Begin with proven experience, not the size of the portfolio. Request a couple of projects that sit close to your technology stack, difference between laravel and wordpress then ask who actually wrote that code. A serious vendor is happy to connect you with the tech lead. Evasive answers at this stage usually mean you are talking to a reseller.

The contract warrants a slower read than the pitch. A few clauses carry most of the weight: ownership of the code, confidentiality, and termination and handover. Every artifact has to transfer to you once invoices are settled, together with designs, scripts and minimum viable product development company infrastructure configuration. Be careful with language that keeps framework code in the vendor's hands, since that is often exactly the piece that locks you in.

Ask where their numbers come from. An honest estimate is accompanied by a written set of assumptions, a breakdown by feature or module and a range rather than a single number. A fixed-bid deal works only when the specification is complete; otherwise the vendor adds a risk premium and you fund the buffer regardless. Hourly billing shifts that risk to you, so it requires a cap, regular demos and transparent reporting.

Process matters more than the number of developers. Find out how change requests are handled, who writes the acceptance criteria and how quality assurance works. A mature team should be able to walk you through a live build at the end of each sprint. Acceptance criteria in writing are your only real protection against an argument at delivery time.

Last, think about the handover before it becomes urgent. Ask that the source repository sits in your organisation from the beginning, and that the documentation is refreshed in every sprint. A provider confident in its own work says yes immediately; resistance at this point reveals a great deal.