Guide

What to give your web designer for a quote

Harrowtech.ai · last checked 13 October 2026

Send every designer the same short brief and you get quotes you can compare. Have ready: what your business does and who the site is for, what the site must achieve, roughly how many pages, the features you need, who supplies the words and pictures, your budget position, your deadline and who signs off. For a redesign, add access to your current site. This list follows the design brief guidance from nibusinessinfo.co.uk, the official business advice service for Northern Ireland, offered by Invest Northern Ireland.

The checklist

Your business	What you sell, when you started, whether your market is local, national or international, and how big the business is. Add your competitors and how their websites look.
Who the site is for	Your typical customer, how your product or service helps them, and what they would use instead of you.
What the site must do	Why you want the site, for example to sell products or services, raise awareness of your brand or attract job applicants. Say how you will judge success. The sample brief notes that success is often measured by “the number of enquiries, sales, bookings or subscriptions made.”
Size	An estimate of the number of pages, or the number of products or services the site will cover.
Features	For example contact details, a location map, an enquiry form, a portfolio, product information, news.
Who supplies what	Domain name, hosting, email, logo, the words (writing and proofreading), photos and video, and any special needs such as several languages, accessibility or a particular technology. Say who will update the site after launch, and how often.
Budget	Your position: asking for quotes, holding a ballpark figure, open to negotiation, or wanting proposals against a set budget.
Deadline	The date the site must be live, and any milestones.
Sign-off	One point of contact, who approves the work, and which stages need approval.
Constraints	Brand or style guidelines to follow, technical or legal requirements, and who will own the intellectual property in the designs.
Examples	A few websites you like. The sample brief calls this “a good way” to settle features, content and style.

A brief you can copy

Fill in the brackets and paste it into an email. Leave out any line that does not apply.

Business: [what we sell], trading since [year], customers in [area].
Customers: [who they are and what they need from us].
Competitors: [names and web addresses].
The site must: [take enquiries / take bookings / sell online / other].
We will judge it by: [enquiries / bookings / sales a month].
Pages: about [number]. Features: [contact form, map, booking, shop].
We supply: [words / photos / logo]. We need you to supply: [the rest].
Domain and hosting: [we have them, logins ready / we need them].
Current site (if any): [address].
Updates after launch: [who, how often].
Budget: [a figure / a range / asking for quotes].
Live by: [date].
Sign-off: [name], who approves each stage.
Sites we like: [two or three addresses, and why].

If you do not have the words yet

Say so in the brief and ask each designer whether writing is included. The sample brief lists “copy writing/content production and proof reading” among the things you decide whether to buy, and notes that some content may already exist while some “may need to be created from scratch.” It also counts copywriting among the fees a design job can involve, so a quote that leaves it out is not comparable with one that includes it.

What to check in the quotes you get back

nibusinessinfo.co.uk lists what to agree with a designer before work starts. For a website quote, the useful points are:

How the price works. Designers usually charge a daily or hourly rate, or a fixed fee for the whole project. Ask whether the fee is “an estimate, fixed-price or on a ‘price-not-to-exceed’ basis”, and what extra costs there could be.
What you get. A designer may reply with a proposal that sets out what they will do, how long it will take, what it costs and “what you will get for your money”.
Who owns the result. Agree intellectual property in advance. The guidance says contracts can make sure your business keeps any IP created in the project.
The timetable. Share your deadline and milestones with the designer.

What moves the price up or down is covered in what a website costs in the UK, and questions to ask before you hire are in how to choose a website design company.

The legal details on the site

Some details must appear on the finished site. For example, GOV.UK says a limited company must show its registered number and registered office address on its website. The full list is in our website launch checklist.

What we need from you

For a website from us, the first session is free: thirty minutes, remote or on site. You get a fixed price in writing before anything starts. A redesign of an existing five-page site starts from £950, and a new five-page site from £2,500. A five-page site is live within a working week from the day we have your content or access to your old site. If you do not have content yet, we can help with it. On your first small project (under £3,000) there is no deposit: you pay once you have signed it off.

Sources, all read 13 October 2026

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