The Agency Vetting Checklist: 47 Questions to Ask Before You Hire (2026)

What's inside this checklist

Most businesses hire a digital agency based on two things: the quality of the sales pitch and who responds fastest. Neither of those tells you whether the agency can actually deliver your project on time, at budget, and without sub-contracting it to someone you've never met.

This checklist gives you 47 structured questions across 7 vetting categories — so you can evaluate any agency in under 30 minutes, before you sign a contract or hand over a deposit.

Who this is for

• Founders and CTOs hiring a dev, design, or marketing agency for the first time
• Procurement teams evaluating multiple agency vendors for a shortlist
• Business owners who have been burned by a bad agency hire before
• Anyone comparing 3+ agency proposals and needing a consistent scoring framework

The 7 vetting categories covered

1. Team & Ownership — Who actually does the work? (7 questions)
2. Portfolio & Proof — Is their work real and relevant? (7 questions)
3. Process & Communication — How do they run a project? (7 questions)
4. Pricing & Scope — Will the quote hold? (7 questions)
5. References & Reviews — What do real clients say? (7 questions)
6. Contract & IP — Who owns the work after delivery? (6 questions)
7. Red Flags — Dealbreakers to spot before you sign (6 questions)

How to use this checklist

Print or duplicate the checklist for each agency you're evaluating. Score each answer: 2 = Strong answer, 1 = Acceptable, 0 = Weak or evasive. Add up your scores. Any agency below 60 out of 94 should be dropped from your shortlist.

Use it alongside the AgencyOra compare tool to put verified agencies side-by-side before your first call — so you already know which questions matter most for each agency on your shortlist.

Find verified agencies to apply this checklist to

Browse 8,000+ manually verified digital agencies on AgencyOra — filter by category, location, and team size, then contact them directly. No broker, no hidden fees.