How to choose a website developer for your clinic or gym

Open their last site on a mid range phone, on mobile data, not on office wifi. If it takes eight to ten seconds, keep walking.

That is the whole hiring test. The rest of this page is the questions that catch a pretty, slow page before you pay for one. I am one person in New Delhi who builds websites for shops in Delhi NCR. The floor on the pricing page is Rs 30,000. That is this studio’s number, not an industry rule, and I will not dress it up as one.

Run the phone test first

A dental clinic owner in Green Park and a gym owner in Dwarka hire the same kind of person for the same kind of failure. Someone searched on a mid range Android. The page was still loading when they tapped the next result. People leave after three seconds.

Ask for a URL they shipped, not a Figma file. Open it on your own phone, on Jio or Airtel, standing where your patients actually stand. Time it. If you need a stopwatch you already know the answer.

Most of the clinic sites I have timed fail this. Nine clinic pages: 8.8s, 2.4 MB, 54. Sample: 1.7s, 89 KB, 100. Those are measurements of those pages. I will not turn them into a promise about a site I have not seen.

If they say “it is fast on desktop”, they have not done the job. Your patient is not on desktop. Your trial enquiry is not on desktop. The person who builds for the office monitor is building for themselves.

Ask who owns the domain

Before you pay, ask whose name the domain is registered in. Ask where the hosting login lives. Ask who can download the files.

If the answer is “we keep that for you”, you do not have a site. You have a subscription to someone else’s page. The day you want to leave, you discover the name, the email and the Tuesday hours are locked behind an invoice.

Who builds websites for small businesses in Delhi is the person page. This page is the questions. I put the domain, the hosting and the code in your name. If another shop will not, that is not a style difference. That is the whole deal.

Write the answer down in the same note as the quote. A quote that is silent on ownership is not a cheap quote. It is an incomplete one.

Ask what happens after handover

A site that is “done” on Friday and uneditable on Monday is a brochure. Ask what a small edit costs. Ask who you message. Ask how long a Tuesday hour change takes.

I treat small edits as part of keeping it running. That is how this studio sells the work. Another shop may bill every comma. Either is fine if they say so before you start. The failure is finding out in March.

Ask what happens if they disappear. Can you take the files to someone else? Can you change the DNS without their permission? If the answer needs a lawyer, keep walking.

What a good website actually costs is the other side of the number. A low quote that leaves you unable to change your own hours is not low. You will pay it again.

Questions that catch a pretty, slow page

Ask them to open the site on their phone, in front of you, on mobile data. Watch their face. People who ship heavy themes do not like this test.

Ask what the page weighs. If they do not know, they did not measure it. Ask how long it takes on a mid range Android. If they say “it depends”, ask them to measure the last one they shipped and send you the number.

Ask what the site has to do on a Thursday night. If they start with “brand story” before they ask who has to book, they are decorating. A clinic needs services, a map that matches the door, and a way to write while the dentist is gloved up. A gym needs timings, fees and a trial button. The decoration is optional. The path is not.

Freelancer, agency, or a website builder is the hiring shape. The phone test still applies to all three. A builder skin that takes eight to ten seconds is the same failed job with a nicer login.

What I will not tell you

I will not tell you Rs 30,000 is what every decent shop in Delhi NCR charges. It is where I start. Yours can sit above it. I will say so after I have heard the week.

I will not tell you that a more expensive developer brings more members. A site that opens can be used. The rest is still the catchment, the reviews, the hours, and a person who answers.

I will not take the job if the site you already have already opens and books. I will say that on the call.

Then get in touch. Bring the URL you have now, or the quote you were about to accept. We will open it on a phone. That is the meeting.