Guide · Hiring
Hiring a remote web studio: what to check
Before you hire a web studio in another country, check five things in writing: real work you can open, a fixed scope and price, payment milestones, who owns the domain and site, and how you'll communicate across time zones.
The checklist
- Work you can open in a browser. Live sites, not just screenshots. Ask which ones are client work and which are their own or concept projects.
- A named business and real contact details. An email domain, a phone number that's answered, and an honest location. Be wary of a "local office" that doesn't exist.
- A written quotation before any payment. It should state the price, currency, deliverables, timeline, payment method and taxes.
- Payments tied to milestones. A deposit, a payment when you can review the real site, and a final payment before launch. Avoid paying everything up front.
- Clear revision rules. How many rounds, and what counts as a round.
- Domain in your name. You should own the domain and the accounts the site depends on.
- A handover you understand. What you get at the end: files, access, and any licences for fonts, photos or 3D assets.
- A communication plan. Main channel, reply expectations and how calls are scheduled across time zones.
- What happens after launch. A defect-fix period, hosting costs, and how extra work is priced.
How Black Track answers each one
| Check | Black Track |
|---|---|
| Real work | Two live sites built for our own companies (blacktrack.in and studio.blacktrack.in) and six concept sites, each labelled as a concept, not client work. See the work. |
| Location | Web teams in India and Dubai, working remotely with clients worldwide. See about us. |
| Contact | studio@blacktrack.in · WhatsApp +91 94808 34668 · calls on +91 99162 11277, answered 24/7. We reply to email and WhatsApp within 12 hours. |
| Quotation | Written, before any work, with price, currency, deliverables, payment method, taxes and any agreed payment-processing charges. |
| Payments | 50% to start, 40% when you review the full site, 10% before launch and handover. |
| Changes | 2 or 3 rounds by package; one round is one combined list of changes. |
| Domain | Billed separately and owned by you. |
| After launch | 30 days of defect fixes; out-of-scope work quoted first; after the first 6 months of included hosting, hosting only at $120 a year or care plans from $49 a month. |
Working across time zones
Remote projects work best when most of the work is written down. Agree on email as the main channel, review on a private preview link your whole team can open, and collect feedback into one list per round. Book calls only for decisions that need a conversation, at a time that suits both sides.
Red flags
- Testimonials or client logos you can't verify anywhere else.
- Guaranteed Google rankings or guaranteed mentions in AI answers. Nobody can promise these.
- No written scope, or a price that changes after work starts.
- A domain registered in the studio's name rather than yours.
Is it safe to hire a web designer in another country?
Hiring a web designer abroad is low-risk when the work is verifiable, the scope and price are in a written quotation, payments follow milestones, and the domain is registered in your name. Those four checks matter more than the studio's location.
How do payments work with an international web studio?
With Black Track, projects are invoiced after you approve a written quotation, which names the payment method and currency. Payments follow milestones: 50% to start, 40% when you review the full site and 10% before launch.