What to ask an agency before you sign, and the answers that should worry you

The best time to find out how an agency works is before you sign, while you still have every option. Ask the questions below on a call, then check that the proposal and contract say the same thing. A good agency will answer most of them without hesitating. Vague answers now tend to become disputes later.

We are an agency, so read this with that in mind. We have tried to list the answers that should worry you about anyone, including us.

Twelve questions, and what to listen for

Ask	A good answer	An answer that should worry you
Who will actually work on my project?	Names and roles, and who your day-to-day contact is	“Our team”, with no names, or a senior person on the pitch who disappears after signing
Can I see live work similar to mine?	Links you can open, with an honest note on what they built versus what others did	Only mock-ups, or “it’s under NDA” for everything
Can I speak to a past client?	One or two people you can call. A newer studio may have few, and should say so plainly	Invented-sounding testimonials, or vague claims you can’t check
What exactly is included in the price?	A written list of features, pages or deliverables, and what’s excluded	One number for the “complete app” or “all features”
How do you handle changes?	A simple process: estimate, your approval, then the work	“Don’t worry, we’re flexible”, with nothing in writing
How will I see progress?	Demos of working software every week or two, and a staging link you can use	Status emails only, and you first see the product near the deadline
Who owns the code, design and accounts?	You do, in writing, with accounts in your name from the start	“We’ll transfer it after final payment”, or “you get a licence”
Where will the code be kept?	In a repository you own and can open at any time	On the agency’s systems, sent as a zip file at the end
What happens after launch?	A defined support period, then a clear rate or retainer	“We’ll be around”, with no terms
How are payments structured?	Milestones tied to delivered, working pieces	Most of the money upfront before any work is visible
How will you handle our customers’ data?	Access limited to those who need it, test data where possible, a data processing clause	“We’ll just work on a copy of the live database”
What will this cost to run each month?	An estimate for hosting, services and maintenance	“Hosting is included”, with no detail about whose account it sits in

Questions people forget to ask

Is the quote inclusive of GST? Software and IT services attract 18% GST. If you are registered, ask for a proper tax invoice with the agency’s GSTIN so you can claim input credit. You can check any GSTIN on the GST portal’s taxpayer search.
Which legal entity signs the contract? It matters for invoices, liability and the copyright assignment.
What happens if either side wants to stop midway? You want to pay for work done and receive that work, including the code.
Do you subcontract? Some agencies pass work to freelancers or other firms. That isn’t wrong in itself, but you should know, and the contract should keep the agency responsible.
Which technology will you use, and why? You don’t need to judge the answer technically. Listen for whether the choice is about your project or just habit. A widely used stack makes it easier to find other developers later.

Red flags that don’t come from a question

A firm quote before they understand the work. A custom app priced after one twenty-minute call is either heavily padded or will be cut short somewhere.
Guaranteed results. Nobody can honestly promise first-page Google rankings or a fixed number of leads from ads.
Pressure to sign this week for a discount.
Every answer is yes. Good agencies say “no” or “not in this budget” fairly often.
No contract, or a one-page contract that says nothing about ownership, payment milestones or ending the engagement.

Why ownership questions matter so much

Under the Indian Copyright Act, software written by an agency’s staff belongs to the agency unless there is a written assignment to you. If the contract says nothing, you may not own what you paid for. We cover this in detail in our guide on code ownership, but the short version is: get the assignment in the main contract, and have the repository and accounts in your name from day one.

Data follows the same logic. Under the DPDP Act, your business is responsible for the personal data your product collects, and the agency handles it on your behalf. Most obligations apply from May 2027, but the contract you sign now should already say how the agency protects that data and what happens to it when the work ends.

How to compare two proposals

Put them side by side on the same features. Where one is much cheaper, look for the missing lines: testing, the admin panel, design for both mobile and desktop, deployment, documentation, support. Then compare how each defines “done”. The cheaper proposal often turns out to be for less work.

If you are unsure, pay for a short discovery phase of a week or two to define scope, screens and estimates. The output should be yours, and you can take it to any agency to quote against.

List the features each proposal covers, line by line.
Mark anything one includes and the other doesn’t.
Compare payment milestones against what you’ll actually receive at each one.
Read the ownership, support and exit clauses before you look at the price again.

In short

You are not looking for perfect answers. You are looking for specific ones: names, lists, dates, accounts in your name, and a contract that matches what was said on the call. For the record, our own answers: you own the code, the repository and every account from day one, every project includes 30 days of support after launch, and we will tell you when something isn’t worth building.

If you’re weighing this for your own project, send us a WhatsApp. A person replies within one working day.