How to write a website brief that gets accurate quotes, with a template to copy

Website brief template: the short answer

A website brief is a short document, usually two or three pages, that tells a web designer what the site must do and for whom. It also says who makes the content, what the site connects to, who owns it and when it's needed. To get accurate quotes, send the same brief to every supplier and ask each to price against its sections, listing what they assumed and left out. Skip to the template.

This guide is for founders, managing directors and operations leads at UK and EU companies about to ask two or three agencies for a quote. Most website brief templates online are written by agencies, to help them reply to you. This one is written to help you compare the replies, because that's the hard part.

We build websites for companies in the UK, France and Albania, and we quote every project instead of publishing a price list, so a brief is what we price from. Below are the 12 sections we'd want in any brief, what to write in each, and what to leave out.

Why the same brief can still get three different quotes

Quotes rarely differ because one agency is greedy and another is cheap. They differ because each agency fills the gaps in your brief with its own assumptions, and you can't see those assumptions in a total. Our guide to what sets the price of a website in the UK shows where the gaps usually sit: copy, photos, integrations, ownership and upkeep.

Two habits widen the gaps. The first is naming features instead of outcomes. "Contact form" names a mechanism, and every supplier will price its own version of it. Describe what should happen instead.

Say you run a 30-person commercial cleaning company in Manchester. "Contact form" could mean a box that emails the office.

What you need might be this. A facilities manager asks for a price for an office, and the form asks for the floor area and how often you'd clean. The enquiry reaches the estimator for that area, and the customer gets a confirmation email at once. Every supplier can price that description, and they'll all be pricing the same thing.

The second habit is leaving out what seems obvious. It isn't obvious to someone who has never seen your business.

Written requirements also protect you. In Anglo Group v Winther Brown, a 2000 High Court case over a standard computer system, the judge said the buyer had a duty to communicate any special needs clearly. The court found the buyer hadn't made its needs clear, and it couldn't reject the system.

That case concerned business software, not a website, and lawyers still debate how far it reaches. Its practical point travels: no supplier agreed to meet a need you never wrote down.

Sections 1 to 3: the business, the buyer and the site's one job

These three sections decide everything after them, and no agency can write them for you. Keep each one short.

1. About us

Write three sentences: what you do, where you work, and the job you most want more of. The last one matters most.

Take a roofing contractor in Leeds as an example. "We're a roofer in Leeds" describes the company. "We want more flat roof replacements and fewer gutter repairs" tells a supplier which pages to build first and what the homepage should lead with.

2. Who the site is for

Name the main buyer in one or two sentences, then write down what they check before they get in touch. A homeowner hiring a roofer checks the type of job, the area covered, photos of finished work and how to ask for a price. A facilities manager checks accreditations and whether you can cover several sites.

Use your customers' words, not yours. Whoever answers your phone hears those words every day, so ask them.

3. What the site must do

Pick the one action you most want a visitor to take, such as asking for a quote or booking a table. Then say how you'll know it's working six months after launch. That might be the number of quote requests a month, or how many come from the areas you actually serve. If a table booking is the action, our guide to what a restaurant website needs covers what usually goes wrong.

One main action keeps the quotes honest. A site asked to win customers and recruit staff in equal measure gets priced a different way by every supplier.

Sections 4 to 6: pages, content and what happens after an enquiry

4. Pages

List every page you expect, by name, with one line on what each is for. A service firm usually needs a page per service, because customers search for services by name.

If you don't know yet, say so, and ask each supplier to propose a page list. That's a fair request, and the answers will tell you a lot about who has read your brief.

5. Content

Content is where we see quotes part company most often. Say who writes the words: you, the supplier, or the supplier working from interviews with you. List the photos and videos you already have, and say whether you own the rights to them.

If the site needs more than one language, say who writes each one. Translating an English site is a different job from writing each language for its own market. A brief that only says "French version" leaves suppliers to guess which one you mean. We wrote and built the KOP44 site in French for a French market.

6. Enquiries and connections

Describe, step by step, what happens when someone gets in touch, as in the cleaning example above. Say which channel they use, what the form asks, who receives it and what the customer sees next. Include the routes customers already use, such as WhatsApp or a phone call.

Then list every system the site must connect to: a booking tool, a CRM, an email list or your accounts software. Name the product if you know it.

If the answer includes customer logins, a portal or a booking system with its own rules, say so plainly. That's a web application, and it's scoped and priced differently from a website.

