Choose the agency that asks the most questions about your customers, shows results from real client projects, and gives you a fixed price with a clear timeline before any work starts. A beautiful portfolio alone tells you very little. What matters is whether the agency can explain why its websites bring enquiries, and whether you own everything when the project ends.
This checklist is what we would want to know if we were hiring an agency ourselves. Use it to compare offers side by side.
1. Look at results, not only at screenshots
Every agency shows nice designs. Ask what happened after launch: more enquiries, more bookings, better Google rankings. A good agency can name numbers for at least some projects, and can tell you which projects had no measurable change and why.
Example from our work: Art Quartal Tattoo, a premium studio in Stuttgart, had no visibility on Google. In an eight-week project we built a bilingual website with a booking flow and a local SEO foundation. The studio now ranks for more than 40 first-page keywords and gets four times as many bookings.
If an agency cannot tell you what changed for its clients, assume nothing measurable did.
2. Ask how they find out what to say
The biggest difference between agencies is not design skill. It is what happens before the design. Ask:
- Do you interview me about my customers before you design?
- Do you analyse my competitors? How many, and on which criteria?
- Who writes the headlines and the copy?
An agency that starts with colours and templates will build a site that says what your competitors already say. Then customers compare you on price. On our projects, design starts only after a 60–90 minute interview and an analysis of up to 10 competitors on 9 criteria. You can see the full process here.
3. Get a fixed price and a timeline in writing
Hourly billing for a website is a risk for you, not for the agency. Ask for a fixed price that lists what is included: number of pages, copy, SEO basics, forms, languages and revision rounds. Typical prices for a professional small business website in Austria are between €1,500 for a landing page and about €6,000 for a larger site with ongoing SEO. Our price guide shows what each level includes.
Also ask for the timeline. A landing page can be live in about 10 days, a multi-page website in about 30.
4. Make sure you own everything
This is the question most agencies hope you won’t ask. Before you sign, get clear answers to these:
- Domain: Is the domain registered in your name?
- Hosting: Can you move the website to another provider without paying a handover fee?
- Access: Do you get admin access to the website, analytics and Google Search Console?
- Content: Do you own the texts, images and design files?
- Changes: Can you edit texts, images and prices yourself, or does every change cost money?
If any answer is “no” or “it depends”, ask why. Lock-in is the most common reason small businesses stay with an agency they are unhappy with.
5. Check the Austrian basics
A website for an Austrian business has legal requirements that a foreign template provider will not handle for you:
- Impressum with the information required for Austrian companies
- Privacy policy and cookie banner that follow the GDPR, with analytics loading only after consent
- Self-hosted fonts. Loading Google Fonts from Google’s servers sends visitor IP addresses to Google. A German court ruled this a GDPR breach in 2022.
- Accessibility. The European Accessibility Act has applied since June 2025 and is implemented in Austria through the Barrierefreiheitsgesetz. If you sell to consumers online, your website may have to be accessible. Micro-enterprises with fewer than 10 employees and less than €2 million turnover are exempt for services, but accessible websites are easier for everyone to use anyway.
Ask the agency how it handles each of these. A vague answer is a warning sign.
6. Talk to the person who will do the work
In many large agencies you meet a salesperson, and a junior designer builds your site. Ask who will work on your project, and talk to them before you sign. In a small studio you usually work directly with the person who designs and builds the website, which makes decisions faster and the result more personal.
7. Ask what happens after launch
A website is never finished. Ask:
- How long is support included after launch?
- Will you show me how to edit the site myself?
- What do monthly SEO or maintenance cost, and can I cancel?
We include 30 days of support and a video tutorial so you can edit texts, images and prices yourself. Monthly SEO is optional and starts at €390 per month.
Our opinion
If you only have time to check one thing, check the process. An agency that asks deep questions about your customers before it designs anything will almost always build a better website than one with a more impressive portfolio. The second thing to check is ownership: never sign a contract that keeps your domain or website hostage.
FAQ
How to choose a web design agency in Austria?
Compare at least three agencies on five points: results from real client projects, a research-first process, a fixed price with a timeline, full ownership of domain and content, and support after launch. Choose the one that asks the most questions about your customers.
Where can I find professional web design services in Austria?
Search for “web design agency” plus your city, check Google reviews and case studies, and ask other local business owners whose websites you like. Many small studios, like ours in Vienna, work with clients across Austria and Germany online.
How much does a web design agency in Vienna cost?
For a professional small business website, expect between €1,500 and €6,000. The price depends mainly on the number of pages, the research and copy work, and features like online booking or multiple languages.
Should I choose a big agency or a small studio?
A big agency suits large projects that need many specialists at once. For most small and medium businesses, a small studio is faster and more personal, and you usually pay less for the same result because there is less overhead.
Want to see how your current website compares? Get a free 10-minute video review of your site with the three changes that would bring the most enquiries.
