Website price proposal: Which items should it contain, and how do you compare two proposals?

Which items arise after publication?

Additional costs after publication arise from domain and hosting renewals, licensed themes and plugins, maintenance, and revision limits; access not provided at handover creates dependency more than cost. A website price proposal should show whether these items are one-time or recurring and to whom they will be paid.

• Domain and hosting: If the initial period is included in the amount, who is responsible for renewal in subsequent periods and whose name the accounts are opened in.
• Licensed themes and plugins: Whether the license is purchased under the business’s account or operated under the designer’s own license.
• Maintenance: Whether maintenance is presented as mandatory or optional, and which tasks the monthly scope includes.
• Revision entitlement: How small corrections and requests for new pages after publication will be handled.
• Deliverables: The administrator account, hosting and domain accounts, a full website backup, and project-specific source files.

Renewal periods and where each item is paid are covered in detail in the annual cost of a website guide.

“Panel access” and an “administrator account” are not the same thing

WordPress’s roles and capabilities documentationdefines the Administrator role as someone with access to all administration features on a single website, and the Editor role as someone who can publish and manage content, including other users’ posts. According to the table in the same document, activating plugins, changing themes, creating users, and exporting content are capabilities of the Administrator role, not the Editor role. This is why looking for “an administrator account is delivered” instead of “panel access is provided” in the proposal is meaningful.

How are two website proposals compared?

Two proposals are compared by placing them in the same item list and marking every row “included, excluded, unclear,” rather than putting the amounts side by side. Website proposal comparison produces a fair result only when both documents describe the same scope.

1. Create a common list: All items appearing in both documents and the missing items listed above become rows in a single table.
2. Mark every row: Included, excluded, or unclear.
3. Ask about unclear items in writing: Until an answer arrives, that row is not included in the comparison.
4. Price excluded items: For work included in one proposal but excluded from the other, request a separate price from the second party.
5. Separate one-time and recurring amounts: Total the setup fee and annual or monthly items separately.
6. Place schedules and payments side by side: Compare starting conditions, interim deliveries, and payment stages.
7. Use ownership as a threshold: If the domain, hosting, and administrator account are not given to the business, do not proceed until the proposal is corrected, regardless of the amount.

The table below is a hypothetical example completed with this method; it does not belong to a real company or proposal.

Once the final column is completed, the two proposals often fall into a different order than they initially appeared. The amount that looked low may no longer come out ahead once the prices of excluded items are added.

How should the payment plan, VAT, and validity period be written in the proposal?

The payment section should clearly state the total amount, currency, whether VAT is included or excluded, and the stages into which payment is divided. The validity period shows until which date the price and schedule in the document remain binding.

When two amounts without a VAT statement are placed side by side, one may include tax and the other exclude it. Because rates and invoicing arrangements depend on the parties’ circumstances, a financial adviser is consulted; the proposal is expected to state the basis on which the amount is written. If the amount is given in foreign currency, the document should also state which date’s exchange rate will be used for payment.

Check whether payment stages align with deliveries on the schedule. Before approving a document whose validity period has expired, reconfirm the price and schedule in writing. The document also states how the proposal is accepted, such as by signature, email approval, or initial payment; retaining the accepted version with its date makes clear which text subsequent scope changes will be evaluated against.

Where should KVKK (Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Law) and legal pages appear in the proposal?

Every website collecting personal data through a contact form, quotation form, or membership needs a disclosure notice. The website price proposal should show on a separate line whether technical setup of these pages is included and who will prepare the texts.

According to the Personal Data Protection Authority’s statement on the obligation to inform, when personal data is obtained the data controller must inform the person concerned of its identity, the purposes for processing, to whom and for what purposes the data may be transferred, the collection method and legal basis, and the person’s rights. The same statement says the information obligation continues whether processing relies on explicit consent or another condition in the Law.

The point to separate in the proposal is the page structure from the text’s content. Creating the page, adding consent checkboxes to forms, and installing a cookie banner are the design side’s work; the business, as data controller, is responsible for the legal content of the text. In e-commerce projects, setup of the distance sales agreement, preliminary information form, and return conditions pages is also sought on separate lines; these pages are explained in the legal requirements for e-commerce websites guide.

This section provides general information and is not legal advice.

How is a website proposal prepared? Sample proposal headings

A good sample website price proposal consists of headings arranged in the correct order more than a long text. The freelancer or agency preparing a proposal can use the list below as an outline; the business receiving it can check the incoming document against the same list.

1. Names of the issuing and receiving parties, proposal date, and document number
2. Proposal validity period
3. Project objective and the website’s main purpose
4. Page list, with every page named
5. Functions: Forms, map, blog, appointments, payments
6. Work excluded from the proposal
7. Content and visual responsibility: Who writes, who photographs, who enters content
8. Number of languages and translation responsibility
9. Settings to be configured within SEO infrastructure
10. Revision rounds and the definition of a revision
11. Schedule: Starting conditions, interim deliveries, publication
12. Total amount, currency, VAT status, and payment stages
13. Recurring items: Domain, hosting, licenses, and whose name they are in
14. Deliverables: Administrator account, account information, backup, and design files
15. Support after publication and optional maintenance
16. Acceptance method and signature area

This list does not replace a complete proposal document; it shows which headings a template needs. Information to fill these headings can be collected in advance with the website brief form; when the same form is sent to multiple companies, the resulting proposals are based on the same definition of needs.

What are common mistakes when reading proposals?

The most frequent mistake is ranking proposals by total amount and reading the scope section afterward. This is followed by failing to check whether verbal discussions have made it into the document and not accounting for recurring items.

• Assuming a high amount means more comprehensive work and a low amount means room for negotiation.
• Not asking for work promised by phone or at a meeting to be written into the document.
• Not asking the duration of items described as “gifts” or “free.”
• Comparing proposals obtained using different definitions of needs.
• Approving a proposal with no deliverables section.

What these mistakes share is reading a website price proposal like a price tag. When the document is read as a definition of work, missing lines are noticed and negotiations proceed through scope rather than the amount.

Which information is in writing in Onur Freelance proposals?

At Onur Freelance, a website price proposal is sent in writing on the same day after needs are discussed and covers the headings above. Starting prices are 12,000 TL for a single-page website, 15,000 TL for a corporate website, and 24,000 TL for an e-commerce website; maintenance after publication is not mandatory, and if requested its monthly fee ranges from 500 to 2,000 TL.

The document states in writing that domain and hosting accounts will be opened in the business’s name, the administrator account will be given to the business at handover, and training for the management panel will be provided. Websites are delivered mobile-friendly, with SSL and basic SEO infrastructure configured; monthly SEO or advertising management are separate services and are added as separate lines if requested.

To see an approximate scope before requesting a proposal, the website price calculator tool can be used. Meetings take place face to face in Istanbul or online; the office is in Maltepe Gülsuyu, and work with businesses outside the city is carried out remotely.