Sections 7 and 8: who edits the site, and what the current one does

7. Editing after launch

Say who will edit the site, what they'll change and how often. "Our office manager adds a finished project every fortnight" is a different build from "nobody touches it for a year". The answer decides which parts become editable blocks, and how much training your team needs.

8. The current site

If you're replacing a site, give its address and say what works and what doesn't. Then add three things briefs often leave out.

• The pages that bring the most visits, from Google Search Console or your analytics. Those addresses must be kept or redirected. Google's guide to moving a site starts with a map from every old address to its new one.
• Whose name the domain, hosting and analytics are in, and who has the logins.
• Anything the site does in the background that you rely on, such as a form that copies enquiries into a CRM.

If you can't answer the second point, read our guide to whether you own your website before you send the brief. It's easier to fix before a new supplier starts than during the move.

Section 9: the standards and legal notices to name

Name the standards in the brief, so every supplier prices the same work. Three belong in any website brief.

Speed comes first. Ask for Google's Core Web Vitals, tested on a phone, and ask each supplier how they'll show you the results.

Accessibility is second. Name WCAG 2.2 at level AA, the W3C's standard. If you sell to consumers in the EU, the European Accessibility Act has covered e-commerce services since 28 June 2025. Its official summary lists an exemption for microenterprises providing services.

Legal notices are third. A UK limited company must show its registered number, registered office address, where it's registered and that it's a limited company on its website. In the EU, Article 5 of the e-Commerce Directive asks for at least your name, address, email, trade register number and, where it applies, your VAT number.

Then cover privacy and cookies. A form that collects personal data needs privacy information at the moment you collect it. List every analytics, advertising or chat tool you want on the site.

The ICO's guidance, finalised in April 2026, sets out a new exception for some analytics. It applies only if visitors are told and given a simple way to object. It doesn't cover advertising, which still needs consent. EU rules differ by country, so name every market you sell into.

Sections 10 to 12: ownership, timing and what to send back

10. Ownership and upkeep

Write down that the domain, hosting, code and every account will be in your company's name. Add that the copyright will be assigned to you in writing. Asking in the brief costs nothing, and asking after launch puts you in a weaker position. Our standard is the same for every client: you own the site; our name appears as the studio that built it.

Ask for upkeep as a separate, optional line, with what it covers. Then you can compare it across quotes, and cancel it later without losing the site.

11. Timeline and limits

Give the date you need the site by, and what that date is tied to: a launch, a trade show, or the end of a contract with your current host. A date with a reason can be planned around. A date without one gets padded.

List anything the site must keep, such as a booking system you're happy with, brand guidelines or a supplier you're under contract with. Whether to include a budget is a judgement call, covered in the questions at the end.

12. What you'd like back

Most templates we read for this guide stop before this section, yet it does the most to make quotes comparable. Ask every supplier to reply in the same shape, by the same date:

1. A quote itemised against sections 4 to 10 of the brief.
2. Everything they assumed, and everything they left out.
3. Who would do the work, and who you'd talk to each week.
4. How you'd see progress, such as written updates and a staging site you can click through.
5. Their questions about the brief.

The last item is a test. A supplier who asks sharp questions about your customers has read the brief. One who asks nothing has probably priced a past project.

When the replies arrive, check each against the lines a proper quote should list in our website cost guide. Then run the checks in how to choose a web design agency on the two you like best, before you sign anything.

The whole template, ready to copy

Copy this into a document and answer each section in plain sentences. Delete any line that doesn't apply.

WEBSITE BRIEF: [company name]
Date: [date]
Contact: [name, role, email]

1. ABOUT US
What we do, where we work, and the job we most
want more of.

2. WHO THE SITE IS FOR
Our main buyer, in one or two sentences.
What they check before they get in touch.

3. WHAT THE SITE MUST DO
The one action we want a visitor to take.
How we'll know it works, six months after launch.

4. PAGES
Every page we expect, by name, with one line each.
(Or: please propose a page list.)

5. CONTENT
Who writes the words: us, you, or you from
interviews with us.
Photos and video we have, and who holds the rights.
Languages, and who writes each one.

6. ENQUIRIES AND CONNECTIONS
What happens, step by step, when someone gets
in touch, and who receives it.
Systems the site must connect to, by name.

