About the business
- Who will actually do the work? One person, an in-house team, or subcontractors? It’s fine either way, but you should know who your contract is with.
- Is it a limited company? If so, look it up on Companies House. The company name, number and registered office on the quote should match the register.
- Can I see two or three recent sites you built, and speak to those clients? Look at the live sites on your phone, not just screenshots.
Ownership and access
- Whose name will the domain be registered in? It should be yours or your organisation’s, not the designer’s. Our guide to owning your domain and hosting explains why.
- Will I own the design, text, images and code, or get a licence to use them? UK copyright arises automatically when work is created, and GOV.UK lists web content and software among the works it protects. So the contract needs to say who owns what, or what licence you get.
- Will I have my own admin login to the site, the hosting and the domain account, not just the designer’s?
- Who pays for stock photos, fonts and plugins, and are the licences in my name?
Scope and process
- How many pages, design revisions and rounds of feedback are included?
- Who writes the text, and who supplies photos?
- What is the timeline, and what do you need from me, by when?
- How are changes outside the agreed scope priced and approved?
- What does “launch” include: testing on phones, redirects from an old site, connecting the domain, setting up email?
Hosting, security and updates
- Where will the site be hosted, and who is the contract with: me or you?
- Who applies software and security updates, and how often?
- Are there backups, how often are they taken, and can I get a copy?
- What ongoing fees are there (hosting, maintenance, licences), and what happens if I stop paying them?
Privacy, cookies and accessibility
- Will the site set cookies? The ICO’s guidance on PECR says you must tell people about cookies and get consent, unless a cookie is strictly necessary for a service the user has asked for. Analytics and advertising tags usually need a proper consent banner.
- Will you draft a privacy notice, or do I need to? If the site collects personal data through forms, the ICO lists what privacy information you need to give people.
- How do you make sites accessible? Ask which standard they test against (WCAG is the usual reference) and how they check it.
If you part ways
- If I leave, will you hand over the domain, the files, a database export and all logins, and is there a fee for that?
- How much notice do either of us have to give?
- If the site runs on a website builder, can it be moved elsewhere? Some can’t. Wix, for example, says a Wix site must run on Wix’s servers.
Next, use our quote and contract checklist to compare written proposals like for like.
Questions people ask
How many web designers should I get quotes from?
There’s no rule for web design, but comparing at least three written proposals for the same brief makes it much easier to see what’s missing. Citizens Advice gives the same three-quote advice for work on your home.
Should a web designer register my domain for me?
They can do the admin, but the domain should be registered in your name or your organisation’s, with you as the registrant and with your own login. Otherwise it can be hard to move if the relationship ends.
Do I own my website once I’ve paid?
Not automatically. Copyright arises automatically for whoever creates the work, so ownership of the design, code and content depends on what your contract says. Ask for a written assignment or a clear licence.
- GOV.UK – How copyright protects your work
- Companies House – find and update company information
- ICO – Guide to PECR: cookies and similar technologies
- ICO – What privacy information should we provide?
- Wix Help Center – Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere
- Citizens Advice – Before you get work done on your home (quotes advice)
Related guides
Quote & contract checklist
What a web design quote and contract should spell out, line by line, so you can compare proposals fairly.
Own your domain & hosting
Why the domain should be in your name, how to check who the registrant is, and what to ask about hosting and logins.
Red flags
Warning signs in a web design pitch: ranking guarantees, domain held in their name, no written scope, and more.