- AI engineering services, Guide
- 7 min read
How to optimize your website for AI search results
Learn how to optimize your website for AI search results with strategies that improve visibility, relevance, and organic traffic.
Learn about the key criteria for selecting the best IT/web development agency on the market
In this post, we will show you how to choose an IT company that will bring real value to your business. The selection process is two-fold. You need to do your homework first before you talk to the vendors you’ve included on the short list.
The demand for software development services in general and web development outsourcing services in particular has been steadily growing over the past few years. This year, however, it has simply skyrocketed. The reason for this is the ongoing pandemic crisis. Many businesses have moved a considerable part of their operations to the Internet, adopting the work-from-home employment format.
This has created an acute need for quality software development or IT services. Companies want to automate most of their business processes and, thus, require professional web or software development assistance. Luckily, this demand is met by a bountiful supply. According to recent data, there are 1.6 million software and web developers in the USA ready to handle any kind of job.
A certain portion of these is self-employed. The majority, though, work for IT companies. As the same source states, there are just short of 560,000 tech business establishments in the U.S. This is an impressive proposition. Yet, it poses one serious problem. Many business owners find themselves at a loss when selecting a reliable software development partner.
They have to answer a myriad of questions. How to pick an IT service provider who will create a product to meet all their expectations and serve them without fail for years to come? No worries! We have collected some helpful tips for all of you who are still on the fence. Follow them, and, hopefully, you will avoid many all-too-common pitfalls when choosing a web or software development agency.
Stable, production-ready websites delivered by engineers who understand agency workflows
Order now8 Tips on How to Choose a Development Company That’s Just Right for You
Roll Up Your Sleeves and Do Some Homework
Tip #1: Sum Up What Exactly Your Future Project Involves
The very first step you should take is not related to any development company in particular. You should invest some time and effort into defining your own requirements and needs clearly. Take a sheet of paper and write a description of each feature you want an IT company to implement. Specify why you need a feature and how your customers or clients can benefit from it.
All this will help you make the future interviewing process much easier, as well as save time and money. For example, do you need a payment gateway software integrated into your site? How do you view the checkout page? Product pages?
Tip #2: Find Out What Other People Say About a Specific IT Service Provider
Most likely, you wouldn’t want to choose an IT services company that just set up shop yesterday. You should look for an experienced IT business with a rich history of successfully completed projects. One way to find out if an agency does have a record like this is to search for their previous clients’ testimonials.
You will find that every software development company website has its clients’ flattering words prominently displayed on the home page. We’re not going to question the authenticity of these reviews. However, a vendor will certainly place only clients’ positive feedback on their website, so you need to dig deeper to find the truth. How?
Visit numerous specialized websites where the clients of web and software development companies can write what they think of the services they’ve been provided. This feedback is carefully examined by the administrators. Thus, you can always trust it. Some examples:
Here’s what one of our clients wrote about our web development agency, for example:
“Their work was superb so it made sense to work with them on a website.”
Adam Kaiser.
SVP, Global Marketing, GAN Integrity
Tip #3: Choose a Development Company Based on Its Position Among Other Agencies
Another way to ensure that you’re going to deal with a respectable web or software development partner is to see where it places among its competitors. To do that, visit one of the many rating sites such as these:
IT companies are rated based on a wide range of criteria, including these:
- Previous projects
- Industry awards
- Team
- Client reviews
…and others.
Tip #4: Have a Look at the Projects an IT Company Has Completed Previously
When you want to have a house built and are searching for an architect, you probably look at the houses he or she has already constructed. This way, you can understand if this professional is the right fit for you.
The same is true when it comes to web or software development services. Any respectable provider places links to the projects they’ve completed before on their website. Review them carefully. Do they look comparable to yours? What business areas does the company specialize in? A banking application, for example, differs greatly from something like a training app.
Tip #5: Evaluate How Professional-Looking and Informative Their Website Is
One of the most essential things to look at when choosing an IT services company is the appearance and contents of its website. If it looks as if it were made by using an automatic website builder, it should raise suspicions. The best IT companies always design custom websites that look unique, have excellent user experience, and work fast.
Apart from a purely aesthetic aspect, consider how informative and error-free the website is. Choose an IT company whose website has no grammar or spelling mistakes in the content. In addition, make sure you can find all the information you require as a client. Look for answers to questions such as ‘How does communication take place?’ or ‘How many web or software development experts does the team include?’
Ideally, a website should also contain photos of all the team members. Our own website serves as a good illustration of this point.
Tip #6: Choose a Development Company with Reasonable (not the Lowest) Fees and a Suitable Pricing Structure
Top software development firms don’t offer their clients low rates. They know that a quality product requires a great deal of skill and effort to bring real value to a business. You want to stay within your budget. It’s understandable. Still, beware of providers ready to work for peanuts.
It’s like buying a cheap car. It will soon start breaking down over and over again. Thus, you will spend more money keeping it in order than if you had bought a more expensive vehicle.
Therefore, our advice is to search for a web or software development partner with reasonable rather than with suspiciously low rates. Normally, an offer like this means that the provider is inexperienced, will most likely produce a badly designed/coded app or website, and will take too long to complete the project.
Aside from the rates, consider the pricing structures an IT company offers. For example, if your project is not very complex or time-consuming, you may find a flat rate the best option. If it is, choose an IT development company that charges hourly rates.
Tip #7: Find out What Measures an IT Company Takes to Protect Sensitive Data
These days, the protection of personal data is the top priority of any trustworthy web or software development service provider. The Internet is full of freelancers and small IT agencies with vague data protection practices. They may suddenly vanish, leaving their clients to guess what will become of their valuable data.
Therefore, when selecting a web development company, make sure it has a robust data protection mechanism in place. A legally binding contract and a non-disclosure agreement are a must for any company in the industry. This is exactly what we guarantee to our clients.
