How to choose a contractor for website development in 2025 and not blow your budget
A situation familiar to many managers: you gave a million rubles to a web studio, waited six months for the release, and at the end you got a website that loads in 6 seconds, crashes when there is an influx of traffic and is completely ignored by search engines.
Website development is not buying a finished product in a store, it is an investment in partnership. A good contractor becomes an extension of your IT department. The bad thing is that it becomes a black hole for the budget.
We at NBM-IT are faced with the need every day modernization and rescue of sitesabandoned by previous developers. Based on this experience, we have formed 6 anti-crisis criteria for choosing a web studio.
1. Expertise is broader than just “design and layout”
The market has long outgrown the “draw beautiful pictures for us” paradigm. The 2025 website is a complex mechanism. If a contractor at a meeting only asks “what colors do you prefer,” you should stress out.
The right integrator must think about business metrics.
What questions should a competent contractor ask you:
- How is your logistics organized? Is integration with SDEK/Mail necessary?
- What CRM do your managers use (Bitrix24, amoCRM, retailCRM)?
- What channels do you plan to attract traffic from? (This directly affects the architecture of landing pages).
- Will there be wholesale prices (B2B account) and synchronization with 1C?
Red flag 🚩: The studio is ready to name the final cost of the project “on the spot”, without holding a pre-project briefing or drawing up a database architecture.
2. Tech Stack Assessment: Proprietary vs Open Source
The choice of CMS and frameworks determines whether you will be “tied” to one studio forever, or will be able to freely change contractors.
Many agencies use their own custom engines (“MySuperStudio.CMS”). It's a trap. If you break your contract with such a studio, not a single third-party programmer will want to understand this code, and you will have to make a website from scratch.
Require a recognized stack:
- For complex E-commerce and B2B portals in Russia: 1C-Bitrix. Maximum security, integration with 1C out of the box, a huge market for programmers.
- For content projects and promotions: WordPress, Strapi.
- For high-load and fast interfaces: Next.js, React, Vue (JAMStack architecture).
B NBM-IT we use a transparent stack and transfer all rights and access to the git repositories to the customer after release.
3. SEO design at the foundation stage
The most fatal mistake: first make a website, and then call an SEO specialist. When delegating development, be sure to check whether the studio has a full-time SEO expert involved in the design.
SEO 2025 is not about meta tags. This is architecture.
Checklist for basic SEO integration into development:
- Formation of the correct URL structure (CNC).
- Optimization of Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) - speed of content delivery.
- Implementation of server-side rendering (SSR) for React/Vue sites so that search engines can see the text.
- Setting up dynamic XML sitemaps and the correct pagination processing strategy (rel="canonical").
- Schema.org micro markup at the program level.
If the studio responds: “We’ll build the website, and then you’ll set up the SEO yourself.” - run. With a 90% probability, you will then have to rewrite half of the templates.
4. Process transparency and dedicated team
Often an agency presents its level using the example of an art director and technical lead. And the real work (code) is given to junior interns.
Immediately clarify the form of interaction:
- Will you be assigned a personal Project Manager (PM)?
- What system is used to track issues (Jira, Trello, Yandex Tracker)?
- Is it dedicated to you?
dev(test) environment where you can watch interim results without breaking the production site? - How often do checkpoints occur (demonstration of finished functionality)?
The good practice of modern project management is to work in short sprints of 2 weeks. You pay and receive tangible, working functionality step by step.
5. Portfolio analysis in your “weight category”
Don't just look at pretty pictures on Dribbble or Behance. A beautiful UI can hide a terrible UX and a slow backend.
Ask the agency to show:
- Websites they made 2-3 years ago and which they continue to support. This is an indicator that the code is viable, and clients did not flee after release.
- Projects with similar functionality (if you need a dealer’s personal account, ask to see the implementation of complex personal accounts, not ice cream promotional sites).
Don’t be lazy and contact business owners from the studio’s portfolio (LTV). One honest review from a real client will provide more information than 10 pages of a commercial proposal.
Development of a complex web project
From idea to scalable code. Leave a request for a preliminary assessment of your project (budget and deadlines).
6. Price and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The cheapest offer at a tender almost always turns out to be the most expensive over a 2-year period. A low starting price often means savings on:
- Analytics and design stage.
- Testing (QA).
- Documenting the code (which will make support impossible).
Always ask detailed estimate (WBS). You should see how many hours are spent on prototyping, design, front-end development and testing.
Compare not the Total number, but TCO (total cost of ownership). Studio “A” will make a website for 500 thousand rubles, but its support will cost 100 thousand monthly because of crutches. Studio “B” (for example, competencies NBM-IT) will offer an architecturally pure solution for 1 million rubles, the support and development of which will cost mere pennies.
Summary
Choosing a contractor for website development is not a sprint, but searching for a reliable partner for a marathon. Look for those who ask uncomfortable questions about your business processes, speak openly about risks, use generally accepted technologies (Bitrix, React) and put SEO requirements into the foundation of the project.
High-quality development pays off in uninterrupted operation and increased conversion.