How to compare website proposals before you sign
Compare total and renewal costs, ownership and portability, and demonstrated editing capability—not only the headline price. This synthetic test found three issues worth verifying before signing.
One click copies the five highest-value questions from this synthetic test. Adapt them to your proposal before sending.
Review the questions and sources ↓- Synthetic example
- No upload
- 3 scored v2 runs
- 2 hard failures
·
What matters before signing
Each finding separates what the proposals state, what can be calculated, and what remains unknown.
The first-year prices are close. The renewals are not.
From the stated mandatory charges, Proposal A totals $6,400 for the first year and Proposal B totals $6,540. After that, the stated monthly prices are $30 and $195 respectively, and B reserves the right to change its rate.
A: “Project fee: $6,400 fixed” and hosting “renews month-to-month at $30 per month.”
B: “Setup fee: $4,200” plus a “required care plan: $195 per month for 12 months.”
Human check: Confirm taxes, excluded work, future rate changes, and every charge that is not stated.
One proposal does not transfer the working website.
Proposal B says the client owns approved copy and supplied photos, while Spruce retains the template, design system, software configuration, and source repository.
“At termination, Spruce will provide an export of the current page copy and uploaded images on request.”
“The template license and source repository are not transferred.”
Human check: Ask what would be required to move a functioning site—not only its words and images.
“Editor access” does not prove staff can edit text and photos.
Neither proposal states what its editor can change. Two of the three scored v2 runs silently treated editor access as proof of the required capability, causing the hard-fail verdict.
A states “Content-management-system editor access.”
B states “Editor access.”
Human check: Require a live editing demonstration or explicit contract language before signing.
Five questions worth sending
These questions target the highest-value gaps in the supplied proposals. They do not assume either vendor is better.
The questions are copied in your browser and never sent. We count successful copy actions with property-free measurement; no question text or custom properties are included.
- 01
A: What are the cancellation and refund terms before and after work begins?
- 02
A: Can the delivered site run with another host, and which licenses, configuration, credentials, or source materials would not transfer?
- 03
B: How many design and content revision rounds are included, and what happens after that allowance?
- 04
B: What powers the site and analytics dashboard, and what is required and provided to migrate a working site—not only content?
- 05
Both: From selection, what prerequisites and latest dates apply to launch, and can staff edit text and photos on every page?
Use AI to surface questions—not to approve a vendor.
This synthetic test shows that a polished comparison can still hide an unsupported claim. Verify proposal terms and contract language with a human before signing.