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The Best Web Development Companies

Written by: Branka

Updated: February, 18, 2024

88% of online customers opt not to return to a website after a poor experience. To attract (and convert!) as many potential clients and provide flawless customer experience, you need one of the top-ranking web development companies. However, knowing how to screen for one is a challenge. That is why—besides ranking the best providers of this service in the table below—we also prepared a list of all the steps to take when searching for a web development agency, as well as questions to ask before sealing the deal.

WillowTree
WillowTree is Where Digital Experts Thrive, Helping the Most Admired Companies in the World Build Applications That Matter

WillowTree is a leader in mobile application development dedicated to delivering outstanding digital products with exquisite UI/UX design. Launched back in 2007 by a team of three enthusiasts, the outfit has since become a 500-full-time-employees-strong engineering powerhouse. This team has worked with clients such as 21st Century Fox, Regal Cinemas, and Domino’s.

Highlights

  • Started : 2007
  • Number Of Employees : 250 – 999
  • Location : Charlottesville, United States
MentorMate
Offshore Made Easy

MentorMate’s work is based on long-lasting partnerships and a global leader mindset. This web development agency vows to provide clients with cutting-edge software solutions using a customized approach, highly collaborative process, and total transparency.

Highlights

  • Started : 2001
  • Number Of Employees : 250 – 999
  • Location : Minneapolis, United States
Merixstudio
Merixstudio
150+ Full-stack Agile Software Experts Ready to Support Your Business

Merixstudio is a top website development company specializing in cross-platform mobile applications and web apps of the highest quality. Supported by 150+ agile software experts, it turns innovative ideas into groundbreaking digital products and experiences. No business challenge is too big for this top-notch software development agency.

Highlights

  • Started : 1999
  • Number Of Employees :50 – 249
  • Location : United States
Solvd Inc. Logo
Solvd Inc.
Get things Solvd!

A global QA and software engineering company with 11+ years in business. The custom software development company has headquarters in the USA, 7 development centers in Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, Argentina, Brazil & Mexico, and a sales office in Hungary.

Highlights

  • Started : 2011
  • Number Of Employees :250 – 999
  • Location :Roseville, United States
Softermii
Succeed Without (L)imitations

Softermii is a full-cycle product development company with in-depth expertise in innovative software. We don’t pursue quantity over quality, focusing on what we do best – turning good ideas into great products.

Highlights

  • Started : 2014
  • Number Of Employees : 50 – 249
  • Location : Los Angeles, United States
Rootstrap
Outcome-Driven Development.

Rootstrap is a website development company that helps clients scale products, teams, or processes with outcome-driven web development. These award-winning strategists, designers, and developers have a global outlook that can help you dive into your highest business potential. The agency has worked on launching over 750 products that resulted in 100+ million downloads.

Highlights

  • Started : 2011
  • Number Of Employees : 50 – 249
  • Location : West Hollywood, United States
Urban Insight
We Creative Digital Experiences That Empower Organizations

Urban Insight specializes in the development of premium apps and websites. As one of the top web development companies on the market, it offers constructive advice, an individualized approach, and robust development services to drive your vision. The highly qualified staff at Urban Insight aims at delivering measurable results for every client.

Highlights

  • Started : 2000
  • Number Of Employees :10 – 49
  • Location : Los Angeles, United States
indusnettechnologies-logo
Indus Net Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
We Deliver Digital Success

Indus Net Technologies has been in the industry for 23 years, continuously developing innovative digital solutions. As one of the top web development agencies on the market, the company focuses on an analytics-based approach, which has turned it into a valued development partner in over 20 countries worldwide.

Highlights

  • Started : 1997
  • Number Of Employees :250 – 999
  • Location : Boise, United States
Experion Technologies
Experion Technologies
300 customers. Strong Digital Focus. Direct Presence in 9 Locations.

Experion Technologies is a team of top website developers with experience in all aspects of web and software development. Whether it’s design or integration, these top software developers continue to impress with digital products that move businesses forward.

Highlights

  • Started : 2006
  • Number Of Employees :250 – 999
  • Location : Plano, United States
SimbirSoft
We Create Software For Your Business Growth

SimbirSoft is a leader in custom software development. The company is known for its expertise in developing comprehensive systems for analyzing customer needs, competitor actions, and risk management. With outstanding accomplishments not only in the field of Android development but also in creating world-class software products and services, SimbirSoft has been at the forefront of digital product innovation since 2001.

