What a website redesign quote should include before you sign it

A website redesign quote should say exactly what will be built, what you have to supply, and what happens after launch. At a minimum it should list the pages and features, who writes and moves the content, how many design revisions are included, how old page addresses will be redirected, the accessibility standard, who owns the finished site, the payment schedule and the support period. If an item is not written in the quote, assume it is not included.

Arguments on web projects tend to start with something both sides assumed and neither wrote down. The sections below are the items to look for, in roughly the order they appear in a good quote.

Which pages and features will be built?

"A new website" or "up to 10 pages" is too loose to price or check. The quote should name each page, or each page template if many pages share one layout (for example, a single service-page template used for eight services). It should also list the features:

contact, booking or quote-request forms, and where their submissions go
blog or news section, and whether you can publish posts yourself
search, filters or a store, with the number of products it is set up for
integrations such as a CRM, email newsletter tool, payment gateway or booking calendar
languages, if the site will be in more than one

If a feature needs a paid third-party plugin or service, the quote should say which one and who pays for its licence.

Who writes and moves the content?

Content is easy to leave out of a quote. Check that it answers these:

Who writes new text: you, the agency, or a copywriter the agency brings in?
Who supplies photos, and is stock photography included?
How many pages or posts will the agency move from the old site, and will they be reformatted or copied as they are?
What date must you deliver your content by, and what happens to the timeline if it is late?

That last question matters. A project can stall for weeks waiting on content, and a quote that ties the launch date to your delivery dates is being honest about it.

How many design rounds are included?

Look for the number of design concepts you will see, how many rounds of changes are included at each stage, and what one round means (for example, one consolidated list of changes from your side). The quote should also say how extra rounds are charged.

What happens to my old pages and search traffic?

A redesign often changes page addresses. Without redirects, people and search engines following old links reach error pages. Google's guidance for site moves is to prepare a mapping of old URLs to new URLs and use server-side permanent redirects, such as 301 or 308, from each old address to its new one.

The quote should include:

building the old-to-new URL map and letting you review it
setting up the redirects before launch
carrying over page titles and descriptions for pages that rank today
submitting the new sitemap in Google Search Console after launch

Which accessibility standard will the site meet?

The quote should name a version and level, for example WCAG 2.2 level AA. WCAG 2.2 is the current W3C Recommendation and has three conformance levels, A, AA and AAA. If you sell to consumers in the European Union, the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 and includes e-commerce services.

Ask how it will be tested. W3C's guidance on evaluation tools says that tools cannot check every accessibility requirement automatically and that human judgement is required. A quote that includes manual keyboard and screen-reader testing, plus a written report, is more useful than one that promises "accessible design" without saying how it is checked.

How fast will it load, and on which devices will it be tested?

A quote can name measurable targets. Google's Core Web Vitals give "good" thresholds, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads: Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less. The quote should also list the browsers and devices the site will be tested on, including at least one iPhone and one Android phone.

What running costs will I pay after launch?

The build price is one number. Running costs are another, and they recur. The quote should list each of these, with who pays and who holds the account:

domain renewal
hosting or platform plan (for example, a Webflow site plan or a WordPress host)
paid plugins, themes, fonts or apps that renew yearly
email or form services
an optional maintenance plan, with what it covers (updates, backups, security fixes, small edits) and a monthly price

Who will own the finished website?

The quote or contract should state that the domain is registered in your name, that hosting accounts are yours or will be transferred to you, and that copyright in the custom design and code is assigned to you, usually on final payment. In India, section 19 of the Copyright Act, 1957 says an assignment of copyright is valid only if it is in writing and signed, so a clause in the signed contract is the practical way to do it. This is general information, not legal advice.

It should also list what you receive at handover: admin logins, source and design files, licence keys, and a short guide or recorded training for your team.

How will changes and extra requests be handled?

Most projects pick up new ideas halfway through. A good quote describes the change process: you ask in writing, the agency replies with the added cost and time, and nothing extra is built until you approve it. It may also list an hourly or daily rate for extra work.

What are the payment terms and the timeline?

Look for:

the payment schedule, with each payment tied to a milestone such as design approval or launch
a timeline with dates for each stage, and which dates depend on you
what counts as "done" for each stage, so approval is clear
a bug-fix period after launch, with what counts as a bug
what happens if either side ends the project early, and what you keep

What should a quote leave out on purpose?

A clear quote also lists exclusions. Common ones are copywriting, photography, paid advertising, ongoing search-engine work, translations and third-party licence fees. Seeing them listed tells you what to budget for separately.

Questions people also ask

Is a fixed-price quote better than an hourly estimate?

A fixed price works when the scope is written down in detail, because both sides know what is being paid for. Hourly billing suits work that cannot be defined up front. Either way, the scope list above is what makes the number meaningful.

Why do two quotes for the same website differ so much?

Usually because they assume different scopes. Put the quotes side by side and check each item in this list. One may include content migration, redirects or accessibility testing that the other leaves out.

Should the quote include SEO?

It should at least include the redirect map and carrying over page titles and descriptions, because those protect the traffic you already have. Ongoing search-engine work is a separate service and is usually quoted separately.

Can I ask for changes to a quote before signing?

Yes. A quote is a proposal. Ask for missing items to be added in writing, and for vague lines to be replaced with specific ones, before you sign.