Message on WhatsAppHow to Choose a Web Design Company in Pakistan
By Shariq Naqi, Phrloo — updated March 2026
The most expensive mistake in hiring a web developer isn't paying too much. It's paying twice — once for a site that doesn't work, then again to someone else to fix it.
Most of that comes down to questions nobody asked at the start. Seven of them, mostly.
We build websites for a living, so read this knowing that. But everything below is what we'd tell a friend who asked, including the parts that make our own industry look bad.
Worth knowing before you start: the cost of a website isn't only what you pay to build it. What actually breaks when a site is left unmaintained is the part most quotes don't mention.
Who will own the domain and hosting?
Ask this first, before price. It's the single most important question and almost nobody asks it.
The answer you want: the domain is registered in your name or your business's name, the hosting account is yours, and you receive the login details at launch.
What happens otherwise is common. The developer registers everything under their own account "to make it simpler." That's fine until they stop replying, raise their price, or disappear. Then you can't move your site, can't update it, and in some cases can't even prove it's yours.
Recovering a domain from an unresponsive registrant is slow, expensive, and sometimes impossible. Avoiding it costs one question at the start.
Ask: Will the domain be registered in my name, and will I get the registrar and hosting logins when the site goes live?
Is the quote fixed, or will it change?
Low quotes that grow are more common than high quotes.
The pattern: a price is agreed, work starts, and then things that seemed included turn out not to be. Extra pages. The contact form. Making it work on mobile. Each addition is small, each is arguable, and the final bill is double.
This isn't always dishonest — sometimes nobody wrote down what "a website" meant. But the result is the same.
Get the scope in writing before work begins. How many pages. Whether content and images are included or you're providing them. How many rounds of revisions. What counts as a revision versus a new request.
Ask: "Is this price fixed for this scope, and what would count as extra?"
What happens after the site launches?
A website isn't finished at launch. Things break, software updates, links rot, and someone has to handle it.
Find out what happens on day two:
- Who fixes bugs found after launch, and for how long?
- Is maintenance included, optional, or not offered?
- Who keeps the platform and plugins updated?
- What's the response time if the site goes down?
Plenty of developers build well and then vanish, which is fine if you know that upfront and plan for it. What causes problems is assuming support exists when it doesn't.
Some developers include a support period, some sell ongoing maintenance separately, and some don't offer it at all. Any of those can work — just find out which before you sign.
Ask: What support is included after launch, and what happens after that period ends?
Can you see real sites they've built?
Not mockups. Not screenshots. Live websites you can open and use.
Design portfolios often show visuals that were never built, or work the person contributed to rather than built. A live URL proves the site exists, loads, and functions.
When you have the links, check a few things yourself:
- Open one on your phone. Does it work properly?
- Run it through PageSpeed Insights. Slow sites in a portfolio tell you something.
- Is it still live, or has the client replaced it?
Ask: Can you send me three live sites you built, ideally for businesses like mine?
Which platform will they use, and why that one?
There's no single right answer — WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Webflow and hand-coded HTML all make sense in different situations. What matters is whether the choice fits your business or just fits their habits.
A good answer explains the trade-off: what it costs to run, how easy it is for you to edit, what happens when you want to add something later.
A weak answer is "we always use X." That's a preference, not a recommendation.
Ask: "Why this platform for my business, and what will it cost me to run each year?"
Who will actually be doing the work?
Especially relevant with agencies. The person who quotes isn't always the person who builds, and the gap between them can be large.
It's not wrong for work to be delegated or outsourced — most agencies do it. But you should know who's building, who to contact when something's wrong, and whether communication goes through one person or several.
Ask: Who will build this, and who do I contact if something breaks?
What's the timeline, and what happens if it slips?
Most projects run late, and most of the time it's because the client hasn't sent content — text, images, logos. That's worth knowing before you agree to a date.
Get a realistic timeline with what's needed from you and when. A simple business website is typically one to two weeks of build time once content is ready. If someone promises two days, ask what they're skipping.
Ask: "What do you need from me, by when, and what's the timeline once you have it?"
Warning signs worth taking seriously
A quote far below everyone else's. Sometimes it's lower overheads. Often it's a template with your logo on it, or a job that gets abandoned when something better comes along.
No written scope. If nobody will put the deliverables in writing, there's nothing to hold anyone to later.
Pressure to decide today. Legitimate businesses have a pipeline. Urgency is a sales tactic.
Vague answers about ownership. See question one. This is the one that costs the most to get wrong.
No live portfolio. Everyone has built something. If they can't show you, ask why.
What a fair process looks like
A reasonable developer will want to understand your business before quoting — what the site is for, who it's for, what it needs to do. They'll give you a written scope with a fixed price. They'll explain their platform choice. They'll tell you what they need from you and when.
And they'll be straight about what they don't do. A developer who says "you'd be better off with someone who specialises in that" is worth more than one who says yes to everything.
Looking for a website and want to see how we work? Here's what our new website builds include.