Where do website quote differences come from, and how do you compare offers?

It is common practice to send quote requests to several agencies. Clients are often surprised by how different the proposals are on price.

I ran an experiment to see where the gaps in website quotes come from and how to pick the best offer among them.

How do you choose the best agency to build a website? Experiment assumptions

In August 2022 I sent a quote request to 45 agencies in Gdańsk, Gdynia, Bydgoszcz, Poznań and Wrocław. From that I prepared an analysis meant to highlight the key factors that shape a quote and, in the end, help you choose the right agency for a given type of job.

The website specification in the quote request I sent looked like this:

The agencies sent back very different offers. A quote for building a website with those features ranged from PLN 2,000 net to as much as PLN 47,000 net.

To understand that spread, I sorted and described the offers I received. On that basis I singled out 4 basic categories and assigned the agencies to them:

This split uses unofficial, functional names created for this material.

The distinction above is sketched around the 4 main quote components in the offers I received. I listed them on the graphic below:

Strengths and weaknesses of agencies that build websites

Based on the assumptions above, I described the offers and lined them up from cheapest to most expensive:

If you want a more detailed walkthrough of each agency type, watch the attached video. Below is a timeline of where each description sits:

• Template agencies: from 3:57 to 8:59.
• Marketing agencies: from 9:00 to 12:55.
• Software agencies: from 12:56 to 14:47.
• Branding agencies: 14:48 to 17:07.

A few important conclusions follow from that comparison.

What template agencies actually sell

Template agencies offer the cheapest services. That comes with a site built on a ready-made template you do not own the copyright to (only a licence). Thousands of other companies use it, so it is hard to stand out. Ranking such a site is also harder, because the template is loaded with unnecessary code.

These projects work well when the website is only a calling card, not the main tool for winning clients.

Differences between marketing and software agencies

The price differences between marketing and software agencies are relatively small. The projects they deliver, however, differ a lot.

In a marketing agency the core is the design and marketing team, and the development team works only in simpler programming languages.

A software agency has a very high programming and technology standard. Those teams handle more languages, including the harder ones. Marketing support, though, is weak.

If the emphasis is on a technology project or a complex build, a software agency is the better place to go. Especially if the visual side is secondary, or you already have your own design and marketing team.

How branding agencies price their work

The last type, a branding agency, offers services similar to marketing agencies, but at a higher level and at a larger scale. This is the best choice if you need, for example, an advanced brand communication strategy paired with a global marketing campaign at the level of the best-known brands.

How many of each type exist on the market also affects the quotes. Template agencies are the most common, about 70%. Marketing and software agencies make up just under 30% of the rest. Branding agencies are a tiny fraction; there are relatively few of them. That is why they quote the highest prices.

How Studio Brothers compares with other agencies

Compared with other agencies, Studio Brothers sits roughly in the middle of the scale.

The cost of the assumed project with us is about PLN 12,000. That means our services can be up to 3 times more expensive than template agencies. Compared with branding agencies, we are about 3 times cheaper.

This is how it looks on a chart:

And how would the same comparison look for the simplest possible project? We sent the same companies another request to build a website. The new project spec and the quotes are on the graphic below:

Studio Brothers would cost about PLN 8,000 net. The cheapest offer was PLN 1,500 net. The average quote sat between PLN 7,000 and 13,000 net.

Interestingly, no branding agency replied this time. The project was too small for those firms to care.

And what about a more complex project? We asked about a classic developer website with several complex features:

We priced our work at PLN 24,000 net. The other offers ranged from a dozen or so thousand to PLN 65,000 net.

Worth noting: template agencies cannot submit an offer here, because the required features need strong programming skills. Those firms rarely hire developers with that competence.

Where do website quote differences come from? Summary

As the materials show, the pricing rule is the same on every project. Template agencies are always the cheapest, and branding agencies are always the most expensive.

Only the marketing and software agencies in the middle can swap places. That depends on whether the project is more marketing-led or more technological. In most cases, though, their quotes are very close to each other.