use these questions
Ask them in a call, not by email. The tone matters as much as the answer. Notice whether the team:
After the call, write down your impressions the same day. After three or four calls, patterns appear quickly.
Key points
- Answers directly or avoids the question
- Admits unknowns instead of bluffing
- Asks you good questions back
- Treats your concerns as normal, not annoying
A quick scoring sheet
Give each company a score from 1 to 5 on:
A strong partner scores high on all of them. One very low score is worth taking seriously, even if the others look good.
| Area | Score |
|---|---|
| Relevant experience | |
| Team transparency | |
| Process and communication | |
| Quality and testing | |
| Contract and ownership | |
| After-launch support |
Five questions to ask yourself before the call
The best conversations happen when you are clear on your side too.
If you can answer these, the agency can answer yours, and the quotes you get will be far more accurate.
Key points
- What problem am I solving, and for whom? If you can't say it in two sentences, the agency can't build it.
- What does success look like in six months? A number, a behavior or a result. Not "a great app."
- What is my real budget, and how firm is it? Be honest. A sensible agency will propose the best first version for that number.
- Who on my side makes decisions? One person with authority beats a committee.
- How much time can I give each week? Most projects need a few hours of feedback and decisions every week.
How we answer these questions at DECHY
We expect to be asked every question on this list, and we prefer it. A good partner should be able to answer them plainly, in writing, before you sign anything.
Here is what you can expect from us. You get a written scope with a price range and the assumptions behind it. Design and development work is priced at $35 to $55 an hour, and specialist AI, cloud and architecture work at $45 to $80 an hour. You see working software in regular demos, not only status reports.
You own the code, the designs and the accounts, and we set them up in your name from the start. When the project ends, you get documentation and a handover. If you want ongoing support, our care plans start at $100 a month.
To get a first range for your own project, try the cost estimator. To ask us these questions directly, book a conversation. We will answer each one, and we will tell you if we are not the right fit.
Next step
Want to put these questions to us? We'll answer all 15 openly, including the uncomfortable ones. Talk to DECHY.