What should you ask before paying for a website?

A quote for a website can look clear until the small questions start: who writes the words, what happens to the domain, who can edit a price and what counts as a finished job? Ask these before you pay.

Start with the work the site has to do. Is a visitor meant to call, book, order or send an enquiry? List the information they need before that step. A small site that answers those questions may do more for a business than a larger site full of generic pages.

Ask the supplier to show:

• A page map and the exact actions customers can take, including what happens after a form is sent.
• What content, images, translations and legal text the price includes. Who checks names, prices, opening hours and claims before they go live?
• A mobile and keyboard preview, with readable contrast, labelled form fields and a real error path. An accessibility claim needs a test and a repair plan, not a badge.
• Who owns the domain, hosting account, analytics, source files and editable content. How do you get a copy if the relationship ends?
• One-off work versus monthly costs: domain, hosting, email, plugins, booking tools, maintenance and future changes. Which third-party licences can change price?
• A written acceptance test: which pages, links, forms, languages and devices must pass before launch; who fixes defects within the agreed scope and for how long?

A quote also needs a boundary. A new page or a new booking flow is not necessarily a bug fix. Agree how changes are priced and approved before work starts. If a deposit is required, the written contract should say what it buys and what happens if the project stops.

Before launch, try to contact the business through the site yourself. Test a wrong field, a broken network connection and a slow phone. Check where the enquiry lands and who answers it. Then record a simple baseline so you can compare useful enquiries later without promising a search ranking or sales that nobody controls.

The best question may be: "What do I still have to provide or decide before you can finish?" A good supplier can answer it plainly. That answer is worth having before any invoice.

This checklist is practical guidance, not legal advice.

Comparing quotes? Send us the quote you have and we'll tell you what we can review.