Website quotes: 5 questions to ask before signing

You asked three providers for a quote. One says CHF 4'800, another CHF 9'500, the third CHF 890 plus a subscription. They describe different work with the same words, and the comparison table you meant to build stops at the first row.

The problem is not the price, it is the scope. Here are the five questions that force quotes to become comparable, and what each answer reveals.

1. What exactly is included?

Get it itemised: number of pages, who writes the copy, who supplies the photos, the mobile version, languages, how many revision rounds, training on how to update the site.

Copy is the most common blur: "writing included" can mean polishing your drafts or writing from interviews, and the gap is worth thousands of francs. The ranges per type of site are in our pricing guide; a serious quote sits inside them and explains why.

A provider who answers line by line has nothing to hide. A one-line quote ("website creation: CHF 6'500") always does.

2. Who owns what?

The domain name must be registered in your name, not the agency's. The content is yours. The site itself must be able to move to another host or another provider.

This is the question that exposes the classic teaser-price trap: CHF 500 for the site, then CHF 150 per month, hard to cancel. After three years you have paid CHF 5'900, and if you leave, the site disappears with the subscription. A low price with dependency costs more than an honest price with ownership.

A simple sentence to require in the quote: "domain, content and site are the client's property on delivery".

3. What happens after delivery?

Three sub-questions: what does a one-off change cost (hourly, half-day)? What does maintenance cover, at what price (the Swiss market sits between CHF 50 and 200 per month depending on complexity)? And who answers when something breaks, how fast?

The answer separates providers who build a relationship from those who deliver and vanish. Both models are defensible; discovering which one you bought during an outage is not.

4. How was this price calculated?

A quote is hours times a rate. Ask for both numbers, even roughly.

The question has become more interesting in the past two years: AI-assisted development tools have cut the hours needed for an SME website, substantially. We documented it from the inside. A provider who uses them delivers faster or richer for the same price; a 2026 quote identical to a 2023 quote deserves the question "have your methods changed since?".

You do not need to understand the technology. The quality of the answer is judgement enough.

5. What do you deliver for search visibility?

"SEO included" means nothing. Have it listed: page and URL structure, loading speed, title tags and descriptions, sitemap submitted to Google, Search Console configured in your name, and, if the site replaces an older one, the redirect plan (without which your Google positions vanish).

All of that belongs to a proper build, not to a monthly subscription. What is paid once versus what repeats is detailed here.

The signals that should make you walk

A contract longer than twelve months for a simple site. "In-house" hosting you cannot leave. A guaranteed Google position. No mention of ownership anywhere. And a deposit above 50% before any deliverable.

None of these proves dishonesty on its own. Their accumulation does.

An honest counter-offer

If you have quotes in front of you right now: send them to us. We will tell you, free, what we see in them, what is missing, and whether the price matches the scope. Including when the quote is good and you should sign it. It is the same lens we apply to our own websites, where these five answers are in the quote before anyone asks.

Frequently asked questions

How many quotes should I request?

Two or three, against the same one-page written brief: the site's goal, planned pages, who supplies content, indicative budget. Without a shared brief you are comparing interpretations, not offers.

Should a quote cost money?

For a standard SME site, no. A paid scoping workshop is justified for complex projects, and it must then produce a deliverable you own and can use with another provider.

Is the cheapest quote a trap?

Not necessarily. Modern tooling enables genuinely low prices, and a serious freelancer carries less overhead than an agency. The trap shows in what is missing: ownership, content, after-delivery. A low price with clear answers to all five questions is simply a good deal.

How long does a brochure site take?

Four to eight weeks in most cases. Delays rarely come from the technology: they come from copy and photos that never arrive. If you want to hold the deadline, prepare the content before you sign.