Most people think a website quote is a price. It is actually a guess with a number attached, and the honesty of that guess is decided by what is written underneath it. A quote that names every page, every deliverable and every exclusion will usually cost what it says. A quote that just names a number will usually cost more, because the two of you will spend the project discovering what was not included. Here is how estimates really work, what fixed price means in practice, and what to demand in writing before you pay a penny.
How quotes really get made
Behind every quote sit the same three guesses. How many hours will this take, what rate should I charge, and how much will you change your mind? An agency that bills hourly simply passes the first two guesses to you. If the build runs long, you pay for the extra hours. That is not a flaw in the model, it is the model. The risk lives with the buyer.
A fixed price is the opposite bet. The builder takes the risk of the work growing, so the number includes a cushion for that risk. That is why the same site can be quoted at £900 by an hourly freelancer and £1,800 by a fixed-price studio: the second number is not greed, it is insurance you are being asked to buy in advance. The problem is that fixed price only means what the scope says it means. A thin scope turns a fixed price back into an hourly bill with a smile on it.
| How you get priced | Who carries the risk | What happens when the work grows |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | You | Every extra request adds hours to the invoice |
| Fixed price, thin scope | You | “That was not included” appears on every change list |
| Fixed price, verbal scope | You | “It was a misunderstanding” appears on the invoice |
| Fixed price, written scope | The builder | Extra requests are priced against a list you both agreed |
What fixed price actually means
A fixed price is only as fixed as the scope it is written against. A genuine fixed-price agreement names the exact deliverables, the number of revision rounds included, what counts as a change, how changes get priced, and the timeline with milestones. If your quote has none of that, you do not have a fixed price. You have a number that will be renegotiated the first time something turns out not to be included.
That is where most projects go wrong. Not because the builder is dishonest, but because nobody wrote down what was in. One UK agency owner put it plainly in a guide to writing quotes: when a project goes wrong, it is almost always because the quote was vague. Scope creep is not a personality problem, it is a paperwork problem, and the paperwork is yours to demand.
The seven lines that make a quote safe
A professional quote, the kind that protects you, covers seven things. Do not pay a deposit until you have all of them in writing:
- Scope. The exact pages, features and integrations you are buying. “A website” is not scope. “Five pages: Home, Services, Areas, About, Contact” is.
- Deliverables. What you actually receive: the site files, the content, the analytics setup, the handover.
- Timeline. Stages with dates, not “six to eight weeks” with a shrug.
- Payment terms. The deposit, the milestones and the final balance, with a window for each.
- Exclusions. What is deliberately not included: copywriting, stock photos, logo design, SEO, changes after sign-off.
- Assumptions. What your price depends on: you supply the content by an agreed date, you answer questions within 48 hours.
- Validity. How long the quote stands and how you accept it.
A number without a scope is not a quote, it is a starting point for a disagreement. The seven lines above are what turn a guess into a price you can hold the builder to.
The questions to ask before you pay
Take the quote you are holding and ask these out loud. Who writes the copy, and what happens if I do not like it? How many revision rounds are included before changes become chargeable? What costs extra: an SEO baseline, a blog, a booking form, stock images? What happens if the site goes live late? What happens if it fails the performance or accessibility checks we agreed? What do I own at the end, and can I take it elsewhere?
Builders who hate these questions are usually building on the vaguest possible scope, because that is where the extra invoices come from. Builders who answer them in writing are usually worth more than the cheapest quote you hold. The gap between two quotes for the same site is often a third quote’s worth of surprises that you are either buying or avoiding, and the cheapest headline number on the page is the one most likely to grow.
What to do now
Collect three quotes for the same written scope and compare them line by line against the seven items above, not by headline number. The cheapest quote that names its exclusions is safer than the most expensive one that does not. If a quote cannot be written down, walk away. And before you pay a deposit, ask for the deliverables list in writing. That single document will do more for you than any discount ever will.