# How to Compare Agency Proposals Like for Like

> To compare agency proposals, break every proposal into the same building blocks, put an estimated price on anything an agency left out and ask all agencies the same written questions about their assumptions. Only the adjusted totals are comparable. Then check IP ownership, revision rounds, payment schedule and post-launch costs, where the biggest hidden differences sit.

- URL: https://agenturbewertung.de/en/proposals-and-pricing/compare-agency-proposals/
- Language: en
- Updated: 2026-10-19
- Publisher: Agenturbewertung (OnlineBuilders LLC, https://onlinebuilders.biz)

Three proposals land in your inbox: £14,200, £19,800 and £23,500. Most clients sort by price and start reading from the cheapest. It's an understandable instinct and nearly always the wrong one, because the three figures rarely describe the same work. One includes copywriting; the next doesn't. One allows two rounds of design revisions, another unlimited. One assigns you the code outright, another grants a licence.

So comparing starts with making them comparable. That takes an afternoon. It often saves more than the gap between the quotes.

## Step 1: Break every proposal into the same blocks

Build a spreadsheet. Rows are the building blocks of your project; columns are the agencies. Take the blocks from your brief, not from the proposals, otherwise you inherit the structure of whichever agency organised its document most cleverly.

For a typical website project the rows look something like this: discovery workshop, design, build, content, integrations, testing, project management, training, hosting, first-year maintenance. For each agency, note whether the block is included and, if so, with how many hours or at what price.

**Example: what three proposals actually include**

| | Agency A | Agency B | Agency C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery workshop | yes | yes | yes |
| Custom design | no | yes | yes |
| Copy for 15 pages | no | no | yes |
| Design revision rounds | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Email platform integration | no | yes | yes |
| Testing on mobile devices | partly | yes | yes |
| Training for your team | no | no | yes |
| Full IP assignment for code | no | yes | yes |

Fictional example for illustration.

That overview alone changes the picture. Agency A is cheap because it uses a theme, writes no copy and skips the integration.

## Step 2: Put a price on the gaps

Here's the step almost nobody takes. For each gap, estimate what it would cost to buy later or do yourself. Use the other agencies' prices, or an hourly rate times a rough number of hours.

**Adjusting proposal A**

- Agency A quote: £14,200
- + custom design instead of theme (from proposal B): + £3,500
- + copy for 15 pages (from proposal C): + £5,800
- + email integration (8 h × £110): + £880
- + second revision round (6 h × £110): + £660
- **Adjusted price A: £25,040**

All amounts are fictional. Adjust B and C the same way before comparing.

After adjustment, the apparently cheapest proposal sits above the most expensive one. Agency C at £23,500 already includes everything, training too. Agency B would need another £5,800 for copy, taking it to £25,600. So C comes out ahead, despite looking dearest on paper.

It won't always go that way. Sometimes the cheapest quote stays cheapest after adjustment. Then you know it, rather than hoping.

## Step 3: Ask about assumptions, in writing

Every proposal rests on assumptions it doesn't spell out. Send all agencies the same questions and ask for written answers:

- How many hours are estimated for each block, and at what rate?
- What content do you expect from us, by when and in what format?
- How many revision rounds are included, and what does each extra one cost?
- Who exactly will work on the project? Do you use subcontractors?
- Which licences for plugins, fonts or images are included, and which do we pay for?
- What rights do we receive in the code, the design and the copy?
- What do changes after sign-off cost, and for how long do you fix defects free of charge?

The answers are revealing. Specific numbers mean careful costing. "We'll work that out during the project" means risk is being pushed onto you. To judge the rates you are quoted, see [agency hourly rates](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/proposals-and-pricing/agency-hourly-rates/).

## Step 4: Check what never shows up in the price

Some differences don't appear in any price comparison but cost money or sanity later.

**Intellectual property.** Do you receive ownership of the custom code, or only a licence to use it? Can another agency take it over? Under UK law an assignment of copyright isn't effective unless it is in writing and signed by the assignor, and US law has a similar writing requirement. Read [who owns the source code](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/working-together/who-owns-the-source-code/) before you sign.

**Payment schedule.** Milestone payments are fair to both sides, for example a third on signing, a third after design approval and a third on acceptance. A proposal asking for 80% before the first design shifts all the risk onto you.

**Acceptance and warranty.** How does sign-off work? How long are defects fixed at no charge after launch? Our guide to [software acceptance testing](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/working-together/software-acceptance-testing/) covers what to agree.

**Post-launch costs.** Hosting, maintenance, licences. A low build price paired with an expensive maintenance contract on a two-year minimum term is often the most expensive option over three years.

## The three-year view

For anything you'll run for a while, look three years ahead. Put three years of running costs on top of each adjusted build price: hosting, maintenance, licences and a realistic budget for small changes.

| Item | Agency B | Agency C |
|---|---|---|
| Adjusted build price | £25,600 | £23,500 |
| Maintenance, 3 years | 3 × £1,800 | 3 × £2,400 |
| Hosting, 3 years | 3 × £360 | 3 × £600 |
| **Three-year total** | **£32,080** | **£32,500** |

Suddenly the two are neck and neck. The decision then turns on quality, team and contract rather than price, which is how it should be.

## Negotiating without wrecking quality

Once you've compared, you may want to talk price with your favourite. Fine. Negotiate scope, though, not the hourly rate.

Squeezed rates nearly always come back, as extra hours, a more junior team or an agency that raises a change request at every ambiguity because its margin is already gone. Cutting or taking over blocks works better. You write the copy. Training is dropped. The email integration moves to phase two.

Payment terms are negotiable too. Some agencies would rather give a small discount for a larger deposit than touch their rate. Ask.

## Picking the winner

After adjustment, one favourite usually remains, sometimes two. Put the scoring matrix from your selection process next to them, with references and team quality. The approach is described in [how to choose an agency](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/choosing-an-agency/how-to-choose-an-agency/).

For software projects, add a technical sanity check: is the architecture plausible, and does the estimate match the scope? If nobody in-house can judge that, get a second opinion, for instance through the free technical consultation [OnlineBuilders offers on request](https://onlinebuilders.biz/contact).

When proposals use different pricing models, [fixed price vs time and materials](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/proposals-and-pricing/fixed-price-vs-time-and-materials/) helps you put them on the same basis.

Next step: set up the spreadsheet from step 1 before you read the second proposal. If you skim all of them first, you will unconsciously adopt the structure of the first one.

## FAQ

### How many proposals should I get?

Three is almost always enough. Beyond that, the comparison work grows faster than what you learn. What matters more is that all three answer the same brief.

### Can I show one agency a competitor's proposal?

Better not. Proposals contain pricing and ideas the agency expects you to keep confidential. You can, without naming names, say where another quote was cheaper and ask why.

### Should I just pick the cheapest proposal?

Only if it is still the cheapest after adjustment and its assumptions hold up. Very low prices usually rest on missing work or on a plan to earn the margin through change requests.

### Is a scoring spreadsheet worth the effort?

For anything beyond a small job, yes. Writing down the criteria and weights before reading the proposals stops the best-written document from winning by default.

Photo: Niklas Bildhauer (who also is User gerolsteiner91., CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FileStack.jpg)