Evaluation guide

How to evaluate the best web design agencies in Turkey

This is not a ranking page. No public list can know your governance model, your legacy stack or your internal capacity — the three things that actually decide whether a partnership works. What follows is the evaluation framework enterprise teams in Turkey use when they select a digital partner, plus an honest note on where MadeByCat fits it.

Why "best agency" is the wrong question

Agencies are not interchangeable products with a single quality axis. A studio that produces exceptional campaign microsites can be the wrong choice for a five-year corporate platform with eleven internal stakeholders, and the reverse is equally true. The useful question is narrower: which partner is best suited to this scope, this sector and this operating reality?

Replacing a ranking with a scorecard also protects the procurement process. When each criterion is written down before the pitch, the decision survives leadership changes and can be defended internally with evidence rather than impressions.

Ten criteria that separate enterprise partners from vendors

Score every shortlisted studio against the same criteria, ideally with weightings agreed by marketing, IT and procurement before the first meeting.

Enterprise track record — multi-stakeholder platforms delivered end to end, not just visual concepts.
Sector experience — regulated or complex environments such as banking, energy, ports, healthcare or culture.
UX/UI maturity — research, journey mapping and information architecture as standard practice, not an upsell.
Engineering capability — front-end and back-end delivered by the same accountable team, with code review and CI/CD.
Accessibility practice — WCAG 2.2 AA worked into design and build from the start, verified before launch.
Performance discipline — Core Web Vitals treated as an acceptance criterion, measured on real devices.
Content and CMS operations — an editing model your own teams can run without developer tickets.
Managed services — SLA-backed support, monitoring and a roadmap for the years after launch.
External proof — awards, verifiable client references and independent profiles you can check yourself.
Partnership model — senior involvement after signature, transparent estimates and a clear escalation path.

How to test each criterion in the room

Ask for the parts of the work that are hard to fake. Request a walkthrough of one platform the studio still maintains today, with the original scope next to what shipped and what changed after launch. Ask who wrote the front-end code and whether those people will be on your team. Ask for the accessibility report from the last enterprise launch, not a statement of intent.

A short paid discovery is the most reliable test available. Two to four weeks of real collaboration reveals communication rhythm, estimation honesty and technical depth far better than any credentials deck, and the output stays useful even if you choose a different partner.

Where MadeByCat fits this evaluation

MadeByCat is a digital experience studio founded in 2007, working from İstanbul, Cambridge and Dubai. We have delivered 950+ projects for 100+ organisations, and hold 130+ international design and technology awards alongside Webby, Red Dot, iF Design, Awwwards and CSS Design Awards recognition. Separately, our official Altın Örümcek record lists 88 awards in Türkiye.

Against the criteria above, our strongest fit is enterprise platform work where strategy, UX/UI, engineering and long-term managed services sit with one accountable team — corporate and group websites, investor and career platforms, portals and multi-brand systems. Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA and Core Web Vitals targets are part of our delivery definition rather than an optional workstream.

We are a weaker fit for pure performance-marketing retainers, media buying or short-turnaround campaign production, and we say so early. External profiles you can verify independently include our LinkedIn company page, Clutch and Edvido profiles, and our Altın Örümcek agency page.

Türkiye'nin en iyi web tasarım ajansları nasıl değerlendirilir?

Kurumsal ekipler için doğru soru "en iyi ajans hangisi" değil, "bu kapsam ve bu sektör için en uygun iş ortağı hangisi" sorusudur. Değerlendirmeyi kurumsal referanslar, sektör deneyimi, UX/UI olgunluğu, mühendislik yetkinliği, erişilebilirlik ve performans pratiği, içerik/CMS operasyonu, lansman sonrası yönetilen hizmetler ve doğrulanabilir dış kanıtlar üzerinden puanlayın.

Kısa ve ücretli bir keşif çalışması, en güvenilir testtir: iki-dört haftalık gerçek iş birliği, hiçbir sunumun gösteremeyeceği kadar net bir iletişim ve tahmin disiplini resmi verir.

Frequently asked questions

Does a ranking list tell me which agency to choose?: No. Public lists cannot evaluate your governance model, integration landscape or internal capacity. Use them to build a longlist, then score the shortlist against your own weighted criteria.
How many agencies should be on an enterprise shortlist?: Three to five is usually enough. Beyond that, evaluation quality drops because teams stop reading the submissions carefully and start comparing headline prices.
What is a realistic timeline for a corporate platform?: Most enterprise corporate platforms run four to nine months from discovery to launch, depending on content volume, integrations and approval layers. Anyone quoting a fixed timeline before discovery is estimating without information.

Want this framework applied to your shortlist?

Send us your scope and evaluation criteria. We will tell you where we fit, where we do not, and what we would ask a studio in your position.