Review a quote: what a software proposal has to contain
Quotes for the same project routinely differ by a factor of five. The difference is almost never the day rate — it is what the quote leaves out: who produces the content, what happens when a connected system fails, who owns the code at the end, what maintenance costs. This page lists the sixteen items we check when a client sends us a proposal for a second opinion, and you can run your own proposal text against them here.
- Sixteen checks in four groups: scope, delivery, commercial terms, after launch.
- Each with the reason its absence costs money later.
- The review tells you which items your quote covers — and quotes the sentence it relied on.
- It scores completeness, not price. Whether a price is fair depends on your context.
The checklist
These are the checks. Paste your proposal above and every row gets a verdict; without that, the list is a template you can work through by hand.
Scope
Itemised scope instead of one lump line
A single line reading "website incl. design and build" is neither comparable nor enforceable. Anything unnamed becomes a change order later.
Who produces content (copy, images, translations)
The most common cause of late projects. If the quote is silent, the work quietly sits with you.
Integrations named, including error handling
"Connection to your system" is not a line item. The effort is not in connecting but in failure cases and changes on the other side.
Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA / European Accessibility Act)
Mandatory since June 2025 for a large share of consumer-facing offerings. Retrofitting costs several times more because it lives in the design system.
Supported browsers, devices and OS versions
Without this, every bug report on an old device becomes a negotiation.
Delivery
QA as its own line item
If testing is not shown, it is either not planned or taken out of development time. You notice either only after launch.
Milestones with dates and acceptance criteria
"Roughly 8 weeks" with no interim deliverables means you see the result at the end and argue then.
How change requests are handled (process and rate)
Without a defined process every change is an individual negotiation — and your position weakens once the project is running.
Who does the work (seniority, contact, subcontractors)
A day rate says little if it is unclear who delivers it. Ask about subcontractors explicitly.
Commercial terms
Fixed price or time and materials — and what happens on overrun
A fixed price without settled scope is either padded for risk or corrected through change orders.
Payment schedule tied to milestones
Payment up front with nothing delivered moves the entire risk to you.
Rights to code and design, access to the repository
If rights are not transferred, you cannot change supplier without rebuilding.
Third-party costs stated (licences, plugins, hosting)
Recurring subscriptions do not belong in a footnote. They shape the next five years of cost.
After launch
Maintenance and operations after launch, priced
Budget 15–25% of build cost per year. Without this line, comparing two quotes is meaningless.
Warranty: what counts as a defect, for how long, how fast
Without a definition, after sign-off every defect is billable work.
Handover: documentation, credentials, training
A project without handover ties you to the supplier even when the contract does not.
What this review does not do
- It does not judge price. Whether €40,000 is a lot for your project depends on scope and context — the cost calculators are for that.
- It is not a legal review. Liability, delay, termination and rights transfer clauses belong with a lawyer.
- It reads what is written. What was promised verbally is not in the quote — which is rather the point.
- A high score means "complete", not "good". A well-written proposal can still describe the wrong project.
Frequently asked questions
- Because they contain different things. Day rates vary moderately; scope varies enormously. A quote without content production, without QA, without maintenance and without rights transfer is necessarily cheaper than one that includes them — until the missing parts are ordered separately.