Guide · Choosing a web designer
How to choose a web designer in Malta.
Choose a web designer whose live work loads fast on your phone, who gives you one fixed price in writing, and who puts the website and domain in your name. Then make sure you know who fixes things after launch, and what that costs each year.
Malta has plenty of web designers, from freelancers to large agencies, and their quotes can be hard to compare. This guide gives you the questions to ask any of them, how to check their work yourself in a few minutes, and the warning signs to look out for. At the end, we answer the same questions about ourselves.
Before you ask for quotes
Three things make every quote clearer and easier to compare:
- What the website needs to do. Bring in calls, take bookings, sell products or answer questions. One clear goal beats a long wish list.
- A rough budget. It helps a designer suggest what fits, instead of guessing. Our website cost guide shows what our packages cost and what moves the price.
- Your content. Do you have text, photos and a logo, or do you need help with them? This changes the price and the timeline more than most people expect.
12 questions to ask a web designer
- Is the price fixed, and does it include VAT? Malta’s standard VAT rate is 18%, so a quote without it is 18% higher than it looks.
- What exactly is included? Pages, features, content writing, photos, Google Business Profile, and the number of design changes.
- Who will own the website and the domain? They should be in your name.
- Is it a custom design or a template? Both can work, but you should know which you are paying for.
- Who will I actually work with? The person you meet, or someone else?
- How long will it take, and what do you need from me?
- How do payments work? Part up front and the rest before launch protects both sides.
- Will it be set up for Google? Page titles, descriptions, structured data, a sitemap and your Google Business Profile.
- How fast will it load on a phone? Ask for PageSpeed Insights results from a site they built.
- Can I update it myself? If so, how, and is training included?
- What happens after launch? Who fixes bugs, how quickly, and what does ongoing care cost per month?
- What are the yearly running costs? Domain, hosting, maintenance, plugins or licences.
How to check a web designer’s work yourself
You don’t need to be technical. Ten minutes is enough:
- Open their sites on your phone. Is the text readable without zooming? Can you call or book in one tap?
- Run a speed test. Paste a site they built into Google PageSpeed Insights, or use our free website check. Slow sites lose visitors and rank lower.
- Search for the business. Does the site come up on Google for its own name and for what it sells, in its town?
- Ask whether it is real client work. Concept work is fine to show, and many new studios do, but it should be labelled as a concept.
- Talk to a past client if you can, and ask how the designer handled problems.
Red flags when choosing a web designer
- A price that is not in writing, or that changes once work has started.
- The designer registers the domain in their own name.
- No clear answer about what happens after launch, or about yearly costs.
- Pressure to pay everything up front.
- Portfolio sites that are slow, broken on a phone or no longer online.
- Promises of a guaranteed first place on Google. Nobody can promise that.
How we answer these questions
Fair is fair, so here are our own answers. Gaffiero Digital was founded in Malta in January 2026, so we are a new studio.
- Price: one fixed price in writing before work starts, VAT included: Starter €1,000, Business €2,000, Online shop €2,500 and Custom system €2,000.
- Who you work with: Mikhael, who designs and builds every site, from the first call onwards.
- Payments: 25% deposit, 25% on design approval, 50% at launch.
- Design: custom, never a template, and you approve it before anything is built.
- After launch: 30 days of free fixes, then hosting at €150 a year, or a care plan from €25 a month with hosting included, cancel any time with 30 days’ notice.
- Our work: our portfolio has a client case study, Animated Figurines Malta, and concept websites for fictional businesses, clearly labelled, so you can try every feature yourself.
See how a project runs on our web design in Malta page, or compare packages and prices.
Questions
How do I choose a web designer in Malta?
Look at live websites they have built, ask for a fixed price in writing that says whether VAT is included, and check who will own the website and domain. Then ask what happens after launch: who fixes problems, what it costs, and how quickly they reply.
Should I choose a freelancer or an agency?
Either can work. What matters more is whether the person who designs your site is the one you talk to, whether the price is fixed, and whether someone is accountable after launch. Ask both the same questions and compare the answers.
What should a web design quote include?
The number of pages, the features, who writes the content, the timeline, the payment terms, what happens after launch, and the yearly running costs such as the domain, hosting and maintenance. It should also say whether VAT is included.
How can I check if a web designer is any good?
Open websites they have built on your phone, run them through a free speed test such as Google PageSpeed Insights, and search for the business on Google to see if the site is found. Ask whether the work shown is real client work or a concept.