Choosing an agency.

Start with your brief.

Before you ask anyone for a price, write down what the website has to do: its pages, its languages, whether it sells or takes bookings, the tools it must connect to, whether your text and photos are ready, your budget and your date. The same brief to every company makes their quotes comparable.

Builder, freelancer or agency.

With a website builder, you build the site and look after it yourself, on the builder's plan. With a freelancer or an agency, someone else designs, builds and looks after it: ask who does the work, and who steps in when they are away. The checks below apply to both.

Work you can visit.

Ask for websites and systems that are live, and for what their clients say. One website that has run for a year tells you more than a gallery of mock-ups.

The work we can show includes the websites of The Victoria Collection's boutique hotels in Réunion, and a booking and property management system for 300 rooms, built from the ground up for a company listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius, whose name stays confidential. Our work with local agencies, on websites for some of the top 100 companies in Mauritius, stays confidential too.

A price in writing.

A good quote names what is included and what is not, the timeline and the payment terms. Published packs make the simple cases easy to compare; anything bespoke should be scoped before work starts.

Our website packs are published, from MUR 18,000, and tailored work is a fixed scope or a clear monthly plan, agreed in writing.

Who owns it.

Your domain should be registered in your name, and on full payment you should receive admin access, the credentials and your data. Ask what happens if you ever move to another agency.

With us, your domain is registered in a client account in your name, and on full payment the intellectual property is transferred to you, with no lock-in.

After launch.

A website needs hosting, backups, updates and security for as long as it runs. Ask who provides them, at what price, and how problems are handled.

Every one of our website packs includes the first year of hosting, and our Care plans start at MUR 1,500 a month.

Your customers' languages.

In Mauritius your customers may read and search in English, French or Creole. A multilingual website needs each language at its own address, so search engines can find every version.

We build websites in English, French and Creole.

Your data, and the law.

A website that collects enquiries or payments handles personal data, which the Data Protection Act 2017 protects. Ask how the agency secures it and who can access it.

Khay Digital is registered with the Data Protection Office as both a data controller and a data processor.

Who does the work.

Ask who will lead your project, and who you will speak to from week to week.

At Khay Digital, every engagement is led by our Managing Creative Director, from first brief to handover.

How to check an agency.

• Open its live websites on your phone, and see how fast they load.
• Look up its Business Registration Number (BRN).
• If it will handle your customers' personal data, check that it is registered with the Data Protection Office.
• Read what its clients say about it.

Khay Digital Ltd is registered under BRN C22187903, and with the Data Protection Office as both a data controller and a data processor.

At handover.

When the website is delivered, you should be able to run it: access to its administrative area, to manage content and make basic updates, and training to use it.

With us, the handover comes with training delivered virtually or in person.

When to walk away.

• There is no written scope or price.
• The domain would be registered only in the agency's name.
• Nobody can say who looks after the website once it is live.
• There is no live work you can visit.