Highlights

  • Started : 2001
  • Number Of Employees :250 – 999
  • Location : Lexington, United States
Vardot
Open Source Solutions for the Open Digital World

Vardot specializes in providing exquisite website solutions combined with powerful Drupal-based CMS. This top web development company offers support during the entire lifecycle of a project, including post-launch maintenance.

Highlights

  • Started : 2011
  • Number Of Employees : 10 – 49
  • Location : Santa Clara, United States
Cheesecake Labs
We Build Delightful Digital Experiences

Strategy, design, and development is how San Francisco-based Cheesecake Labs builds successful and intuitive mobile and web apps. Its customized agile process has delivered exquisite products empowered by a multidisciplinary design. Its stellar engineering team has worked with big names such as Singularity University, Lockitron, Tapcart, Skyroam, and AES.

Highlights

  • Started : 2013
  • Number Of Employees :50 – 249
  • Location : San Francisco, United States

How We Selected the Best Web Development Companies

Choosing a great development partner is crucial for your web project’s success. It takes far more than a quick Google search to figure out what separates the good from the bad. However, we don’t want only the good; we want the best, which is why we give you the criteria we used when creating our curated list of the industry’s best.

Website, Portfolio, and Case Studies

Our first step in the process is looking at the prospective web developer’s website. Any company worth their salt should have a website with intuitive navigation and great design. It should also be responsive and engaging. In other words: if the website development companies didn’t do a great job on their own sites, can you really expect a different result for their clients?

Once you’re satisfied with how the website looks and responds, find their portfolio. This is a recap of their previous work, which typically includes information on the company’s experience across industries, number of projects, and how long they have been on the market. You want clear evidence that they have the expertise and understand your market/target audience.

Take note of the frameworks and programming languages the website development firm is proficient in. You want a web development partner that goes beyond JavaScript and basic HTML and keeps up with the latest technologies. 

Case studies are also an essential source of information about website development agencies. They will provide insight into the overall development process from the initial brief to the end of the project. If the case studies aren’t available on the agency’s website, ask for them.

Web Design

Your web developer company will create your project based on a provided web design. While there’s nothing wrong with getting your web design from one company and your development from another, it may not be the ideal scenario.

Typically, it’s better when the partner that is supposed to develop your website also does your design aspects to minimize the time spent on potential functionality issues. The team will be able to easily communicate any coding problems concerning design, saving the client’s money.

SEO, Marketing, and Content

Your website should be as optimized as possible. This means that you should also consider content creation, marketing, and search engine optimization. Sure, you can get a separate agency to provide these services; however, the best-ranking web development agencies will offer them as part of a comprehensive strategy. 

It’s important to check this with the company before making your choice. Go through their past projects to figure out if the marketing strategies your agency is offering are a good fit for your needs. 

Web Hosting

Hosting your website on a server is not something you can skip. This means that your chosen web developer should provide hosting as part of their services. Not having this option doesn’t necessarily mean you should discard the website development firms altogether, as long as they have a ready solution for you if needed. 

In that case, the agency will typically recommend a web hosting company they are partnering with to take over this segment of the project. Do not take the recommendation blindly; instead, do your diligence and analyze the partner’s services and security measures in depth.

Full-Stack Development

We are confident that you aim to have a fully operational website and not only a basic design that offers little to no functionality. This means that you want to hire a company that can build your website from start to finish. The top website development agencies that offer full-stack services keep the highest standards and have specialists that have the necessary experience and knowledge.

Here are some of the things we like to see with developers: 

  • UX/UI design
  • Optimization of front-end in Java, JavaScript, HTML, and PHP
  • Front-end technologies like REACT, LESS, SASS, and others
  • Multiple programming languages like PHP, Java, C#, Python, and Ruby
  • Databases such as MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, and Redis
  • Developing frameworks and libraries like Java Spring, Node.Js, PHP Thinkphp, Express.JS, and MyBatis

Responsive Web Development

Having your website look fantastic on desktop is not enough. Most consumers access websites from their mobile phones, which means that you should make sure that the web development firms you’re considering will provide a responsive mobile experience.

Useful info includes how many mobile-optimized sites your developer has created and how they went about it. Visit some of the websites listed in their section with past projects and look at how they respond on multiple devices. If you notice any issues, skip that company and keep looking.

Pricing

Although you can’t expect to get a superb product for pennies, it doesn’t mean that you’ll have to spend a fortune to hire an excellent web development company. Cost-effectiveness is of utmost importance, so you should prioritize agencies offering professional web development services and prices that fit them. Be careful with agencies whose prices go significantly over or under the industry average. This typically indicates that something is not right. 

