What should decision-makers evaluate before choosing a custom development partner?

Decision-makers should evaluate a custom development partner on five criteria: technical portfolio depth in the relevant stack (not just visual case studies but evidence of backend complexity and integration work), development process documentation (do they use Git, maintain a staging environment, write technical specs, and conduct code reviews), post-launch support terms (what is covered, at what SLA, and at what cost), client references who can speak to on-time delivery and communication quality, and IP ownership terms in the contract (the business should own all code, not license it from the agency).

Requesting a technical architecture proposal before signing a contract reveals how deeply the partner has understood the requirements and whether their approach is appropriate for the scale and complexity of the project. Partners who skip this step and move directly to timeline and cost estimates without architectural discussion are likely to surface hidden complexity mid-project, where change requests are most expensive.