Kenya's web design market ranges from serious agencies to individual freelancers reselling templates. Both can be legitimate options — but picking the wrong one for your situation means a slow, generic site that needs rebuilding within a year. Here's what actually separates a good choice from a bad one.

1. Ask to See Real Results, Not Just Screenshots

Anyone can show you a pretty homepage screenshot. Ask instead: "What happened after this site launched?" A company that tracks and can speak to outcomes — inquiries, load time, bookings — is thinking about your business, not just aesthetics.

2. Check Load Speed on Their Own Portfolio Sites

This one is simple and brutally honest: open their past projects on your phone. If those sites take 5+ seconds to load, that's exactly what your site will feel like too. Speed isn't a "nice to have" — a slow site loses visitors before they ever see your content.

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3. Understand What You're Actually Buying

Get clarity on:

  • Ownership: Do you own the code and domain outright, or are you locked into their platform?
  • Hosting: Is hosting included, and can you move it elsewhere later if you want to?
  • Support window: What happens if something breaks two weeks after launch?
  • Timeline in writing: Vague timelines ("a few weeks") are a common source of frustration — get a written schedule with milestones.

4. Templates Aren't Automatically Bad — But Know What You're Getting

A well-chosen template can be a reasonable budget option for a very simple site. The problem is being sold a template at custom-design prices, or ending up with a site that looks identical to five competitors because it's the same theme with different logos. Ask directly: "Is this custom-built or a template?"

5. Look for Business Thinking, Not Just Design Sense

The best web design partners ask about your customers, your sales process, and your goals before they open a design tool. If a company jumps straight to colors and fonts without asking what the site needs to achieve, that's a sign they're building brochures, not sales tools.

6. Read Between the Lines of Cheap Quotes

An unusually low quote often means: a recycled template, no real testing before launch, no post-launch support, or corners cut on things you won't notice until they cause a problem (security, backups, mobile responsiveness). Compare quotes on scope, not just price.

The Short Version

Choose a company that can show real business outcomes, is transparent about timelines and ownership, and treats your website as a tool for growth rather than a one-off deliverable. That's the difference between a website you're proud of in year one and still using in year three.