Web design agencies in Antwerp and Mechelen: who owns your site afterwards?

Search Google for the best web design agency in Antwerp or Mechelen and you get directories such as Sortlist and Trustlocal, plus the service pages of agencies. We found no editorial comparison in the first ten results for either city, and none of the lists explains the criteria it ranks on. ChatGPT builds its answer on the same directories and on the number of Google reviews.

This overview tests eight agencies from the Antwerp and Mechelen region, ClickForest included, on what a review score does not show: which platform they build on, who owns the site afterwards, how fast and accessible their sites are, and what their reviews really say. Everything was checked on 3 October 2026, on the agencies’ own sites, in the Belgian company register (KBO) and in Google Maps.

How was this list put together?

With three tests, checked on 3 October 2026: an office in the Antwerp or Mechelen region according to the agency’s own site, web design as a core service with a description of what the agency builds, and a Google profile with reviews. The candidates came from the Google results, where Sortlist and Trustlocal sit at the top, and from ChatGPT’s answers to the same question.

ClickForest is in this list itself and has an interest in you choosing us. That is why the table is not a ranking. ClickForest is at the top, the other agencies follow in alphabetical order, and at the bottom there is a section on who we are not the obvious choice for. ClickForest builds websites for SMEs in Antwerp and Mechelen and applied the same tests to itself as to the others.

The overview contains no links to the other agencies, because their name is enough to find them, and it mentions no prices. You can read what a website costs, and what that price includes, in what a website costs.

A number of candidates dropped out. 7211 in Berchem focuses on Google Ads and AdSem in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve on SEO and SEA; neither offers web design on its site. Studio 84 does build websites, but is based in Ghent. Fearless John in Mechelen is a communications agency for which the website is one service alongside video and branding. Made By Design, which ChatGPT named for Mechelen on 3 October 2026, has been called De Maanstekerij since 2024 and now describes itself as a branding studio. Two other candidates could not be linked to an address or a company in the KBO.

Which web design agencies in Antwerp and Mechelen are in this list?

Eight, ourselves included: four in the Antwerp region and four in the Mechelen region, from a studio that started in 2024 to an agency that has been building websites for twenty years. All eight score 4.9 or 5.0 on Google. They differ mainly in platform, team size and what their terms say about who owns your site.

What is in the table comes from the agencies’ own sites and was not independently verified. We read the review figures in Google Maps on 3 October 2026. Athes Agency does online marketing as well as web design, as does ClickForest; if you mainly need SEO, there is a separate comparison of SEO agencies in Belgium. For Shopify webshops there is the overview of Shopify agencies.

Who owns your website when an agency builds it?

The agency, unless you agree otherwise. According to the Belgian Federal Public Service Economy, copyright in a commissioned work goes to its maker if there is no agreement, and for commissioned software you in principle only get a right of use. The domain belongs to whoever is registered on it. So before you sign, ask who will own the code, the design and the domain.

The FPS Economy puts it like this: “Is er geen overeenkomst afgesloten, dan geldt de basisregel die bepaalt dat de auteursrechten toekomen aan de maker”, meaning that without an agreement the copyright belongs to the maker (FPS Economy). For software, the transfer must according to the FPS be “uitdrukkelijk worden overeengekomen en schriftelijk worden vastgelegd”, explicitly agreed and laid down in writing (FPS Economy). For the domain, DNS Belgium is just as clear: whoever is on the registration is the domain name holder, and only they can move the website or manage the email addresses. On dnsbelgium.be, the “Gegevens bekijken” (view details) button shows who your domain is registered to.

This list includes three agencies whose general terms state that the site, the design or the CMS remains their property, or that you only get a right of use. Two of the three add the reservation that a different arrangement is possible. Okappi does it the other way round: according to its terms, copyright transfers on acceptance of the work, and the domain is registered in the client’s name by default.

