A signed contract fixes the rules of the project for months. The questions you ask before you sign decide whether those rules protect you or the agency. Most buyers spend their time on the portfolio and the price. The problems that hurt later sit elsewhere: who owns the code, what happens when scope changes, and how you leave if the relationship fails.
This guide lists the questions worth asking before you sign a contract with a software agency, grouped by topic. For each one, we explain what a good answer sounds like and which answers should slow you down.
If you are still comparing agencies and have not reached the contract stage, start with our checklist for how to evaluate a software development company and come back here once you have a shortlist.
Questions About Ownership and Access
1. Who owns the code, the designs and the data, and from when?
You should own all of it from the first commit, not after the final payment. A good agency states this in the contract and works in a repository under your organisation's account. Be cautious if ownership transfers only on full payment, or if the agency keeps rights to "reusable components" without listing them.
2. Will the code and infrastructure live in our accounts?
Source control, cloud hosting, domain, app store listings and third-party services should sit in accounts you control, with the agency invited as collaborators. If everything lives in the agency's accounts, switching teams means a migration project before anyone writes a new feature.
3. What third-party code or licences will you bring in?
Open-source libraries are normal. Proprietary frameworks owned by the agency are a lock-in risk. Ask for a list of anything the product depends on that you could not obtain yourself.
Questions About the Team and Process
4. Who will work on our project?
Ask for names, roles and seniority, not a company profile. Find out whether the people in the sales meetings will be the people writing the code, and what happens if one of them leaves mid-project. A good answer names a delivery lead and describes the replacement process.
5. How do we see progress?
Look for a working build you can open every one or two weeks, a visible task board and a regular demo. A status report that says "on track" without software you can click is not evidence.
6. How do you handle a decision that turns out to be wrong?
Every project makes some. Good teams write decisions down, explain the trade-off and show you the cost of changing course. Be cautious if the answer is that mistakes do not happen.
Questions About Price and Change
7. What exactly does the price include, and what does it exclude?
Ask for a line-by-line list: design, development, testing, project management, deployment, documentation, hosting set-up and a period of bug-fixing after launch. Ambiguity here becomes change requests later. Our guide to what a SaaS MVP costs shows how many items sit outside a headline development quote.
8. How are changes to scope priced and approved?
Some change is normal. What matters is that a change is estimated and approved by you in writing before work starts, and that the rate for extra work is stated in advance.
9. If the estimate turns out to be low, who carries the difference?
On a fixed price, the agency usually does. On time and materials, you do, up to any cap in the contract. Neither is wrong, but you should know which one you signed. See why software estimates run low for what to check in the estimate itself.
Questions About Quality and Handover
10. How do you test, and what do we receive?
Ask what is covered by automated tests, who tests on real devices and browsers, and how bugs found after launch are handled. A good answer names tools and describes a release process, not just a promise of "thorough testing".
11. What documentation and handover do we get?
You should receive setup instructions, an architecture overview, a list of environment variables and services, and a recorded walkthrough. Without these, the next team starts by reverse-engineering the code.
12. How do we end the contract, and what happens then?
Read the termination clause before the scope. You want a notice period you can live with, a clear right to the work completed so far, and a defined handover. Be cautious about early-termination fees that make leaving as expensive as finishing.
Red Flags Worth Walking Away From
- Vague answers to the ownership questions, or ownership "to be agreed later".
- A price given in the first call, before anyone has asked what you are building.
- No access to a working build until late in the project.
- Pressure to sign this week for a discount.
- Reluctance to let you speak with past clients.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Should I use a fixed-price or a time-and-materials contract?
Fixed price suits a well-defined scope that is unlikely to change. Time and materials suits work where you expect to learn as you build. Many teams use a fixed-price discovery phase to define scope, then choose the model for the build.
Do I need a lawyer to review the contract?
For anything beyond a small project, yes. A lawyer checks the ownership, liability and termination clauses. The questions in this guide help you spot problems earlier and make that review shorter.
How many agencies should I speak to?
Three to five is enough for most projects. Fewer gives you no comparison, and more costs you time without improving the decision.
Conclusion
The best protection when hiring an agency is a clear contract and honest answers to uncomfortable questions. Own your code, keep your accounts, know how change is priced and agree how to leave before you start.
If you are planning a build and want to talk through scope, see our custom software development services or tell us about your project.