A portfolio and a price list tell you less about a studio than the way it answers uncomfortable questions. Below is what we suggest checking, even if you end up choosing someone else.
What to check before the call
Live projects, not just pictures: open the sites from the portfolio and see whether they still work today.
Whether any of the work matches your task in complexity, not only in industry.
Public contacts, a legal entity and a contract — a basic check that removes most of the risk.
What to ask on the call
What the estimate consists of and what will cost extra.
Who exactly runs the project and who you will be talking to.
Whose accounts the domain, hosting and ad platforms are registered under.
What happens after launch: support, fixes, handover of the source code.
What should worry you
An exact price before the task is discussed, a refusal to fix stages in the contract, reluctance to hand over accounts and source code, and timelines noticeably shorter than the market. The last one almost always means a template sold as custom development.
A healthy studio answers all of this calmly and does not read it as distrust. If you have to pull the answers out — that is the signal itself.