How to Choose One of the Leading Web Development Companies  

Now that you understand what qualities to look for in a potential web development service provider, there are still some important points to consider. Specifically, we want to give you some steps to follow to help you narrow down your pool of potential choices further. 

Client Reviews

Checking what former customers think about a company is one of the best ways to get a feel of it. Naturally, you should go beyond reviews posted on the firm’s website, and instead scout for ones on third-party platforms. Don’t discard a company based on a single complaint, but watch out for repeating issues. 

Client reviews aren’t only helpful for gauging overall client satisfaction. They also give you a direct way to learn whether or not the agency has experience doing projects like yours. You can also get a sense of the rank that website development companies hold within the industry.

Client References

Why stop at reading reviews only when you can go a step further and contact former clients to inquire about their experience and satisfaction with the results? This is perhaps the most straightforward way of vetting the information you find online. 

Speedy Email Responses

While it may not seem like a big deal, responsiveness is the first thing you’ll notice when you encounter a problem. Smaller website development agencies are less likely to have a dedicated support staff, which means that your primary contact may be the owner of the company or a project manager. So, find their contact information and ask them some of the things we suggested to get a better feel for the company and how they respond to your questions. It’s unreasonable to expect an immediate answer, but no reply within 48 hours is a bit of a red flag. 

Local or Outsourced?

Picking the best website development company in your area or opting to outsource to a top web development firm overseas both have their pros and cons. 

Pros of a Local Web Development Firm

  • Easy communication 
  • Real-time problem solving
  • Understanding the local market
  • Legal issues are settled easier

Cons of a Local Web Development Company

  • Typically higher prices 
  • Specializations might be tougher to find
  • Possibly longer wait times 

Pros of Outsourcing Web Development Services 

  • Typically lower prices
  • Specialized expertise is much easier to find
  • Project management is streamlined
  • Higher number of expert developers on hand

Cons of Outsourcing a Web Development Team

  • Possible lagged responsiveness due to time zone differences
  • Misunderstandings due to different cultural contexts
  • Harder to assess the suitability for a project 

In other words, consider your specific needs and wants, but also think about your limitations when deciding whether to hire locally or outsource globally.

Questions to Ask Website Development Agencies Before Sealing the Deal

Before you decide to put your signature on that contract, take a step back and consider if you have all the information you need. Mull over the questions you can ask the agencies regarding their processes and technology of choice. You don’t want to be weeks in your project and suddenly realize that the processes in place are unacceptable to you. Here’s a list of factors to go through.

Project Management Methodologies 

There are many different methodologies top web development firms are using to run their projects. Ask your future partner which one they have chosen to use, and why. Some of the most popular ones among web developers are agile and waterfall.

The agile approach to development is based on team collaboration with a focus on time. This methodology achieves an incremental progression of the project, with phases that are called “sprints”. Sprints have their respective deliverables and time frames and are set up to adjust to changes at any point. Agile leans heavily on client input, which is not something that will work for everyone.

The waterfall methodology meanwhile has a rigid structure with stages that need to be completed before starting the next one. This development style is more suited for shorter projects that do not have multiple possible phases. Still, the very best website development companies will be able to adapt.

Project Management Tools 

It’s hard to find a company nowadays that doesn’t use some sort of project management tool. In the context of web development, it is especially important to manage teams and projects efficiently and without unnecessary steps. 

There’s a lot of management-based tools out there for website development service providers to use. Some of the most popular ones are Asana, Trello, and Basecamp. Each of these has a high number of different functionalities that help teams organize anything related to a project. Tools the company opts to use can tell you a lot of their management style, so be sure to ask about them.

Website Planning

Outlining your website will be one of the first tasks of your dedicated website development team. This will include creating a sitemap and wireframe to plan the interaction between different pages and the website’s design. 

The leading website development firms will make sure to position and target your market to give you the best possible result. Discussing your brand identity and your overall goals should be another mandatory step in the process of bringing your website to life.

Documentation

Ask your web developer firm about the kinds of documents you can expect to get from them at any stage of the project. The best web development firms will make sure you get documentation detailing any of the following examples: 

  • Technical and creative requirements
  • Site architecture
  • Application of the brand
  • Framework information
  • Marketing plans
  • Specific website features

Maintenance and Security

The questions of website maintenance and security are perhaps the most important ones. Web development companies should ensure that your CMS, apps, and plugins are performing optimally by securing and maintaining them. You may also want to ask them how they plan to detect any possible vulnerabilities on your site and whether they do it manually or use automated tools. Do not sign a contract with a web development agency before ascertaining that these details are covered. You can fix any design flaw, but security issues can be disastrous.