How to hire a software agency
Eight checks that separate a partner from an invoice, and why the pricing model matters more than the portfolio.
The short answer
Work through eight checks before hiring a software agency: ownership of code and data, fixed scope pricing rather than hourly, a delivery window committed in weeks, named people doing the work, a known price for change requests, defined post-launch support, reporting you can read yourself, and a clean exit that leaves you the working system.
Decide What You Are Actually Buying
Three very different businesses call themselves software agencies. Staffing shops sell you hours and hand back whatever those hours produced. Template shops sell you a familiar layout with your logo on it. Platform builders sell you a system your business runs on. All three quote in dollars, so the first job is working out which one is in front of you.
The Eight Checks Worth Doing
Work through these in order. Any one of them failing is a conversation. Three failing is an answer.
| Check | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Ownership | You own the code, the data and the accounts, in writing. |
| Pricing model | A fixed scope with a fixed price, not an open hourly meter. |
| Delivery window | Committed in weeks, with what lands in each one. |
| Who does the work | Named people, not a pool you never meet. |
| Change process | A known price for a change request before you need one. |
| After launch | Support and updates defined, not sold back later. |
| Reporting | You can see traffic, leads and revenue without asking them. |
| Exit | You can leave and take the working system with you. |
Judge the Process, Not the Portfolio
Screenshots prove someone can produce a nice page. They prove nothing about how the project will be run. Ask how the last engagement went wrong and what changed afterwards. Ask what happens in week four if a decision is late on your side. The answers tell you far more than a gallery does, because every build hits friction and the process is what carries it through.
The cheapest agency and the most expensive agency both cost you the same thing when the build stalls.
Time. Price the delay, not just the invoice.
Where Hourly Billing Goes Wrong
Hourly rates put you and the builder on opposite sides. Every efficiency they find costs them money, and every complication pays them. Fixed scope for a fixed price reverses that. It also forces the hard conversation about what the project includes to happen before anyone has spent your budget, which is exactly where it belongs.
How We Run It
A discovery call of 45 to 60 minutes, then a written recommendation and price within 7 to 10 days. Builds run 2 to 8 weeks depending on scope. The platform is yours, the ongoing cost is a monthly subscription rather than a per-tool stack, and updates continue after launch instead of arriving as a new proposal. Matthias Moore, who has worked in technology for 32 years and in AI since 2017, runs the discovery calls himself.
Hire the agency that tells you what could go wrong. The one promising a smooth build has either not done many, or is not telling you about them.
From the people who build these
The engagements that go wrong almost never fail on technical skill. They fail because scope, change pricing and ownership were left informal at the start and became disputes later.
There's a better way.
Most of these checks are really about visibility: can you see the work, the numbers and the system without going through the agency each time. That is a platform question.
Want to run these checks on us?
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