One quote is a few pages and a contact form. The other has ten pages, new writing, booking software and monthly care.
Either quote is meaningless until you know exactly what is included.
The price tag tells you nothing until you read what the person will actually build.
I’ve got a simple rule for small business website cost: if the proposal cannot explain the work in plain English, don’t sign it.
Start with the pages. A plumber who does drain cleaning, water heaters and leak repairs has three different buying conversations. A page that explains each service takes more thought than one page with a list of everything.
Now look at the words and images. Are you handing over finished copy and good photos? Or is the designer expected to interview you, understand the jobs, write the pages and find suitable images? That is real work, and it changes the cost.
Next, test the contact path. The phone button should call the right number. The form should land in the right inbox. Somebody should know what to do with an inquiry. Fancy animations won’t rescue a broken contact form.
Then inspect the extra features. Booking tools, payments and client logins are different jobs from putting up a straightforward five-page website. A business that doesn’t need online payments should not be paying to maintain an online checkout.
Finally, ask about ownership and care. Who owns the domain? Can you log in? Who handles updates and backups? What’s the monthly bill after launch?
Imagine the site goes live on Friday. Monday morning the contact form stops sending messages. The proposal says nothing about support.
Now you learn what that cheap quote left out.
Ask for the list of pages, features, edits, testing and post-launch work in writing. Also ask what is excluded. That one question saves a lot of ugly conversations.
A small site that clearly explains the work and lets people contact you beats a big, confusing site. Build what the business can use today, then add what you can justify.
DeVoy Marketing maps the pages and functions you actually need, then explains the work behind the quote.
Know what you’re buying. Know who owns it.