A number produced without questions is a warning, not a service level. A competent team responds with a list of questions: about users and volumes. A supplier that quotes before understanding the scope is probably working from a template, and that guess becomes a change request later — on your budget.
Look out for a gap between the people you meet and app development cost those who eventually appear in the repository. Ask for the names and CVs of the actual team in the statement of work, with wording covering replacement. A team that only offers roles and never names specific engineers is preserving the right to assign anyone it likes.
Ask for commit-level visibility from the first week. A partner that hands over code only at milestones is asking you to take delivery on faith. Daily commits reveal the actual pace far better than any status report. The same holds for the CI pipeline: if there is no pipeline, fintech software development company assurances about quality are unverifiable.
Loose contract language around IP is rarely an accident. The document should state in plain terms that all outputs produced under it become the property of your business as they are paid for. Check also the jurisdiction and how payments are structured: a large upfront payment with no milestone tied to it removes the only leverage you have.
Finally, examine the working rhythm. Establish what overlap there will be with your timezone, which person handles questions and software architecture consulting within what time. Some genuine overlap is usually enough; none at all turns each small question into a lost day. Unclear written communication in the early emails does not improve once the work starts.