At ClickForest the domain is in the client’s name, and after the final payment the source code belongs to the client too: the client pays for the code to be written and gets it whenever they ask. For VF Bioscience, ClickForest moved the domain to the client’s own Cloudflare account. FeWeb, the Belgian federation of web companies, asks the same question in its checklist for choosing a digital partner from 2017: “ben je eigenaar van de creatie en de code?”, do you own the creation and the code?

Should a new SME website still be built in WordPress?

That depends on who manages the site. WordPress remains a legitimate choice for content-heavy sites with many editors, and most agencies in this list build with it. The risk lies in the plugins: according to Patchstack, which sells WordPress security, 11,334 new vulnerabilities were found in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, 42 percent more than in 2024, and 91 percent of them were in plugins.

Those figures come from Patchstack’s annual report, a source with an interest, and cover the whole WordPress ecosystem. Which plugins an agency installs by default and who does the updates matters more for your site than the platform itself. A well-maintained site with few plugins runs less risk.

Two agencies in this list build without WordPress: ClickForest in Astro on Cloudflare, and MOGHI with Craft CMS or a headless CMS. In addition, Okappi, Rekall and Webit build web applications in Laravel when a site has to do more than show information. The trade-off between both worlds is covered in more depth in Astro or WordPress.

How fast should an SME website load?

Google sets three thresholds, the Core Web Vitals: the largest content appears within 2.5 seconds, a click gets a response within 200 milliseconds, and the layout shifts by a score of 0.1 at most. A page meets the threshold when at least 75 percent of page visits stay under it, measured separately on mobile and desktop. Ask an agency for those figures on sites it built for clients.

Philip Walton of Google writes in the explanation of Web Vitals why those thresholds exist:

“Optimizing for quality of user experience is key to the long-term success of any site on the web.”

— Philip Walton, Google, on web.dev

Speed is also linked to conversion. A Deloitte study commissioned by Google observed in 2020 that a mobile site loading 0.1 seconds faster had 8.4 percent more conversions in retail (Deloitte), based on four weeks of mobile data from retail, travel, luxury and lead generation brands in Europe and the US. For a single site, such a correlation predicts little. Jakob Nielsen said it back in 2010:

“A snappy user experience beats a glamorous one, for the simple reason that people engage more with a site when they can move freely and focus on the content instead of on their endless wait.”

— Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group (2010)

At ClickForest, the site of Cammers, a seating factory in Mechelen, scores 99 on Lighthouse for performance, with the largest content in view after 0.9 seconds. The new site of Servaes Services loads 4 times faster than the old PHP version and scores 95 on PageSpeed mobile.

Does your website have to comply with the European Accessibility Act?

Only if you sell online to consumers. In Belgium the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to e-commerce services for consumers, such as webshops. A B2B site, a site with only editorial content or a site where you only make a booking without paying falls outside it according to the FPS Economy. Micro-enterprises have until 28 June 2030.

According to the FPS Economy guidelines, a business that falls under it and does not comply risks an administrative fine of €260 to €100,000 or up to 4 percent of annual turnover. Micro-enterprises are companies with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of at most 2 million euros (FPS Economy). European Commissioner Hadja Lahbib said when the act took effect:

“Around 100 million people in the EU live with a disability. Accessibility is a precondition for participation in society. The European Accessibility Act is a measure of fairness and justice, but also of growth and innovation.”

— Hadja Lahbib, European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management (June 2025)

Even without an obligation, accessibility is a quality criterion. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, said it as early as 1997:

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”

— Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web

Rekall is one of the 14 builders that AnySurfer recognises for accessible websites. For Cammers, ClickForest checked the colour contrast and adjusted 21 places where the brand colours fell below the WCAG standard; the site scores 100 on Lighthouse for accessibility.

What do Google reviews say, and why does ChatGPT count them?

Not much that sets these agencies apart: all eight score 4.9 or 5.0. The number of reviews says more, from 6 to 40 in this list. Yet Sortlist, Trustlocal and ChatGPT rank mainly on review score and count. So read what clients write in the reviews, and ask for references you can call yourself.

