How do you choose a software development company in India?

The usual advice — check the portfolio, read the reviews, compare three quotes — is not wrong, but it will not tell you which of three similar proposals you will still be glad of in a year. This guide is written by a software studio, so apply every test in it to us too.

One thing first. If an off-the-shelf product already does what you need, you do not need a development company at all, and a good one will tell you so. Custom CRM or off-the-shelf applies that test to the most common case.

Decide three things before you talk to anyone

The quotes you get back are only as good as what you send out.

The problem, in plain sentences

Who will use the software, what each of them does today, and what goes wrong. Two paragraphs in your own words say more about what the software is for than a feature list copied from a competitor.

The first version

What has to work on day one, and what can wait. A first version that does real work — taking bookings, raising invoices, recording field visits — can be priced and delivered; a complete vision usually cannot.

Who will own what

The code repository, the data, the domain, the hosting account and the app-store accounts. Decide now that all of them will be in your organisation's name, and say so in your first message. It changes the conversation.

How to compare quotes

Quotes rarely describe the same thing, which is why their prices disagree. Check that each answers the same questions before comparing totals.

Line the quotes up against those rows and the price differences usually explain themselves: the lowest number is most often the smallest scope. What decides app development cost goes through the line items in more detail.

Questions to ask, and what a good answer sounds like

Who will actually build it?

You want names, and a conversation with someone who will write the code. Some companies sell with senior people and build with whoever is free; asking is the only way to find out.

Can I see working software you built?

Not screenshots or a slide deck: a site you can open, an app you can install, a demo you can click. Even with confidential client work, they should be able to show something they built.

How do you handle a change in scope?

Every project has changes. A good answer explains how a change is written down, priced and agreed before anyone works on it, so the invoice does not surprise you.

Who owns the code, the data and the accounts?

You, for all of them and without conditions: repository, database, domain, hosting, and the Google Play and App Store developer accounts. Ask for access to the code while it is being written, not only at the end.

What happens at handover?

Credentials, documentation another developer could work from, and every account transferred or already in your name. If you could not move the software to another company the next day, it has not been handed over.

Red flags

• A price before anyone understands the requirement. A confident number after a ten-minute call is a guess, and guesses get corrected upwards.
• No written scope. If it is not written down, nobody can be held to it.
• Vague ownership. "You will get the code" is not the same as the repository in your account, and a domain registered in the agency's name is a common late discovery.
• Everything, at a fixed price, in a short time. A large scope promised in a few weeks means something has been left out of the estimate.
• No access to the code until the end. You should be able to see the software running as it is built, and the code if you ask.
• Reluctance to show working software. Any company that has built software can show you some of it.

Fixed price or time and materials

Both models are honest when they are used for the right kind of work.

Fixed price

A scope and a price are agreed before work begins, so you know what you will pay and the builder carries the risk of the estimate. It works only when the scope has genuinely been worked out; on a vague brief it is either padded or heading for change requests.

Time and materials

You pay for the hours worked at an agreed rate. It suits work whose scope cannot be known in advance, such as research or continuing product development. You carry the risk, so it needs trust, regular reports and a spending limit you set.

A combination

A short scoping phase, a fixed price for the first version, and changes after launch quoted one at a time.

MyFloww works to a fixed price for a fixed scope, agreed before work begins, because most of what businesses commission can be scoped properly and a buyer deserves to know the number. That is our choice, not the only valid one.

Why a paid scoping phase can be worth it

For anything larger than a small, well-understood job, a short, paid discovery phase before the main contract is cheap insurance. Being paid is what makes it real work rather than a sales call: someone studies your process, your data and the systems it must connect to, and writes down what the first version will do.

The output should be a document you own: the scope, the exclusions, the first version and a fixed quote for it. A good one can be taken to any other company for a comparable quote, which is the point. A slide deck is not worth paying for, and for a small project with a clear brief, a careful conversation and a written scope do the same job.

Applying this to us

Hold MyFloww to every question on this page: the people who build your project are the people you speak to, the scope and price are agreed before work begins, and the code, data and accounts are yours. There is work you can open, custom software development sets out how a project runs, and you can tell us what the software has to do.