Seven questions that make three website quotes comparable.
Three quotes are three different products priced under one name. Seven questions, a grid and three pieces of arithmetic turn them into numbers that mean the same thing.
Three web design quotes are almost never three prices for the same thing, which is why comparing them feels impossible. Seven questions fix that. Ask all seven of each firm, write the answers in a grid, and the $4,000 quote and the $14,000 quote will turn out to be priced for different products, usually in ways neither firm hid from you and neither one volunteered.
This page is a tool rather than an argument. Keep it open during the call. There is a short phone version at the bottom.
It is deliberately not about whether a firm is any good. That is a separate exercise and it is covered in how to pick a web designer. This one does one job: making three numbers mean the same thing.
Why three quotes never match
Four variables account for most of the spread, and none of them are visible in a total.
Page count. One quote assumes six pages. Another assumes eighteen, because the person reading your brief counted the services and towns you mentioned. Same brief, three times the work.
Who writes the words. The cheapest quote in almost every set assumes you will supply finished copy for every page. You will not, because almost nobody does, and the cost reappears later as either a stalled project or an invoice.
What counts as the project. Hosting, the domain, forms, analytics, redirects from the old site, training, a photo shoot, a logo tidy-up. Each firm draws the line somewhere different and none of them announce where.
What happens after launch. One quote is a build. Another is a build plus a monthly fee that bundles things you have not priced. A third is a monthly fee with no build price at all, which is not a quote for a website, it is a rental agreement.
Until you know all four for all three, you are comparing numbers that measure different things.
Before you dial
Write one sentence describing what you want, with a number in it, and read the identical sentence to all three firms. Something like: a site for a painting company, eight to twelve pages covering five services and four towns, with a quote form, replacing an existing site.
That sentence is the control. Change it between calls and you have destroyed your own experiment.
Then draw a seven-row grid on paper, one column per firm. The grid matters more than your memory, because by the third call you will have merged the answers.
The seven questions
1. How many pages is this number for, and what does one more page cost?
The first question every time, because every other number depends on it.
A good answer is a count and a unit price. Eleven pages, listed in the proposal, and $400 for an additional page.
A poor answer is as many as you need. That sentence always gets reinterpreted, and never in the direction you are hoping for.
Write down the page count and the price per extra page. You will use both in the normalizing step.
2. Which line of this quote is the copywriting, and what does the total become without it?
Not whether copy is included. What it is worth, as a number, inside their own quote.
A good answer separates it. Four thousand of the fourteen is copy for eleven pages, including an interview with you and two rounds of revisions, and the total drops to ten without it.
A poor answer is that copy is not really a separate thing, or a long explanation of why your input is important. That is a no wearing a jacket.
Write down the copy figure. This single number explains more of the spread between quotes than anything else on this page.
3. What is not in this quote that I will have to buy from somebody else?
Ask it exactly like that. The phrasing invites honesty because it assumes there is something.
A good answer is a short list with rough prices attached. Photography, roughly a thousand for a half day. The domain, about twenty a year. Your own time for the review rounds.
A poor answer is everything you need is included. Nothing is everything, and the firms who say it are the ones who send the first change order in week three.
Write down each excluded item and its cost. These go into the comparison as real money.
4. What is my total for year one, including everything I pay anybody at all?
The build price is not the price. Year one is the price.
A good answer is itemized: build, hosting, domain, any licence or subscription the site depends on, any retainer, and the annual figure from year two onward.
A poor answer is basically nothing ongoing, or one monthly figure covering hosting, help and whatever else, with no breakdown behind it. A bundle exists to prevent exactly the comparison you are doing.
Write down the year-one total and the year-two onward total separately. A quote that is cheap in year one and expensive forever is a common shape and only this question exposes it.
5. What do the two changes I will definitely ask for after launch cost?
Then name them. A new service page, and a price change across three pages. Every business needs both within six months.
A good answer is a published rate or an hourly figure with a minimum, plus whether you can do simple edits yourself.
A poor answer is we will look after you. Pleasant, unpriced, and it becomes awkward precisely when you need something.
Write down the rate and whether self-editing is possible. A site you cannot update is a site with a subscription attached to its own content.
6. If the scope changes mid-project, how does the number change, and who decides it has changed?
This is the question that separates a fixed quote from a fixed-looking quote.
A good answer has a mechanism. Anything outside the agreed page list is quoted in writing and approved by you before the work happens, and nothing lands on an invoice you have not seen.
A poor answer is that they will keep an eye on the hours. That means the risk of their estimating sits with you.
