By Andrew Armstrong 
Handing design or development work to an outside studio is normal practice, but the studio has to actually exist and have done the work it claims. It’s easy to end up with a shortlist built from marketing copy rather than verified track records, agency names that don’t show up anywhere else once you look past the referring page. This is the checklist to run before you sign anything or send a deposit.
None of this takes long. Most of it is free, and most of it fits into the hour before a first call.
Quick Facts
- A company registry search (Companies House in the UK, the relevant Secretary of State register in the US) takes under two minutes and confirms the business is real and how long it’s actually been trading.
- A portfolio piece you can’t find anywhere else online, no case study, no named client, no press mention, is a red flag on its own.
- A domain registered in the last 12 months paired with a “trusted since 2010” claim is a mismatch worth asking about directly.
- Reverse image search on team photos and project screenshots catches stock photography and lifted portfolios in seconds.
- A vendor that won’t provide two contactable references, not just a testimonial quote on their own site, isn’t ready to be trusted with production work.
Confirm the business actually exists
Start with the company registry. In the UK, Companies House is free and shows incorporation date, filing history and named directors. In the US, check the relevant state’s Secretary of State business search. If the “studio” isn’t registered anywhere and trades only as a brand name with no legal entity behind it, that’s already worth pausing on.
Then check the domain itself. A WHOIS lookup shows the registration date, which you can compare against any “since” claim on the site:
whois studio-domain.com | grep -i "creation date"A studio claiming fifteen years in business on a domain registered eight months ago isn’t automatically fraudulent, they may have rebranded, but it’s a specific question worth asking rather than letting slide.
Verify the portfolio is actually theirs
- Ask for the live, shipped product, not just mockups or a PDF case study. If it’s software or a game, ask to see it running.
- Search for the project independently. A genuine client project usually has a footprint beyond the vendor’s own site, a store listing, a press mention, a credit somewhere.
- Reverse image search key screenshots (Google Images or TinEye). This catches stock assets and portfolio pieces copied from someone else’s site faster than almost anything else on this list.
- Ask which named person on the proposed team actually worked on a specific piece. Vague answers here are informative.
Check references properly
A testimonial quote on the vendor’s own site is marketing copy, not a reference. Ask for two contacts you can email or call directly, then actually ask them: did the delivered work match the quote, was communication reliable mid-project, and would they hire the studio again. Be cautious if every reference replies from what looks like the same generic email pattern, or if none of them can be reached at all.
Red flags in the first few exchanges
| Red flag | What it usually means |
| Pressure for 100% payment upfront | No stake left in finishing the work once paid |
| No named point of contact | Structure designed to make accountability harder later |
| Portfolio exists only on their own site | Can’t be independently verified |
| Generic, copy-pasted proposal | Not actually scoped against your brief |
| Refuses a written contract or NDA | No legal recourse if the engagement goes wrong |
Get the contract and payment structure right
Tie payment to milestones and deliverables, not to time elapsed. A typical split is a modest deposit, a payment at an agreed mid-point deliverable, and the balance on final acceptance. Put IP ownership in writing: confirm you own the code and assets on completion and payment, not just a licence to use them. If the vendor will touch your systems or customer data, get an NDA and data-handling terms signed before access is granted, not after. Where practical, have code delivered into a repository you control (a private GitHub or Azure DevOps org you own, with the vendor added as a collaborator) rather than handed over as a zip file at the end. It gives you a running history of the work, not just the finished result.
Frequently asked questions
Is a slick, professional-looking website enough to trust a studio?
No. Treat website polish as presentation, not evidence. A registry check, a verifiable portfolio and contactable references tell you far more than design quality does, and they cost nothing to check.
What if the studio is a genuine new business without much history yet?
A short trading history isn’t automatically a red flag, everyone starts somewhere. It just means the other checks matter more: verified team members, contactable references from whatever work they have done, and a milestone-based contract so your exposure stays small early on.
How many references should I actually contact?
Two, minimum, contacted directly rather than through the vendor’s preferred channel. If a vendor can only offer one, or insists on being copied into the conversation, treat that as part of the answer.
I’ve already paid a deposit and now have doubts. What now?
Stop further payment immediately and run the checks above if you haven’t already. Request everything delivered so far in writing, check whether your payment method (card chargeback, PayPal buyer protection) still covers a dispute, and don’t grant any further system or data access until you’re satisfied.
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