Should I include competitor or inspiration websites in my brief?

Yes, but say what you like about each one. "We like how Stripe explains pricing" is useful; a bare list of logos isn't. Two or three references with a sentence each help an agency understand your taste and your ambition level, which also helps them price animation and custom illustration more accurately than adjectives alone.

Is a website brief the same as an RFP?

Not quite. A brief describes the project: goals, audience, scope and constraints. An RFP wraps a brief in a formal process, adding submission rules, deadlines, evaluation criteria and contract terms. Most startups only need a brief and a short list of agencies. Larger companies with procurement teams usually need the full RFP structure around it.

What if I don't know which pages I need?

Write down the goal, the audience and the pages you're sure of, then say plainly that you want the agency to recommend a sitemap. Good agencies will propose one as part of discovery. Just make sure each quote states the page and template count it assumes, so you can still compare like for like.

How many agencies should I send my brief to?

Three to five is enough for most startup projects. Fewer gives you no comparison, and more creates a lot of calls and proposals to read without improving the decision. Send the identical brief to each one, so differences in the replies reflect the agencies rather than the questions they were asked.

Should the brief include technical requirements like hosting?

Include the ones you already know are fixed, such as a required CMS, single sign-on or a compliance rule. Leave hosting and stack open unless you have a reason, and ask agencies to recommend one. Their recommendation, and how well they explain it, tells you a lot about how they think.

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Pricing & hiring

How to Write a Website Brief That Gets Accurate Quotes

How to write a website brief that gets accurate quotes: a bad vs good example, the eight things agencies price from, and the gaps that make quotes swing.

By Mehdi HassanOct 29, 20267 min read

The short answer

To write a website brief that gets accurate quotes, describe the business goal, the audience, the pages and templates, who supplies copy and images, the CMS and integrations you need, your budget range and your deadline. Agencies price from scope, so every gap you leave becomes an assumption, and assumptions are why quotes for the same site swing wildly.

Key takeaways

Quotes vary because agencies fill gaps in your brief with their own assumptions. Remove the gaps.
Say who writes the copy. It's the single line that moves quotes the most.
List page templates, not just page names: ten pages on three templates cost less than ten unique ones.
Share a budget range. It doesn't weaken your position; it stops agencies quoting a different project.
One page is enough. A long brief that never states scope is worse than a short one that does.

Why do website quotes vary so much for the same project?

Website quotes vary because each agency is pricing a different project in its head. When a brief says "a modern website, about eight pages," one agency imagines a template with your logo, and another imagines custom design, new copy, a CMS and animation. Both quote honestly, and the numbers can be several times apart.

Research we reviewed on landing-page pricing found that two quotes can differ tenfold depending on whether strategy and writing are included. The fix isn't haggling. It's a brief that leaves less to guess. If you're running a formal process, the brief becomes the heart of your website redesign RFP, and the same rules apply.

What does a bad website brief look like?

A bad website brief describes taste instead of scope. It's usually short, full of adjectives, and missing the facts an agency needs to price the work.

Example of a weak brief

"We're a B2B SaaS startup and our site feels outdated. We want something clean and modern, like Linear or Stripe. Around 8 to 10 pages. We need it fast. Budget is flexible. Can you send a quote?"

What's missing: who the site is for and what it should get them to do, which pages and how many share a layout, whether copy exists, which CMS or platform, what integrations are needed (forms, CRM, analytics), whether this is a redesign with URLs to protect, a real date and a real budget.

Every agency that receives this brief has to guess, and each guess becomes a line in the quote. That's how you end up with one quote at a few thousand dollars and another at many times that, for what you thought was the same request.

What does a good website brief include?

A good website brief answers eight questions in plain language: goal, audience, scope, content, platform, integrations, budget and timing. It fits on one or two pages.

Example of a strong brief

"We sell workflow software to operations leads at mid-size logistics companies. The site's job is booked demos. Today it's a dated Webflow site with 9 pages and a 40-post blog.

Scope: home, product, two solution pages that share one template, pricing, about, careers, contact, plus blog index and post templates. Copy: we have messaging notes but no final copy, and we'd like you to write it. Images: we have product screenshots, no photography. Platform: open to Webflow or Next.js with a headless CMS; marketing must be able to publish blog posts alone. Integrations: HubSpot forms, analytics, a demo-booking tool. It's a redesign, so we need existing URLs redirected. Budget: $8k–$15k. Target launch: before our conference in early spring."

