How to Choose a Software Company in Nepal

Why This Decision Is Hard

Nepal's IT industry has grown fast. Kathmandu alone has hundreds of agencies and thousands of freelancers, all with polished portfolios and confident pitches. Most businesses choosing a development partner have no technical background, so they compare the only things they can see: price and promises.

That's how projects end up six months late, twice over budget, or abandoned with code nobody else can maintain. After years of inheriting projects that went wrong elsewhere, we've seen the same warning signs over and over. Here's the checklist we'd use if we were hiring a software company ourselves.

The 10-Point Checklist

1. Ask to see live products, not screenshots

A portfolio image proves someone can use Photoshop. A live URL proves they shipped something that survived contact with real users. Open their past projects on your phone, on mobile data. Slow? Broken layout? That's your future.

2. Check who actually writes the code

Some agencies sell the project, then subcontract it to the cheapest available freelancer. Ask directly: who is on my project team, and are they employees? You want names, not "our team of experts."

3. Demand source code ownership in the contract

This is the single most common trap in Nepal. The agency hosts everything, keeps the code, and when you want to leave, the price of your own website suddenly appears. Code ownership, repository access, and domain ownership should be yours from day one, in writing.

4. Look at how they communicate before you pay

The sales process is the best behavior you will ever see from a company. If replies take four days now, they'll take two weeks once you've paid the advance. Good agencies work in the open: shared project boards, weekly updates, a named contact person.

5. Ask what happens when the project is late

Every honest developer will admit projects sometimes slip. The question is what the process is when it happens. Vague reassurance is a red flag; a real answer sounds like "we re-scope, we tell you early, and here's how change requests are priced."

6. Test their technical opinions

Ask why they'd choose one stack over another for your project. A company that recommends the same technology for everything (usually whatever they learned first) is fitting your problem to their hammer. A good partner asks about your business before naming a framework.

7. Check the performance of their own website

Run their site through Google PageSpeed Insights. It isn't a perfect test, but an agency that ships a slow site for themselves will ship a slower one for you. Speed is a habit, not a feature.

8. Get specific about post-launch support

"We provide support" means nothing. Get specifics: What's included free, and for how long? What does a maintenance plan cost? What's the response time when the site goes down on a Saturday? In Nepal, maintenance plans commonly start around NPR 8,000/month. If a quote has no maintenance line at all, the support probably doesn't exist.

9. Talk to a past client

One phone call beats fifty testimonials. Ask the agency for a reference, then ask that client one question: "Would you hire them again?" The pause before the answer tells you everything.

10. Start small if you can

If the engagement allows it, give the company a small first milestone: a discovery phase, a prototype, one module. You'll learn more about how they work in two weeks of real collaboration than in any number of meetings.

Red Flags That Should End the Conversation

A price far below every other quote with no explanation of how
No written contract, or a contract with no scope definition
"We'll figure out the requirements as we go"
They won't show you anything until the full site is "ready"
Hosting, domain, and code all locked to their accounts

What a Good Engagement Looks Like

For contrast, here's the shape of a healthy project: a discovery call where they ask more questions than you do; a written proposal with scope, timeline, and a fixed price; design previews before any code; staged deliveries you can click and test; honest conversations when something needs to change; and a handover where everything (code, hosting, domain, documentation) is in your name.

That's not a premium service. That's the baseline you should accept from any software company in Nepal.

Put Us Through the Same Checklist

We wrote this list because we're happy to be measured by it. Book a free discovery call, ask us all ten questions, ask for live URLs and references, and compare us honestly against anyone else you're considering. If we're not the right fit for your project, we'll say so.

How to Choose a Software Company in Nepal: A 10-Point Checklist