--- title: "Website RFP Template & Brief Builder (Free, No Sign-up)" description: "Build a website brief or RFP in minutes: goals, page list, features, budget, timeline and scoring criteria. Export to Word or Markdown. Free, no email." url: "https://dardo.studio/en/tools/website-rfp-template/" language: "en" translations: {"es":"https://dardo.studio/es/herramientas/brief-pagina-web/","pt":"https://dardo.studio/pt/ferramentas/briefing-para-site/"} updated: "2026-10-15" --- Free tools # Website RFP template and brief builder: write a brief studios can quote A website brief tells studios what you need clearly enough that their quotes describe the same project. Answer the questions below and the builder writes the document as you type: a short brief for studios you already talk to, or a formal request for proposal (RFP) with a schedule and scoring criteria. It's free, needs no email, and your answers stay in your browser. By Dardo editorial team · Updated Oct 15, 2026 · 6 min read [Get a proposal](https://dardo.studio/en/contact/?service=web-design) A brief is a few pages you send to studios you already talk to. An RFP adds a schedule, evaluation criteria and submission rules, for a formal process with several bidders. **Form fields** - A project brief - A formal RFP - Company or organization - Current website - What you do, in a sentence or two - Where your customers are - Languages the site needs - Type of project: A new website; A redesign of our current site; A move to a new platform; A landing page or campaign site; An online store; A web app or customer portal - Main goal: More inquiries and leads; Online sales; Sign-ups, trials or demo requests; Hiring; Credibility with investors, partners or buyers; Publishing content and resources; Something else (explain below) - How you'll know it worked - Who the site is for (one per line) - Pages you expect (one per line) - Pages that need their own layout - Who writes the content: We supply final copy; We supply drafts; the studio edits; The studio writes it; Not decided yet - A CMS our team edits - Blog or news - Forms that send leads to our CRM - Booking or scheduling - Online payments - Product catalog - Site search - Customer accounts or login - Several languages - Connections to internal systems or data - Interactive, motion or 3D elements - Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA - Analytics and conversion tracking - Tools it must connect to - Platform preference: No preference: recommend one; WordPress; Webflow; Framer; Shopify; A coded site with a headless CMS (e.g. Astro or Next.js); Another platform (name it below) - Who edits the site after launch - Current platform - Approximate number of pages today - Our search traffic must be protected (redirects, titles, structured data) - Brand status: We have brand guidelines; We have a logo, but no full system; We need a new identity too; Not sure - Websites you like, and why (one per line) - Target launch date - What the date depends on - Budget range (USD): Under USD 5,000; USD 5,000–15,000; USD 15,000–30,000; USD 30,000–60,000; Over USD 60,000; We'll share it in conversation - Who decides and approves - A signed NDA before details are shared - A security or IT review - Insurance certificates - Vendor and tax forms (e.g. W-9 or W-8) - An accessibility conformance report (VPAT/ACR) - An itemized scope and price - A timeline with milestones - The people who will do the work, by name and role - Who owns the code, design files and accounts at the end - Recurring and third-party costs, as separate lines - Relevant work examples - Options for care after launch ## Your brief Opens our contact form with your brief filled in. Nothing is sent until you press Send there. ## Key takeaways - A page list, the features and integrations, who writes the content, the timeline and a budget range are what make quotes comparable. - Write a brief for two or three studios you already talk to; write an RFP when a procurement process needs competing bids. - Compare scope before price: itemized lines, named people, ownership of code and accounts, and recurring costs. ## What a website brief needs, and why each part changes the quote Studios price the work a brief describes, so every gap becomes a guess, and every guess becomes a different number. These are the parts that move a quote most: - **Pages and layouts.** A list of the pages you expect, and how many need their own layout. Five pages that each need a unique design can cost more than thirty pages built from three templates. - **Content.** Who writes the text and who translates it. Writing in scope is often a large share of the price; final copy from your team is not. - **Features and integrations.** A form that emails one inbox is simple; forms that feed HubSpot or Salesforce, booking, payments or your own data are engineering work, and each one belongs on the list. - **The current site.** If you have search traffic, moving it safely takes a URL inventory, a redirect map and checks after launch. Say so, or quotes will leave it out. - **Timeline.** A fixed date, and what it depends on (a trade show, a funding round, a product launch), so the plan can work back from it. - **Budget range.** It doesn't commit you. It lets each studio propose the right depth of work instead of three different projects. - **Decision.