When looking for web design services, you might google companies one by one and check their websites manually. Yet such an approach would consume too much of your time and effort. Instead, consider visiting directory listings of the highest-performing agencies in the industry.

Such catalogs include information about hundreds or even thousands of web design firms. They offer handy filters and search tools to facilitate the process of choosing the best contractor. In this article, we’ll talk about the 5 most popular web design directories and explain why it would be reasonable to use lesser-known platforms of this type.

Clutch

This catalog contains over 46,000 web design agencies. The information is arranged in card format. On each card, you’ll discover:

• The agency’s name
• Its size, location and pricing
• Main testimonial
• Service focus
• Contact info

To check the company’s portfolio and other data, you should visit its profile page. You’ll get a chance to read the summaries of the projects that the agency has completed. Clients’ testimonials will be linked to each summary. Plus, there will be information that confirms the agency’s legitimacy and credibility:

• When the business was launched
• It which jurisdictions it was launched
• Business entity details
• Payment/legal filing details

Some organizations might be unwilling to provide these details but others don’t mind sharing them.

Clutch lets you sort, filter and compare agencies. Its comparison tool is nicely visualized. The primary services of each firm are highlighted with colorful bars.

This platform features a useful instrument called the Leaders Matrix. It reveals how efficiently the company delivers the promised services. According to the Matrix, all agencies are grouped into four categories: Niche, Emerging, Proven and Market Leaders.

GoodFirms

This one contains more than 11,000 organizations from around 100 countries. Its website offers large blocks for high-profile web design agencies. You’ll get to know how large each company is, where it is situated and what its features and prices are.

If you wish to get to know more about each agency, you should make an extra click to switch to its portfolio, reviews or official website. All the details will be available on a single page.

The main filters enable you to sort agencies by their pricing. To find the filters related to the firm’s location and size, you should keep scrolling.

This platform evaluates the performance of each web design company by 6 criteria:

• Overall review score
• Portfolio ratings
• Market penetration
• Industry experience
• Web UI and UX
• Web creativity

Each criterion can give it a maximum of 10 points, so there can be a maximum of 60 points in total.

10BestDesignFirms

This website can boast an exceptionally minimalistic layout. When you open it, you’ll discover a list of top-performing web design agencies. As you begin to explore it, you’ll be able to check each company’s size, ratings, prices, and the most important details. To get access to the information about the agency’s contacts, location and more exhaustive data, you’ll need to make one extra click.

It’s a great resource for those who prefer to avoid cluttered lists and would love to get access to the aces of aces from the onset. The choice of agencies and the functionality of 10BestDesignFirm is limited, compared to the above-mentioned competitors.

Upcity

It’s an all-in-one marketplace with a focus on region-specific search. The most important information about each agency is displayed on a card. There, you’ll see the overall rating of each firm and its brief description. If you need more, you should proceed to the organization’s profile page that will showcase this data:

• Client reviews
• Portfolio
• Products and services
• Location
• Revenue
• Number of staff members

Tools for searching and filtering information on this marketplace are something in-between what 10BestDesignFirms and Clutch offer. They’re neither too extensive nor simplistic.

At the bottom of an organization’s profile page, you’ll come across client experiences. Each customer who wants to share their opinion about the agency is required to fill in these forms:

• 5-star rating
• Which services they used
• The budget of the project
• The staff’s communication skills and industry knowledge according to a 10-point ranking system

When searching for information, you’ll be allowed to filter the database by the following parameters:

• Name of the agency
• Certification
• Rating
• Overall review score
• Number of reviews

The last parameter is particularly important and helps Upcity stand out from its competitors. Many other websites allow visitors to filter companies by highest-rated comments. Yet if an agency has 500 positive comments, that speaks volumes, while only a couple of comments hardly mean anything.

DesignRush

When it comes to the card-based view, DesignRush doesn’t differ too drastically from other platforms. Each card contains information about the company’s prices and overviews. To get access to its exhaustive profile, you should open the agency’s page. The design of each profile immediately catches the eye and resembles a landing page. All the data is easily readable and structured in a remarkably user-friendly manner.

Potential clients can discover biographies of key team members in selected agencies’ profiles.

Why It Would Be Wise to Pay Attention to Lesser-Known Directories

Apart from the five leading platforms that were described above, there are many other directories on the Internet that help customers find reliable web design agencies. When a new project of this type is launched, its creators make sure it has a competitive edge. The teams behind new directories strive to outperform the already existing platforms with the help of:

• Exceptionally user-friendly interfaces and intuitive navigation
• Advanced search tools and filters
• Sophisticated rating and scoring systems, usually AI-powered
• Enhanced verification of all the information
• Highest professionalism of the support crew
• Additional services

If you run a web design agency, you should list it in directories that have just begun to take off. Their catalogs are not yet cluttered. When a potential client opens such a platform, their attention will be focused on a few dozen of agencies — including yours. Many people feel uncomfortable when they’re spoilt for choice. They get more confident when search opportunities are reasonably limited.

It’s easier to land one of the top positions in a rating if it features less than 500 companies.

Try IT-Rating.com!

IT Rating is a relatively new directory project. It enables you to find any type of company within the IT industry, including a web design agency.

This website can boast an incredibly comprehensive structure and a perfect UI/UX. Any IT company can apply to be listed there — but the information about it will go live only after the team of the directory manages to prove it with facts. For instance, if you state that your team can work with specific tools, you’ll be required to show products created with these tools. Reviews are accepted only from real customers that have genuinely used the company’s services.

This directory relies on AI-powered recommendation algorithms. It will suggest service providers to you based on your previous behavior on this website.

IT-Rating.com strives to build a powerful ecosystem for IT professionals. It includes job offers, educational courses, tenders, an events calendar, industry news, and research and much more. Both companies and individual specialists can benefit from this approach. The sooner you join this platform, the quicker you’ll be able to appreciate its advantages!