Process
Questions to Ask a Software Development Agency
The discovery call is the hour when an agency is trying hardest to impress you, and the last moment you can ask awkward questions without it feeling like a dispute. Most founders spend it listening to a pitch. Run it as an interview instead: here are the questions to ask, why each one matters, and the answers that should end the conversation.
What should you ask a software development agency before signing?
Ask questions that force specific, checkable answers: who will build your product, how the work is run, how the price was built, when you own the code, what happens after launch, and what proof they can show. Agencies that answer with names, documents and examples belong on your shortlist; agencies that answer with adjectives don't.
This is the interview script, not the whole buying process. If you haven't shortlisted yet, start with how to choose a software development agency; once a contract lands, switch to our UK software development contract checklist. The 26 questions below sit between the two, and every good answer you hear should reappear later as a clause.
Which answers are red flags?
| Topic | Red-flag answer | Good answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who builds it | "A team of senior engineers" — nobody named | Named people and roles, and the lead developer on the next call |
| Subcontracting | A pause, then "we work with trusted partners" | A straight yes or no — and if yes, who, and on what terms |
| Communication | "Our account manager will keep you updated" | One named day-to-day contact, regular demos, a board you can see |
| Scope changes | "We're flexible, we'll sort it out" | Written request, priced impact on cost and timeline, your sign-off first |
| Estimate | A firm number on the first call, few questions asked | A range now, a fixed figure after scoping, risky parts named |
| Code access | "We'll hand everything over at the end" | Your repository and accounts, from the first commit |
| IP | "You get a licence", or "on final payment" | Assigned to you as each invoice is paid |
| Testing | "Our developers test everything" | Automated tests on critical flows, code review, sign-off on staging |
| After launch | "We'll always be around" | Written handover, defined warranty terms, priced support options |
| References | "All our clients are under NDA" | Live products, and clients who will take your call |
The pattern is the same in every row: vague answers are cheap to give and expensive to rely on. Nobody can enforce "we're flexible".
Who will actually build your product?
Sales calls are often run by an agency's most senior people. These questions find out who you get once the contract is signed.
- Who exactly will work on my product, and can I meet them? Ask for names, roles and seniority. A good agency puts the lead developer on the next call; a weak one keeps you talking to sales until you sign.
- Are they your employees, or will any work be subcontracted? Subcontracting isn't wrong, but you need to know. An agency can only assign you IP it owns, so check its subcontractors assign their rights to it.
- Where are your developers based, and how many working hours overlap with ours? It's a standard buyer question, whatever the answer. What matters is a specific number of shared hours and a plan for using them.
- What happens if a key person leaves mid-project? Listen for practice — documented code, a named backup — rather than reassurance.
How will the project run week to week?
Most agency relationships succeed or fail on process, not code.
- Who is my day-to-day contact, and how quickly do they reply? One named person with a stated response time beats a shared inbox and a promise.
- How long are your sprints, and how often will I see working software? The good answer is a demo of real, clickable software every week or two — not slides or status reports.
- How do you handle scope changes mid-build? You want a written process: a request, its priced impact on cost and timeline, your approval, then work.
- How will I know if we're falling behind? Look for a board you can see and a habit of flagging slippage early. "We'll let you know" isn't a process.
How do you know the price and timeline are reliable?
Predictable costs and timelines come from how an estimate was built, not from how confident the salesperson sounds.
- Fixed-price or time-and-materials, and why for this project? Either can be right; an agency that can't explain its choice hasn't thought about your risk. Our fixed-price vs time-and-materials guide covers the trade-off.
- What exactly is included, and what isn't? Design, project management, testing, deployment, hosting, third-party subscriptions, post-launch fixes. Exclusions you discover later arrive as invoices.
- How did you build the estimate, and which parts carry the most risk? An honest team names its unknowns — an awkward integration, a data migration — and explains how it priced them.
- How are payments tied to milestones? Payments should follow deliverables you can see working, not dates on a calendar.
What should you ask about code ownership and IP?
Under UK law, the creator of a work is generally the first owner of its copyright, so by default an agency owns the code it writes for you. GOV.UK's guidance on ownership of copyright works is plain: as the commissioner, you own it only if that's agreed in writing. An assignment of copyright also has to be in writing and signed on the agency's behalf, so "it's all yours" in an email doesn't count. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
- When does the IP transfer to us? The good answer is "assigned to you as each invoice is paid". "On final payment" leaves a stalled project owned by someone else — exactly the kind of gap technical due diligence turns up when you raise.
- Will the code live in our repository from day one? Your GitHub organisation, your hosting, your domain, with the agency invited as collaborators. Ownership on paper means little if they hold the keys.
- What third-party and open-source code will you use, and under which licences? Most is permissively licensed and harmless, but some copyleft licences carry obligations to share source code. A good agency lists its dependencies without fuss.
