Best Web Design Companies in 2023 For Your Business

What is Website Design?

The design of a website highlights both its identity and its USP. While features and functionalities present in a website make users visit again and again, the design of the website entices users and piques their interest. If the design of a website is interesting, it will automatically attract attention. However, a seemingly well-functioning website might not perform well if it is designed poorly.

A website’s design plays a huge role in its success. The design of a website becomes all the more important if it represents a business. This is why most businesses hire professional website design companies for creating their official websites. A winning website requires a combination of visual design, user generated content and branding strategy. However, the website design services help ensure that visitors on your website stay long enough to notice all of the above elements.

Until the past decade, website designing primarily dealt with creating website designs for desktop browsers only. However, today it encompasses desktop, mobile, and tablet viewing experiences. In addition, modern web design emphasizes multiple elements, including the layout, overall appearance, content, fonts, colors, and images used. Though each web design company might have a different take on design aesthetics, their primary job is to ensure that their client's website appears to be an accurate representation of their business and works as a credible and useful resource.

What are the Top Web Design Companies?

Before determining the best website design company for your needs, it is important to know of the stalwarts in this field, the services they offer, and the clients that they cater to. Let us take a look at some of the best website design companies around the globe today.

1. Lounge Lizard:

This website design company has been around for over two decades and has served thousands of firms worldwide. Besides website design services, it offers web development, SEO, digital marketing, social media, and mobile app development services to clients across multiple industries. The Lounge Lizard team works round the clock to drive leads and offers design and branding expertise to some of the well-known brands today.

Since its inception in 1998, Lounge Lizard has had several achievements and boasts of an impressive list of clients that include A&E Television, Aerco, and Agility Logistics. The web design companyies currently has offices in Washington DC, New York, Long Island, Los Angeles, and Nashville.

2. 500 Designs:

500 Designs is a top-rated web design company that many designers swear by. The company was established in 2004 and is presently based out of Irvine, California. The company offers UI/UX design, marketing strategy, and branding services to companies like Google, Cusco, and KBS.

3. Clay:

Clay is widely known for the top-notch design quality it offers and the brand identity it helps create. This premier UI/UX company offers affordable web design services and specializes in design tips and tricks, user experience design, and developing digital products. Clay was established in 2009 and works with a small but talented team of individuals who help startups and conglomerates like Facebook/Meta, Coinbase, and Slack.

4. Eight25Media:

Though this design company was founded only in 2011, it has quickly made a name for itself due to its expertise in HTML, CSS, WordPress, web design consulting, and digital branding. Eight25Media has received a lot of praise from clients like Samsung and Hyundai owing to its responsiveness and flexibility as a custom website design company.

5. 3 Media Web:

3 Media Web is a renowned digital firm with almost two decades of experience in website design and digital marketing. Founded in 2001 in Hudson, Massachusetts, 3 Media Web has a small team that takes care of web development and design, PPC, SEO, social media, and content marketing for its clients. 

6. Propeller:

This web design company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in London with an additional office in New York. The company specializes in email marketing, web design, and SEO services to its clients in the hospitality, luxury goods, retail, and FMCG industries.

7. Metajive:

Metajive is a California-based website design company with a small but powerful team of design and development experts. Besides custom web development and website design services,  Metajive also helps in e-commerce development. Founded in the year 2004, the company has completed over 300 projects successfully for clients like Nike and Porsche.

8. Knowmad Digital Marketing:

Based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, this award-winning firm is an inspiration to many website design companies all over the world. Knowmad Digital Marketing is created to help small and mid-sized clients improve brand engagement, customer acquisition, and retention. Besides providing modern web design solutions to SMBs, Knowmad Digital Marketing also offers content marketing, SEO, PPC, digital strategy, and social media marketing services.

9. Beardo Group:

Beardo is a web design company based out of Atlanta founded in 2012. This design powerhouse offers web design, development, and logo design services. The American Sleep Association, AAMCO, and Captain Black Cigars are some of its well-known clients.

