How to choose a web designer, without getting burned
Ten minutes of checking saves months of regret. The questions to ask, the answers to expect, and the red flags that mean walk away.
- Judge designers by their live work, not their promises. Open the sites they built, on your phone, and see how fast they load and whether the businesses still use them.
- The single most important question is about ownership: who owns the domain, the site files, and the hosting account when the work is done? The only good answer is you.
- A fixed written price before work starts protects both sides. Vague day rates and open-ended quotes are where budgets go to die.
- Ask what happens after launch. A website with no plan for updates, backups and security is a liability with a nice homepage.
- Cheap and expensive both exist for good and bad reasons. What predicts a good outcome is clarity: clear price, clear scope, clear ownership, clear aftercare.
There is no licence for building websites. Anyone with a laptop can call themselves a web designer, and plenty do, which is why choosing one feels like a gamble. It does not have to be. A web designer's past work, terms and answers to a few direct questions tell you almost everything. This is the checklist I would use if I were hiring one myself.
Start with the work, not the pitch
Every designer will tell you they build beautiful, fast, Google-friendly websites. Ignore the words and check the evidence. Ask for three live sites they built, then open each one on your phone, on mobile data, not office wifi. Does it load in a couple of seconds? Can you find the phone number without hunting? Does anything jump around or break?
Then look at when those sites were built and whether the businesses still use them. A portfolio of sites that are still live, still fast and still maintained years later says more than any award. If you want a benchmark for what fast feels like, this page measures itself in your browser against Google's own thresholds.
The ownership question, ask it first
The most expensive websites are the ones you do not own. Some providers register the domain in their own name, keep the site on a proprietary builder you can never leave, or rent the whole thing back to you for a monthly fee that never ends. Leave, and you lose the site, sometimes even the domain, and start again from nothing.
So ask directly: when this is done, who owns the domain, who owns the site files, and can I move it to another host or developer if I choose? The only acceptable answer to all three is you, in your name, yes. Anyone who dodges that question is telling you the answer.
Questions that reveal how someone actually works
- What is the total price, in writing, before you start? A professional gives a fixed figure or a clearly capped range, not a shrug and a day rate.
- How long will it take, and what do you need from me? A real process has a timeline and a short list of things they will ask you for.
- What happens after launch? Listen for hosting, backups, security updates and how content changes get made, and what each costs.
- Who actually does the work? Some agencies sell you a senior and deliver an outsourced junior. With a freelancer or one-person studio, the person you talk to is the person building it.
- What happens if I want to leave? The graceful answer covers handing over files, domain and access without a fight or a fee.
- How will customers find the site? You want to hear about page titles, local search and Google Business Profile, not a vague promise of 'SEO included'.
Red flags that predict a bad ending
- No live examples you can visit, or examples that are slow and broken on a phone.
- The domain gets registered in their name 'to make things easier'.
- Guarantees of a number one Google ranking. Nobody can promise that honestly.
- No written quote, or a price that keeps growing as the project goes.
- Pressure to sign a long contract before you have seen anything.
- They cannot explain, in plain English, what you get for the money.
Cheap, expensive, and what actually matters
Price alone tells you little. A £3,000 agency site can be a template with a markup, and a £300 site can be exactly what a small business needs, built well by someone with low overheads. What predicts a good outcome is not the number, it is the clarity around it: a fixed price, a defined scope, ownership in your name, and a plain plan for aftercare. For a fuller picture of what different price points really buy, see what a website should cost.
The checklist, in one place
| Check | The answer you want |
|---|---|
| Live examples on your phone | Fast, working, still in use by the business |
| Domain, files, hosting ownership | Yours, in your name, portable |
| Price | Fixed and written down before work starts |
| Timeline | A clear date and a short list of what they need from you |
| After launch | Named plan for hosting, backups, updates, changes |
| Who does the work | The person you are talking to, or a named team |
| If you leave | Full handover, no ransom |
Where I fit, since you will ask
This guide is how I think a web designer should be judged, so it is only fair to be judged by it. My prices are fixed and published, every site and domain is owned by the client outright, the person you talk to is the person who builds it, and the work is live for you to check: see it here. If that sounds like the right shape, tell me what you need. If you choose someone else using this checklist, it has still done its job.
Common questions.
Should I choose a freelancer or an agency?
Neither is automatically better. An agency suits large projects that need a team; a freelancer or one-person studio usually means lower overheads, one point of contact and the senior person doing the actual work. Judge either by the same checklist: live work, ownership, fixed price, aftercare.
How much should a website cost for a small business?
In the UK, simple small-business sites commonly run from a few hundred pounds to a few thousand depending on size and who builds it. The number matters less than what it buys: ownership, speed, and a clear plan for what happens after launch.
What questions should I ask a web designer before hiring?
The big five: what is the fixed price, who owns the domain and files, what live sites can I check, what happens after launch, and what happens if I want to leave. Clear answers to those five filter out most bad experiences.
Is it a red flag if a web designer registers the domain for me?
Registering it for you is fine and normal. Registering it in their own name is the red flag. The domain should be in your name from day one so you can leave with it whenever you like.
Can a web designer guarantee first place on Google?
No. Nobody controls Google's results, and an honest designer will say so. What they can promise is the groundwork: a fast site, proper page structure, local search setup and content written around what your customers search for.