How to choose a web design agency in Prague (without getting burned)
Every agency shows a polished portfolio. Here’s how to test what’s behind it in ten minutes, plus quote red flags, ownership questions, and when a freelancer is the smarter pick.
Prague has hundreds of web agencies, and every single one has a beautiful portfolio. Screenshots are cheap. The useful news: almost everything that actually matters about an agency is publicly checkable before you book a single call. Here is the checklist we’d run ourselves, including the parts that make agencies squirm.
Portfolio forensics: test their work yourself
Don’t admire the portfolio. Measure it. This takes ten minutes and requires no technical skill:
- Pick three live sites from their portfolio, ideally launched in the last two years. If the portfolio is all images with no links to live sites, that’s already an answer.
- Run each one through PageSpeed Insights at pagespeed.web.dev. Look at the mobile tab: that’s what Google ranks by and what most of your visitors will use.
- Open the sites on your phone, on mobile data, not office Wi-Fi. Count the seconds before you can read something.
- Check the sites are still online. Dead links in a portfolio tell you how the agency treats projects after the invoice clears.
What the numbers mean:
| Metric (mobile) | Good sign | Walk-away sign |
|---|---|---|
| Performance score | 90–100 | below 50 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | under 2.5 s | over 4 s |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | under 0.1 | over 0.25 |
An agency that says “we build fast websites” while its own showcase scores 42 on mobile has told you everything. And test claims against reality in both directions: our portfolio pieces are honest showcase builds (what we’d build for each industry, labelled as such), and we expect you to run them through the exact same test.
One more forensic trick: check who actually built the sites they show. Footer credits, a quick look at the page source, or simply asking “was this done in-house?” Larger agencies routinely outsource production and keep only account management in Prague.
Quote red flags that predict problems
You’ll usually collect two or three quotes. Before comparing prices, scan each one for these patterns, which predict how the whole project will go:
- One lump sum, no line items. You can’t compare it, you can’t trim scope from it, and any dispute later becomes “that was never included”.
- “SEO included” with nothing measurable. Ask what specifically: a speed target? Structured data? Sitemap and hreflang? If the answer boils down to “we fill in meta tags”, it’s decoration, not SEO.
- 100% payment upfront. A 30–50% deposit is normal in Prague; full prepayment moves all the risk to you.
- A proprietary CMS you can’t export from. Ask directly: “If we part ways, what do I leave with?” The answer should be a complete, working site, not a database dump you can’t use.
- “Unlimited revisions.” Sounds generous, means the scope was never defined. And an undefined scope makes the timeline fiction.
- A quote produced in an hour without a single question about your customers, your competitors, or what the site is supposed to achieve. They’re quoting a template, whatever the proposal says.
Fixed price, or “estimate”?
Prague agencies bill one of two ways, and the difference matters more than the hourly rate.
A fixed price makes sense when the scope is definable, and for a presentation site or a standard e-shop, it always is: list the pages, the unique layouts, the features, the languages, and put a number next to the total. Insist on a short written spec attached to the price; two pages is enough.
An estimate billed hourly (typically CZK 800–1,800/hour in Prague in 2026) is legitimate for ongoing product development, where scope genuinely evolves. For a greenfield website, an “estimate” simply transfers budget risk from the agency to you, the party less equipped to control it.
The rule of thumb: if the scope fits on two pages, demand a fixed price. It’s why we publish our price list (presentation sites from CZK 25,000, e-shops from CZK 60,000) instead of asking you to book a discovery call to learn a number.
The ownership test
More Prague businesses lose their websites to their own agencies than to hackers. Not through malice, usually, but through accounts opened in the wrong name. Verify before signing:
| Asset | Should be registered to | How to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | You | WHOIS lookup; for .cz domains, nic.cz |
| Hosting account | You (agency gets access) | Ask whose name and billing details are on it |
| Source code and design | You, after final payment | It must say so in the contract, in writing |
| Analytics & Search Console | Your Google account | You add the agency as a user, never the reverse |
If any answer is “it’s under us, but don’t worry”, then worry. And run one check on the agency itself: every legitimate Czech company has an IČO you can look up in the public ARES register. Thirty seconds tells you how long they’ve existed and whether the entity on your contract is the one on their website.
Seven questions to ask, and the answers you want
- “Who will actually build my site?” You want a name and a portfolio, not a department. At larger agencies you talk to sales and the work lands with juniors or subcontractors.
- “What’s the mobile PageSpeed score of the last site you launched?” You want a number. “We optimise everything” is not a number.
- “What will the site cost me monthly in year two?” Hosting, licences, updates: get it itemised. For reference, our hosting runs from CZK 150/month and care plans from CZK 2,500/month; anything quoted at zero means the cost is hidden somewhere else.
- “What do you need from me, and by when?” Good agencies hand you a content deadline, because late texts and photos cause most delays. With content ready, 2–4 weeks to launch is realistic for a presentation site.
- “What exactly do I own the day after the final invoice?” The only acceptable answer: everything (domain, hosting, code, content, analytics).
- “Why this technology for my project?” You want reasoning tied to your case: Shoptet for a standard Czech e-shop that needs Zásilkovna and Comgate out of the box; a hand-coded static site where speed and low upkeep matter most, the approach behind our web design work; custom development only where features truly demand it.
- “What is not included?” An honest exclusion list beats an all-inclusive promise every time. If nothing is excluded, nothing was thought through.
Any agency worth hiring answers all seven in writing, without being chased.
When a freelancer is the better choice
An honest checklist admits this: sometimes you shouldn’t hire an agency at all.
Choose a freelancer when the budget is under roughly CZK 20,000, you need a single landing page, you already have texts and photos, and you can manage the project yourself. A good freelancer beats a mediocre agency every time, and at half the price.
Choose a studio or agency when the project involves multiple languages, an e-shop with payment and shipping integrations, hard deadlines with contractual weight, or when you need someone answerable in two years, not just at launch.
The real freelancer risk isn’t skill. It’s continuity. Ask what happens when they’re on holiday, fully booked, or change careers. If the answer is a shrug, price that in. Small senior studios exist precisely in this gap: the people quoting are the people building, but there’s a company behind the contract.
Run your shortlist through it, including us
Apply the whole list ruthlessly and to everyone: test the speed of each agency’s own site, demand line items, check the IČO, ask the seven questions. We built Prahapp to pass this exact checklist, so we’re happy to be measured by it. If you’d like to see how we answer for your specific project, describe it in two sentences, and you’ll have real numbers within 24 hours.