10. Calibrate Software:

Calibrate Software is a website design services provider based in Chicago. The company has founded in 2017 and has gained much acclaim due to the premier UX/UI design, web development, and mobile app development services it offers to small and medium-sized businesses. Most of Calibrate’s clients are from the ecommerce and education sector; however, it also caters to clients from the healthcare, finance, IT, and retail industries.

11. CISIN:

Cyber Infrastructure Inc. is one of the most easily recognizable website design companies in the world, with clients like UPS, Nokia, and Amcor. The company has its headquarters in San Francisco and has dedicated offices in Miami, Atlanta, New York, London, Singapore, and India. CISIN was founded in 2003 and currently houses a team of 700+ individuals. The company primarily deals in corporate web design for IT, advertising, and gaming mid-market businesses.

12. Zgraya Digital:

Zgraya is a full-service digital agency located in Kyiv, Ukraine. Besides offering website design services, the company also offers web development, UI/UX design, and digital marketing services. Zgraya has an impressive track record of helping clients achieve their business goals via creating sophisticated websites, web and mobile applications for brands and digital ad agencies.

13. Gulo:

Gulo is a digital agency that was founded in 2003 and is based out of Chicago. This web design company helps clients with digital strategy building, web design and development, analytics, UX design, and conversion rate optimization. 

14 Chromatic:

Though on the pricier side, many businesses swear by Chromatic’s services due to their attention to detail and design flexibility. The company is based in Chicago and houses an excellent team of strategists, developers and designers. The company has a distributed team that supports its global clientele in media and eCommerce. Chromatic is one of the best web design companies to approach for rebuilding websites, improving user experience, and adding custom features.

Why do businesses and web design need each other?

In today’s world, every business, irrespective of its size and industry, needs to have an online presence. Web design companies are therefore becoming increasingly important as they help firms take their business online and offer an accurate representation of the same. Having a well-designed website containing details of the products/services you offer adds to your credibility and allows users to interact with you at their convenience.

The primary interactions of your business with potential clients/customers are likely to occur via the internet today. As such, your prospects’ introduction to your business is likely to happen through your website.  Website design services help you create a solid impression of your business from the first go, increasing the likelihood of them becoming your customers.

A professional web design company can greatly transform your online presence, turning it into a valuable asset for your company. In addition, . IT can work wonders for your brand image by improving engagement levels through colors, better usability, and an enhanced browsing experience for your users.

Whether your business is already established or newly created, website design services are now an essential business investment that ensures that your business gets noticed for all the right reasons. Hence they are mutually dependent on one another in an internet-driven economy.

What makes a good web designer?

Website designing includes multiple elements that come together to form a coherent visual experience. Each aspect of a business website design needs to be meticulously thought out and created for the desired impact. As such there are three key elements that make for a great website designer — style, specialization, and experience.

Each web design companies has their unique style that they have developed from various influences and experiences. For instance, one designer’s style can be influenced by minimalism, while another might prefer multimedia to be embedded in their design. Hence, while picking a designer, it is important to understand what kind of design style you are looking for and contact a web designer with similar design sensibilities.

The specialization of a website design companies is determined by what they excel at/are known best for. While the majority of website design companies offer an umbrella of services, only a fraction of them specializes in a particular discipline. This can indicate that they can do many things decently well but do not excel at anything. On the other hand, specialization can also mean that they have developed a particular skill set overtime working on a specific type of website.

Experience is another crucial factor that comes into play while choosing a web design company. The number and diversity of projects handled by an agency showcase how good they are at their job. Additionally, any successful web designing company will have a list of happy clients and a portfolio of their previous work.

How to choose the best web design company?

