Two website quotes can have similar totals and cover very different work. One may include the first year of hosting and a handover session. Another may cover the design, with hosting, content and ongoing help priced separately.
Before paying a deposit, ask each provider to describe the same job. You need to know what will be built, what you must supply, what comes with it and what you will pay to keep using it.
1. Agree on pages and what visitors can do
Start with a short page list and the action each page should support. “Five-page website” leaves plenty open: a page showing your services is different from a booking system that checks availability and takes payment.
Imagine a fictional catering business in Cape Coast. Its first brief could be Home, Menus, Events, About and Contact, with photographs, service areas and a form for event enquiries. Online deposits, customer accounts and automatic booking confirmations would be separate requirements to discuss.
Be specific about payments. A WhatsApp button can help start an enquiry; it does not by itself create an online checkout. If you need MoMo payments, name the intended provider and ask about account eligibility, integration, payment confirmation and transaction fees. Paystack, for example, documents a mobile-money payment channel for Ghana. Confirm that your quote covers the work needed to connect it.
For a simpler enquiry site, our WhatsApp and call-button guide shows the contact actions you might ask the designer to include.
2. List the build charge and recurring costs
Ask for the initial project work and ongoing services to be itemised. A useful comparison looks like this:
| Quote item | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| Design and build | Included pages, features, revisions and work charged separately |
| Domain | Registration term, renewal charge and who receives renewal notices |
| Hosting or website-builder plan | Billing period, limits, renewal amount and who pays the provider |
| Business email | Whether it is included, mailbox allowance and any separate renewal |
| Paid themes, plugins or other tools | Product names, account holder, recurring charges and what continued support requires |
| Maintenance | Included tasks, frequency, exclusions and cost of extra work |
Record the currency, amount payable at each project stage and the period covered by each recurring charge. If hosting is included for the first year, ask when that year starts and what happens at renewal. Check the amount due for the selected billing term, including any applicable charges shown on the quote or checkout.
For the hosting part of the comparison, our hosting-plan guide explains the needs to check before choosing a plan.
3. Confirm domain and account access
Ask whose details will be recorded for the domain and how your business will access its registration account. Keep contact information accurate and arrange for renewal notices to reach someone responsible for paying them.
ICANN identifies the registrant as the person or organisation holding the registration rights. Its registrant guidance also explains that a developer may have used their own details even when the business paid for registration. Check the arrangement before work starts. For a .gh name, confirm the relevant registry or provider requirements rather than assuming every ICANN rule applies in the same way.
List the domain, hosting, website editor and any payment-provider accounts separately. Agree how your business will retain access and how the developer will receive the access needed for their work. For an existing domain, identify its current provider before ordering another service. Our domain-before-website guide explains how those services fit together.
4. Name who supplies the words and images
For each page, state who writes the text, who provides photographs and who approves them. Confirm whether copywriting, photography, image sourcing, translations or logo work are part of the price.
The catering example needs menus, event photographs, service areas, contact details and enquiry instructions. If the owner supplies those materials late, the design schedule may need to move. Agree the content deadline alongside the proposed launch date.
Also ask how many review rounds are included and what counts as a revision. Correcting a supplied opening time and adding a new ordering workflow are different amounts of work.
5. Define maintenance and backup responsibilities
Ask who will update software, check forms, renew paid tools and help when something stops working. Record how to request support, its available hours and whether restoring a backup carries a separate charge.
For WordPress, ask what is backed up, how often, how long copies are kept and who can request a restore. A typical full recovery needs both website files and the database; WordPress’s backup guidance explains those two parts. A statement that backups exist should lead to a clear explanation of how recovery would be handled.
If your website uses a hosted builder, ask which export or recovery options the selected service supports. Confirm what would be needed to move later before relying on a promise that the whole site can be moved anywhere.
6. Agree on the review before launch
Write down the checks that will demonstrate the agreed work is ready:
- Open the important pages on a phone and a computer.
- Read the business name, service information and contact details.
- Submit a test enquiry and confirm it reaches the intended inbox.
- Check call and WhatsApp destinations with the person who answers them.
- If payments are included, agree a suitable test with the provider and developer.
Use fictional enquiry details during testing. Keep passwords, payment credentials and real customer information out of feedback documents.
Assign one person to consolidate feedback and approve launch. Ask how long the review window lasts and what happens if content or approval is delayed.
7. Specify the handover and future changes
Ask for the sign-in locations, a list of connected services and renewals, and a demonstration of the changes you expect to make yourself. For the catering business, that might mean editing a menu and replacing an event photograph.
Confirm the permissions your account will have. In WordPress, roles govern which tasks a user can perform; being able to edit content does not necessarily mean being able to install plugins or change the whole site. WordPress’s role reference explains the distinction.
Finally, agree what a new page or feature would cost after handover and where you can obtain the content and exports the service supports. Keep the final scope and recurring-service list with your business records.
Nakroteck’s website-design service describes a process covering audience, page structure, supplied content and handover needs. The details for your own project should be settled in its scope.
Your next step: prepare a one-page brief with your pages, required features, available content and preferred launch date, then discuss the project with Nakroteck. Ask for the initial work and recurring services to be listed separately.
Need help choosing the right setup?
Talk to Nakroteck before you buy hosting, domains, SSL, or website services. We will help you choose the right option for your business.