Write down whether a written change order exists. If it does not, the total you were quoted is a forecast.
7. What is the payment schedule, and what do I own if we stop halfway?
Ask it cheerfully. Projects do stop, usually for ordinary reasons.
A good answer is phases with deliverables, each invoiced as it ships, and a plain statement of what you keep at each point. Our own builds are quoted fixed and paid per phase for exactly this reason.
A poor answer is most of the money up front, or a deposit with no stated deliverable against it.
Write down the schedule and the percentage up front.
The scoring sheet
Copy this and fill a column per firm. The right-hand columns are what you actually compare.
| Line | Quote A | Quote B | Quote C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quoted total | |||
| Pages included | |||
| Price per extra page | |||
| Copywriting included, and its value | |||
| Excluded items, and their cost | |||
| Year-one total | |||
| Year two onward, per year | |||
| Post-launch change rate | |||
| Written change orders | |||
| Up front percentage | |||
| Normalized total |
Three normalizations that reveal the real price
Now do the arithmetic that the quotes were never going to do for you.
Normalize the scope. Decide the page count you actually want. For any quote below it, add the missing pages at that firm's own stated price per page. For any quote above it, subtract. Now all three are priced for the same site.
Normalize what is included. Add the copywriting cost to any quote that excluded it, using the real market cost rather than zero. Add every excluded item from question three. If one firm includes photography and another does not, add the photography.
Normalize the horizon. Add year one and year two of running costs to each total. Three years is better if any of them involve a monthly fee, because that is the horizon at which a rental arrangement reveals itself.
Then add one line nobody else will tell you to add: your own hours. A quote that requires you to write eleven pages of copy is asking for several days of your time. Price those days at whatever an hour of your attention is worth and put the number in the grid. It is a real cost and it is frequently the largest hidden one in the cheapest quote.
What a fair spread looks like afterwards
Normalized quotes usually land much closer together than the raw numbers did. Not identical, and they should not be, because labour models and build methods genuinely differ.
If one normalized total is still far below the others, the difference is real and it is buying something. Ask which of these it is, because it is almost always one of four:
- A template with your logo on it rather than a custom build.
- The work subcontracted somewhere with a lower cost base and a slower feedback loop.
- No testing or review phase, which is where launch faults get caught.
- A smaller page count hiding behind a vaguer definition of a page.
Any of those can still be the right purchase. A template set up properly is a rational choice for plenty of businesses. What you want is to make that choice knowingly, at a price you understand, rather than discovering it in month three. The ranges for each tier are published in what a website costs in Brantford, and if the project is a store rather than a site, the cost lines that diverge are set out in Shopify against WooCommerce for an Ontario brand.
Two shapes that mean the number is not a quote
A from price. From $2,500 is not a quote, it is a floor. Ask for the number for your project, in writing, or treat the quote as not yet received.
A monthly figure with no build price. Perfectly legal, occasionally suitable, and not comparable to a build at all. If one of your three is this, price it over three years and five years before you put it in the grid, and ask what you own at the end.
The phone version
Read these out. Write the answers in the grid.
- How many pages, and what does an extra one cost?
- How much of this number is the copywriting?
- What is excluded that I will buy elsewhere, and roughly what does that cost?
- What is my year-one total, and my cost per year after that?
- What do a new page and a price change across three pages cost after launch?
- If the scope changes, how is the number changed and who approves it?
- What is the payment schedule, and what do I own if we stop?
Seven questions, about twelve minutes per firm. It is the cheapest hour of the whole project.
We answer all seven in the quote itself rather than waiting to be asked, because a number you cannot compare is not much use to you. If you want ours alongside the other two, send us the same sentence you read to them.
Normalize them before you compare them. Price every quote for the same page count using each firm's own cost per extra page, add the copywriting and the exclusions at real cost, then add year one and year two of running costs to each total.
A numbered page list, the price of an extra page, whether the copy is written for you and what that part is worth, every exclusion, the annual running cost, the post-launch change rate, a written change order process, and a payment schedule tied to deliverables.
Add year one running costs, add anything excluded that you will buy elsewhere, and add your own hours at whatever your time is worth. That last one is usually the biggest hidden cost in the cheapest quote, because it assumes you write all the copy.
Sometimes, and you should know why it is cheap before you accept it. It is nearly always a template rather than a custom build, work subcontracted at a lower cost base, no testing phase, or a smaller page count behind a vaguer definition of a page.
It means you have not been quoted yet. A floor is not a number for your project, and the gap between the floor and your real total is where the surprises live. Ask for the figure for your own page list, in writing, before comparing anything.