How to choose a software development company and check what it tells you

A proposal is a set of claims, and a claim costs nothing to write. So choose on what you can look up: the company's entry in a public register, what a review badge says it confirms, who will write your code, and who owns it. On ownership, the UK Intellectual Property Office says the creator of a commissioned work is its first copyright owner unless you agree otherwise in writing.

Verified on 2026-11-08: we read the pages cited below and checked one Companies House entry that day.

Why do the claims in every proposal look alike?

"Experienced engineers", "open communication", "your code is yours", "a flexible team": a sentence like that costs the same to write whether it is true or not, so it proves nothing. A claim turns into evidence when you can look it up somewhere the company does not control, or when it is written into the contract you sign.

For each claim, ask one question: where could I see this without asking them? The table gives an answer for seven claims.

What can you check, and where?

Each row is one claim, the place to check it and the answer you want to hear.

If a company will not put a row's answer in writing, or will not let you check it, ask why. If the answer does not satisfy you, move on to the next company on your list.

Is the company real and active?

Look the company up in the public register of the country where it says it is registered, and write down four things: the name, the number, the status and the incorporation date. Compare them with the proposal. If the incorporation date does not fit the history the company claims, or the register name differs from the name on the contract, ask about it before the next call.

In the UK the register is Companies House. GOV.UK says you can get some details about a company for free, including its registered address, its date of incorporation and its current and resigned officers. You can also set up free email alerts for changes.

In the US there is no single federal database. Companies register with a state, and each state's Secretary of State, or an equivalent department, is the main place to look. Most states have an online search that typically shows the legal name, entity type, incorporation date and status. A company can be headquartered in one state and incorporated in another, so ask which state to search.

In the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the European e-Justice "Find a company" service searches business registers across those countries. You search by company number, and at the moment it returns only what the national registers provide free of charge.

A register tells you whether the company exists, in what status and since when. It does not tell you whether the company is good at its job. The UK register also states in its page header that Companies House does not check the accuracy of the information filed.

We ran the UK search on our own company on 8 November 2026: CML TEAM LIMITED, company number 11580376. It took a few minutes and no account.

The overview showed the status Active, incorporation on 20 September 2018 and a registered office in the UK. Accounts were made up to 30 September 2025, and the last confirmation statement was dated 20 September 2026. The nature of business (SIC code) was 62012, business and domestic software development.

What does a review badge confirm?

Clutch puts a mark on a review and a different one on a company, and the two confirm different things. Read the review site's own help page before you let either decide anything.

Treat a "Not Verified" review as a claim. Clutch describes its company vetting as confirming that a business is legitimate, financially stable and trusted by clients, and the criteria on its page include the rating, the credit check, the review counts and a business history check.

So a badge narrows the list, and a conversation with a client decides it. Ask the company for two clients, and pick at least one more reference yourself, for example a client you find on LinkedIn.

Is the past work really theirs?

A portfolio shows the product. It does not show who built it, what the company's part was or what the client paid for. Put four questions to the person who led the project, not to the salesperson:

• What was your role, and who else worked on it?
• What went wrong, and what did you change?
• Is it live today, and may I open it?
• Which parts did another company or a freelancer build?

Then open the live product on your phone and sign up as a user. Ask the lead to walk you through one screen and say why it works that way. Someone who built it can. Someone who only resold it may struggle.

Will the people you met write your code?

The people on the sales calls may not be the people on the project. Ask for a call with the engineers who will do the work before you sign. Write their names and roles into the statement of work, the document that describes what will be built and by whom.

Ask what happens when one of them leaves: who replaces them, how the replacement gets up to speed, and who pays for that learning time.

If you hire a dedicated team, you are choosing individuals, so interview them. Our post on how we hire developers lists the five steps a candidate goes through with us, and you can ask any vendor for the same kind of answer. If you are still deciding between a whole project, a dedicated team and one person joining yours, the guide to outsourcing programming for a startup compares those models and the interview questions.

Who owns the code by default?