On 3 October 2026, ChatGPT named Webit, Rekall, Digital Dreams and Athes Agency among others as the best web design agency in Antwerp, and Okappi among others for Mechelen. We measure that with SE Ranking’s ChatGPT tracker, with one answer per day: a snapshot, because the names changed a lot between September and October. ChatGPT cited Sortlist and Trustlocal as sources every time, and for Mechelen also named Made By Design, an agency that has been called De Maanstekerij since 2024.

AI answers can therefore lag behind and lean on what directories and reviews say. We explain how a business ends up in those answers in how to get recommended by ChatGPT. For your own website, the question is whether it is ready for AI search engines. In our study of 200 Belgian websites, sites scored 39.5 on average for AI visibility, against 69.1 for classic SEO. That is what GEO is about.

Want to know how your current site scores on speed, SEO and AI visibility before you start on a new one? That is what the website audit is for.

How do you test a web design agency before you sign?

Ask who will own the domain, the code and the design, and have that put in the contract. Ask which platform the agency builds on and why, and how the sites it has delivered score on Core Web Vitals. Call two references. And check in the KBO whether the company number on the site belongs to the company sending you the quote.

In practice you can check all of this before the first meeting:

• Domain: look up on dnsbelgium.be who your current domain is registered to, and have the quote state that it stays in your name.
• Code and design: ask whether the copyright transfers on delivery, or whether you get a right of use. If the quote says nothing, the FPS’s basic rule applies: the rights stay with the maker.
• What happens if you stop: ask whether you get the site, the content and the access credentials, and in what form. On delivery, ClickForest provides a handover letter with access credentials, technical details and an explanation of day-to-day management.
• Speed: run two recent client sites through PageSpeed Insights and look at the Core Web Vitals on mobile.
• Replacing an existing site: ask how the agency maps and redirects your existing URLs so you do not lose your Google rankings. You only notice how much that matters for SEO when it goes wrong.

In the same checklist, FeWeb also asks the question that matters with every small studio: “Wat gebeurt er als je digitale partner uitvalt? Kan je gemakkelijk van partner veranderen zonder de continuïteit in het gedrang te brengen?”, meaning what happens if your digital partner drops out, and can you easily switch partners without putting continuity at risk.

Who is ClickForest the right choice for, and who not?

ClickForest suits an SME that wants a fast website that stays its own, that is found in Google and in AI search engines, and where you deal with the builder directly. It suits less those who want to keep working in WordPress with many editors, those who prefer a monthly subscription to owning a site, or those looking for a large team with its own design department.

ClickForest builds websites for SMEs in Antwerp and Mechelen in Astro on Cloudflare. Analysis, design and code come from Frederiek Pascal, the founder. According to our own planning, a brochure site is live after two to three weeks on average and a business website usually after four to six weeks, followed by a month of aftercare. More about the approach is on website development, or per region on website development in Antwerp and website development in Mechelen.

If you are looking for something else, this list shows the way. For an accessible site for a government body, non-profit or cultural organisation, Rekall has AnySurfer’s recognition. For a web application or a WooCommerce webshop with integrations with Exact Online, Okappi works with a team of ten. If you prefer a fixed monthly price with hosting and maintenance included, Pixel Collection offers that. And if you want a WordPress site with a dashboard to edit texts yourself, Webit or Digital Dreams can help.

Conclusion: how do you choose a web design agency?

With all eight agencies at 4.9 or 5.0, the reviews do not get you much further. What counts is what you still have after delivery: a domain in your name, code and design that are yours, a site that loads fast on mobile, and a platform that suits whoever manages the site. Ask for that in writing, before you sign.

ClickForest builds websites for SMEs in Antwerp and Mechelen and puts the domain and the source code in the client’s name. Want to know whether that suits your business? See how we work on website development. Still in doubt between a new site and improving your current one? A CRO analysis shows where visitors now drop off.