How to hire a Next.js agency: 12 questions to ask before you sign.

Two agencies can both build on Next.js and hand you very different websites. With one, your team edits every page. With the other, nobody can change a word without a developer. These twelve questions tell them apart.

Next.js is a framework for building websites, made by Vercel. In Stack Overflow's 2025 developer survey, 20.8% of developers said they use it. It's a good foundation for a business website. It is also only a foundation. The editor your team uses, the hosting, the checks on every change and the bill each year are all choices the agency makes for you.

So two agencies can both say "Next.js" and hand you very different websites. These are the questions that tell them apart. We ask ourselves the same ones, and our answers are at the end.

Before you call anyone.

Write down three things first:

• who will edit the site, and how often;
• what it has to connect to, such as your CRM, a booking calendar or a client area;
• what you can spend on the build, and what you can spend each year to run it.

The last one matters more than most buyers expect. A site that's cheap to build can be expensive to run. Our guide to what a company website costs has the ranges.

Questions about editing.

1. Who edits the site, and in what? Next.js has no editor of its own. The agency adds a content system, such as Payload, Sanity, Contentful or WordPress running behind the scenes. Ask for a live demo: change a heading, add a case study and publish it. If the answer is "send us your changes", you're paying a developer for every edit.

2. Can we see a change before it goes live? A good setup shows the real page beside the form as you type, or gives you a private preview link. Ask to see it working.

3. What happens to our current content and addresses? Every old page that brings in visits needs a new home and a permanent redirect. Ask who moves the content, how many pages that covers and how they'll check nothing was missed. Our guide to moving off WordPress without losing your rankings covers what to expect.

Questions about the code.

4. Who owns the code and the accounts? You should own the finished code once you've paid for it, and the domain should be registered in your name. Ask where the code lives. The usual answer is a Git repository, and you should be able to have a copy.

5. Which version do you build on, and who keeps it current? Next.js 16 came out in October 2025. Each major version changes how parts of the code work, so the longer a site waits, the bigger the upgrade. Ask how upgrades are handled and whether they're part of the monthly fee.

6. How is a change checked before it goes live? Look for a clear answer. Each change is made away from the live site, reviewed, run through automated tests and a full build, then checked on a preview link. "We're careful" isn't an answer.

7. Do you use AI coding tools, and what checks their work? Most developers use them now, and they make changes much faster. Ask who reviews what the AI writes, and whether it's the same AI. Our answer is in who checks the code when AI writes it.

Questions about running it.

8. Where is it hosted, and on whose account? Many Next.js sites run on Vercel. Its free Hobby plan is for non-commercial personal use only, and Vercel counts a paid consultant writing the code as commercial use. So a business site needs a paid plan. Ask whose name the account is in and who gets the alert when something breaks.

9. What will it cost each year after launch? Add up hosting, the content system, the database, monitoring and support. Some content systems have no license fee. Others charge per editor once you pass a free tier. Our comparison of Payload, WordPress, Sanity and Contentful has the current prices.

10. How fast are your sites on a phone? Next.js doesn't make a site fast on its own. In HTTP Archive's August 2026 data, 35% of sites built with Next.js passed Google's Core Web Vitals on phones, below the 53% for all sites. Ask for two live sites they built and test them yourself in PageSpeed Insights.

11. What happens if we leave? You should get the code, a full export of your content and the keys to every account. Ask for that in writing before you start.

The question that settles it.

12. Can we talk to a client whose team edits their own site? A reference who edits their site every week will tell you more than any demo. Ask how long a typical change takes and when they last needed a developer.

A quick way to compare answers.

How we answer them.

We ask other agencies these questions, so here are our own answers:

• Your team edits in Payload, with live preview, and every save keeps a version you can restore.
• You own the code and the content once the build is paid for.
• We build on the current stable releases. Iknow's site runs on Next.js 16 and Payload 3.
• AI coding agents write most of our code. A model from a different AI company reviews every change, and automated checks and a full build run on each one before it ships.
• We host on Vercel with a Neon database. Hosting and support start at $150 a month, bundled with every package.
• If you leave, we hand over the full source code in a Git repository you own, with written instructions for hosting it elsewhere. There's no exit fee.

See how we build on Next.js and Payload, or book a call and ask us all twelve.