The UK Intellectual Property Office says that when you commission a work, the first legal owner of the copyright is the person or organisation that created it, not you, unless you agree otherwise in writing. Someone working under a contract for services, such as a freelancer or contractor, will usually keep the copyright unless the contract says otherwise. When the contract does not deal with copyright, a court may find an implied licence to use the work for the purpose it was commissioned, and that does not necessarily give you ownership.

In the US, Circular 30 from the Copyright Office says a commissioned work is a "work made for hire" only if it falls into one of nine listed categories and a written agreement, signed by all parties, says so. The nine categories in the circular do not name software. Separately, 17 U.S.C. 204(a) says a transfer of copyright ownership, other than by operation of law, is not valid unless it is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights.

The UK IPO page also notes that ownership of copyright can be transferred, so the contract is the place to settle it, for example with a written clause in which the company assigns its rights in the code to you. Ask your lawyer for the exact contract wording. This list is what to look for.

A written clause that assigns the rights in the code to us, signed by both sides
The moment the rights pass: on each payment, or after the final one
The clause covers code written by employees and subcontractors too
The repository, cloud accounts and domain are registered in our name from day one
We keep the access keys, and at least two of our people are owners
An NDA signed before we share the idea or the data
Named people on the project, and how a replacement is handled
How either side ends the work, and what we receive that day: code, accounts, documents
Our right to use the libraries and tools the company brought in

Whose name are the accounts in?

Owning the code is not enough if the company holds the keys. The repository (the place where the code is stored), the cloud account where the app runs, the domain name and the app store accounts should be registered to you from the first day, with the company added as a user.

GitHub's documentation says organization owners have complete administrative access, and that the role should be limited, but to no fewer than two people. Make yourself one of them and name a second person you trust, so that one lost login does not lock you out of your own product.

The same goes for access to systems you already run. On AppFolio, for example, a vendor can work with credentials the client provisions, as our post on getting AppFolio or Yardi API access explains, so the credentials start on your side.

To test it, ask the company to add you as an owner and to show you the billing page of the cloud account. If the bill goes to their card, the account is probably theirs.

Can you start small and leave?

Before a large contract, ask for a small first piece of work, paid, with a result you can judge. It could be a prototype, a review of what you already have, or an estimate with a plan. You see how the company communicates, whether the people on the call are the people on the work, and how clean its handover is, while the stake is still small.

Then read the exit terms as carefully as the start terms. Ask what you receive on the day you stop: the code, the accounts, the documents, and a call with the engineers who wrote it.

What are the limits of these checks?

A register, a badge and a reference call show that a company exists and that some of its claims hold up. None of them shows how well it will build your product. In our experience a small paid first piece is the best test you can run before the big contract, because you watch the company work. The ownership texts above cover the UK and the US only.

How does CML Team answer these questions?

Here is how we answer, so you can set it beside the other companies on your list. CML Team is registered in England and Wales as CML Team Limited, so the register check above works on us. We sign an NDA, and billing is by the hour or, for a project, at a fixed price. The rights to the code pass to you after payment. You can begin with consultations before you commit to a team or a project, and for project work we start with a free estimate. If you want a dedicated team, you interview the candidates yourself after our screening, and if someone is not the right fit, they can be replaced.

How much AI is used, under what rules and from which vendor, we agree with each client. The details are on how to get started and our engagement models.

Which company should you look up today?

Take the first company on your shortlist and look it up in its register. You end with four facts next to its proposal: name, number, status and incorporation date. If any of them differs from what the company told you, ask about it before the next call.

Next step

Sources

• GOV.UK, Ownership of copyright works and Get information about a company
• Companies House, CML TEAM LIMITED, checked 8 November 2026
• European e-Justice Portal, Find a company and U.S. Department of Commerce, Finding company incorporation information in the US
• Clutch Help Center, how Clutch verifies reviews and what Clutch Verified is, read 8 November 2026
• U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 30, Works Made for Hire and 17 U.S.C. 204
• GitHub Docs, Roles in an organization