A website quote covers some mixture of six things. Suppliers rarely separate them, which is why comparing quotes feels impossible.
The six
1. Deciding what it says. Who it is for, what it has to make them do. This is the part that decides whether it works, and it is the part most often skipped.
2. The design. What it looks like.
3. The build. Turning that into something a browser runs, on a phone as well as a desktop.
4. The content. Words and pictures. Somebody has to write them. If nobody agreed who, it will be you, at the point when you have the least time.
5. Being found. Structure, speed, the things a search engine reads.
6. Keeping it alive. Hosting, updates, security patches, backups, and somebody to call.
A cheap quote is not usually a worse version of the same thing. It is fewer of these six.
The question that separates quotes
Ask each supplier: "What happens six months after launch?"
The answers sort themselves. Some describe a support arrangement and what it covers. Some say "let us know if anything breaks", which means there is no arrangement. Some do not have an answer, which means the site is finished for them on launch day and after that you are on your own with software that needs updating.
None of those is dishonest. They are different products at different prices. But you should know which one you are buying.
What to insist is written down
- Who owns it. The code, the content, the domain, the hosting account. All four, by name. This matters most on the day you want to leave.
- What it runs on, and who updates it.
- What "finished" means — the specific list, not "a website".
- What a change costs after launch. Everybody needs changes. The price of the first one tells you a lot.
The two most expensive mistakes
Buying a design and calling it a website. A beautiful site that nobody can update, that nobody wrote the words for, and that nobody is patching, is a liability within a year.
Buying a platform you cannot leave. Some builders own your content in a way that makes moving mean rewriting. Ask, before you start, exactly what you would take with you.
And one thing worth knowing
If your site takes payments or collects personal details, some of the requirements on it are legal rather than optional — what the site must tell people, what you must do with their data, what a customer's cancellation rights are. Ask how those are handled. A supplier who has built for UK businesses before will answer immediately.