- Will you reuse any of your own pre-existing code? That's normal. You want to know what it is, and a permanent, royalty-free right to use it.
How will they protect quality and security?
Every agency says it writes quality code. Ask how it would prove it.
- What do you test, and what's automated? Good: automated tests on critical flows — sign-up, payments, permissions — running on every change. Bad: "our QA team clicks through it before launch".
- Who reviews code before it's merged? Every change should be read by a second developer. A developer who merges their own work unreviewed is a single point of failure.
- What are your security practices? Listen for specifics: secrets kept out of the codebase, dependency updates, least-privilege access, and multi-factor authentication on every account.
- Will there be a staging environment I can test on? You should see and approve every feature in a staging copy before it reaches real users.
What happens at launch, handover and beyond?
The engagement ends; the product doesn't. These decide what you're left holding.
- What documentation do we get at handover? Enough for a new developer to set up, run and deploy the product without calling anyone.
- Is there a warranty period, and what does it cover? Get the length and the exclusions in writing. "We'll fix anything that comes up" won't survive the first argument about what counts as a bug.
- What maintenance and support options do you offer after launch? Ask what each includes, how it's priced and how quickly urgent issues get a response.
- If we part ways, mid-project or after, what do we get and how? The answer should be boring: code, credentials, documentation and a transition period. Any hesitation here is worth more than the pitch.
How can you verify their track record?
Portfolios are curated, so check them.
- Which live products have you built, and what exactly did you do on each? Click through to the product. "We did the redesign" and "we built the platform" are very different claims.
- Can I speak to two former clients, including one where something went wrong? A reference who can describe a problem and how it was handled is worth more than ten testimonials.
How should you run the discovery call?
Send your brief and the hardest questions in writing two or three days before the call: subcontracting, what the price excludes, when IP transfers, warranty terms and exit. Written answers can be compared side by side, and an agency that answers vaguely in writing has told you something. No brief yet? Our guide to writing a brief for a development agency includes a template.
Then use the hour for what writing can't show you — how they think:
| Minutes | Agenda item | What you're listening for |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | You explain the problem, users and constraints | Do they take notes, or wait to pitch? |
| 10–25 | They play it back and ask questions | Do they challenge assumptions and suggest cuts? |
| 25–40 | Team and process, with the lead developer present | Names, specifics and honest trade-offs |
| 40–50 | Walk through their written answers | Do the spoken answers match the written ones? |
| 50–60 | Next steps towards a quote | A clear path, not pressure to sign this week |
Score every agency on the same sheet within an hour of hanging up, while the difference between "specific" and "smooth" is still fresh.
Our default: how Coderacle answers these questions
We'd rather you put these questions to us than take our word for it, but here's where we start. Every software development engagement begins with a free scoping call and a fixed-price quote, so you know the number before you commit. You get a dedicated PM as your day-to-day contact, and one team owns the work from discovery to launch.
Our default stack is deliberately mainstream: Next.js and Postgres (often via Supabase), Clerk, Stripe and Resend, deployed on Vercel, with PostHog for product analytics and Plausible or Vercel Analytics for web analytics. Mainstream matters for question 24: any competent team can pick it up after us. We deviate when there's a concrete reason, such as an existing codebase, and say so in the quote.
Everything else on this list — who would be on your team, where they work, warranty terms, what handover includes — ask us on the call, and judge our answers against the table above.
Frequently asked questions
What is a software development agency?
A software development agency is a company you hire to design, build and often maintain software for you, supplying developers, designers and project management as one team under contract. Unlike a freelancer, you get several disciplines and someone accountable for delivery; unlike hiring in-house, you don't take on permanent salaries. You're buying a process as much as a product, which is why most of the questions above are about how work runs.
How many agencies should you interview?
Three is usually enough: two gives you no tiebreaker, and more than four turns comparison into noise. Send all of them the same brief and the same written questions, so the differences in their answers reflect the agencies rather than what you told each one. If none answers well, tighten the brief before widening the search.
Is it rude to ask where an agency's developers are based?
No — it's a standard buyer question, and a good agency answers it plainly. Location affects working-hours overlap, data handling and project management, so you need the facts whatever they are. What counts is whether the answer is straight, specific and consistent with the contract.
Can an agency build a production-ready SaaS in under three weeks?
A clickable prototype or a narrow validation build, yes; a production-ready SaaS, rarely. Production-ready means authentication, billing, permissions, tests, monitoring and a deployment pipeline, and even a tightly cut scope usually takes a couple of months. If an agency promises all of it in three weeks, ask question 11: which parts carry the most risk, and what was left out to hit that date.
Want to put these questions to us?
Bring the whole list, the awkward ones especially. We'll answer them on the call, play your product back to you and follow up with a scope and a price you can hold us to. Book a free scoping call, or see how our fixed-price builds work first.
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