Five questions to ask anyone quoting for your website
The questions that separate a real quote from a cheap one, offshore or local: where the work is done, who sees your data, what happens on day 31, who owns everything, and what Google's own test says.
You will get quotes at wildly different prices for what looks like the same site. Some of the cheap ones are good value and some of the expensive ones are not. The price will not tell you which. These five questions will, and any honest firm, including this one, should be able to answer them in writing.
1. Where is the work actually done?
Many agencies, Irish and British included, resell white-label builds from overseas shops at two to three times the cost and do not say so. That is not illegal and the work is sometimes fine. But it decides who you are actually dealing with when something breaks, what time zone they are in, and whether the person who quoted has ever seen the code. Ask, and expect a plain answer.
Ours: here, by the person you are talking to. Nothing is passed anywhere.
2. Who can see my enquiry data, and under what agreement?
Anyone with admin access to your site can read every enquiry your customers send. If that person is a subcontractor in another country, that is a cross-border data transfer under GDPR, and you are the one liable for it. Ask for the data-processing agreement. If there is not one, there is your answer.
Ours: you, and us while we build or maintain it, under a written agreement, on infrastructure in your name.
3. What happens on day 31?
Most cheap quotes include support for 7, 15 or 30 days. After that it is hourly, from a different time zone, or nothing. Ask what happens when the certificate expires in month four or the form breaks in month nine.
Ours: a 90-day warranty on defects on every build, care plans month to month, nothing that expires when the invoice clears.
4. Who owns the code, the hosting and the domain?
The commonest lock-in is the quietest: the domain registered in the agency's name, the hosting only they can log into, a proprietary platform nobody else can work on. You find out when you try to leave. Ask for it in the quote: repository in your name, hosting account in your name, domain at your registrar.
Ours: all three, from day one, written into the quote.
5. What does Google's own speed test say about a site you built?
Every agency says its sites are fast. Google publishes a free test at pagespeed.web.dev. Ask for the address of a live site they built and run it yourself. Under 50 on mobile is common; 100 is rare.
Ours: 100/100 at launch on every build, or you do not pay the final instalment. Run it on ukcarimports.ie now, on any page.
Then run the free audit on the site you have. It is the same test we would run before quoting you, and it is the honest place to start.
Check your own site
Free, on screen in seconds, no call.
Free, on screen in about ten seconds, no call. We fetch your homepage once, the way a visitor's browser does, and nothing else.