The Quote Decoder: read any web design quote like a lawyer

Ten checks, two minutes each. Use it on every quote you get, including ours. That’s the point.

A. What are you actually buying?

□ 1. Template or Custom, get it in writing Ask: “Is this design built on a theme/template, or designed from scratch?” Both are legitimate. Only one should cost S$9,000.

□ 2. What’s the page/product count, and what does one more cost? Scope limits (pages, products, revision rounds) should be numbers, not vibes. The add-on price for exceeding them should be on the quote now, not discovered later.

□ 3. How many revision rounds are included? “Unlimited revisions” is a red flag dressed as a gift, we’ve found that it usually means no design process. A real number (2–3 rounds) means they’ve done this before.

B. Who owns what?

□ 4. Whose name is on the domain? Yours. Non-negotiable. Same for hosting and every admin login. Ask for a written handover register.

□ 5. What happens if you leave? Ask: “If we part ways in a year, what do I take with me and what do I pay?” Watch for hosting lock-in, “free domain” clawbacks, and export fees.

C. The money

□ 6. Is the final payment due only on your sign-off? The last invoice should only exist after you’ve approved a launch checklist. If they can bill in full before you’ve tested the forms, quality is optional.

□ 7. If a grant is involved, always check the numbers. Grant pays up to 50% of the qualifying cost, not the package price. Ask for the package’s official Annex 3, check the vendor is currently in the PSG directory at gobusiness.gov.sg, and ask what the price would be without the grant. If that last answer is fuzzy, the grant is absorbing a markup. (The full grant explainer is here.)

D. The calendar

□ 8. Is there a delivery date? And what happens if it is missed? A date with no remedy is decoration. Look for an automatic credit or penalty, and a written rule for when the clock pauses (your late content) vs when it doesn’t.

E. After launch

□ 9. Is support a service level or a sentiment? “Ongoing support” means nothing. “First reply within X business hours, site-down response within Y” means something. It should be in the maintenance contract, with business hours defined.

□ 10. Who, by name, answers when something breaks? If the salesperson can’t tell you who owns your account after launch, nobody does.

Scoring, roughly: 9–10 boxes ticked, sign with confidence. 6–8, negotiate the gaps into the contract before signing. 5 or fewer, the quote isn’t cheap, whatever the number says.

LaunchSite publishes its answers to all ten on this checklist, the prices, the contract, the SLA at launchsite.sg. If another agency clears the list too, you’ve found a good one.