Ownership
Website red flags: how to spot a bad deal
Most bad website deals are not scams. They are ordinary arrangements that quietly cost you control, and they all sound reasonable when someone says them out loud.
Here is what I would listen for if someone were quoting me.
"We'll handle the domain for you."
Handling it is fine. Registering it in their own name is not. Ask, in plain words: will the domain be in my name, with my email on it?
A monthly fee with no itemisation
Monthly is not a red flag. Monthly with no explanation is. Ask what the money buys: hosting? backups? changes? security patches? If nobody can tell you what stops if you stop paying, you are paying for the fear of finding out.
No number until after the meeting
Some projects genuinely need scoping. A five-page site for a plumber does not. If a firm will not give you a range over the phone, the range is usually "as much as we think you have."
"You won't need to touch it."
Said as reassurance, this usually means you can't touch it. A site you cannot update is a site that will be wrong within a year — old hours, a dead phone number, a staff member who left.
The build is cheap and the exit is expensive
Ask the exit question early: if I want to leave in two years, what do I take with me? A good answer is "the domain, the files, and your content." A bad answer is a pause.
Design mockups that are not your business
If the samples are stock photography of people in cities that are not yours, doing work that is not yours, you are looking at a template with your name typed into it. That can be fine at the right price. It is not fine at a custom price.
The one that is not a red flag
Being a single person rather than an agency is not a red flag by itself — but it does mean you should ask about the bus problem. Where do the files live, and could someone else pick them up? Anyone honest has thought about it.
You do not need to be suspicious to ask these. Ask them cheerfully. Anyone doing the work properly will be glad you did.