Kolkata has hundreds of agencies and freelancers who will build you a website. Most businesses choose on price and a portfolio PDF, and many regret it within a year. Here is the checklist we would use if we were the buyer.
1. Verify the portfolio is real and live
Screenshots prove nothing. Ask for links to live websites the company built, then open them on your phone. Check speed, check whether they work on mobile, and if a listed client is real, consider calling them. A company proud of its work will make this easy. We list ours publicly on our work page for exactly this reason.
2. Confirm you will own everything
The single most common trap in this market: the agency registers the domain in their name, keeps the code, and hosts the site on their account. You are not buying a website, you are renting one, and leaving them later becomes hostage negotiation. Get it in writing that the domain, the code, and the content are yours at the end.
3. Ask the security question and listen carefully
Ask one simple question: how will you secure the site and the customer data it collects? A serious builder talks about HTTPS everywhere, secure forms, dependency updates, backups, and what happens after launch. A weak one says do not worry, we handle it. If the site will take enquiries, logins, or payments, this answer matters more than the design.
4. Get the scope in writing
- Exactly which pages and features are included
- Who writes the content and supplies images
- How many revision rounds are included
- What launch includes: domain, hosting, SSL, analytics, search indexing
- What maintenance costs after launch, and what it covers
5. Judge communication in the first week
How a company communicates during the sales conversation is the best version of how it will communicate ever. Slow, vague replies before you pay become slower and vaguer after. Clear scope, straight numbers, and honest timelines early are the strongest signal you can get.
The five questions to ask every shortlisted company
- Can you show me three live sites you built, and may I contact one of those clients?
- Will I own the domain, code, and content outright at handover?
- How do you secure the site and the data it collects?
- What exactly is in scope, and what costs extra?
- Who maintains the site after launch, and at what cost?
If you want the numbers side of this decision, read our honest guide to what a website costs in Kolkata in 2026, published on this blog. And if you want our answers to the five questions above, ask us directly. We are AEGIBIT, a cybersecurity-first web and software company in Kolkata, and we publish our work, our ownership terms, and our security posture in the open.