Comparing web design quotes line by line
To compare three web design quotes, first rewrite each one into the same list of lines: pages, content, design, CMS, features, integrations, SEO, hosting, ownership and what happens after launch. Only then compare prices, against a ladder such as ours, which runs from EUR 600-900 for a single-page landing to EUR 3.500-7.500 for a site with logins, payments or API integrations, and from EUR 7.500 for a custom platform.
Three totals can sit far apart and still all be fair, because each agency priced the site it understood from your brief. Your job is to find out whether they understood the same site.
Why the totals mislead
A quote is a description of a project with a price at the bottom. One agency counts writing the text; another assumes you supply it. One includes hosting; another leaves it out. One says "SEO" and means page titles; another means a monthly service. Put the totals side by side before the descriptions match and you are comparing different purchases.
The comparison sheet
Use one row per line below and one column per quote, and fill every cell from the quote itself. Any cell you cannot fill becomes a question to send back.
| Line | What to find | Ask if it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | How many, and which ones by name | Which pages are in the price, and does a page template count as one page? |
| Content | Who writes the text and who supplies photos | Is writing included, and if not, what state must my text be in? |
| Design | Custom design or an adapted template | Will I see the design before it is built, and how are changes handled? |
| CMS | Which parts of the site you can edit yourself | Can I change text and images and add pages without you? |
| Features | Forms, booking, payments, logins, search | Does the booking take payment? Does anything need a login? |
| Integrations | Which outside systems connect, and how | Is this an embedded form or an API integration? |
| SEO | Named tasks, not the word "SEO" | Which tasks, one-off or monthly, and what gets reported? |
| Hosting and domain | Who hosts, and what it costs after launch | What do hosting and the domain cost each year, and who pays? |
| Ownership | Who owns the code, the repository and the database | Is ownership written into the agreement? |
| After launch | What is covered, and at what monthly price | What counts as a small fix, and what is quoted as new work? |
| Timeline | Weeks from start to launch | What do you need from me before work starts? |
Match each quote to a step
Once the lines are filled in, the features tell you what kind of site each quote describes, whatever it is called.
| If the lines say | It is | Our range |
|---|---|---|
| One page, a form, analytics | Step 01 | EUR 600-900, 1-2 weeks |
| 2-3 pages, a contact flow, a basic CMS | Step 02 | EUR 900-1.500, 2-3 weeks |
| 4-7 pages, CMS, service pages, booking or contact, a CRM's own embedded form | Step 03 | EUR 1.500-3.500, 3-6 weeks |
| Checkout on any platform, logins, a dashboard, a chatbot, booking that takes payment, an API into a CRM, ERP, stock or accounting system | Step 04 | EUR 3.500-7.500, 6-12 weeks |
| Auth, billing and admin for a custom platform, a headless storefront, an internal admin staff work in all day | Step 05 | From EUR 7.500, quoted after discovery |
The step matters more than the label on the quote. A "simple webshop" is step 04 work because it takes payments, whether it runs on a standard Shopify theme or is built in code. If a quote for one is priced like a business website, ask what the payment side includes.
A worked example
Three made-up quotes for the same brief, a practice with four services and online booking, rewritten into lines:
| Line | Quote A | Quote B | Quote C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pages | 5, named | 6, named | "Complete website" |
| Content | You supply | Writing included | Not stated |
| Booking | Link to an outside booking tool | Booking flow on the site | Booking that takes payment |
| SEO | "SEO-friendly" | Search Console, titles, indexation | Monthly SEO, tasks not listed |
| Hosting | Included, renewal price not stated | Not included | Inside a monthly fee |
| Ownership | Not stated | Code and repository | Not stated |
Read across and the question stops being which total is lowest. Quote A is a business website with the content and the booking left to you. Quote B is closest to the brief, but its ownership line leaves out the database, so ask. Quote C takes payment at booking, which makes it step 04 work, and folds hosting and SEO into one monthly figure you cannot see inside. Send each agency the cells that say "not stated", then compare again.
Separate one-off from monthly
Give every recurring cost its own row and count the same number of months for all three quotes. Care at EUR 100-300 a month covers updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes, not a redesign or new features. SEO foundation at EUR 450-750 is one-off; SEO growth at EUR 500-800 a month is the part that continues. More on what a headline price can leave out is in hidden costs in web projects.
How to run the comparison
- Send the same brief to all three. Different briefs produce different quotes. How to brief a web agency covers what to put in it.
- Fill the sheet. From the documents, not from your memory of the call.
- Send back the gaps. Each agency gets its own missing cells.
- Match each quote to a step. Check price and timeline against the ranges: 1-2 weeks for step 01, 2-3 for step 02, 3-6 for step 03, 6-12 for step 04, and a quote after discovery for step 05.
- Compare the revised quotes. Now the totals mean something.
Step 04 features promised in the time of a step 01 page deserve a direct question about what was left out. Other warning signs are in red flags in a web proposal.
When to spend less
- All three quoted more site than you need. If your filled sheet shows that one page and a form would do, ask all three for a step 01 quote instead of choosing the cheapest large one.
- The cheapest quote fills every line you need. Take it. A higher price for lines you do not need is not better value.
- A monthly fee is the difference. For a new site with little to measure yet, a one-off SEO foundation may be all the SEO you buy for now.
- You cannot fill the sheet because you do not know what you need. Write the brief first, and do not buy a bigger build yet.
Questions about comparing quotes
Should I pick the middle quote?
Only if its lines match your brief. A middle price is a position between two other numbers, not a sign of quality.
One quote is hourly. How do I compare it?
Ask for the estimated hours per line and what happens when an estimate runs over. Without those, an hourly quote has no total to put in the column. Our quotes are fixed and follow scoping, and for step 05 they follow discovery.
Why do your prices come as ranges?
The range belongs to the step, before we know your details. Scoping decides where your project lands inside it, and the fixed quote follows. Every step is on the price list.
What should the ownership line say?
It should name the code, the repository and the database, not only "the website". On our projects, the client owns the code, the repository and the database. Hosting is a separate question: we can host, and that is agreed per project.
If one of your quotes is still full of gaps, send us the same brief and compare ours line by line.
Building something?
JP Studio designs and builds websites, storefronts and product interfaces.