Questions to ask a software agency
Twelve questions worth asking in the first call, and what a weak answer to each one tells you.
The short answer
Ask who owns the code and data, whether the price is fixed for the stated scope, what a change request costs, how many weeks until launch, who is building it, what the quote excludes, what support looks like after launch, how you see traffic and leads yourself, where the accounts live, what happens if you part ways, which past project went wrong, and what they need from you each week.
Ask These in the First Call
You are not testing whether they can code. You are testing whether the commercial terms are firm and whether you can see what is happening once money moves. Read the answer for specifics. Vague answers to these questions become invoices later.
| Question | What a weak answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Who owns the code and data at the end? | "You have full access." Access is not ownership. |
| Is the price fixed for this scope? | "It depends how it evolves." |
| What does a change request cost? | "We would look at it case by case." |
| How many weeks until launch? | A quarter rather than a range in weeks. |
| Who is actually building it? | "Our team" with no names. |
| What is excluded from the quote? | "Nothing, it is everything you need." |
| What happens the week after launch? | Support introduced as a new conversation. |
| How do I see traffic and leads myself? | A monthly report they compile. |
| Where do the accounts live? | In the agency's name. |
| What happens if we part ways? | Hesitation, or a rebuild required. |
| Which project went wrong and why? | "None of them have." |
| What do you need from us each week? | Nothing. Every real build needs decisions. |
The Three That Matter Most
If you only get time for three, ask about ownership, change pricing and the delivery window in weeks. Ownership decides whether you end up with an asset. Change pricing decides whether the budget holds. A window in weeks decides whether the project has an end. Everything else can be negotiated once those three are written down.
Ask what is excluded. It is the single most revealing question on the list.
Anyone who has delivered real projects can answer it immediately and without discomfort.
Questions About Ongoing Cost
Build price is the part everyone compares. Running cost is the part that decides whether the project was a good idea two years later. Ask what the monthly figure covers, whether updates are included, what happens when a new AI model is released, and whether adding a department or a capability later is a change request or part of the arrangement.
How We Answer Them
You own the platform. Scope is fixed and priced before work starts, with change pricing agreed in the same document. Builds run 2 to 8 weeks. Discovery is a 45 to 60 minute call and the written recommendation follows within 7 to 10 days. Reporting sits in your own dashboard rather than a slide deck, and new frontier models from Google, Anthropic and OpenAI go into the platform the day they ship rather than in a later proposal.
The quality of an agency shows in how comfortable they are with uncomfortable questions.
From the people who build these
The question that separates builders fastest is not technical. It is asking what the quote excludes. Experienced teams answer in one sentence; the rest change the subject.
There's a better way.
Half of these questions are asking the same thing in different words: will I be able to see what is going on without permission from my builder. That is decided by how the platform is built.
Dashboards and reporting
Your own view of traffic, leads and revenue instead of a report you have to request.
SEO and AI search performance
Search and AI visibility reported inside the platform, not sold as an add-on.
AI integration
Frontier models added as they ship rather than quoted as a future project.
Bring your list to a discovery call
Or calculate your savings firstKeep reading
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