A good website design quotation template lets you compare quotes line by line instead of one total against another. This guide gives you two ready tools: a short request document to send vendors before they price anything, and a table of the lines every quote you receive should cover, plus the red flags worth stopping for before you sign.
Why website quotes differ so much
Picture a dental clinic in Riyadh that sends three agencies a one-line email: "We need a website for the clinic." Three very different quotes come back. One covers bilingual copywriting and online booking, the second is a single Arabic page on a ready theme, and the third never mentions hosting or who will own the domain.
None of them is necessarily wrong. Each vendor assumed a different scope. The problem is that the request never defined what was wanted, so comparison became guesswork. A good quotation starts with a good request.
A short web design RFP template to send first
You do not need a thirty-page tender. Two clear pages work for most companies and mid-sized businesses. Copy these headings and fill them in:
- Business summary: what you offer and in which cities or countries.
- Website goal: quote requests, bookings, sales, recruitment or company profile.
- Audience: consumers or businesses, and who makes the decision.
- Languages: Arabic only, or Arabic and English, and which is the default.
- Initial page list: home, about, services, projects, blog, contact.
- Functions: forms, booking, online payment, client portal, search.
- Integrations: CRM, accounting, WhatsApp or Google Maps.
- Content: whether texts and photos exist or need writing and shooting.
- Design references: sites you like and why.
- Target date and any event tied to it.
- Rough budget range, so vendors can propose a scope that fits.
- Evaluation criteria and the deadline for proposals.
If you are building a company profile site, our guide to corporate website design for Gulf companies covers which pages it usually needs.
The website proposal template: lines every quote must include
This is the core template. Ask every vendor to answer each row, and treat any empty row as a question that needs a written answer before you sign.
| Line | What the quote must state clearly |
|---|---|
| Scope summary | The vendor's own understanding of the site's goal and audience |
| Pages and templates | Number of unique pages and of repeated templates such as article or project |
| Design | Custom design or ready theme, and the number of revision rounds |
| Content management | What you can edit yourself, and which CMS will be used |
| Languages | Number of languages, separate URLs per language, who translates |
| Functions and integrations | Forms, booking, payment and system connections, each named |
| Content and images | Who writes and who supplies photos, and whether copywriting is priced in |
| Technical SEO | Titles, descriptions, sitemap, structured data and speed work |
| Mobile and performance | Mobile behaviour, with Core Web Vitals as a target, not a guarantee |
| Timeline | Phases, their duration, and what waits on your approval |
| Payment milestones | The share of each payment and the deliverable tied to it |
| Acceptance criteria | How a phase counts as complete and who signs it off |
| Warranty | The free bug-fix period after launch and what it covers |
| Hosting and domain | In whose name they are registered, and who pays renewals |
| Ownership and handover | Code, design files and credentials after final payment |
| Support after warranty | Monthly plan or hourly, and what it includes |
| Exclusions | Paid plugins, licensed images, email, SMS |
| VAT | Whether prices include or exclude VAT |
Reading the scope: pages, CMS and languages
Pages versus templates
Twenty blog posts are not twenty designed pages; they are one template used twenty times. A clear quote separates unique pages, such as home and about, from repeated templates, such as service, project and article. That distinction alone tells you whether the vendor understood your project.
Content management
Ask: can I add a new service, project or article without calling you? Can I edit the SEO title and description of each page? A dashboard that cannot do this means paying for every small change.
Arabic and English
A bilingual site is not a machine-translation toggle in the header. Ask for a separate URL per language, linked to its counterpart with hreflang, and make the quote state who writes the English version and who reviews it.
Content, timeline and payment milestones
What delays most website projects in the Gulf is rarely the code. It is content: photos nobody has taken yet and texts waiting for management approval. The quote should state who is responsible for each and when they must be delivered so the launch does not slip.
An example of milestone-based payments (for illustration; you can agree a different split):
| Phase | Deliverable | Payment |
|---|---|---|
| Kick-off | Approved scope and schedule | 30% |
| Design | Approved key page designs in both languages | 30% |
| Development | Complete test version on a staging link | 30% |
| Launch | Live site plus handover of accounts and files | 10% |
The principle is to pay for something you can see and approve, not for time passing. Tie every payment to a written acceptance criterion.
Warranty, support, hosting and domain ownership
Questions nobody asked before launch tend to appear right after it. Put the answers in the quote:
- The domain in your company's name, in an account you can log into, not the vendor's.
- The hosting account in your name, or with full admin access for you.
- A warranty period for fixing bugs at no cost, with a clear line between a bug and a new change request.
- A support plan after the warranty covering updates, backups and monitoring, which we offer as technical maintenance.
- Full handover of code, design files and credentials on final payment.
VAT and website design cost in Saudi Arabia
VAT is 15% in Saudi Arabia and 5% in the UAE. If the vendor is VAT-registered in your country, the quote should say whether prices include VAT or exclude it, and you should receive a proper tax invoice. If the vendor is based outside your country, ask your accountant how VAT applies in your case.
The price itself follows the scope: the number of templates, languages, integrations, and who writes the content. We walk through these drivers with an illustrative calculation in company website development cost in 2026. When the template above is filled in, our web development team can price against it line by line.
Red flags in website quotations
Stop and ask questions if you see any of these:
- A single total with no breakdown.
- "Unlimited revisions" with no definition of a revision.
- The domain or hosting registered in the vendor's name.
- No acceptance criteria or warranty period.
- A large upfront payment not tied to any deliverable.
- Promises of "first place on Google"; nobody can guarantee rankings.
- No links to real, live sites the vendor has launched.
For questions about assessing the vendor itself, see how to choose a web development company.
Frequently asked questions
What should a website design quotation include?
A scope summary, the list of pages and templates, design approach and revision rounds, the CMS, languages, integrations, content responsibility, a timeline, payment milestones tied to deliverables, acceptance criteria, warranty, domain and hosting ownership, post-launch support and a VAT line. Any missing line deserves a written question before you sign.
How much does website design cost in Saudi Arabia?
There is no reliable standard price, because cost follows the number of templates, languages, integrations and who writes the content. A one-language company profile site is a very different project from a bilingual site with booking and an internal system integration. Send the same request to every vendor, then compare the quotes line by line using the table in this article.
Does a website quote include VAT?
The quote should state it explicitly. VAT is 15% in Saudi Arabia and 5% in the UAE, and if the vendor is VAT-registered in your country you should receive a proper tax invoice. If the vendor is based outside your country, ask your accountant how VAT applies to your situation before you approve the budget.
What is the difference between an RFP and a quotation?
The RFP, or request document, is what you send vendors to describe your project, goals, pages and required functions. The quotation is what each vendor sends back, setting out how it will deliver that scope, for how much, by when and on what terms. The clearer your request, the closer and easier to compare the quotes become.
Who owns the website after handover?
The quote should state that the domain is registered in your company's name, the hosting account is yours or gives you full admin rights, and the code, design files and credentials are handed over on final payment. If it does not say so, ask for it in writing, because recovering a domain registered to someone else can be difficult.
Your next step
Filled in the request template for your company website in Saudi Arabia or the GCC? Send it to us and we will reply with a quote that answers every line in the table, with phases and payments tied to deliverables, so you can compare it fairly with others.