7. EDITING AFTER LAUNCH
Who will edit the site, what they'll change,
and how often.

8. THE CURRENT SITE (if there is one)
Address. What works and what doesn't.
Pages that bring the most visits.
Whose name the domain, hosting and analytics
are in.
Anything it does in the background that we
rely on.

9. STANDARDS AND LEGAL
Speed: Core Web Vitals, tested on a phone.
Accessibility: WCAG 2.2 level AA.
Company details required by law.
Privacy information on every form.
Analytics and other tools we want, for the
cookie banner.

10. OWNERSHIP AND UPKEEP
Domain, hosting, code and all accounts in our
company's name.
Copyright assigned to us in writing.
Upkeep quoted as a separate, optional line.

11. TIMELINE AND LIMITS
The date we need it by, and why.
Anything we must keep: systems, suppliers,
brand guidelines.
Budget: a limit, or "price the must-haves and
the options as separate lines".

12. WHAT WE'D LIKE BACK, BY [date]
A quote itemised against sections 4 to 10.
Everything you assumed, and everything left out.
Who would do the work, and who we'd talk to.
How we'd see progress.
Your questions about this brief.

What the KOP44 case study shows a brief has to settle

A case study is a brief read backwards. It lists what got built, and each line is a decision a brief either settles up front or leaves suppliers to guess. Our KOP44 case study, for a flooring and wall covering contractor in Nantes, lists five things we built.

Two lines hold lessons for any brief. The case study says the client's own project photography does the selling, so we arranged the build around it instead of stock imagery. That's why section 5 asks which photos you have. The answer changes the design, as well as the content line in the quote.

The service area line answers a question every visitor to a contractor's site has: do you cover me? That's a section 2 question, and it comes before any choice about colours or fonts.

What to leave out of a website brief

A brief gets worse when it grows in the wrong places. Five things are worth cutting.

• Design adjectives on their own. "Modern and clean" means something different to every designer. Link two or three sites you like and say exactly what you like about each: the menu, the photos, how quickly you found the phone number.
• A technology choice with no reason attached. If your team already runs WordPress or Shopify and wants to keep it, say so and say why. Otherwise, let each supplier propose a platform and justify it.
• Features copied from a competitor. A chatbot, a blog or a members' area should trace back to section 3. If it doesn't, it's a line someone prices and nobody uses.
• A request for free design concepts. Our guide to choosing a web design agency explains why they reward the agency with the most spare time.
• A long questionnaire. Fifty questions get fifty answers, not a better quote. If a section doesn't change what gets built, cut it.

When a brief isn't enough, or isn't needed

A brief is the right tool for most company websites. For some jobs it's too much, and for others it's not enough.

• If you're a sole trader with one service, a formal brief is more than you need. The five things to have ready in our trades guide will do.
• If the project needs logins, a portal or bookings with their own rules, a brief gets you rough estimates, not accurate quotes. Someone has to map what the system does first, and that is a piece of work in itself.
• If you can't fill in sections 2 and 3, no template will fix that. Settle them with your team before you contact anyone.
• If you're not sure whether to rebuild or fix what you have, ask for an audit and a written recommendation before you ask for quotes. That's how we start when we take over a site, and sometimes the answer is that you don't need a new one.

This week, write sections 2 and 3 on one page and show it to whoever answers your phone. If they'd describe your customers differently, use their words. Then finish the other ten sections, send the same brief to every supplier on your shortlist, and give each the same reply date.

Questions

Should I put a budget in a website brief?

If you have a firm limit, say so. A supplier can then show what fits within it and what it would leave for a second phase, which is more useful than a quote you can't afford. If you don't have a limit yet, leave it out and ask for the must-haves and the options as separate lines. Either way, compare the lines before the totals.

Can the agency write the brief for me?

It can help, and a good one will ask most of the questions in this template on the first call. But a brief written by one agency tends to describe what that agency builds, which makes the other quotes harder to compare. Write sections 1 to 3 yourself, then let each supplier challenge the rest in its reply.

What's the difference between a website brief, an RFP and a specification?

A brief says what the site must do and why. An RFP (request for proposal) is a brief plus formal rules for how suppliers reply, common in public bodies and large companies. A specification says how the site will be built, page by page and feature by feature. It usually comes later, written with the supplier you choose, and it becomes part of the contract.

How we wrote this: drafted with AI, then checked and edited by the people who build our projects. Figures come from our own work or from the linked sources.