Imagine asking two suppliers to quote for the same website. You describe the same company, show the same examples and request the same pages. The totals are very different. How do you work out what explains the gap?
The difference can come from the work included, the supplier’s experience, their costs or their margin. Before deciding that one is overcharging or the other is a bargain, check whether both documents describe the same deliverable.
Start with what each quote includes
A quote is, before it is a price, a definition of the work, and we have already written at length about what a serious quote has to name. This piece is the next step and a different question: not what ought to be in there, but why the same job produces two such different numbers.
Start with six points: who writes the text, where the images come from, how the site is built, which decisions remain, who controls the accounts and what the recurring costs are. Design and the complexity of the features also matter.
If one of these points is missing from the proposal, ask for a written answer. It may be included, left to you or charged separately. That is the distinction to settle before accepting.
Who writes the words
The pages need to explain the business, its services and the visitor’s next step. Even a short site needs someone to decide what to say, gather the information and review it.
If the studio writes the copy, the quote should cover gathering information, writing and the agreed revisions. Check how many rounds are included and who approves the final text.
If the client writes it, that work moves into their schedule. Agree delivery and approval dates: missing content can delay publication even when the technical work is ready.
Putting the two documents side by side, look for the word «content» and see who the subject of the sentence is. «Content to be supplied by the client» is a sentence about price, and it is a legitimate one. The problem is reading it as if it were not. And if the site has a second language, the text doubles without the design doubling: an English version is translation, review, and one more set of pages to keep current.
The photographs, and the licence that comes with them
Images may come from the company’s archive, a stock library, a photo session or illustration. Each option involves different work and usage conditions. Ask the supplier to identify the option included.
For stock images, check the licence and permitted uses. Knowing which account downloaded the photograph is not enough: Adobe Stock, for example, allows an asset to be licensed on behalf of a client. Ask for the licence record and check whether it covers the website and your planned future uses.
For commissioned photography, article 165(2) of Portugal’s Copyright Code provides a presumption in favour of the commissioning party. Paragraph 3 also provides for equitable remuneration to the author for commercial use of the photographic reproduction.
Ask the contract to spell out the agreed uses, rights and remuneration. Commissioning a session does not remove that need. This general reference to the law does not replace a review of the specific contract.
Template or custom build: compare maintenance too
It is the easiest difference to spot in the two documents and the easiest one to compare badly. The full answer is in custom site or template; what matters here is only the effect on the price.
An existing template can reduce the initial design work. Adaptation, features and content still need to be quoted. Ask for the list of components, licences and planned updates, especially when the site depends on a content management system and plugins.
A custom site may also depend on libraries and external services. Maintenance depends on those choices and the site’s features, not simply on whether a template was used. Compare the initial work and what each supplier expects to maintain afterwards.
How many decisions are still to be made
Open decisions also affect the estimate. A clearer requested deliverable makes it easier to see what is included and what will be treated as a change.
When the pages, content and approver are defined, the supplier can describe the deliverable more clearly. If decisions remain open, there are several ways to handle the uncertainty: for example, including a margin in the estimate, agreeing revision limits or defining how later changes will be charged. Ask the proposal to explain the chosen approach.
Leaving the limits unwritten can make disagreements harder to resolve. A quote that explains the included revisions and how changes are handled makes the deliverable easier to compare, even if its initial total is higher.
A practical check: count, in each document, how many times «to be defined» or its equivalent appears. It is not there to make you distrust the higher number. It is there to tell you how many decisions are still waiting for you, because those are the ones that move the deadline and the final invoice.
Who ends up holding the accounts
A quote can also be cheaper because part of the work is not handed over: it is kept. The domain registered in the builder’s account. The hosting inside the studio’s own plan. The template licence on the studio’s account. The form or booking service subscribed by them.
The point is to know what you can transfer and on what terms. We explain the distinction in who owns your website: domain, code and hosting. Shared accounts and licences may require different procedures; ask for the exit arrangements to be written into the contract.
The question that separates the two documents is a single one, and it is answered with a list: on the last day of this relationship, what do I take with me?
What gets paid again every year
Check whether each total includes the domain, hosting, licences, external services and maintenance. One document may include the first year and explain renewals; another may cover only the initial build.
For each recurring cost, ask for the amount, billing frequency and who receives the invoice. If an expense is optional, that should be clear too.
Compare the same period in both documents: for example, the build and the first two years of operation. This makes expenses that may be absent from the initial total easier to see.
A smaller site can be the right purchase
A site with fewer pages and features may meet the company’s needs well. The point is to choose that scope for a concrete reason, rather than adding pages with no defined purpose. We develop that idea in why we do not build 30-page sites.
The mistake is not buying the cheaper one. It is buying it without seeing what was left out, reading the difference as greed on one side or a bargain on the other, and discovering the missing part in the month when it is needed.
To make the difference visible, put the two documents side by side and answer six questions, once per document:
- Who writes the text of each page, and in how many languages?
- Where do the images come from, and in whose name is the licence?
- Which components and services does the site use, and what maintenance is planned?
- How many decisions are left open, and what happens when they take time?
- In whose name are the domain, the hosting and the remaining accounts?
- What gets paid again next year, and to whom?
These answers make the comparison clearer. Also consider each supplier’s work, deadlines, support and contract terms. The aim is to understand what you are buying and choose the proposal that best meets your needs.
If you have two in front of you and want a reading of what each one includes and what each one leaves out, book a 15 minute call. Neither of them has to be ours.
Sources
Sources checked on 10 September 2026: Portugal’s Copyright Code, article 165(2) and (3), on PGDL; Adobe Stock, usage and licensing; WordPress, security maintenance of the system, themes and plugins. The comparison framework is practical guidance, not a study of market prices or outcomes.