A company sends the same e-mail to three suppliers: „hello, we need a new website, could you send us a quote?“ Three numbers come back: 24 000, 68 000 and 190 000. The company concludes that the website market is impossible to make sense of.
All three quotes may be perfectly honest. Each simply imagined something different, because the brief prescribed nothing. The first assumes five pages and copy from the client. The second assumes twelve pages, a photo shoot and a content editor. The third assumes two languages, a client area and a link to the stock system.
A one page brief solves the whole thing. It does not need to be technical and it does not need to be long. It has to answer seven questions, and then the quotes suddenly become comparable.
Short answer
- Seven things belong in a brief: why a new site, what the company does and for whom, what the site should deliver, scope, deadline, source material and budget.
- The budget belongs in the enquiry. Not an exact figure, a range. Without it quotes get built blind and you receive three different products.
- There should be one main goal. A site meant to bring enquiries, sell, recruit and inform existing customers all at once does none of it properly.
- What you do not need to decide: colours, typefaces, technology or finished copy. That is the supplier's job and prescribing it upfront tends to hurt.
- Writing it takes an hour. It saves weeks of back and forth and one rebuild that otherwise gets paid for twice.
Why quotes differ enough to look like a scam
A website is not a product with a catalogue number. „A company website“ can mean five pages with a contact form, or a system with a catalogue, a calculator and logins. When the brief does not say which of those you want, each supplier fills in whatever they build most often.
Then there is a second source of variation that almost nobody asks about: what you supply and what the supplier supplies. Copy, photos, product lists, translation. Every one of those is tens of thousands when the supplier does it, and nothing when you already have it.
So the gap between a 24 000 and a 68 000 quote need not be quality. Usually it is scope and the division of labour, two things you were supposed to set.
We need a new website, the current one is dated. Could you send a quote and a price?
We have an old WordPress site, it cannot be edited and no enquiries come from it. We do custom metal fabrication for engineering companies. We want seven to ten pages, one language, live by the end of the year. We have some of the copy, no photos. Budget up to a hundred thousand.
The seven points
Two to five sentences each. The whole thing fits on one page and takes an hour to write.
| Point | What to write | If it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Why a new site | What specifically bothers you about the current one | You get a prettier version of the same problem |
| 2. What you do and for whom | Industry, main services, whether you sell to companies or consumers | The copy will be generic and say nothing about you |
| 3. What the site should deliver | One main goal and at most two secondary ones | The site will do everything and nothing well |
| 4. Scope | How many pages, what extra features, how many languages | The quotes cannot be compared |
| 5. Deadline | When you need it and why then | You find out halfway that it will not make it |
| 6. Source material | What you already have: copy, photos, logos, product lists | The single biggest source of price variation |
| 7. Budget | A range, not an exact figure | You get a quote for a different site than the one you want |
The three points that most often go wrong
The other four are straightforward. These three are worth expanding.
There should be one goal
The usual answer to „what should the site deliver“ is „everything“. Enquiries, credibility, recruitment, information for existing customers, less admin work. Each of those goals wants a different homepage.
A site built for enquiries has one service and one button at the top. A site built for recruitment has people and terms at the top. A site built to save admin work has a login at the top. Stack all of them side by side and you get a signpost nobody follows anywhere.
So pick one main goal and put it first in the brief. The other things can be on the site, but they give way.
The budget belongs in the enquiry
This is where companies push back hardest, and I understand why: the fear is that saying a hundred thousand produces a quote for a hundred thousand. With some suppliers that is exactly what happens.
But leaving it out causes something worse. The supplier does not know whether you are describing a thirty thousand site or a three hundred thousand one, so they choose for you. Choose low and you get a quote missing half of what you wanted. Choose high and you bin it as absurdly expensive, losing a supplier who could have built you a smaller version.
The answer is not a number but a range and its meaning. „We are working with a hundred thousand and would go to a hundred and fifty for a reason we understand“ is the sentence that produces a quote worth discussing.
Source material moves the price more than page count
This is the most underrated point in the whole brief. On a company website, copy and photos are an item measured in tens of thousands, and almost nobody mentions them in an enquiry.
So say it plainly, three things: whether you have the copy (all, some, none), whether you have photos usable on a website (not phone shots from 2016), and whether you have a list of products or services in some sort of spreadsheet. Those three sentences move a quote more than anything else.
What is not worth deciding upfront
A brief can also be spoiled by being too detailed. Four things that do not belong in it.
