How to choose a software house — five questions that filter fast

Nearly every founder chooses on portfolio and price, and both mislead. A portfolio shows what came out at the end rather than who decided what, and when two quotes differ widely the gap is almost always in the scope each understood rather than in margin. This page is five questions that filter fast. We are a software house, so they are worth asking us too.

What should you ask on the first call?

The questions are built so that a general answer is itself an answer. A supplier who has been through this several times replies immediately and in detail; one who has not speaks in generalities.

1. Tell me about a project where you advised a client not to build something. What happened? A specific answer indicates product experience; a general one indicates execution against a specification.
2. Exactly who will work on this, and will I speak to them directly? If the answer is vague now, that is how it will look throughout.
3. What is explicitly out of scope in the quote? The exclusions list reveals more than the inclusions list.
4. What happens if we stop midway — who owns the code and the accounts? The most uncomfortable question to ask and the most important to hear answered without hesitation.
5. What does testing before delivery look like, and what counts as a defect rather than a change?

Why is the fourth question the strongest filter?

Because it touches the place where interests conflict. A supplier who has already been through an orderly separation knows exactly what to say and says it without hesitation. One who sounds surprised, or explains that it is "not relevant because we won't get there", has answered precisely what you asked.

The healthy answer is full ownership of the code and accounts on your side, an orderly handover against payment for work performed, and a short transition document. All the clauses are set out in what to check in a software house contract, and the handover itself in how to hand a project to another team.

What deserves less weight than it gets?

Team size, the technology list, and prior experience in precisely your sector. The first says nothing about how many people work on you, the second overlaps almost entirely between suppliers, and the third sounds important but is usually less decisive than the ability to ask good questions about an unfamiliar domain.

What does deserve weight is whether they asked to see something before naming a price. A supplier who produces a precise quote without asking questions is pricing a guess, and somebody pays the difference between the guess and reality later.

What to check after the call

Ask to speak to a previous client, ideally one whose project finished a year ago rather than one delivered last week. The best question for them is not whether they are satisfied but what went wrong and how it was handled — something goes wrong on every project, and the answer describes the supplier better than any reference.

And what about price?

Only compare quotes written against the same scope document. Sending a verbal description to two suppliers produces two quotes for two different products, and comparing them is meaningless. How to read a quote and what genuinely drives cost is set out in how much app development costs.

And a quote materially cheaper than the others is nearly always a quote for a different scope. Worth asking exactly what it excludes before concluding you found a bargain.