Tip #8: Ensure That You Can Easily Get Information about the Progress of the Project Work
Discussing the initial requirements and launching the work on the project is only the beginning. A lot of things may occur during the web or software development process. You may suddenly remember that you need another business feature or want to find out about the current stage in the development work. The programmers may discover a more effective solution to your problem and need to talk it over with you. The list goes on.
All this requires clear and smooth communication. Choose a web development company that provides multiple options for you to send or receive relevant information (Skype, Slack, Email, Live Chat, and so on), starting from your preferred channel. There should be a project manager to reply to your queries promptly or inform you of any changes or concerns on the part of the agency.
Conclusion
Choosing a web development company that’s just the right fit for your project requires doing some homework. You should compare agencies based on a list of criteria, including sensitive data protection, previously completed projects, available communication channels and response times, rates and pricing structures, the look and feel of the website, the place the company occupies among other firms, client feedback, and others.
The good news is that GetDevDone has all that it takes to be called one of the best web development companies in the market. With our 15-year experience in creating markups, e-commerce development, email template and banner development, and other areas, we are capable of effectively handling any project regardless of its complexity level.
Web development partnerships designed for predictable delivery and business growth.
Order nowChoosing the best development partner FAQs
Your requirements should be detailed enough for the development company to understand scope, risk, and unknowns. A rough idea like “we need a new website” is not enough for a reliable quote. A useful request explains page types, core functionality, integrations, user roles, content migration, design status, SEO needs, and post-launch expectations.
For a custom website development project, the most useful starting point is not a long document. It is a clear separation between must-haves, nice-to-haves, and open questions. That lets the vendor estimate what is fixed, what needs discovery, and where assumptions may affect cost.
For agencies, this matters even more. Approved designs, client feedback rules, staging access, QA responsibility, and launch ownership should be visible before pricing. Otherwise, the quote may look fine at the start and become unstable once real delivery begins.
Client reviews and ratings are useful signals, but they are not enough to judge a development company on their own. They can help you filter obvious weak options, but they rarely show the full delivery picture.
Look for review patterns instead of isolated praise. Repeated comments about missed deadlines, weak communication, unclear scope, or poor post-launch support matter more than one bad rating. Repeated praise for clean handoff, responsiveness, and problem-solving is more useful than generic lines about being “great to work with.”
Also check whether the reviewed projects resemble your own. A company can have strong ratings for simple brochure sites and still be a poor fit for a complex migration, custom integration, or agency-managed client project.
Look for relevance, not just visual polish. A portfolio should help you see whether the company has handled projects with similar complexity, industry constraints, CMS needs, integrations, or user flows.
For web projects, check whether the sites still work well after launch. Open several examples and look at performance, mobile behavior, content structure, forms, navigation, and obvious broken elements. A beautiful screenshot tells you less than a live project that is easy to use and maintain.
For more complex work, look for signs of delivery thinking: migration notes, component systems, accessibility considerations, integration work, or case studies that explain the problem and result. If the portfolio only shows attractive images with no context, it is harder to judge whether the team can handle the practical parts of your project.
Fixed price is usually better for clearly defined projects, while hourly or time-and-materials pricing works better when scope is uncertain or likely to change. Neither model is automatically safer. The right choice depends on how stable the requirements are.
Fixed price can work well when designs are approved, functionality is documented, integrations are known, and the timeline is predictable. The risk is rigidity. If the client changes direction or missing details appear during development, every change may need a separate estimate.
Hourly pricing gives more flexibility for discovery, technical cleanup, inherited code, or evolving agency-client projects. The risk is weaker budget control if priorities are not managed. At GetDevDone, the practical choice often comes down to scope maturity: fixed scope needs strong handoff and approval discipline, while flexible work needs clear reporting, task tracking, and regular budget checks.
Ask how the company protects access, credentials, client data, and project files before you share sensitive information. A reliable vendor should be able to explain who gets access, how access is granted, how credentials are stored, and what happens when the project ends.
Useful questions include:
- Do you sign NDAs and formal service agreements?
- How do you handle admin credentials, hosting access, and API keys?
- Who inside the team can access our project files and systems?
- Do you use staging environments instead of working directly on production?
- What is your process for removing access after launch or contract end?
For projects involving customer data, payments, healthcare, finance, or regulated industries, vague answers are not enough. Data protection is not only a legal issue. It also affects trust, handoff quality, and how safely future teams can maintain the project.
A reliable development company should provide a clear communication setup before development starts. That means a named contact person, agreed channels, regular progress updates, escalation rules, and a shared understanding of how decisions and change requests are handled.
The exact tools matter less than the process. Slack, email, project management boards, calls, and issue trackers can all work. The real question is whether the setup prevents confusion. You should know where to ask questions, where tasks are tracked, how QA feedback is reported, and who confirms that a feature is ready.
In agency projects, communication also has to respect the client delivery chain. The development partner should be able to work behind the scenes, follow the agency’s approval process, and keep updates specific enough for account managers or project managers to pass on without rewriting everything from scratch.
Agencies should evaluate a development partner by testing how well the partner fits handoff, QA, communication, and client approval workflows. Technical skill matters, but poor workflow fit can still damage margins and client trust.
Before choosing a partner, check whether they can work with your actual delivery pattern:
- Can they build from approved Figma, PSD, XD, or existing CMS setups?
- Do they understand fixed-scope client work and change control?
- Can they use your preferred task tracker or communication channel?
- Will they provide staging links, QA notes, and handoff details clearly?
- Can they stay invisible to the end client if the project is white-label?
This is where a white-label web development partner should feel different from a generic vendor. The best fit is not only the team that can code the project. It is the team that can support delivery without forcing the agency to rebuild its process around them.