- Colours and typefaces. Write „we want blue“ and you will get a blue site, even if something else would suit you. Design is work you are paying for.
- Technology. „We want it on WordPress“ rules out suppliers who would build you something better another way. Say what the site has to do, not what it should run on.
- Finished copy for every page. The structure changes during design and half of pre written copy gets thrown away. Facts and material are enough.
- Links to sites you like, as the whole brief. They help as a supplement, but „we want it like this site“ means buying somebody else's decisions made for somebody else's company.
You describe the problem and the goal. The supplier proposes the solution. Swap those around and you are paying a developer to carry out your decisions, which is the more expensive of the two arrangements.
You describe the problem and the goal, the supplier proposes the solution. Swap them and you are paying to have your own decisions carried out
How to send it out
A detail that decides the quality of the replies.
- 1Send everybody the same brief. Not tailored to the recipient, or the quotes will not compare.
- 2Say that you are asking several suppliers. Decent ones respond better to that, because they know extra promises will not help.
- 3Say when you need the quote by. Without a date it gets pushed behind work in progress and arrives in three weeks.
- 4Offer half an hour on a call. A supplier who asks nothing before quoting is making the quote up.
- 5Lay the quotes side by side and compare scope, not price. The cheapest quote is usually cheapest because something is missing from it.
How we handle it
Our enquiry form asks about exactly those seven things, because we built it from the same experience this article is written from. Working through it takes ten minutes and at the end you have a brief, even if you take it somewhere else.
Three things that go with that:
- You do not have to know what you want. Every question has a „not sure yet“ option and it is a legitimate answer, not a failure. Half of the enquiries we get arrive with only the problem clear.
- We state the whole price upfront and it does not move within the agreed scope. That is precisely why we need to know the scope, not so we can set a price to match a budget.
- The first consultation is free and commits you to nothing. That half hour helps you even if nothing comes of it, because you leave it knowing what you actually want from a website.
And the thing that makes the biggest difference to the price with us: copy and photos. We can take both off your hands, so not having them is no obstacle. But it is an item, which is why we ask about it at the start rather than halfway through.
Frequently asked questions
What should I prepare before asking for website quotes?
Seven things on one page: why you want a new site, what the company does and who it sells to, what the site should mainly deliver, the scope (page count, features, languages), when you need it, what material you already have (copy, photos, product lists) and the budget range. Writing it takes an hour.
Should I state a budget in the enquiry?
Yes, but as a range rather than an exact figure. Without one the supplier has to guess whether you are describing a thirty thousand site or a three hundred thousand one, and builds the quote accordingly. You then either get a quote missing half of what you wanted, or one you bin as overpriced.
Why do quotes for the same website differ fivefold?
Usually not on quality but on scope and the division of labour. One quote assumes five pages and copy from you, another assumes twelve pages, a photo shoot and a content editor. Copy, photos and translation are tens of thousands when the supplier provides them and nothing when you already have them.
Do I need finished copy before I ask for quotes?
No, and writing it upfront rarely pays. The structure changes during design and half of pre written copy is thrown away. Facts and material are enough, even dictated into a phone. But do say in the brief whether you have the copy, do not have it, or have some, because it is one of the biggest items in the price.
Should the brief specify a technology, such as WordPress?
Better not. „We want it on WordPress“ rules out suppliers who would build you something better another way and helps nobody. Describe what the site has to do and deliver. Choosing the technology is the supplier's job, and so is being answerable for it.
How many goals can a company website have?
One main goal and at most two secondary ones. A site for enquiries, a site for recruitment and a site that saves admin work each want a different homepage. Stack every goal side by side and you get a signpost nobody follows anywhere.
Summary
- A one page brief answers seven questions and takes an hour. Without it quotes cannot be compared.
- The gap between quotes is usually scope and the division of labour, not quality. Both are yours to set.
- A website should have one main goal. Four equal goals produce a signpost.
- The budget belongs in the enquiry as a range. Withholding it hurts you, not the supplier.
- Copy, photos and product lists move the price more than page count does. Say what you have.
- Do not prescribe colours, typefaces, technology or finished copy. That is work you are paying for.
Do not fancy writing it
Work through our enquiry form instead. It asks about exactly those seven things, takes ten minutes, and leaves you with a brief you can use with another supplier too. Every question has a „not sure yet“ option, so it cannot be filled in wrongly.