Start with domain experience, not the size of the portfolio. Request a couple of projects that sit close to your technology stack, and then ask specifically whether those engineers are still with the company. An honest provider will introduce you to the people who would work on your project. Evasive answers at this stage usually mean the demo work came from somewhere else.
The agreement warrants more scrutiny than the proposal. Three sections matter more than the rest: intellectual property assignment, the NDA, and notice periods and handover. Every artifact must transfer to you once invoices are settled, along with designs, scripts and hire phpbb developers infrastructure configuration. Look closely at language that keeps reusable components with the vendor, because this is frequently the dependency that makes switching painful.
Find out how the estimate was built. An honest estimate arrives with the assumptions behind it, a breakdown by feature or module and a best case and a worst case. A fixed price only makes sense when the specification is complete; when the scope is still moving the supplier pads the number and you fund the buffer regardless. Hourly billing puts the risk on your side, so it needs a cap, regular demos and transparent reporting.
how we work with clients the work is run matters more than team size. Ask what happens when the scope changes, who signs off on a feature and what the QA setup looks like. A mature team can show you running software rather than status reports. Acceptance criteria in writing stay the practical protection against the it outsourcing dubai-was-never-in-scope conversation.
Before signing, livewire vs alpine js think about the handover at the start rather than at the end. Require that the code repository lives in your organisation from day one, and that a readme and architecture notes are kept current as the code changes. A partner who is comfortable with this says yes immediately; resistance at this point says most of what you need to know.