This brief still leaves room for an agency to recommend things, but nobody has to invent the scope. Quotes that come back from it are comparable. For a fill-in version, use our web design brief template, or see a filled-in startup brief example.

How do you write a website brief step by step?

Write the brief in the order an agency prices it: outcome first, then scope, then constraints. Each step below is one short section of the document.

State the goal in one sentence
Name the single action the site exists to produce: demos booked, trials started, applications sent. Add how you measure it today.
Describe the audience
Who visits, what they already know, and what objection stops them from acting. Two or three sentences per audience.
List pages and templates
Write every page, then group the ones that share a layout. Note which pages already rank in search and must keep their URLs.
Say who supplies content
Copy, images, video, case studies and testimonials: for each, write "we supply", "you create" or "not sure".
Name the platform and who edits
State a preference or say you're open, and describe who will update the site after launch and how often.
List integrations
Forms, CRM, analytics, booking, payments, logins. Each one is real work and should be visible in the quote.
Give budget and timing
A range and a date driven by something real, like a launch or a fundraise. Say which one is fixed if only one is.
Ask for the format you want back
Request a scope list with exclusions, a price, payment terms and the people doing the work, so replies are easy to compare.

Which brief details change the quote the most?

Five details move a website quote more than everything else combined: copywriting, the number of unique templates, CMS complexity, integrations and migration work. If your brief is precise about these five, the quotes you get will cluster.

Brief detail	Vague version	Precise version	Why it moves the price
Copy	Not mentioned	"You write it from our notes"	Writing is days of work that many quotes leave out
Templates	"8–10 pages"	"10 pages on 6 templates"	Design and build time follows layouts, not page count
CMS	"Easy to update"	"Blog plus a case-study collection"	Each collection needs modelling, templates and training
Integrations	Not mentioned	"HubSpot forms and a booking tool"	Each connection needs setup and testing
Migration	Not mentioned	"40 posts to move, URLs to redirect"	Content import, redirects and SEO checks are separate work

Copy is the one founders most often leave out, and it's the one that matters most to results. If you're unsure whether to write it in-house, our comparison of agency vs in-house website copy and design lays out the trade-off.

How long should a website brief be?

A website brief should be one to two pages for a typical startup marketing site. Long enough to state scope and constraints, short enough that an agency reads every line.

If it grows past that, split it: keep the brief as the summary, and attach supporting material such as analytics exports, brand guidelines or a sitemap. A landing page needs even less. Our landing page brief template covers a single page in about half a page of text. If you need to list technical must-haves in detail, put them in a separate website requirements checklist and reference it.

What should you do once the quotes come back?

Once quotes arrive, compare them against your brief line by line before you compare prices. Mark anything a quote added, removed or assumed, and ask each agency to confirm the gaps in writing.

Then score them on the same criteria. Our agency evaluation scorecard gives you weighted rows for scope clarity, copy ownership and post-launch support, so the cheapest quote doesn't win just because it covers less. If one agency's questions improved your brief, that's a good sign about how they'll run the project.

Frequently asked questions

Should I include competitor or inspiration websites in my brief?: Yes, but say what you like about each one. "We like how Stripe explains pricing" is useful; a bare list of logos isn't. Two or three references with a sentence each help an agency understand your taste and your ambition level, which also helps them price animation and custom illustration more accurately than adjectives alone.
Is a website brief the same as an RFP?: Not quite. A brief describes the project: goals, audience, scope and constraints. An RFP wraps a brief in a formal process, adding submission rules, deadlines, evaluation criteria and contract terms. Most startups only need a brief and a short list of agencies. Larger companies with procurement teams usually need the full RFP structure around it.
What if I don't know which pages I need?: Write down the goal, the audience and the pages you're sure of, then say plainly that you want the agency to recommend a sitemap. Good agencies will propose one as part of discovery. Just make sure each quote states the page and template count it assumes, so you can still compare like for like.
How many agencies should I send my brief to?: Three to five is enough for most startup projects. Fewer gives you no comparison, and more creates a lot of calls and proposals to read without improving the decision. Send the identical brief to each one, so differences in the replies reflect the agencies rather than the questions they were asked.
Should the brief include technical requirements like hosting?: Include the ones you already know are fixed, such as a required CMS, single sign-on or a compliance rule. Leave hosting and stack open unless you have a reason, and ask agencies to recommend one. Their recommendation, and how well they explain it, tells you a lot about how they think.

Mehdi Hassan · CEO & Design Director

Copywriter, designer and developer, and founder of Designify Studio. Over five years, 60+ projects across 14+ industries, for startups that have raised $300M+.

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