How to Choose a Software Development Company in South Africa

Ask what they would not build

A partner worth having will sometimes tell you that a configuration change or an off-the-shelf tool solves your problem more cheaply than a build. A supplier who agrees to everything is selling hours, not outcomes.

Insist on a written scope and a fixed number

Vague scope is where projects die. You want the deliverables, the exclusions, the assumptions and the price in writing before work starts, plus an agreed process for handling changes.

Settle ownership and access up front

Confirm in writing that you own the code, the domain, the hosting account and the data. If the developer holds any of those, leaving becomes an expensive negotiation.

• Who owns the source code and where is it stored?
• Whose name is the domain and hosting registered in?
• How is the database exported if we move?
• What is documented at handover?

Ask how support works after launch

Delivery is the easy part. Ask about response times, who fixes bugs found after handover, what a change request costs and how long they keep the project's context available to you.

Warning signs

Quotes with no detail, no discovery before pricing, refusal to give references, insisting on hosting you cannot access, and pressure to sign before the scope is defined.