How to write a website brief yourself: what to include to get an honest quote

Why bother writing a brief when you can just describe what you need

Because "we need a website to sell furniture" isn't a task, it's a direction. One studio will build you a landing page for $800, another will spin up a portal with user accounts for $7,000, and a third will suggest a website builder.

A brief is a list of what should be on the website. Not in programmer language, but as a list of pages, sections, features. Its purpose is to make sure all studios quote for the same thing, not each for their own interpretation. It protects you from paying $3,000 only to discover that half of what you wanted wasn't in the quote and now costs another $3,000.

Second point: the brief records what you ordered. If the developer says at the end "we didn't agree to that," you have a document. Without it, it's your word against theirs.

Site structure: pages and sections

First thing to write down is what pages the site will have. Not "home, contact, and everything else," but a complete list.

For an online store that's usually home, catalog, product page, cart, checkout, user account, delivery and returns pages, contact. For a corporate site: home, services (each as a separate page or as a list), case studies or portfolio, about, contact.

If you have several services and each needs its own page with a description, write that down. If you're planning a blog, specify whether each article gets its own page or it's just a feed.

This list immediately shows the volume of page building. One studio might quote for 5 pages, another for 12, and you were thinking 20. With a ready list, that won't happen.

Functionality: what should work

Here you list the actions a visitor can perform on the site. Examples:

Contact forms - describe what fields (name, phone, email, message), where the inquiry goes (email, Telegram, CRM). If there are multiple forms (on the home page, on a service page, in the footer), write them separately.

Catalog filters and search - by what parameters (price, category, brand, size). The more filters, the more expensive the development, so only write what you actually need.

User account - what can be done there: view order history, edit delivery address, save items to favorites. Each feature is separate work.

Integrations - if the site needs to send orders to your accounting system, leads to your CRM, or display inventory from your stock system, write it down. Integration can cost as much as the entire rest of the site, and the studio needs to see that upfront.

Content and its volume

This point gets skipped most often, and then people are surprised when the quote doubles. You need to specify who prepares the text, photos, product descriptions.

If you're writing the text, say so. If the studio is, roughly how many words per page, how many product cards, are photos needed (your own or stock). Copywriting and image processing are separate work, and if you don't agree on this upfront, it won't be in the quote.

For online stores this matters: how many products at launch, who fills in the cards (name, price, description, specs, photos). If you have 500 items and they need to be entered manually, that can cost more than all the development.

Design: what to show the studio

You don't need to draw mockups in Photoshop. It's enough to find 2-3 sites you like and describe what specifically: block layout, overall style, a particular feature (like how the menu or product card is done).

If you have brand identity (logo, colors, fonts), attach it. If you don't and the studio needs to develop it, write that as a separate item. Creating brand identity and designing the site are different services with different costs.

Specify whether mobile adaptation is needed. It's standard now, but there are internal corporate systems used only from desktops. If you don't write it, the studio will include responsive design by default and you'll overpay for something unnecessary.

Admin side: who will manage the site and how

Write down what you want to change on the site yourself. If it's a landing page and after launch you only plan to update a phone number once a year, you can do without an admin panel.

If it's a catalog and you add products weekly, change prices, publish promotions, you need an admin panel. Describe what should be there: adding products, editing pages, managing orders, export to Excel.

The simpler and clearer the admin panel, the more expensive the development, because an interface for non-specialists is a separate product. If you're ready to figure out a complex panel, write that a standard solution without customization is fine. You'll save money.

Common mistakes that break the quote

Most common - describe the task in two sentences and expect a precise price. The studio will either name a figure from thin air or assume the worst case, and you'll overpay.

Second mistake - demanding "like the competitor" without understanding what's under the hood. You see an order form, but there's integration with three payment systems, a CRM, and inventory management. Copying the appearance is one price, replicating the logic is another.

Third - not specifying that you're preparing the content. By default the studio includes copywriting and design of all materials in the quote. If you didn't want that, you overpaid.

Fourth - writing "the site should be fast and user-friendly." That's not a requirement, it's a wish. Fast compared to what? User-friendly for whom? Such wording gives the developer nothing, but gives them grounds to later say "you didn't specify that."

How to format and submit the brief

Google Docs works, Word works, even a text file. What matters is structure: sections, lists, no solid blocks of text. If you have examples (screenshots of other sites, diagrams, product tables), attach them.

Don't pretend you understand the technology. Don't write "site in React" or "need PostgreSQL database" if you don't know why. That's the studio's job - choosing the stack for your task. Your job is to describe what should be there, not how to implement it.

Send the document to several studios. A proper studio will either accept the brief and calculate a quote, or ask clarifying questions. If they tell you "we'll write the brief ourselves, just tell us verbally," that's a risk. After that conversation you won't have a document, and there'll be nothing to argue from.

What to do if the studio asks you to revise the brief

That's normal. You described the task from your side, the studio sees technical details you didn't know about.

For example, you wrote "price filter" and the studio clarifies: is that a slider with a range or two input fields? You specified "user account" and the studio asks whether password recovery and social login are needed. These aren't nitpicks, they're specifics without which a quote can't be calculated.

A good studio will complete the brief themselves and send it to you for approval. A bad one will say "we'll do everything" and then invoice you for extra work that "wasn't in the agreement." That's why the final version of the brief should be in your hands and signed by both parties.

If this is already on your plate, here is how we do it end to end: Corporate website development.

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