** Who approves, so reviews have the right people in them from the first round. ## Brief or RFP: which one to write Write a **brief** when you already have two or three studios in mind and want comparable quotes. It's a few pages, and the conversation does the rest. Write an **RFP** when your process requires competing bids: a procurement team, a board, a public body or a grant. An RFP adds what a formal process needs: - A schedule: when the RFP is issued, when questions are due, when proposals are due, when you'll decide. - Evaluation criteria with weights, so every bidder knows how proposals will be scored. - Submission rules: where proposals go, in what format, and who answers questions. - Requirements bidders must meet, such as an NDA, insurance certificates, a security review or an accessibility conformance report. Give bidders time. Two to three weeks between issuing an RFP and the due date is common for a website; less than a week tends to get rushed, generic answers. ## How to compare the proposals you get back Compare scope before price. When two quotes are far apart, they usually describe different projects. Line the proposals up against your brief and check that each one covers: __How to compare the proposals you get back__ | What to check | Why it matters | | -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | An itemized scope and price | You can see what each line costs and remove what you don't need | | Named people and roles | The team that sells the project should be the team that builds it | | Who owns the code, design files and accounts | Ownership should pass to you, in writing; hosting, domain and analytics should be in your company's name | | Recurring and third-party costs | Hosting, CMS plans, fonts and plugins renew every year, whoever builds the site | | Content, translation and migration | The parts most often left out of a low quote | | Testing and launch | Accessibility, speed and cross-browser checks, and who fixes what after launch | The RFP mode adds a scoring grid with suggested weights (experience 30%, approach 25%, price 20%, team 15%, timeline 10%). Change them to match what matters to you, and agree them before the proposals arrive. ## Mistakes that make quotes impossible to compare - **"A modern website" as the brief.** Describe goals and pages, not adjectives; let studios propose the look. - **Hiding the budget.** Without a range, one studio proposes a template and another a custom build, and neither is wrong. - **Asking for free design work.** Spec work in a proposal costs studios days and tells you little about how they'd work with you. Ask for relevant past work instead. - **Forgetting the current site.** Losing search traffic in a redesign is common and avoidable; mention it, and ask how each studio handles redirects. - **Different briefs to different studios.** Send everyone the same document, and share answers to one bidder's question with all of them. ## What happens to your answers The builder runs in your browser. Your answers are saved in this browser only, so you can come back to them, and **Start over** clears them. Nothing is sent to Dardo unless you choose **Send this brief to Dardo**, which opens our contact form with the brief filled in; it's sent only when you press Send there. ## Questions before you choose **What should a website RFP include?** An introduction to your organization, the purpose of the project, goals and how you'll measure them, the audience, a page list and features, content and integrations, the current site and any search traffic to protect, a schedule (issue date, questions and proposals due, decision, launch), a budget range, requirements bidders must meet, what each proposal must include, evaluation criteria with weights, and how to submit. **How long should a website brief be?** Long enough that two studios would quote the same project: usually two to five pages. A page list, the features and integrations, who writes the content, the timeline and a budget range matter more than length. **Should I share our budget in an RFP?** Yes, as a range. It doesn't commit you to spending it; it lets each studio propose the right depth of work. Without one, you get proposals for different projects that are hard to compare. **How many studios should get our brief?** Three to five is enough to compare approaches and prices. Send every one of them the same document, and share your answer to any question with all of them. **Is the brief builder really free? Do you store what I write?** Yes, it's free and needs no account or email. Your answers are kept only in your browser; Dardo receives nothing unless you choose to send the brief through our contact form. **Can I edit the document after exporting it?** Yes. Download it as a Word file (.docx) to edit in Word or Google Docs, or as Markdown for a wiki or Notion page. Printing to PDF is there for sharing a fixed version. ## Sources & further reading Sources behind this page, with further detail from the original publishers. - [W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/) · w3.org - [Google Search Central: Site moves with URL changes](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes) · developers.google.com - [Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo) · developers.google.com - [US Copyright Office: Circular 30, Works Made for Hire](https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ30.pdf) · copyright.gov [Dardo](https://dardo.studio/) · [Free tools](https://dardo.studio/en/tools/) · Website brief & RFP builder ## Turn your brief into a project Compare studios with the same document, check prices, then send the brief to the studio you choose. [01 · **Compare studios** · Questions to ask every finalist](https://dardo.studio/en/blog/compare-design-studios/) · [02 · **See prices** · Published starting prices and budget ranges](https://dardo.studio/en/pricing/) · [03 · **Send the brief to Dardo** · A written proposal in English or Spanish](https://dardo.studio/en/contact/) ## Keep exploring. - [Service · **Custom web design for the US and Latin America**](https://dardo.studio/en/services/web-design/) - [Service · **Website redesign services built on what already works**](https://dardo.studio/en/services/website-redesign/) - [Service · **Website migration services without losing SEO**](https://dardo.studio/en/services/website-migration/) - [Service · **Web development for the US and Latin America**](https://dardo.studio/en/services/web-development/) **More to explore** - [Service · **SaaS website design: positioning, pricing pages and signup flows**](https://dardo.studio/en/services/saas-website-design/) - [Service · **B2B website design for long sales cycles**](https://dardo.studio/en/services/b2b-website-design/)