Founder's Guide to Evaluating Dev Agencies

The Expensive Mistake

Most founders evaluate dev agencies on three things: portfolio, price, and timeline. This leads to picking teams that look great on paper but deliver codebases that need to be rewritten in 6 months.

Here's a better framework.

The 7-Point Evaluation Framework

1. Ask to See Their Testing Strategy

Not "do you write tests?"—ask what kind of tests they write and when. Good answers:

• "Unit tests for business logic, integration tests for API endpoints, E2E for critical flows"
• "We target 70-80% coverage on core modules"
• "We use CI to block merges without passing tests"

Red flag: "Tests slow us down, we prefer manual QA."

2. Request a Technical Architecture Doc

Before signing a contract, ask for a one-page architecture document for your project. It should include:

• Tech stack choices with reasoning
• Database design approach
• Deployment strategy
• Scaling considerations

If they can't produce this in 48 hours, they don't understand your project well enough to build it.

3. Check Their Deployment Pipeline

Ask: "How do you deploy to production?" Good answers:

• "Git push triggers CI/CD which runs tests, builds, and deploys to staging. Production deployments are manual promotions from staging."
• "We use feature flags for gradual rollouts."

Red flag: "One of our developers SSHs into the server and pulls the latest code."

4. Look for Founder Involvement

For agencies under 50 people, the founders should be involved in your project—at least in architecture decisions and weekly check-ins. If you're talking to a sales rep who disappears after signing, find another agency.

5. Evaluate Their Communication Rhythm

Good agencies have a defined cadence:

• Daily async updates (Slack or email)
• Weekly demo calls (show working software, not slides)
• Sprint planning every 1-2 weeks
• Monthly retrospectives

If they say "we'll keep you updated," that's not a process—that's a hope.

6. Verify IP Ownership

Your contract should explicitly state:

• You own all code, designs, and documentation
• You have access to the repository from day one
• All credentials and accounts are in your name

Never accept "we host it for you" without full repository access.

7. Price the Rebuild, Not the Build

Ask: "If I need to bring this in-house in 12 months, how easy would that be?" The answer tells you everything about code quality, documentation, and knowledge transfer planning.

Red Flags to Walk Away From

• No test suite in production codebases
• "We use a proprietary framework" (vendor lock-in)
• No access to the repository
• Fixed-price contracts with vague scope documents
• Offshore teams with no overlapping working hours
• Portfolio with no verifiable references

What We'd Want You to Ask Us

• "Can I talk to a recent client?"
• "What does your deployment pipeline look like?"
• "Who specifically will work on my project?"
• "What happens if we disagree on technical direction?"
• "How do you handle scope changes mid-sprint?"

These questions make our job easier because they set expectations early.

Evaluating agencies for your project? Book a call—we'll give you an honest assessment, even if we're not the right fit.