Five questions to ask before you let anyone build your website.
Most people choose who builds their website on two things: price and speed. Both feel sensible, and both miss the thing that decides whether the site becomes an asset or a liability, which is what happens after it is built. Here are five questions that surface that, before you have handed over any money. You do not need to know how websites work to ask them.
For anyone about to get a website or app built, by a freelancer, an agency, or with AI. Ask these first.
The question most people ask is the wrong one
"Who is cheapest and quickest?" is easy to compare, so it is the question most buyers lead with. It is also the question anyone can win by cutting the corners you cannot see, the ones that only show up months later. A better question, and the one this list is built around, is simpler: who will still be here when it breaks? Everything below is a way of asking that without needing to understand a line of code.
1. Who owns it?
The code, the domain name and every account the site depends on. A good answer is that all of it will be in your name, yours to keep and to take elsewhere. A worrying answer is that it lives on their account, their builder or their domain, and you cannot get into any of it without them. If you do not own it, you are renting your own website.
2. Where does it actually live?
Ask where the site is hosted, and whether you can log in to that hosting yourself. A good answer is hosting you control and can move if you ever need to. A worrying answer is a platform or a login only they hold, so the day you part ways, the site can go with them.
3. What happens when it breaks?
Not if, when. Sites break: an update, a payment error, a form that stops sending. A good answer tells you plainly who fixes it, how you reach them, and how quickly. A worrying answer is a shrug, or the confident "it will not break", which only means they have not thought about the day it does.
4. Who do I call in two years?
The site is not finished on launch day, it needs looking after for as long as you use it. A good answer is someone who plans to still be here, and offers support beyond the build. A worrying answer is someone who will have moved on to the next thing by the time you need a small change, leaving you to start the search again.
5. What if you disappear?
People move on, and that is fine, as long as someone else can pick the site up. A good answer is that it is built with standard tools, is documented, and holds nothing only they understand. A worrying answer is a black box built the way that suits them, so that no one else can safely touch it. That is the exact thing that turns a working website into an orphaned one.
Why these matter more than ever
More people than ever can produce something that looks finished in an afternoon, with a website builder or an AI tool. Far fewer can keep it alive once real visitors, search engines and payments arrive. The gap between "looks done" and "stays working" has never been wider, which is exactly why the questions about what happens after the build now matter more than the price of the build itself.
How we answer them
In case it is useful as a benchmark, here is how we answer our own five. You own everything, in your name. It lives on hosting you control. When it breaks, you call us, and we fix it. We plan to be here in two years, and for the years after. And nothing is a black box: it is built with standard tools that anyone competent could pick up. It is the same standard we hold ourselves to on our own product, TradeBooked, which we have run in production since 2025. See it in action.
And if you are reading this too late, having already hired someone who fails these questions, that is not a lost cause. Getting your site back into your name and properly looked after is exactly our website and software adoption service.
Common questions
Is it rude to ask a developer these questions?
No, and a good one will be glad you asked. It is the same as asking a builder about guarantees before they start on your house. Anyone who bristles at these questions has just told you something useful.
I have already hired someone and cannot answer these. What now?
That is common, and it is fixable. Getting the code, the hosting and the accounts back into your name, and keeping the site running afterwards, is exactly what our website and software adoption service does. You do not need the original builder's help to start.
Do these questions apply to a website built with AI?
Especially then. AI can produce a website that looks finished in an afternoon. These questions are about who keeps it alive once real users, search and payments arrive, which is the part AI does not do for you.