How do I choose a web development agency?

Evaluate agencies on four criteria: technical competence, communication quality, portfolio relevance, and pricing transparency.

Technical competence: ask what framework they use and why. Good agencies have strong opinions based on experience — they'll tell you Next.js for marketing sites, React for web apps, and explain the tradeoffs. Red flag: agencies that say "we can build in anything" with no preference. That usually means they're stretching.

Communication: the discovery call reveals more than the portfolio. Do they ask about your business goals or jump straight to design preferences? Do they push back on bad ideas or agree with everything? The best agencies say "no" when your request would hurt the project.

Portfolio relevance: look for projects in your industry or at your scale. An agency that builds for Fortune 500 will over-engineer a startup site. An agency that builds $3,000 WordPress sites can't handle a complex integration project.

Pricing: fixed-price is better than hourly for defined scopes. Retainer is better for ongoing work. Any agency that can't estimate within 30% before a discovery call either lacks experience or is fishing for scope creep. Get the estimate in writing.

Red flags: no case studies, no process documentation, no dedicated project manager, unrealistically low prices, and portfolio sites that are slow or broken.