Choosing a web design companies that would be a perfect fit for your company or project is indeed an uphill task. It involves plenty of risks and as such, you should be extremely careful while picking a design partner. After proper research and shortlisting of potential design firms, you should do the following:

1. Know the company via its social handles & websites:

A designing firm’s website’s aesthetics and usability often offer a clear overview of its strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, you must also check out how they talk about themselves, what kind of clients they handle, and what their clients think of them. Finally, you should also try to understand if they have handled projects like yours in the past from their portfolio.

The social media handles of a website design companies can also be a useful tool to understand their strengths. The number of follows, interaction style and frequency of posts can also help you understand their popularity and working style. 

2. Go through their design portfolio:

Most professional website design companies have a detailed portfolio depicting their past work and projects handled. Design portfolios can often be segregated based on type, date, and relevance to help you understand their entire body of work. You might also come across use cases to find out how web design companies overcome real-life problems on behalf of clients.

The portfolio of a web design companies often explains the kind of hard work they do for each client and contains links to live websites too. Visiting these websites yourself and evaluating their design, mobile optimization, user-friendliness, navigation, performance, etc. 

3. Decide on your budget:

Before choosing a website design services company, you must set aside a budget. This will help you choose the best agency that can deliver good designs within your budget. If you are limited in the amount of money you can spend, go for a smaller web design company that can provide you with high-quality work at reasonable prices. 

4. Hire a local website designer/design firm:

Many businesses turn to offshore firms in the hope of reducing their overall costs. However, remote partners rarely provide you the transparency and control that you require over projects. 

For instance, many a website design company in India will offer to do all of your design work at less than half of the price as their international counterparts. However, it does not always mean that the designer will produce the quality of work that you have paid for. 

What are the most important questions to ask a web design Company?

Choosing a web design company for a project is no easy feat. To help you choose better, we have compiled a list of all the pertinent questions you must ask a web design company before hiring them. Here are a few of them:

1. Can you share some case studies?

The objective of any website is not to merely create an online presence, but to also attain a specific business goal. If you want to know whether the website design companies of your choice can deliver the results that you require, it is wise to ask for relevant case studies that demonstrate their ability to work towards the desired goal and achieve it successfully.

Case studies with detailed statistics of business results achieved by the web design companies can greatly assure you of their capabilities and overall quality of service.

2. Do you create designs for any specific company or industry type?

Website design companies often have to work with people from various industries, and as a result, gain experience in working with different types of requirements. Working with different types of companies offers great exposure to these designers, helping them to hone their existing skills and develop new ones. It may also happen that the web design companies you like has only worked with a specific type of clientele or industries only.

You won’t necessarily require a website design companies that has vast experience working with clients from all industries, but it is definitely a plus. The most important factor is to understand whether the agency/designer you choose has the ability and the experience to deliver the output you require.

3. What are the major steps you follow when creating a website?

Website development and designing require proper planning and brainstorming. However, it also involves sticking to a particular workflow that varies from one web design agency to another. Steps like research, planning, design, development, testing, and launch can vary greatly across website designing companies, with different durations and practices.

Ensure that the steps and delivery style of the agency matches well with your requirements. And if the agency does not have a set workflow, you should probably look elsewhere.

4. Will you integrate third-party extensions, apps, plugins, etc. to the website if required?

Creating a new website or revamping it simply isn’t enough nowadays. To ensure that you can put your corporate website design to the best use, it is vital to extend their functionalities by installing plugins and integrating 3rd-party solutions. If certain functionalities need to be added from the start, you should discuss the same prior to the design process.

5. Can my existing website be revamped or do I need a new one?

If you already have a website, creating a new one from scratch may not be the wisest decision. Revamping your website’s look and feel and adding in more features may cost you significantly less than creating a new one. 

If your existing website almost meets your business goals and you only wish to make it look better, you are better off with redesigning the front-end of your website. However, if you require a custom website design and multiple additional functionalities, it would be prudent to discuss creating a new one. Most often, non-technical individuals may not be able to understand the amount of effort required. Hence, it is better to contact a professional website designer or agency for expert advice.