You cannot compare three website quotes on price, because they’re almost never quoting the same product. Send one identical scope, then fill in this grid. Price is row eleven deliberately — it’s the least informative line on the page.
Step 1: Make the quotes comparable
Send this identical message to all three. Without it, you’re comparing three different products:
I run [business type] in [Noida/Delhi/Gurugram]. I need these pages: Home, About, Services, Gallery, Contact. I’ll supply logo, text and photographs. I need a contact form, a WhatsApp button, and my address with a map. Please quote for exactly that, and include: total payable with GST; the year-two cost for domain, hosting and maintenance; the number of revision rounds; the delivery date; whether the domain will be registered in my name; and your post-launch change rate and response time.
Step 2: The worksheet
Print this, or copy it into a note. Fill in one column per vendor.
| Vendor A | Vendor B | Vendor C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Domain registered in MY name and account? (a “no” disqualifies, whatever the price) | |||
| 2. Year-two cost stated, in ₹ (domain + hosting + AMC) | |||
| 3. Pages listed by name? (not “up to 5”) | |||
| 4. Revision rounds, as a number | |||
| 5. Delivery date — specific? (not “2–3 weeks”) | |||
| 6. Is “live” defined? (on my domain, form tested, logins handed over) | |||
| 7. Who writes the content (me / them / partly) | |||
| 8. Advance % (20–30% is reasonable) | |||
| 9. Post-launch change rate + response time | |||
| 10. GST invoice from a registered firm? | |||
| 11. Total payable, incl. GST | |||
| Time to first reply | |||
| Answered all questions asked? | |||
| Gave a client I can phone? | |||
| Asked me a good question back? |
Step 3: How to read your completed grid
Row 1 is a gate, not a score. A vendor who won’t register the domain in your account is out, regardless of everything below. That single term decides whether you can ever leave.
Row 2 is the best single predictor of whether renewal will feel like a demand. Its absence is the most common source of feeling misled — one buyer reported a renewal rising from ₹2,000 to ₹3,560. Small money; the surprise is the problem.
Row 7 explains most price gaps. A ₹40,000 quote with content written for you is not more expensive than a ₹25,000 quote where you write everything — it’s a different purchase. Compare row 11 only once row 7 matches.
Row 3 prevents the commonest dispute. Almost every scope argument traces back to “up to 5 pages.”
Rows 12–15 are the soft signals and they’re more predictive than they look. A vendor who replies within the hour, answers everything asked, offers a callable client and asks what the site is for is telling you how the next four weeks will go.
Step 4: The scoring rule
| Result | What to do |
|---|---|
| Row 1 = No | Eliminate. Not negotiable |
| Rows 1–6 all filled, sensibly | A real candidate. Now compare price |
| Rows 2, 4 or 9 blank | Ask for them. Most vendors supply them in one message — and the ones who won’t have told you something |
| Price well below the others | Ask what’s excluded. Usually content, revisions, support, and the domain |
| Price well above | Ask what the extra buys. Content and project management are real; vagueness isn’t |
| Only one vendor filled the grid | Often the right choice, even if not the cheapest |
What deliberately isn’t on the worksheet
Things buyers over-weight, with the reason each is excluded:
| Not scored | Why |
|---|---|
| Star rating | NCR firms cluster at 4.4–4.9 — no discriminating power |
| Office size or appearance | Rentable by the month; many capable developers work from home |
| Client logos | Cheap to place, almost never verified |
| Years of experience | Unverifiable without something specific attached |
| Portfolio screenshots | Open three live sites and test the forms instead |
| “Guaranteed page-1 ranking” | Nobody can promise positions — treat it as a warning, not a plus |
The one row worth ten minutes of your own work
Row 15’s real version: ask each vendor for one client in a similar business and phone them.
Ask that client a single question: “What happened after you paid in full?”
That’s where almost every failure in this market happens, and it’s the period no review, portfolio or quote covers. One three-minute call outperforms every other row on this page.
For a store, add four rows
| Extra row | Why |
|---|---|
| Is product entry included? Per-product rate if not? | Five to fifteen minutes each; almost never quoted |
| Can you bulk-import from a spreadsheet? | The largest available saving if your catalogue exists digitally |
| Backup frequency and where stored | Order data can’t be recreated by rebuilding |
| Which payment gateway, and who applies? | Verification is the unpredictable step — start it early |
What to do this week
- Send the identical scope message to three vendors.
- Print the worksheet and fill one column each as replies arrive.
- Eliminate anyone whose row 1 is “no”.
- Ask for any blank in rows 2, 4 or 9 — one message.
- Phone one past client and ask what happened after they paid in full.
If you want it done the certain way
Send us the same message you send everyone else and we’ll fill in all eleven rows in one reply — including the year-two figure and a straight yes on row 1. Ask us for a client in your trade you can phone. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- How many website quotes should you get?
- The 5 things that separate a safe deal from a regret
- Real website price list for Delhi NCR
- The 12-point safety checklist
- What should “all-inclusive” actually include?
FAQ
How do I compare website quotes fairly?
Send one identical written scope to every vendor, then score the replies on eleven rows — domain ownership, year-two cost, named pages, revision rounds, delivery date, definition of “live”, who writes content, advance percentage, post-launch terms, GST invoice, and total price last.
Why shouldn’t I just choose the cheapest website quote?
Because quotes in this market span ₹5,000 to several lakh for nominally similar work, and the gap is usually a different product — template versus adapted design, content supplied by you or written for you, support included or absent.
What’s the one thing that disqualifies a quote?
A vendor who won’t register the domain in your name and account. That term decides whether you can ever move, and no price difference compensates for it.
How many quotes should I get?
Three, all pricing the same written scope. More tends to delay the decision without improving it; fewer leaves you without a reference for whether a number is reasonable.
