A quote that comes back within a day counts as a red flag rather than good service. A competent team responds with a list of questions: about who owns the data and what happens on failure. A supplier that quotes without asking anything is working from a template, hire node.js developer and the gap will be corrected later — and you will pay for it.
Look out for a mismatch between the people you meet and the people who will code. Ask for government and public sector software development specific people rather than roles hire developers in usa the statement of work, with wording that requires notice before anyone is swapped. A vendor that talks only about abstract roles and refuses to name individuals is reserving its own flexibility at your cost.
Insist on access to the repository from the start. A partner that hands over a build only at the end of each phase is asking you to take delivery on faith. Regular commits and pull requests reveal who is really on the project far better than a weekly report. This extends to the automated test suite: if nothing runs automatically, assurances about quality remain nothing more than words.
Loose contract language around IP is not an oversight. The contract must state explicitly that all deliverables become the property of your business as they are paid for. Check also the jurisdiction and how payments are structured: a request seo for saas company most of the money up front with nothing due in return for weeks eliminates your only leverage.
Finally, examine communication. Ask what overlap there will be each day, which person handles your questions and how quickly. A few hours of overlap is usually enough; no overlap stretches each small question into a lost day. Careless writing in the early emails rarely improves once the work starts.