What to ask a software agency before you sign

Choosing who builds your software is a decision made with almost no information. You are evaluating work you cannot inspect, from people you have met twice, about a product that does not exist yet.

Portfolios do not help much — everyone shows their best screen. References do not help much either, because you are given the happy ones.

What does help is asking questions that are awkward to answer vaguely. These are the ones we would ask.

About the scope

1. What would make this cost more than you have quoted?

The best question on this list. A company that has thought about your project answers in specifics: that integration, that second user role, that unclear approval flow. One that has not will tell you everything is included. The first answer is uncomfortable and useful.

2. What have you assumed that I have not told you?

Every quote rests on assumptions. The question is whether they are written down. Ask for them in the proposal.

3. What is explicitly not included?

App store submission. Content and copy. Hosting. Post-launch fixes. Training. The gap between "built" and "running in production" is real and it is where disputes live.

About the people

4. Who specifically will work on this, and what else are they working on?

Not "our team" — names, and honest percentages. Shared teams are normal at any agency of reasonable size. Vague answers about shared teams are not.

5. Who do I talk to when something is wrong?

There should be one name, and it should not be the salesperson.

6. What happens if that person leaves mid-project?

The answer reveals whether knowledge lives in people or in documentation. If nobody has thought about it, you are the continuity plan.

About the work

7. Can I see the code?

You are paying for it. You should be able to see it during the build, not at handover. A company that resists this is telling you something.

8. What does your testing actually cover?

"We test everything" means nothing. Ask what is automated, what is manual, and what happens when a bug is found after launch — specifically, whether that is billable.

9. How will I see progress between milestones?

Weekly builds you can open beat status reports you have to trust. If the first thing you can actually use arrives in month four, you have no early warning system.

About the ending

10. What do I own, and when?

Code, designs, accounts, domains, app store listings, infrastructure. Get it in writing. The worst version of this problem is discovering the App Store listing is under the agency's account after the relationship has soured.

11. What does support look like after launch, and what does it cost?

Software is not finished at launch. Either there is an ongoing arrangement or there is not, and both are fine — but finding out afterwards is not.

Reading the answers

You are not looking for perfect answers. You are looking for specific ones.

A company that says "the payment integration worries me, we've had that gateway take three weeks before, so I've priced a range" is more trustworthy than one that says everything is straightforward. The first has done this before. The second is hoping.

Vagueness at the sales stage does not improve after the contract is signed. It is the earliest and cheapest signal you will get.