How to choose a design agency: a checklist for startups

Choose a design agency by checking four things in order: work for companies at your stage and in your category, who will do the work, how the agency scopes and prices, and what the contract says about ownership and exits. Verified reviews and one reference call settle most of what’s left. The checklist below turns that into questions to ask on a first call, with the answers that should reassure you and the ones that should worry you.

Before you shortlist: know what you’re buying

Most bad agency choices start before the first call. The founder hasn’t decided whether they need a one-off project, ongoing support or a hire, so every agency pitches something different and nothing is comparable.

Decide three things first:

• The outcome. A brand that holds up in a Series A process, a site that converts enterprise buyers, a launch that gets attention. Write it down.
• The shape of the work. One project with an end date, or continuous work across brand, web, product and launches. If you’re unsure, read design agency vs freelancer vs in-house and design subscription vs design partner.
• The brief. One to three pages that every candidate gets. Our design brief template is a starting point.

The checklist: questions to ask a design agency

Use this on the first call. You don’t need every row. The first six are the ones that separate agencies fastest.

Area	Ask	Good answer	Red flag
Relevance	“Show me work for companies at our stage and in our category.”	Two or three close examples, with what changed for the client	Only big-brand logos, or work from a different category
Results	“What happened after this launched?”	Specific outcomes, ideally in the client’s words	“The client loved it” and nothing else
People	“Who will work on our project, and who did this case?”	Named people, the same ones you met	Senior people on the call, unnamed juniors on the files
Process	“What happens in the first two weeks?”	A strategy and direction phase before production	Straight to design comps
Questions	Did they ask about your buyers, goals and constraints?	Many questions before any price	A price without a single question
Scope	“What’s included, line by line?”	Strategy, design, development, copy, motion, QA, handover all stated	“Everything you need”
Price	“How do you price, and what changes it?”	Fixed price per written scope, changes approved in writing	Open-ended hourly with no cap
Timeline	“How do you plan around our date?”	A schedule worked back from your date, agreed at kickoff	“We’ll see how it goes”
Feedback	“How many rounds, and who decides?”	Clear rounds and a small decision group	Unlimited revisions, which usually means no plan
Ownership	“Who owns the final files and source?”	You do, on payment, with a written assignment	Vague, or licensing your own brand back to you
Exit	“What if the direction isn’t right?”	A defined point where you can stop and keep the work	Full fee owed regardless
After launch	“What happens in month two?”	Handover, documentation, optional ongoing support	Nothing, or lock-in

How to read a portfolio

A portfolio shows taste and craft. It rarely shows judgment. When you look at case studies, check:

• Stage and category. Work for funded tech companies is a different job from work for local businesses or global consumer brands.
• The problem. Does the case say what wasn’t working before? An agency that can explain the problem can usually solve yours.
• The system. One beautiful hero image is easy. Look for the identity applied across product, web, deck and social.
• The outcome. Numbers, quotes or what the client did next. “Delivered on time” is something, and a result in the client’s words is more.

Ask to see one project that didn’t go to plan and what they changed afterwards. The answer tells you how they’ll behave when yours hits a problem.

How to check reviews

Reviews on an agency’s own site are curated. Third-party reviews are harder to fake. Clutch, for example, requires reviewers to log in with LinkedIn, Google or a company email, has human editors check reviews before they’re published and says it rejected 10% of submitted reviews in 2025 for signs of falsified information. Verified reviews carry a badge on the profile.

A few reviews with specific details are worth more than many short ones. Read for the things that matter to you: schedule, communication, how changes were handled. Then ask for one reference call with a client at a similar stage.

What the contract must cover

The contract is where good intentions become enforceable. Check for these:

• Ownership. Under US copyright law, a commissioned work by an outside contractor is only a work made for hire if it falls into one of nine specific categories and both sides sign a written agreement saying so. A logo or website usually needs an explicit assignment clause instead. Make sure you get one, and that it covers source files.
• Third-party assets. Fonts, stock imagery, music and plugins stay under their own licenses. The agency should list them and tell you what you need to buy.
• Scope and change control. A written scope with a fixed price, and a rule that changes are approved in writing before work starts.
• Payment schedule. Deposits and milestones tied to deliverables, not dates alone.
• Exit terms. What you owe and what you keep if you stop early.

AIGA’s Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services, last updated in 2020, is a useful reference for what a design contract can cover. Have a lawyer review anything you sign.

How should you compare prices?

Compare scope first and totals second. Clutch’s 2026 web design data puts typical US agency rates at $100–$149 per hour, which means two quotes at very different totals are usually pricing very different amounts of work. Ask each agency to break the quote into strategy, design, development, content and motion. If one quote is far cheaper, find the line that’s missing.

For typical ranges by project type, see how much a startup website costs, how much a rebrand costs and how much a launch video costs.

Red flags worth walking away over

• They quote without asking about your buyers or goals.
• They won’t say who will do the work.
• Every case study is a logo wall with no problem or result.
• The contract is vague on ownership or has no exit.
• They promise unlimited revisions and an unrealistic date in the same breath.
• They agree with everything in your brief. A good agency pushes back on at least one assumption.

How does Alterra Studio answer this checklist?

We’d rather you hold us to it. Our case studies name the client, the problem and the result, in the client’s words or from verified reviews, such as the OMNI launch film and the TICKIZ brand identity. We hold a 5.0 rating on Clutch from three verified reviews. The people you meet are the people who do the work, and our about page names them.

Every written scope includes the same commitments. Each project starts with a strategy and direction phase, and if the direction isn’t right you can stop there, keep that work and owe nothing more. The price in the scope is the price, and it only changes if you approve a change in writing. Once paid, the final deliverables made for you are yours, with organized source files. Fonts, stock and other third-party assets stay under their own licenses.

Our starting prices are on our pricing page. For ongoing work, see the Design Partnership. If you’re building an AI product, see how we work with AI companies. Our glossary defines the terms agencies tend to use without explaining.

The short version

• Decide the outcome, the shape of the work and the brief before you shortlist.
• Start with relevance, results, the people doing the work and the process. Those four separate agencies fastest.
• Trust third-party verified reviews over curated testimonials, and make one reference call.
• Get ownership, third-party assets, change control and exit terms in writing.
• Compare quotes by scope, line by line, before comparing totals.

Shortlisting now? Book a 30-minute call and run this checklist on us, or take the free Brand & Website Scorecard to sharpen the brief first.

Sources

Checked October 2, 2026.

• Clutch, Methodology and review verification.
• US Copyright Office, Circular 30: Works Made for Hire (revised August 2024).
• AIGA, Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services (updated 2020).
• Clutch, Web Design Company Pricing Guide 2026 (published January 30, 2025).