Choosing a website designer you can trust.

None of these is better in every case. The right choice depends on your budget, your timeline and how much you want to be involved.

Freelancer

Strengths: direct contact with the person doing the work, often flexible on scope. Risks: availability depends on one person, and if they become busy or move on, continuity can suffer. Check who holds the logins.

Agency

Strengths: a team with different skills, such as design, writing and development, and a process for larger projects. Risks: a larger bill, usually before launch, and your project may be handled by several people you rarely speak to.

Monthly service

Strengths: no large upfront bill, one price to plan around, and someone looking after the site afterwards. Risks: the payments add up over time, and you should be clear on what is included and how you can leave. That is the model we use, at S$97 a month.

For the wider cost picture, see our page on website design cost in Singapore.

A few direct questions tell you a great deal about how a designer works.

• Will the site be custom-designed for my business, or placed in a ready-made layout?
• How many pages are included, and what happens if I need more?
• Who writes the words and who supplies the photos?
• Will the site work well on a phone, and can customers call or message me in one tap?
• Whose name will the domain be registered in?
• Who publishes and looks after the site after launch, and how do I ask for changes?
• What happens if I want to stop?

Get the answers in writing. If a designer cannot answer clearly, that is useful information before any money changes hands. Our FAQ answers these for Website.sg.

A portfolio should show real work for real businesses, ideally with a link you can visit.

• Live links. Click through. Does the site load quickly, read clearly and work on your phone?
• Range, not repetition. Do the sites look like they were designed for each business, or do they all look alike?
• Clear next steps. Can a visitor easily call, message or enquire?
• Relevance. Look for work close to your own kind of business, while remembering good design travels between industries.

Be cautious of portfolios that show only images and no live sites, or that mix concept designs with client work without saying which is which.

• Guaranteed rankings or customers. Nobody honest can promise these, and we do not.
• A domain registered in the designer's name with no clear way to transfer it.
• Vague scope. "Full website" with no list of pages or features.
• No written terms on payments, changes or cancelling.
• Pressure to decide today. A good designer will let you think.

For a deeper checklist, read our page on website design in Singapore and compare options on website design packages.

With Website.sg you deal with one person, from your first message to launch and beyond. You tell us about your business, we design and build the site, you review it and ask for changes, and we put it live on your own domain. We then publish and look after it.

You can see live websites we have built, including GreatLink Insurance Agency, Susan Batik House, Beît Ballout and Amour Jewellery, in our work. The retail sites there were separate custom projects, so they show our design standard rather than the scope of the S$97 plan, which is for straightforward corporate and service-business websites.

The plan is S$97 a month and covers a custom website, 15+ pages if you need them, mobile-friendly design, call and WhatsApp buttons, your own domain connection and upkeep by us. The domain itself is bought separately in your own name, and ecommerce is not part of the standard plan.