Disclosure first: I run a small software studio, so I'm on the side of this
transaction you should be skeptical of. I'm not linking anything or offering
anything. Mods, remove if this crosses the line.
I keep meeting owners who inherited a mess from a previous developer, and it's
almost never the code that's the problem. It's what nobody asked while the quote
was being signed. Here are the six questions, and what a straight answer sounds
like.
**1. Who owns the domain, the hosting and the code?**
The answer you want: all three registered in *your* name, in writing, and you
have the logins.
The red flag: "Don't worry, we'll manage all that."
This is the one that actually ruins people. You can rebuild a website. You
cannot rebuild a domain someone else owns. In April 2025 The Register covered a
group of dental practices suing a former contractor who held nine of their
domains — email stopped, sites went down, and the SEO went with it.
**2. If you stop working with us, who takes over?**
The answer you want: you get the source code, the documentation and every
credential, and any competent developer can pick it up.
The red flag: "Only our team can work on this."
Ask for the handover terms *before* you sign, not when the relationship is
already going badly.
**3. What isn't in this quote?**
The answer you want: a written scope, plus an explicit list of what costs extra.
The red flag: a firm price after one short call.
A fixed price quoted before anyone understands the scope isn't confidence, it's
a guess — and the gap gets billed to you later as "out of scope." Hosting,
content, post-launch changes and maintenance are the usual omissions.
**4. How do you keep it secure?**
The answer you want: licensed plugins and themes, a stated update cadence, and
backups they've actually restored from at least once.
The red flag: "we got the premium theme for free."
That's a nulled plugin. Sucuri and Jetpack have both documented these shipping
with backdoors and SEO spam injections. Untested backups are the other half —
a backup nobody has ever restored is a hope, not a backup.
**5. Who fixes it after launch?**
The answer you want: a support plan with a price on it.
The red flag: "once it's live, it won't need anything."
Everything needs something. Budget for year one before you spend the build
money, not after.
**6. What do you need from me?**
The answer you want: questions about your customers and your goals before
questions about page count.
The red flag: no questions at all, just a price.
A developer who doesn't ask what the site is *for* is quoting on pages, and
you'll get pages.
—
The thing that surprised me writing these down: four of the six red flags sound
like good news when you first hear them. "We'll handle everything." "Fixed
price." "Free premium theme." "It won't need maintenance." That's exactly why
they work.
Anything you'd add? I'm sure there are failure modes I haven't hit yet.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1whxo9l
Source: r/u/AgneyaSolutions · by /u/AgneyaSolutions