How to compare quotes fairly, what a cheap one usually means, and when a day rate beats a fixed price.
5 minute readTwo quotes for the same brief can differ by four times, and neither is dishonest. Understanding why is the difference between choosing well and choosing the cheapest.
They read the scope differently. The most common reason by far. One person quoted the pricing page; the other quoted the pricing page plus the three questions it raises about your plan structure, because they have seen that go wrong before. You are not comparing prices, you are comparing interpretations.
Seniority buys fewer wrong turns, not faster typing. An experienced maker does not produce the same work more quickly. They produce work that needs less rework, because they have already made the mistakes on someone else's project. What you are buying at the higher rate is a narrower distribution of outcomes.
Risk is priced in. A vague brief, an unnamed decision-maker, a committee, an immovable date — every one of those raises a quote, whether or not anyone says so. Tightening the brief is the cheapest way to lower a price, and unlike haggling it costs the maker nothing.
Revision policy. “Unlimited revisions” is not generosity, it is a number priced into the total, and usually a large one. Two defined rounds is almost always cheaper and finishes sooner.
Normalise the scope before you look at the numbers. Take the most detailed quote, turn it into a list of deliverables, and send that same list back to everyone. Ask each to price it. Half the gap usually disappears, and what remains is a real difference in rate — which is now a decision you can actually make.
Then compare four things, not one: the price, what is included, how many revision rounds, and how long it takes. A quote that is thirty per cent higher and three weeks sooner is often the cheaper one, once you count the cost of the delay.
Sometimes it means someone is early in their career, wants the piece for their page, and will work hard for it. That is a genuinely good trade and worth taking — with a smaller first project to test it.
More often it means one of three things: they have not understood the scope and will discover it mid-project; they intend to make it back on change requests; or they are taking too much work at once and yours will queue. The tell is which questions they asked. Someone cheap who asked hard questions is a bargain. Someone cheap who asked none is a deposit you may not see again.
Fixed price when the outcome is clear and you want the risk on their side. Most commissioned work is this: a page, an identity, an app, a film. You know what done looks like.
Day rate when the work is genuinely exploratory, when you are directing it week to week, or when the scope will move because you are learning as you go. Trying to fix-price that produces either a padded number or a mid-project renegotiation.
The bad combination is a fixed price on an unclear scope. That is where both sides lose: they absorb the overrun and resent it, or they hold the line and you get something that technically matches a brief you had not thought through.
Ask for less work, not for a lower price. “Can you do it for €1,800?” asks someone to do the same job for less, and the honest answer is usually no. “We have €1,800 — what would you cut?” is a question a professional can answer well, and the answer tells you what they consider essential. That is worth knowing regardless of what you decide.
And when the answer is that it cannot be done well at your number, believe it. A maker who says so is protecting you from the version of this project that goes badly.